D-Link Xtreme N DIR-655 Wireless Router

[Rob Williams]

We are taking a look at D-Links latest Draft-N router, the DIR-655, which is upgradeable to the latest 2.0 standard. We are also throwing their DWA-652 Draft-N notebook card in for testing as well.

You can read the review here and discuss it here.

Nice review, but where's the range testing? Where is the REAL throughput testing? Don't know about your 130Mb/s figure, but 54Mb/s is just straight from any 802.11g router's specification.

And how does the throughput vary when:
1. using a 54G PCIMCA card to access that DLink router in mixed mode?
2. using the DLink Draft N 2.0 card + DLink router in mixed mode, when the 54G PCIMCA card is doing some low throughput task, e.g. ping www.yahoo.com -t ?
3. using the DLink Draft N 2.0 card + DLink router in 802.11n only mode?

Draft N products a year ago suffers bad throughput in mixed mode operation.

Also the throughput speed might be incorrect. I think you meant to say 130Mb/s (130 x 1,000,000 bits per second), instead of 130MB/s (130 x 1,048,576 bytes per second).

MB/s is usually for storage media access speed, e.g. hard drive.

Mb/s is usually for communication speed, e.g. wireless, Ethernet, fiber optics, etc. I think inferfaces like USB (480Mbps) or SATA (v1 1.5Gbps) tend to use bits/s as well.

Last and not least, 1 byte = 8 bits.


Please take this post as suggestion rather than criticisms. Techgage does have wide range of product previews/reviews and I do read your site often. Keep up the good work.

[Greg King]

It has been taken as it should be and I thank you for the advice. This was my first router review but it certainly wont be my last. Perhaps it would have payed of to do a bit more homework as to how everyone else was conducting their tests. Thank you for your support and we will work to include more relevant information in future reviews.

How well does it play with linux? There is mention of support on the box but given the problematic nature of wireless on linux (closed source drivers) it would have been very exciting to see bleeding edge tech supported on the linux platform. Not to mention provide a known working solution to a small number of linux wireless devices.

*I know there are many distros but any of the major ones would have made me happy.

I just purchased the DIR-655 but I am unsure whether it will help my problem, which is to increase the range in our house. Right now we have a DI-624 and can only get a wireless connection in 1/4 of our house. I don't know much about computers, but when I called our internet provider (FIOS, fiber optics), they suggested getting a wireless N router. So before I open the package I wanted to find out whether it was the right one for me to get. Also, could I still use the d-link wireless adapter DWL G120 with this router? Or do I have to get a special adapter too? We have one computer that has a built in wireless card, could it also be used with this router?

Can you tell me how to hook up the DLinx DIR 655 as a print server

This review says that "Moving over, we get to the internet port. This is where the cable from the modem is going to go into. Beside it is a USB port. This can either be used as a print server port as well as a place to use your wireless network setup thumb drive. To the right of the USB port, there is a reset button and the power jack."

When I asked DLINK if the USB port could be used as a print server they said no. When I asked them if a firmware upgrade in the future might give users this option they said it was unlikely.

[Greg King]

The print server comment was an oversight on my part and will be removed from the review. I do apologize for the error and thank you for your input.

Don't know if you already found a solution to your problem but here's my 2 cents:
The N standard will increase your range a lot compared to G and DI-624. You might still have setup issues ie, location of router, obstructions, etc that could be playing a role but DIR-655 have a significant longer range than DI-624.
In order to take full advantage of the increased range however, you will need a compatible N standard wifi adapter for your computer. You might see an increase with your old adapter but getting the dlink adapter meant for DIR-655 will give you the full range that is intended with N.
This said, DIR-655 is still compatible with the old standards G and B, you just won't get the full range and speed out of the router with cards utilizing them.

Hope that answers your questions.
Drea

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I just purchased the DIR-655 but I am unsure whether it will help my problem, which is to increase the range in our house. Right now we have a DI-624 and can only get a wireless connection in 1/4 of our house. I don't know much about computers, but when I called our internet provider (FIOS, fiber optics), they suggested getting a wireless N router. So before I open the package I wanted to find out whether it was the right one for me to get. Also, could I still use the d-link wireless adapter DWL G120 with this router? Or do I have to get a special adapter too? We have one computer that has a built in wireless card, could it also be used with this router?

