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.
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.