D-Link DIR-655 Extreme-N Gigabit Wireless Router
by D-Link Systems, Inc.
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List Price: Our Price: $73.99 You Save: $51.00 (41%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $44.90 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of D-Link DIR-655 Extreme-N Gigabit Wireless Router
Customer Review: Excellent router
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this router after buying a MacBook Pro which has built-in 802.11n capability (after buying the n "enabler" from Apple for $2). I wanted to take advantage of the fast wireless speed as well as the gigabit Ethernet interface on the MacBook Pro. Oddly, Apple's much more expensive Airport with draft n capability does not have a gigabit Ethernet interface, so the D-Link Extreme N seemed like a good choice as it had all I was looking for.
This product did not disappoint. I got all of the speed I was looking for plus the extra range I needed for a difficult spot where I needed the signal to go through two cinderblock walls. It also gets a stronger signal to two floors above the router location. Configuration was easy and the router has been very stable for the several weeks I have been using it. I particularly like the detailed status and logging information.
On the wireless side, I'm currently using the router in a mixed g and n setup. I had some reliable wireless b cards that I would have continued using, but there was a problem. Security is not a major concern in my location, so I would have continued using WEP except that it is not supported in the draft wireless n standard. I moved to some D-Link g cards that were on sale and they perform very well and I can now use both WPA and WPA2 simultaneously with this router. Mixing b with n would probably seriously degrade the n performance anyway. As it stands now, my wireless n performance is excellent where the signal strength is strong. My Internet download speed is typically close to 27 mbps on a wired connection and I get the same real throughput on the n wireless. Even g does not do that in a real Internet benchmark.
The router comes with a cat5 cable which should not be used for a gigabit connection, so be sure to purchase any cat6 cables you need as I did. I also purchased an Intel gigabit Ethernet card for my Windows PC to enable fast transfers with the Mac.
I upgraded the router firmware a few days ago and it works fine, but the only problem was that it would not load my saved configuration, so I had to input my custom settings again. This was an annoyance, but also a flaw that I saw with my old DI-624 router. There are likely to be more upgrades especially because the n spec has not been finalized.
The wireless n works fine with the Mac. The other issue to note for Mac users is that the router's web-based configuration application does not seem to work with any of the browsers I have on my Mac, so hopefully you will have access to a Windows PC to do the setup. (Presumably a Parallels Windows PC on the Mac will work, but I have not tried that yet.)
Bottom line, this is the best consumer router I have used.
Customer Review: It's a great router
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using this for over a year now, no problems whatsoever. The router is on the second floor, I have my gaming PC wired into it, and on the first floor is my PS3 (Netflix), my TV (Amazon VoD), and my Vudu box (awesome hi def movies, pandora, and more). Anyone who knows about Vudu knows that you need a good connection if you want to stream their top HD format, and that hasn't been a problem.
Looking at the negative reviews, I can't help but think that those people simply didn't set it up right, didn't follow directions, or something along those lines. My wireless signal is going through a wall/floor at a direct distance of around 25 feet, and the signal is strong. I can talk on my cell phone, use my laptop, do anything and nothing interferes with the signal. An earlier comment mentioned disconnects, but I seriously doubt a router would cause a disconnect by itself unless it was resetting for some reason. I also don't believe the router gets overly hot. Mine has been on for over a year, and it's still going strong, no lag in intensive games and no disconnects due to the router. Disconnects are mainly going to be caused by a cable connection issue, or by the laptop itself. Read the directions on how to set this thing up, they aren't hard, but if you don't do them correctly or just decide to wing it on your own, then any problems are likely your fault and not the machine's.
As a bit of history, I've been using routers since about 2000. I've gone through a few Linksys routers in that time, and this time I really needed wireless and wanted to make sure I had the fastest signal possible in wireless. This router fit the bill, and I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever in getting it. I was a little leery at first because I had always used Linksys, but this Dlink router is even better, and came with a really handy software utility called Network Magic. Everything about the router exceeded my expectations.
Again, follow the instructions on setting it up. Don't play with other settings unless you know what you're doing and/or have already established that the unit is working. This was my first wireless router and that's all I did at first, and I got everything set up and working wirelessly with the router within an hour (TV, PS3, Vudu, Laptop). And I'm serious, no problems at all with the system since day 1... it's been close to a year and a half, iirc. Anyone that has a problem with this router will probably have a problem with any router. Unfortunately, I can't comment on their customer service because I haven't needed any.
It's a great product. If you need a wireless router, this is the one to get unless they have a newer model out.
Customer Review: Dir-655 + 1st Generation Apple TV +++ Boxee = Grrreat!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Glad I took the negative reviews for face value because it was an easy set up. Took 10 minutes to connect (mostly because my wife was talking to me about maternity clothing but that's a different
story) didn't use the CD so I'm not sure how that would have gone. My/our home network consists of 2 Windows 7 x64 PCs, 1 Windows Server 2008R2 Enterprise (I'm an IT guy) and 1 W7x64 notebook and a host of Hyper-V servers, they all connected w/o incident. The speed is pretty good, I moved from a WRV200 Linksys and a Trendnet wireless N 65-something or other that should have been called a POS because that's pretty much what it was, a POS. Kept that gem of an item for 2 1/2 months (lost the receipt = thanks dear!) because I didn't want to be bothered with trying to exchange it at a store that starts with an F and rhymes w/eyes, and all it did was push my buttons w/it's constantly dropping signals and a very upset wife because her notebook would never stay connected to the net. Those were very very dark days... ATV and Boxee work like well, like buttah - no buffering, caching or skipping (for the most part) and I see a definite difference in the load time for HD ATV movie trailers. Didn't try the USB share thing because it isn't of real use to me. In the end I'm happy with my purchase, let's see what happens in the next few days and weeks.
