D-Link DIR-655 Draft 2.0 802.11n wireless router reviewed

Website: www.dlink.co.uk/dir-655
System Requirements: Cable or DSL modem, with Ethernet port, Windows XP SP2, IE v6, Mozilla Firefox 1.5, CD-ROM Drive, Network Interface Card
Price: £102.12, $200.97, €150.58

WITH 802.11N already three years in the making and we're still only at a draft specification, is it time we seriously think about choosing it for the home or small office?

D-Link, with its latest offering aimed at those who already have ADSL or cable internet access seems to think so. We put it through its paces with £5,000 Enterprise performance benchmarking software, Chariot from Ixia. Not really overkill, we just want to see if 802.11n has a real advantage, along with this router.

It's known as the DIR 655 Rangebooster N 650 Gigabit Router or Extreme N Gigabit Router in various parts of the globe and you'll see why later. The DIR-655, as it's more commonly known in Blighty is its 802.11n wireless cable router, with four Gigabit Ethernet ports. Set to replace the DIR-635 launched last year, it's limited a tad in aspects of wireless security and Ethernet ports.

DIR-655

It's currently shipping in a Draft 2.0 802.11n specification, or upgradeable if not caught early enough. The DIR-655 we had was shipped before May 8th firmware release, but upgrading was easy enough. It's worth noting that in a recent press statement D-Link stated that there will be no hardware changes in the Draft 2.0 to the final version. All meaning they're confident that a firmware flash will be all that's needed to the complete 802.11n spec, good news there, we believe.

As a bonus, D-Link announced at the end of March an 11 year warranty to accompany all its wireless N products, following on from a possible critique of its 1 year previous in the States. A somewhat unrealistic length of time but a nice comfort cradle for some.

Under the hood, if there was a bonnet in a wireless router, can be seen the Athero AR5008 WLAN chipset coupled with UBICOM StreamEngine technology. The first providing the wireless operation of the DIR-655, the second being the basis of the intelligent streaming and QoS behind the kit. This enables the prioritising of various IP traffic (VoIP, etc) configurable from the web-interface. This is one of the strongest points to the unit, normally seen in much more grown-up kit. In saying that, there are a lot of features found here in professional routers as within the good website filtering functions. They've also included dual firewalls (SPI and NAT), which is a nice addition.

The installation of the DIR-655 is done through D-Links Clink'n Connect CD accompanying the product, or the web-interface. The disk boots with a quick install program and from a few mouse clicks can be up and running within minutes - configuring basic wireless security measures along the way. Setup was straight forward with a Virgin Media modem, but not so much with DSL.

Although it's supposed to be the same simple procedure for DSL modems, in our tests it failed time in time out - even with D-Links own products. In the end we just lied to the install software and told it a cable modem was connected instead of DSL. This is more or less what their technical support told us to do anyway. As we were instructed to by-passed the Quick Install and go straight to the web-interface instead, for non-cable modems.

At the rear of the DIR-655, along with a WAN port for the internet input via an Ethernet cable, and 4 Gigabit ports is a USB slot. This is solely used for the “Windows Connect Now” set-up technology, a great loss and a missed opportunity too. In our opinion adding and using a flash drive or USB external hard drive would have been a better use of the USB slot.

We used IxChariot the industry's test tool for emulating real-world applications to predict device and system performance under realistic load conditions.

In the tests, we used the Throughput script to throw a maximum load to test, well, the DIR-655 wireless LAN Throughput. This was performed over a 12 meter line-of-sight distance, to show the range too. Plus it was the largest space we had available to play with.

As for testing apparatus, we had at our disposal two of the latest specced Lenovo T60 notebooks. Along with two of the D-Link 802.11n products in this range, the USB adaptor DWA-142 and the notebook card DWA-645.

Benchmark Netgear DG834GT - no WEP

For a comparison on further tests, we benchmarked the Netgear DG834GT as a baseline, with no WEP security. We used the Lenovo T60s natively without the 802.11n product. This shows an average throughput of 12.946 Mbps, and a maximum of 25 Mbps - expected over the distance.

DIR-655 - No WEP

For the first test on the DIR-655 we used no WEP encryption to show the maximum results possible, with no latency. This showed the average throughout of 40.445 Mbps and a maximum of 55.945 Mbps, an impressive start and very good results.

DIR-655 - WPA

In the second procedure, we ran the DIR-655 in WPA mode. Very common practice in todays wireless security and a much better improvement on WEP. With this, the results were also good at an average 19.104 Mbps, with 31.008 Mbps being the max.

DIR-655 - WPA2

Just for good measure and if you're using WPA2 in your office, we tested with WPA2/WPA-Enterprise. This option requires an external RADIUS server for authentication. Very good speeds were obtained here, average of 49.185 Mbps and 60.607 Mbps at the maximum.

In Short
There's a good solid array of features offered in the DIR-655, from good 802.11n speeds to Gigabit ports and QoS engine. That with the accompaniment of good speeds too over distance, a range booster indeed. All this makes it a worthwhile addition or replacement to your existing wireless infrastructure, for now and the future.

With Virgin Media at 20Mbit/s come end of July and their trials of 50Mbit/s going well, with an expected delivery date at the end of the year - getting every penny out of your broadband is a must. Those users of stayed 802.11 technologies will only achieve the bare minimal out of their wireless kit; need to look no further now.

There's an argument to be made when it comes to opting out from an ADSL modem and wireless router all-in-one combination and going with separate devices. That along with over three million broadband Virgin Media users that are only provided a cable modem and need wireless access too. Not forgetting that the common ADSL provider will offer only a modem gratis as a part of sign-up. Selecting a standalone DSL wireless router could be the way forward, for freedom of choice in Internet providers and either ADSL or cable broadband technologies. ?

The Good
Good speeds over distance, 4x gigabit ports

The Bad
802.11n still only in Draft 2.0, useless USB port

The Ugly
Quick install software didn't work with DSL.

Bartender's Report