TP-Link TL-WR1043ND Wireless-N Gigabit Router review

The box contains the bare essentials: the router and antennae, power cord, and a network cable to hook up with your ADSL modem.

On the back, you’ll find 4 LAN ports, 1 WAN port and a USB port – the latter being to connect and share USB storage devices.

The most notable feature of the WR1043ND is its high transfer speeds: up to 300 Mbps over wireless and up to 1 Gbps over cabled connections.

Setup & Browser UI

The WR1043ND has the same three-column layout for its browser-based UI as the MR3420.

Naturally, this means that it has all the good aspects of an organised and helpful layout as well as the bad aspects of one or two slightly unintuitive places for settings.

Setting up the WR1043ND is as simple as any of the routers we’ve reviewed before it. Clicking “Quick Setup” and following the prompts will have things up and running within minutes.

The similarity in UI is mirrored by the underlying functionality, by which I mean that the nuances that were identified before are present here as well. It’s more than a little perplexing why the administrative password for the WR1043ND and the MR3420 can’t contain special characters other than “-” and “_”, but other options like the W8960N can contain any characters. What makes it more confusing is that the WiFi passwords on all the TP-Link routers we’ve reviewed so far can contain any characters.

Perhaps I’m nitpicking, but disparities like this shouldn’t exist and only serve to sully an otherwise excellent experience.

TP-Link TL-WR1043ND Wireless-N Gigabit Router

In Use

The WR1043ND performed well for the most part, but there were some unsatisfactory moments.

Initially, various wireless devices’ connections were dropped and some were unable to reconnect for some time after that. There were also times when wired and wireless connections dropped and could only be restored by rebooting the router.

Network speeds were excellent with wired connections biting at the heels of the advertised Gigabit speeds.

Wireless range was also good – the WR1043ND should comfortably cover a home (and most of the garden) or small to medium sized office.

Extra features

The WR1043ND also features a USB port on the back, allowing you to easily plug in and share a removable storage device. It’s a good idea, though it proved to be very unreliable.

TP-Link TL-WR1043ND Wireless-N Gigabit Router

Price

Aggressive pricing seems to be the name of the game for TP-Link, and the WR1043ND doesn’t disappoint there. It’s priced at around R620 (R545 excluding VAT), and considering the specs, it’s quite competitive

Conclusion

Competitive pricing coupled with a good product makes for a winning combination. If you’re in need of high network transfer speeds and good wireless range, then the TP-Link WR1043ND is worth considering.