TP Link TD-W8968 Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Router

Another review, another product. So this time, its slightly a product which is more a necessary one for most people these days but doesn't really get talked about as much. People call these "routers". Now as a guy that does alot of internet work, its best to get a router that suits the needs of what i want and maybe what roomates and family members. 

May i present to you.

TP Link TD-W8968 Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Router 

If you want, you can buy it for up to £25 by clicking on the picture:

So, this router has a fair amount of features and i've also been selling TP-Link equipment in work for over 2 years. So i do have a slight bit of experience with the products, well some anyway. But with my Belkin router just being rubbish and the DHCP locking up and rendering access to the internet useless without rebooting and with it happening too often, its now a tale of replacing it. The unique features of this one is that USB and also support for Fibre, but i will get to that later. 

If you want a video review of this, enjoy it below: this doesn't go as detailed as i like it due to time i had to record this and also there is no sound due to some idiot (being me on OBS) not including the mic when recording :(. 

The Outside - Packaging:

The box has a pretty clear and nice ocean (not oceana) design to it, with the white logo and the blue backgrounds, its nice to have a good contrast which doesn't make it hard to read. Also i'm sorry that i didn't get the right images, i used screencaps instead :/.

The front of the box, with the nice colours, clear symbols and gives a good idea of what this is 

The right hand side of the box with the spec and what is required 

A Clear picture of the features of the router and how it compares to other TP link products and what other accessories you could buy to get connected. 

The left hand side of the box to explain how easy it is to connect to the internet and set the router up

Now the box was quite easy to open up, which is a bonus for the most part, well its easier for people to get it setup if the box is easy to open, which does sound common sense like. Now its time to see what you get in the box.

The inside - what you get, then plug the thing in...

There is a nice shaped inside container which gives a general idea of where the parts go in the box. But what do you actually get inside , well a list is below:

• The Router itself, sealed and both aerials attached
• The power cable
• 1 ADSL filter (will be handy if lighting strikes)
• 2 ADSL RJ11 cables, this made me go hmm, why 2, maybe for fibre but thats rj45 ??
• 1 ethernet RJ45 cable
• 1 tiny CD with the setup, you don't need it unless you really read by the book
• 1 quick install guide for both CD and non CD use (please read this, it makes life as easy as kissing a,.... uhh....just walking in the park)
• 1 GPU license Doc, mostly for the legal team
• 1 Wireless document, this is more for the standards of wifi and the legal paperwork

The insides of the box, as i mentioned above.

Now getting this to work was ok, i already had the router connected so i turned it off, unplugged everything and put the router in its place and wired it up, it even fitted the power cable that was there, which that cable was a BT homehub 2 power adapter. Then its as i see it below:

The connections and getting the router in place

All the lights lit up :)

Where the router was placed, its at an angle but some of the cables were tight ?

The timing of the set up

Now after it was turned on, the site to go to is "http://tplinkmodem.net" or the IP is actually 192.168.1.1, but people prefer URLs nowadays, the lazy things. As you get to there, your welcomed with a login page

The login page. the Defaults are admin and admin. Simple but make sure you change it if you do set it up, makes it more unhacker frfriendly

After logging in, you are shown a page of what you can do as well as the current connection status, This can be useful to see what you get. Now funnily enough, the reading on my belkin was showing 17-19mb but this was showing 15mb, so it might be more accurate. 

The status of the router, i've hid the IP on purpose

The list of options to get on the left handside are: 

Device Info

Quick Setup

Operation Mode

Advanced Setup

IPTV

Wireless

Guest Network

USB Settings

Diagnostics

Management

Logout

That was copied from the actual router, Each one does different things, from STB (Youview...ugh) to even setting up a guest wifi for friends and customers to use, B&Bs will like this feature a fair bit. there is also times to time when the wifi or internet is off, closed minded parents will like this feature a fair bit as well, since they can stop their kids talking to predators online (or end up conned out of £1.5k over paypal from a guy 15 miles away in efford). 

Now each setting might confuse the majority, i will be included in that, but this can help people be in control if they can handle it. Below is a screenshot of some of the menus, i can only do some of them, i don't want to mess with them.

The setup for WAN connections, either fibre (top) or ADSL (bottom)

Setting up External HDD and flash drives on the router

The guest network screen

Exporting the settings of the router

Testing the thing:

Well, there are so many tests i could do but it would be too long to get this even done, i just made 2 tests for this review. The 1st test is how far can the signal go for, and my repsonse is to the edge of a garden in this case, as you saw on the video, the distance is quite far, even though it is also 2 bars at the same point when i tested the Belkin, i feel it will be more stable there than before. 

