EnGenius ESR-7750 – Wireless router + 4-port switch – Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n

5 Review to this product

• 

  Dmitri
  December 10th, 2010 on 7:15 am

  Rating

  What an excellent router! I’ve had it for a month, without ever thinking of it. Given that I live in a downtown Vancouver high-rise, with 100+ wireless networks showing up in wireless networks list, this router is a wonder. I’ve had lots of problems with intermittent connections with single-band routers, probably because the airspace is just too crowded. This one has never given me any problems.
  
  Set up is a no-brainer, either.
  
  The router provides 10 Mbps on the wireless networks consistently around the apartment. Given that I have 20 Mbps when wired to my fiberoptic connection, I believe, it’s very good
• 

  E. Gorwin
  December 11th, 2010 on 4:38 pm

  Rating

  I purchased this wireless router in my first attempt to set up a wireless home network. This nifty little router made it a snap. The written instructions are a little hard to follow because they were obviously written by someone for whom English is a second language. However, that wasn’t a problem because this router almost sets itself up. I can move my laptop anywhere in my 1800 sq.ft. space and get excellent reception. Some other very knowledgeable reviewers of this router can give you more technical details. For a newbie at wireless networking like me, this router is a dream. Given the low price compared to the major brands, many of which had less-than-stellar reviews, this EnGenius ESR-7750 is a real bargain. EnGenius is a company to watch.
• 

  Zircon
  December 12th, 2010 on 5:26 pm

  Rating

  After a few years with open-source-based ([...]) Wireless-G WiFi routers, it was time to check out the Wireless-N situation. The open-source that I know hasn’t yet caught up to Wireless-N yet so off to off-the-shelf it was for me. After deliberating among the big names like Linksys, Netgear and D-Link, and having had both troubles with each in the past as part of my home-consulting business, and also reading some unfavorable reviews both at Amazon and other vendors, I decided to to give ol’ Engenius a whirl. Engenius makes excellent miniPCI WiFi radio cards for use with open-source projects, so I gambled that their all-in-one routers would be up to, or beyond par. I was not let down…

  The Engenius ESR-7750 is a great device, especially at the price. It features no-nonsense, dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz), high-performance, simplicity in set up, speed and range to boot. Furthermore, Engenius makes WiFi USB adapters that support both Windows and Mac OS X, making the whole Engenius package all the more attractive.

  Using their setup wizard in the router config, I was pleased by the ease (and assumption of user intelligence) of setup and speed of setup as well. However after a few hours of operation, I was disappointed to observe that the poor thing ground to a halt (ping times to the router in the several thousand of milliseconds, etc… then no ping at all!) and needed to be reset with the trusty ol’ paperclip. Since this router was destined for public use in my three-story apartment building, I found this behavior unacceptable. After reading around the ‘net, especially with regard to the Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router, I learned that perhaps my ESR-7750 was not happy running in mixed (802.11b/g/n) mode at 2.4GHz. Furthermore, on the 5GHz band, it was advisable to turn off 802.11a as well. That being the case, and having the set the 7750 to 802.11n on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, the router performed flawlessly.

  I had never used the 5GHz band before and with the Engenius EUB-9801 300Mbps Dual-Band Wireless N USB Adapter that I bought for testing, I was pleasantly surprised by the performance! I routinely got Internet download speeds of 20Mbps… WOW! This was a little better than using 802.11n on the 2.4GHz band, probably because, as I am in the city, 2.4GHz is noisy and crowded.

  I am now up to four days in a row of perfect connectivity with the ESR-7750. Although I had trouble with the 802.111b/g/n configuration (perhaps the ESR-7750 would be an acceptable 802.11b/g-only device too), I have had no problems with it as an 802.111n-only router. It seems that this and some of the newer dual-band routers are designed with 802.11n-only in mind and this I feel is OK given the times in which the product was designed. It is high-performing, attractive and only half the price of its counterparts. It is further unburdened by needless features like USB connectivity. The company’s commitment Mac OS X compatibility on the client side is very encouraging.

  I highly recommend this router as an 802.11n-only device. It may be advertised differently, but at the price, it can’t be beat.
• 

  WC
  December 15th, 2010 on 12:16 am

  Rating

  Works well,but had to get help with setup. Price was a major selling point also.
• 

  M. Gozum
  December 16th, 2010 on 7:34 am

  Rating

  Puzzlingly, routers by leaders like Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, etc are often reported problematic. To find an unknown that is fast, trouble free, easy to use & install, accurate to its specs, reliable and low cost makes the 7750 rate among better routers available.

  Here are some of many features unmentioned in other reviews:

  Pros

  It operates 2 bands concurrently, simultaneously and independent of the other. Most dual-band routers let you switch bands, but use either, not both.

  It uses a shorter range but less interference prone 5 GHz band, for faster throughput.

  It uses an OEM chipset and is very similar to the TRENDnet TEW-671BR but without 671′s quirks.

  Each band has 4 independent configured SSIDs that control network access.

  Its firewall filters URLs based on keywords and can be scheduled to turn off/on.

  Has 802.11e features to prioritize streams, like video.

  Newbies can use the fast Wizard setup.

  UPnP automates optimizing a local network.

  No dropped connections occurred delivering data to both 5 and 2 GHz ports concurrently continuously working for over 200 hours.

  Multiple 1.5GB file transfers on peer to peer, typically throughput under optimal placement:

  2GHz g: 2.8 MBps, or 22 Mbps
  
  2GHz n: 6.0 MBps, or 48 Mbps
  
  5GHz n: 12.0 MBps, or 96 Mbps

  Shutting 2GHz while on 5GHz and vice-versa, alternatively shutting a, b, g, or n, modes did not largely affect transfer speeds.

  I played a 3 hour 1080p movie using 802.11n on 5 GHz flawlessly.

  From 10′ away in a room closed by dry walls, signal was 5/5 bars for 2G, and 3/5 bars for 3G.

  Total power usage is only 5 watts. It supports WDS.

  Bottom Line: great for apartment sized space or if more, use WDS with repeaters, as needed.

  Cons

  No external antenna limits range. 5 GHz is sensitive to positioning. A small change can reduce speed by half; use its software to find a sweet spot. Its a 100 Mbps Ethernet port.