TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND Wireless N Gigabit Router Review

TP-LINK’s TL-WR1043ND may not be featured on the front page of retailers’ newspaper ads, and all of your friends may have no clue who they are, however, you absolutely should not overlook one of their products, the TL-WR1043ND. Fancy model numbers aside, we’re talking about a Wireless N 300Mbps Gigabit Router with a clean design and nice firmware to give you the quality networking you need. It also has a USB port for NAS, and if you don’t like the stock firmware, DD-WRT is fully supported. Usually a router of this caliber would cost quite a bit. Although you can get the TL-WR1043ND for less than the price of a new video game, and still have some change left over for ice cream. Check out the full review to see all of the reasons why TP-LINK’s TL-WR1043ND should be your next router.

Special thanks to TP-LINK for providing us with the TL-WR1043ND Wireless N Gigabit Router to review.

Specs

Hardware
Interface 4 10/100/1000Mbps LAN Ports

1 10/100/1000Mbps WAN Port

1 USB 2.0 Port

Buttons Quick Setup Security Button (WPS)

Reset Button

Power Supply 12V DC/1.5A
Wireless Standards IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11b
Antenna 3dBi * 3 Detachable Omni Directional
Dimensions 7.9×5.5×1.2in (200x140x28mm)
Wireless
Frequency 2.4 – 2.4835GHz
Signal Rate 11n: Up to 300Mbps

11g: Up to 54Mbps

11b: Up to 11Mbps

EIRP < 20dBm
Receive Sensitivity 270M: -68dBm @ 10% PER

130M: -68dBm @ 10% PER

108M: -68dBm @ 10% PER

54M: -68dBm @ 10% PER

11M: -85dBm @ 8% PER

6M: -88dBm @ 10% PER

1M: -90dBm @ 8% PER

Wireless Functions Enable/Disable Wireless Radio

WDS Bridge

WMM

Wireless Statistics

Wireless Security 64/128/152-bit WEP

WPA

WPA-PSK

WPA2

WPA2-PSK

Software Features
WAN Type Dynamic IP / Static IP / PPPoE

PPTP (Dual Access) / L2TP (Dual Access) / BigPond

DHCP Server, Client, DHCP Client List

Address Reservation (Static DHCP)

Quality of Service WMM

Bandwidth Control

Port Forwarding Virtual Server

Port Triggering

UPnP

DMZ

Dynamic DNS DynDNS

Comexe

NO-IP

VPN Pass Through PPTP, L2TP, IPSec (ESP Head)
Access Control Parental Control, Local Management Control, Host List, Access Schedule, Rule Management
Firewall Security DoS, SPI Firewall

IP Address Filter / MAC Address Filter / Domain Filter

IP & MAC Address Binding

Management Access Control

Local Management

Remote Management

Packaging
TP-LINK’s TL-WR1043ND is packaged is a white box with green overtones. The color choice for the box is perfect since the device itself sports the same scheme. The front of the box has a picture of the product and some brief stats, such as gigabit ports, USB storage, 300Mbps Wireless N, QoS, Wireless Bridge, and B/G/N Wi-Fi certified. The back of the box goes into a bit more detail about the TL-WR1043ND. You’ll find a ‘typical’ network diagram, product chart comparison of how the TL-WR1043ND stacks up against TP-LINK’s other products, and a picture showing the back of the router.

TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND Wireless N Gigabit Router TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND Wireless N Gigabit Router TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND Wireless N Gigabit Router TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND Wireless N Gigabit Router

Rotating the box clockwise from the back panel will bring us to the left side which lists a some specifications for the product, along with a “Compatible with Windows 7” logo. Doing a 180 degree turn brings us to the right side where TP-LINK has listed basic install steps for the TL-WR1043ND. Opening the box we’ll find the router itself, the antennas, power adapter, Cat5 cable, resource CD, quick install guide and a pamphlet of TP-LINK’s products.