Originally Posted by DarkSynergy

The print server comment was an oversight on my part and will be removed from the review. I do apologize for the error and thank you for your input.

It would have been nice to use the USB port as a print server... unfortunately, that's not what it was intended for... do you think you'll be editing your review sometime soon?

I enjoy my DWA-552 and DIR-655 immensely.

Initially there where a few problems with the first few versions of the firmware but the third version keeps all the features (the fourth revision removed a few features!) and 'settles in' after a while (remains stable, without the router hanging ).

This is the most expensive consumer wireless equipment available and it is the fastest both directions, furthest range, fewest retries - the best, but not without a few problems.

The review has wonderful pictures but fails to mention the setup hassles, that certain settings will crash the router (so on some pages you need to save your settings as you apply each one in case the router crashes, taking all your setting with it and a minute to reboot) and that the software (firmware and setup disk programs) are a little lacking, the hardware is the best (but limited by the software).

Linux support was quite poor but with all the cryin' it's bound to be better by now.

Some people have trouble with interference from other wireless and un-identified sources but that can be resolved (usually) by changing from the default channel (which you 'obviously' must do) and waiting hours to let the unit see if it will settle in (since some interference is intermittent and very strong).

I would have enjoyed if the review have delved into the more technical aspects (like the Atheros chipset used and it's associated MIPS 24K processor core and that the chipset is so new (well nearly two years old, shame on us!) that there is not a lot of software for it (especially for Linux)), but that was not to be. Sure would be nice of one of those pics showed the chipset but I guess he didn't want to peel back the foil .

It does perform worse in "mixed mode operation".

A hundred feet away from the router I get at least 85% of the throughput as when I'm a few feet away this may be due to the three antennas and the router's "location tuning" that uses advanced diversity.

[Greg King]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I would have enjoyed if the review have delved into the more technical aspects (like the Atheros chipset used and it's associated MIPS 24K processor core and that the chipset is so new (well nearly two years old, shame on us!) that there is not a lot of software for it (especially for Linux)), but that was not to be. Sure would be nice of one of those pics showed the chipset but I guess he didn't want to peel back the foil .

Thank you! This is the kind of feedback that we are always looking for. For all the shortcomings of the review, it's been a successful one and has helped determine best practices for future reviews.

I frequent Small Net Builders daily and I love their in depth reviews. I have thought of including the in depth-ness of their reviews but wasn't sure what our readers would like to see. A straight forward thumbs up or thumbs down or as much information as can be given.

We are currently working with the Dlink DGL-4500 and should have a few more in the coming weeks. A push to the side of too much info might be better in future reviews.

Thanks again!

[Greg King]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The review has wonderful pictures but fails to mention the setup hassles, that certain settings will crash the router (so on some pages you need to save your settings as you apply each one in case the router crashes, taking all your setting with it and a minute to reboot) and that the software (firmware and setup disk programs) are a little lacking, the hardware is the best (but limited by the software).

Last comment on this... I have not had any problems personally with this router's stability. Which setting were giving you stability issues?

Speaking of hardware, the TrendNET TEW-633GR uses damn near the same hardware as the 655. It's also a great router and can be found for a considerably cheaper prices every now and then.

I'm on my second dir-655 in less than a year. I purchased this router from Best Buy, took it home and configured it for wireless security and had it up and running in less than 5 minutes. Within a couple months I noticed that the router would lose my custom settings. I was able to restore the config from a backup, but the settings were getting lost and reset to factory defaults so often (every 2-3 days) I engaged d-link support. They were clueless to this problem, and after 5 days of diagnostics (4 hours on the phone), they were willing to issue me an RMA. But wait - I bought it at Best Buy so I just took it back and exchanged it for another new in the box dir-655. This router worked fine for about 4 months and it also started exhibiting the same behavior, except it would not let me restore from a backup config.

I've had about 8 different wireless routers in my home over the past 11 years and this is by far the best performing router I've owned. The interface is better than most, and has all of the features you'd expect from a higher-end soho wifi router. I've spent some time trying to find a fix to this problem, but no success. I'd really like to keep this router, but do not like exposing a naked network to the wifi universe.

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Can you tell me how to hook up the DLinx DIR 655 as a print server

You would have to go through a NAS Server that has a printer port

Merlin