Customer Reviews

D-Link DIR-628 RangeBooster N Dual Band Router

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I am in the business of IT and telecom.
I have used some other high end WiFi AP and routers in my days.
This DLink 628, even though just a consumer unit, has blurred the line between professional and consumer use wifi routers.
The setup is a breeze. I was up and running (using Mac), without the set up CD, in less than 3 min.
First on speed, it is fast. Side by side testing with the Dlink DIR655, they are both the same speed with all of the config being the same.

The QoS feature is wonderful, you can prioritize by IP to many tiers. So now when my kids are playing games with voice and video, my html browsing can have priority over them. (Since in routing, the voice and video gets priority in getting transferred.)
All in all, this is a wonderful unit for the price (only $75 now on Amazon).
I would buy this one over the DIR 655 since I really don't see any speed improvement on the 655 but almost twice the price.
I give it 5 stars and highly recommend it as a good buy.

My experience with the DIR-628 is mixed. It's a feature-filled router that may be wonderful, if you have all the parts to make it so.

Background: I am an intermediate to advanced computer user with two desktops and two laptops on a wireless home network. I replaced a 4 year old Buffalo brand wireless router with the D-Link and had high hopes of increased Internet speeds, increased range and increased security for all of the computers on my network.

I read the directions and manual prior to attempting setup, which definitely helps anyone setup a home network. Dual band (selective) is clearly explained in the manual which comes on the CD included with the router.

First, the promises. Up to 12x's faster speeds and 4x's farther range. I did note a nice speed jump on all the computers. I already have a high speed connection (250-300Mbps) so it didn't make a huge difference, but about 20-30% faster. Range is a tough one. I note the signal is stronger than the older router, but I didn't roam across the street with a laptop to check it. RE: MIMO technology - I didn't notice any dead spots in my one level house, however I didn't notice them before either.

On the box it says "You may need DWA-160 (usb adaptor)" to get more out of your network. Also under Recommended System Requirements on the side of the box it says "For Optimal Wireless Performance: Use with Dual Band N USB Adapter (DWA-160. REMEMBER: your wireless network is only as strong as your weakest link. If you have all of your computers running 802.11g... and one running 802.11n (draft), you'll only get the slower speed. Right now these adapters are about $80 each. Unless you need faster and can afford it, the `n' wireless setup might not be for you.

Second, `easy to install'. Yes and no. The CD with the setup on it (run it on your main computer before you do anything else) has clear directions and pictures which help.

The included Network Magic software is friendly, but it's trialware and will require you to purchase it after a 30 day trial. Not good in my opinion since you basically have all you need for seeing and maintaining a network through Vista or XP. It is visually appealing though, which made me install it...and then uninstall it when I figured out what it was and that I really didn't need it.

The setup worked and I was up, but then I was down. I had to reset the router and/or cable modem multiple times.

The router seemed unstable. I wonder if it was the "advanced WPA/WPA2" encryption or the two firewalls? Security is a frustrating...er, wonderful thing.

Third, the dual band feature. It's there and you can set it to either the 2.4GHz band for email and internet or you can select the 5GHz band for streaming HD video (not terribly useful yet for me...) and enhanced VoIP (Internet voice phone calling). It would also be good if you wanted to add a home surveillance setup which uses Internet cameras. I think it's on the cusp of something great, but misses the mark.

Finally, I had high hopes for something new and better, but frankly I don't think it's worth more than an average wireless router pricetag. If it came with an `n' usb dual band adaptor I'd think that would help, as would automatic dual band as part of the deal.

It is backward compatible and there is a slight speed bump from the `g' wireless (or at least it seemed so momentarily until the router went offline...), but in the end I took it off the network and I setup a Linksys router with the same security features, with much less hassle.

If you have dual band 'n' wireless throughout your home or office, this router might be worth a try if the price is right, but for me with my eclectic mix of new and old, I would not recommend buying this router until you have all the other new wireless dual band, rangebooster technology to go with it.