Update - 3/6/2011
So I've had this thing since mid-December and haven't had any real complaints (from the Mrs. - well aside from not remembering to take out the trash.) Haven't had to reboot nor does it get warm like some other folks have mentioned. My only slight wah-t-ever would be that it has a 24 MAC address limit. Since I work with virtualized
PC's (and get out of hand from time to time) I have to remind myself to get too crazy. Yes I could turn off MAC filtering but that would keep me awake at night wondering who was knocking at my cyber door. Yes yes MAC filtering may not be the end all however the false sense of assurance (sort of like a rebate that never gets sent in!) puts me slightly at ease. Even if I have a hardware firewall. I did experience a "heyyyyy!" last week with the Guest Zone. For some reason it didn't like the SSID of FreeRange, I didn't suffer loss in connectivity, I couldn't access the router. Changed the name and all was well. Overall I'm still happy that I went with this as opposed to something more expensive (wouldn't have done that because I like a good steal!) Now if only I could remember to take out the trash!!!
Customer Review: Best WIFI Device in the market
Summary: 5 Stars
I used the G based Belkin Wifi for 9 years. It works great but had to move on to N Wifi. hence, ended up buying a Belkin N. It was a disaster and I returned it. Then, I bought this device after much research and thanks to you all 900+ people that helped make my decision. The device is the best I have seen so far in any Wifi units. I have three laptops, a VOIP phone, and an iPhone. I hooked up all devices, turned on WPA-PSK security with a breeze, turned on DHCP Server for second layer of security, turned on MAC ID filtering for third stage of protection. Then, I have hidden the SSID broadcast. The device is two floors above in our loft and when I use laptop in our garage or backyard, it still works at mind-blowing lightening speeds. Had the device ON for two weeks and not even once did it terminate connection. And there is guest Wifi access control too so your guests dont have to "unintentionally" eavesdrop in your wifi and your files etc.
Now the awesome part! The SharePort Utility. If you are a intermediate tech user like me, you will love this. Using the D-Link's shareport utlity, I hooked my Seagate 500GB external hard drive to this router and guess what, I just made the hard drive - a NAS drive. Yes, I uploaded all the content on to this newly connected NAS drive and am able to access files on any machine within our network. Remember that you have to individually download and install Shareport on each machine that you would like to connect to NAS drive. And at any point of time, only one computer can connect to NAS drive. I found one glitch in the Shareport but realized it was my mistake. I have two Win 7 systems and one XP machine. Out of all, one of them is a WIn 7 64 bit. I installed 32 bit version of shareport and it was not able to connect properly. After googling, I uninstalled 32 bit shareport and installed 64 bit and all is working great.
For those of you wanting to monitor and control your kids' surfing habits and stuff, Dlink's Secure Spot tool will be of great help, which is included with the device.
Folks, this device is worth every penny and more. Dont waste lots of money on routers that look futuristic but do not do the job right. Spend less than $100 and get this one. I am so happy I ran into this device and thanks to you all for writing valuable reviews. Thought I will share my views as well.
Customer Review: Stellar N Router!!! Great Features/Compatibility!!! Poor Setup Software/Support.
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this router after co-workers complained that of VOIP quality problems on my end. I wanted a router that had QoS, great performance, and wireless N connectivity. CNET called this router the fastest they'd reviewed at the time, so I decided to order it.
The setup was a little painful. I don't respect Network Magic because I owned their flagship software and it never worked as advertised (even after months of support emails). Unfortunately, Network Magic developed the setup wizard for the DIR-655 and it shows! True to form, the Network Magic development team botched the process by doing things like requiring an ISP user name/password when my ISP (Comcast) doesn't need one. Naturally, entering credentials as required broke my internet connection, and calling D-Link installation support wasn't especially helpful, either.
After reaching the rep with a thick foreign accent, I had to explain the technical ins and outs of a step of the process that more conveniently acheived a task in a way that wasn't what he learned from the script he read from.
Anyway, after realizing that Network Magic's setup wizard and D-Link installation support were both pretty much useless I abandoned them both, hard-reset my router, then set my SSID, wireless security, and router credentials manually.
Since then, this has been the best router I've owned! In fact, while I expected to have to manually configure port forwarding for my MediaSmart Server (which I did with every other router claiming to support UPnP) and while I expected to have to manually set the priority of traffic from various devices for the QoS settings, in actuality I had to do neither!
This router was smart enough to both detect UPnP settings and brilliantly handle QoS in ways that made my old Buffalo Turbo-G router seem like a paperweight! I thought it must be too good to be true, but I confirmed that my devices worked perfectly and that my upstream bandwidth was reserved enough to maintain VOIP call quality during a conferance call, even as I uploaded a 140 MB file to a computer at work!
This router has simply amazes me and is certainly on my list of most recommended products, despite the problems with setup/support!
Even interaction with my 802.11n Apple TV is smoother than with my old router, and at N speeds!