The list of networks in my garden and the strength of the new router

The next test was actually making sure Upnp works, i've had troubles with that and NAT Type 3 on my PS3, so i hope this would fix it and sure enough... it works with no problems. YESSSSSS

Part 1 of the PSN connection Test. NAT TYPE 2 is what is needed

It also does a quick speed test, this is not too bad

The conclusion

So, the router was quick to set-up, works on wifi quickly and also quite far and it makes PSN work nicely, which makes it easier for me to handle. 

omracer's Rating: 8/10

But there can be more good points than bad but lets include as much as know about:

Good Points:

• Very presentable
• Clearish instructions
• Nice looking, 
• Easy to set up (without CD) 
• Good looking interface on web
• USB
• Fibre support when needed
• PSN works better
• Good value for money

Bad points: 

• the wps button isn't easy to get to (more late at night if needed)
• maybe gigabit and more Ethernet ports if possible (but thats more a corporate environment)
• The manual wants you to use the CD if you can, implies it
• maybe could of added microsim slot to make it a mifi router with ease 

So that is a router review, i might of missed a fair amount of features but this is more focused on basic usage but the extras are there, 

see you in a review soon, i might do restaurant reviews eventually

omracer

Chromecast

So, about 2 months ago, Google released a TV dongle called Chromecast. Now this was a device that would make it easier for people to share things online to a TV. Either a video on Youtube, a Film or TV show on Netflix or even just a website.

Now it was a nice and simple device for a simple price, $35. BUT AND THE MAJOR PROBLEM SO FAR, it hasn't released in the UK, which is a major shame. But after checking eBay, there were some UK importers who knew they could make a quick ££ from buying some from the us and bringing it over to here.
Now i found one for £60 (£55+£5 P&P)  and i bought it on Friday, it arrived the next day after running home from work, as i usually do.

So here goes my review the video review is below:

The packaging. 

Now the packaging is simply, easy to understand and very neatly packaged. It gives the look of a google product straight away, with the font and everything. Pics of each of the sides of the packaging is below:

The front of the box. With the dongle itself and a simple summary of what it does.

The rear of the box, the summary of what it can do and a picture of it. It also shows the services it supports. Google Chrome, Youtube, Netflix and Google Play. Also the small print mentions the OS'es that are supported

The side of the box, to show how simple the device is meant to be to get going and use. The watch icon is exactly the ont you need to look for when wanting to stream to the chromecast.  

The front of the inside of the box, A very clear guide to get started. including the URL to go to

The rear of the dongle itself, this might be a bit blurry to see the text.

The top of the dongle and HDMI connector, also a indicator which lights up on the left of the dongle.

After taking the dongle cardboard piece out you have the following. A Micro USB cable a manual underneath, a HDMI extension cable, A US (Non CE Approved) USB Charger. Just a simple amount to see in the box.

As you saw, the packaging is nicely done, although i'm never a good cable tidier, it still fits nicely. Now after unboxing it, its a simple case to set it up as shown in the manual.

Using the Cast and Setting it up

Now the set-up is quite a simple process. Just plug the dongle into a hdmi port, plug a micro usb cable into the dongle and a standard usb 2 or 3 port, then switch the TV to use the HDMI input. Wait for it to boot and then go to the chromecast setup page or get the chromecast app. After installing it, the setup is simply check if the code shown matches, then name the dongle, set up the wifi and then its "ready to cast".

The "Ready to cast" screen which has a nice background every time, the time, the chromecast name as the Network Name. Simple but beautiful.

If you using chrome on OSX, Chrome OS or Windows, you will need the chrome extension, it will ask you to install it if you used the setup page. Otherwise your fully ready to go. 

But if you do want to change some settings, the options you can choose from is below:

The Chromecast app on PC, it will list any chromecasts that are on the network

The Settings for Chromecast, Changing the timezone, the name and if you want to reset the dongle.

With android, Google have NOT made the official Chromecast app, available on the UK Play Store. There is a link to get the APK itself, Which works fine and dandy :)

The Chromecast App, Exactly similar to the PC app, but suited to Android

The settings page on the Android app, this has a different option thats not listed on the PC app, but that can't be changed, since it is a US Play store App

Now if you want to cast, you can simply press the cast icon on the Youtube App on android, in Chrome or in the Youtube Player. Then wait 1 minute and its playing in 720p HD. Thats it. If you look at the triangle before you click the name of the dongle, you can decide whether you want just the web page or the entire Windows screen. So you can use this for Powerpoint presentations or make tutorials, but beware there is a slight delay, depending on the performance of your Wi-Fi router (N150, N300 or newer will handle it fine). An example of how it streams, using a instagram client is shown below. You can use 720p in a "high bitrate mode" but that is a risk you can take if needs be.

A basic concept of being able to show a webpage using chromecast. Ink361 in this case, the detail can be slightly off on bigger screens which can handle 1080p or higher, this is in standard 720p mode.

Conclusion

As you saw in the video review, the quality of the video is really as HD should be. Especially from the Beyond Two Souls Trailer or my recent upload of PAC-MAN CE DX+. I saw minimal quality issues. even on a broadband connection that is under 20mbps. 

One downside of the Chromecast is the fact you are unable to stream Local media easily, for example you want to show a home video off to your family on Christmas thats on your PC or Tablet. Officially, for now you are unable to do so easily. You can copy the location of the video into chrome as a url and play it but that can be a bit dire for the simplest of users.

omracer's Rating: 8/10

The good points:

• Simple to setup
• Streams any page on chrome and also any PC screen
• Very good quality for a small dongle

The weak points

• Only available in the US in the official stance (Like i mention, check eBay)
• Not as easy to stream local media
• The SDK is still in a preview stage so there are not many apps that can handle true Chromecast support just yet

Now this will be a nice temporary bit of fun until PS Vita TV has arrived, i probably will sell this and order it from Japan. But for now, hope you enjoy and if you find a chance to get one of these, i would recommend it

See you in the next review

omracer