Unfortunately, even though this is among the very few Wireless-N routers that can do dual-band, it is falsely advertised. You have to select between 2.4 and 5 GHz outright, and cannot use both simultaneously. As a result, to take advantage of 5 GHz, every single connected device must not only have Wireless-N capability, but also Wireless-N dual-band capability, and set to function at 5 GHz. Even just one 2.4 GHz device, whether 802.11b, g or n, spoils the whole dual-band feature and you're back to having a plain vanilla Wireless-N router. Don't be fooled by this cheap marketing gimmick. D-Link plainly and simply cut corners to keep the cost down, mooting the dual-band feature for almost every single customer.

The DIR-628 router with 1.13 firmware has a nasty firmware bug: you must never disable wireless. If you do disable wireless on the Wireless Settings page and Save Settings, you will not be able to re-enable it or make any other configuration changes. The unit will just reset itself if you try to save any settings (via the wired connection of course). Seems like the workaround is to resetting the unit to the factory configuration (then reapply all your router settings, hopefully from a saved settings file).

Unfortunately, after upgrading to the latest 1.20 (and now 1.22) firmware, there is a new firmware bug that causes the router to lock up every few days. The workaround is to power cycle it or unplug and reconnect the WAN & LAN cables every time in locks up. Customer support has not been helpful at all. Worse yet, after upgrading to 1.2x firmware, the router prevents you from downgrading to 1.1x firmware. Now I'm wishin I stuck with 1.13 which didn't have this new more serious issue.

I cannot recommend any D-Link router at this point.

The SecureSpot "feature" comes automatically turned on. Unless you pay for SecureSpot, only the first 30 days are free. You have to either turn it off or pay for it. If you choose to try it out but then decide not to buy it and turn it off, at some point it will begin to high-jack your browser and direct you to a page on SecureSpot's maker's website for you to register the device with their service. The problem? Once you turn off SecureSpot you can no longer sign-in to register your device. The only fix is to then go into the router's controls, turn SecureSpot on, save, then turn it off and save. You now must do this every time your IP address changes. Serious pain. If you are willing to pay a monthly fee for your router, by all means, buy this router. If not for SecureSpot this would be a 5 star review. This single "feature" kills the product. If you buy it, immediately go in to the settings and turn off SecureSpot and never turn it on nor sign up for the service.

Wonderful product had it up and running in about 20 minutes does both 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz N wireless. The amazon technical details say clearly that the router supports "selectable" 2.4 and 5.8 wireless signals, the box and the D-link web site say the same thing. There is no implication of having both 2.4 and 5.8 running at the same time, were that the case it would be a dual radio router and somewhere around 250$. You run one or the other. Having 5.8 in a 80$ product is remarkable. If you have an 802.11A client you can use that with this router. There are not many 5.8 802.11N clients on the market right now, they will get here someday.

The DIR-628 is up running and doing a great job in my house. I am using it in 2.4 mode with a N client but it is nice to know I can grab a 5.8 card when they are ready and not change out my router.

The DIR-628 is a fast router, easy to set up, and easy to maintain.

However, as another reviewer wrote, after a while it will refuse to save any chnages you make to the router settings. D-Link support has no info on this, but there are messages all over the web detailing this problem.

If DLink fixes that bug, I would recommend this router. As it is, I can only give it two stars, and a 'don't buy' advice.

This is my 4th wireless router. When I got this, I was excited to have a wireless N connection. My MacBook supports wireless N, and I was expecting to have an HD quality video streaming over the wireless network. And yes, I could watch the HD video files that needed the high transfer rate. Also the installation CD that comes with it was very helpful to setup the router. Although I do not need any setup CD to configure the router, I wanted to give it a try and it worked pretty well. The person who does not have any knowledge about a router and network can setup the wireless network with security within 15 minutes with this setup CD. So, this router could have been the great product for me. Well, I cannot give this product 4 or 5 stars due to the problem that I have been having. Here is the story.

