World of Leion

My old router has failed me after 3 years of use, late one evening. I took the impromptu decision to get an replacement before the shops close and got this TP-Link 300Mbps Multi-Function Wireless N Router (Model TL-WR842ND).

Out of box, the router has quite a few features, like USB printing, multiple SSID and QoS. There are cheaper routers around, but I chose this router for the USB printing and the QoS features.

The router came with set-up CDs, which is required for normal set up. However, it was required for the set up of the printer. I hooked up the printer to the router and got the printer working. Nice. Next I proceed to use the scanner. Alas, the scanner feature is not detected. Hence my multifunction printer can only be used for printing if I kept the set up. This is not acceptable and I have to revert to my original set up of connecting the printer to my desktop. This is not a deal breaker.

I went ahead to set up my router router on the QoS, which is the main feature I looked for in routers. I need this to ensure my users in my network can get the best video streaming quality even when I need to do some occasion  heavy downloads. QoS is the number one feature needed in any routers.

After looking into the interface, and reading the manuals, I could not find any dd-wrt style QoS where I can set the priority of ports and services. The closest I can find is the setting of IP, ports and min and max downloads. I say this is a lousy implementation of QoS. Now I need to set up all the ports and IP addresses for video streaming? Are you kidding me? I hope the company can come up with some firmware upgrades to plug gap. I bought this mostly for the QoS what was printed in huge font on the packaging. (“IP QoS” on the packaging)

I advise all who are looking for real QoS to shun this router. At the time of posting, there is no support for dd-wrt yet hence I am stuck with the router with no QoS for some time.