I am using many devices on my wireless network. There are 4 computers (3 PC notebooks, 1 Macbook), 4 gaming consoles (PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PSP), and an iPod Touch connected wirelessly, 1 desktop, and 1 network access storage are attached by the cable to the router. The job taking most of our network bandwidth is the streaming of video, audio, and pictures. My family members store their movies, MP3s, and digital pictures on the network drive and enjoy those over the wireless connection. So, stable and constant transfer rate is the most important thing in our network to watch movies flawlessly. However, I sometimes got some movies paused for the buffering. My MacBook, which has the latest wireless techonology, has been OK. However, my old laptops sometimes have jerky videos and are disconnected from the network. I updated the firmware of DI-628 to the newest one and tried every possible combinations of the parameters in the router to get the stable connection. I tried the different security methods, WAP, WEP and no security option and got the same results. This might be the compatibility issues with the wireless cards that I am using in different laptops, however, the previous routers, Linksys WRT54G and Netgear WGR614, did not have any problem like this. I do not think the DI-628 that I have is the defective one. It just sometimes does not work best. Now, I am using a DI-628 and a Linksys WRT54G router together. The DI-628 is used for the wireless N connection of my MacBook and the Linksys one is supporting my old laptops. And the DI-628 has weaker range than the linksys one. I got only 57% of signal strength where I can get 70% signal strength from the linksys router.

Well, I am happy when I use my MacBook with a wireless N connection. I truly enjoy the fast speed of wireless N. The DI-628 is pretty good when it works as other reviewers said. But, it could have been perfect if the DI-628 has great compatibility and constant transfer rate that I have had from other routers.

I have this D-Link DIR-628 connected to a desktop PC (hardwired) and a Dell Latitude laptop (via 802.11g). Both computers are running Windows XP Pro SP3 and I use Time Warner cable broadband. I don't have any other 802.11n capable devices, but I figured that if the router worked well in G, then it might be worth upgrading the laptop to use an N card. I also have a Linksys WRT54GL router, which I used for comparison.

Unfortunately, I keep having a recurrent issue with this router. While it works flawlessly with the hardwired PC, the connection with the laptop via 802.11g keeps stalling. Both the router and the laptop still show that they are connected to each other with a strong signal, but the data transfer completely ceases. I have to power cycle the router and establish a new connection with the laptop for data transfer to resume. Within an hour, the data transfer rate begins to slow down gradually until it ceases again. Then the whole procedure has to be repeated. It's very annoying.

While the problem could reside in the laptop, the router or the broadband connection (i.e. cable modem), I'm confident that it is due to the router. While the router-laptop data transfer is stopped, I can still access The Internet via the hardwired desktop. This tells me that it's not the cable modem or broadband. If I use the Linksys router with the same configuration, I don't have this issue at all. Perhaps there is an incompatibility between this D-Link router and the laptop, but it's odd that the connection does work for a limited amount of time. I've searched for a timeout setting in the router software, but haven't been successful.

On the plus side, when the wireless connection is working properly, the signal and transfer rate are as strong as the with Linksys router. It also looks a bit better than the Linksys routers.

Setup of the DIR-628 was a breeze; it replaced an existing router, and I was able to get it up and running in about 10 minutes. The router looks fairly bland, but most people will have their router locked away in a cabinet anyway.

The DIR-628 does not offer Gigabit network ports, which would have made it the perfect router in this price range. The user interface is very easy to navigate and there are no long reboots after you change each setting, like on other brands of routers.

The wireless performance is impressive; I switched from a different brand router, and my wireless range has doubled with this device. I tested it using my Dell laptop with 802.11n, and the range/speed was perfect. In my house, I also have several 802.11g devices, but when they connect, the router speed drops to this slower network system and the 802.11n does not come to its full potential.

Being able to switch to 802.11n on the 5GHz band is the perfect solution for anyone who lives in an area with a lot of other wireless devices, as the 5GHz band is barely used, but it is fairly useless if you are in an area with little to no other wireless. The 5GHz band is also not supported by all that many devices, in my case I had to leave it on 2.4GHz to support my Tivo and other wireless devices.

All in all a great router, a great price, and something that would be worth 5 stars if it had Gigabit network ports.