Customer Reviews

D-Link DIR-825 Extreme-N Dual-Band Gigabit Router

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(60)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(84)

 

 

I am a Linksys person and I teach a Wireless course using Linksys products. I have been using Linksys products since their 802.11b wired routers first became available. I recently purchased the WRT610N and after trying this D-Link, I am sorry I chose the Linksys WRT610N.

As my first D-link product, I failed to realize D-link uses a 192.168.0.1 network address for its router. I am used to 192.168.1.1 on Linksys products.

PROs:
It is a Dual-Band wireless router, just like the WRT610N. It allows you to schedule wireless access. It has a great manual, which even tells you how to hook up one router to another for extending coverage. I was surprised to see this. I like being able to adjust power output of wireless radios. I love the idea of Guest wireless internet zones. It allows guests, such as friends, to get on your network without having access to local resources or giving out your normal SSID/Password.

It clearly has more options than the Linksys WRT610N, which can be seemingly less user freindly and requires more knowledge of networking. The web configuration screens are similar to Linksys screens though. Anyone familiar with Linksys can find their way around. I did not try the setup CD. Instead I manually configured it using the web interface.

I did not experience any of the instability issues I had with WRT610N. With a Lenovo T61, Apple TV, iPhone, two Macs, a PS3, and a PC connected to a Buffalo LinkStation Gaming Adapter, I needed to find the least common denominator wireless settings in order for all of these devices to connect and stay connected successfully. There were just too many disconnects, which necessitated the least common denominator approach. This approach meant I had to choose "Mixed BG" instead of "mixed (which includes n), had to set channel width to 20, and had to use Tkip WPA only. The D-link allowed me to use all three speed grades (B, G, and N) with WPA or WPA2 (becuase it autodetects the best encryption method available with client devices). I was also able to set the Channel Width to auto (40 or 20 depending on the clients).

CONs:
It only allows up to 63 alpha characters for the wireless passphrase/password. I prefer 64 hex character passwords.

The menus are a bit more complex, which could be an issue for some.

Only one person at a time can access a USB hard drive attached to the D-Link wireless router. Many can access the USB hard drive hanging off of the Linksys WRT610N.

OVERALL:
This is a great wireless router. I tested it as a drop-in replacement for my Linksys WRT610N (after changing the subnet to 192.168.1.x) and it performed admirably. If you are looking, I would consider this strongly before purchasing any other brand.


DECEMBER 2009 UPDATE: When my company moved to a webpage-based VPN solution (we have to access a webpage and login which then opens up the tunnels), I discovered that the firmware version (1.01) I had caused issues. I upgraded to version 1.12NA and now I am experiencing daily wireless connectivity dropouts on the 2.4 ghz band. The only solution thus far is to restart the router. This new development has been detailed across the web. I am going to try some of the suggestions, such as any one or a combination of...disabling DNS Relay, disabling IPV6 on client computers, downgrading to 1.11.

SECOND DECEMBER UPDATE: After disabling the DNS Relay, I have been running for over a week with no issues.

A couple of months ago I purchased the DIR-825 because on average it received better buyer reviews than the competing dual-band N-compatible routers. At this point, I'm really struggling to understand how this is possible, because the DIR-825 fails in so many areas. I've designed wireless home networking products for almost the past 10 years, and while I'd hope that my experience and familiarity with top brands should equip me to make good purchasing decisions, in my confidence I apparently overlooked some fundamental requirements. In the DIR-825 I got a router that had what I was looking for (configurable QoS, dual-band 802.11n support), but also had a lot of other "features:"

- Randomly disconnects clients every hour or so. This happened more in 5GHz than 2.4GHz, but it definitely happened in both spectrums, and did so often. The router's logs did not indicate any reasons for clients being removed. My theory is that there were frequent signal strength hiccups that caused clients to think the router had vanished. They always reconnected about 10 seconds later, but that's long enough to disconnect you from most online games.
- Renders Vonage VOIP calls completely inaudible, even when the wireless network is quiet. The Vonage router is the only wired networking device in our house. We had it plugged into the DIR-825 so we could take advantage of the router's advanced QoS capabilities, but it was an absolute nightmare. We never got VOIP to work right so long as it was 'behind' the DIR-825, regardless of QoS settings and various other tweaks mentioned in the D-Link knowledge base and forums. We ended up having to put the Vonage device in front of the router (which fixed Vonage but had side effects on the rest of the network).
- Auto-channel Select Feature DOES NOT WORK. The auto-channel select feature, which is enabled by default, is supposed to automatically choose the least congested WiFi channel in your band. I have access to some very expensive sniffing and spectrum analysis systems that tell me that the absolute best 2.4GHz channel in my house is number 4, and the absolute worst is number 1, which literally has 10 different SSIDs beaconing on it as I write this. The DIR-825 ALWAYS selected channel 1 (and it wasn't just a matter of what it reported in the admin UI; sniffers reported it in Channel 1.) Not only does this feature appear to do the opposite of what it advertises, it's also known for randomly disconnecting clients. Unfortunately, disabling it did not fix our problem with that.
- Doesn't work with BitTorrent. I know all about port forwarding, TCP, UDP, UPnP, I followed forums, FAQs, and step-by-steps, but I never got BitTorrent to accept incoming connections properly. (And note that I hardly ever have BT running, anyway; it has nothing to do with the other issues noted here).
- Crummy wireless range in both bands. First off, a little bit of info about the 5GHz band: 5GHz is never going to have the same range as the 2.4GHz range at the same transmit power; this is a matter of physics- higher frequencies = shorter wavelength = shorter distances/more susceptible to walls. There's another problem though- at least in the USA, you are only allowed to transmit on 5GHz at a fraction of the maximum power allowed on 2.4GHz, so really 5GHz is hit with kind of a double-whammy of suck. Note that there are a few 5GHz channels that are allowed to be transmitted at a higher power than the rest, but that doesn't mean that 5GHz device manufacturers actually do that- it only means they can. With that in mind, I can say that the DIR-825 has worse range in not only 5GHz but 2.4GHz as well than the dual-band Linksys WRT610 (which surprises me because of the Linksys's funky design), and also worse than any of the 2.4GHz-only routers we had before that.
- Is on its way to losing WiFi Alliance compliance. There's a WFA-certified logo on the box of the DIR-825, but if you've been following wireless forums you will learn that D-Link has been experimenting with removing 802.11b support from their routers, including the DIR-825, in their downloadable firmware updates. Now, I personally stopped using 11.b years ago, and you can get better 2.4GHz performance by going G-only, but WFA logo compliance REQUIRES that you support 802.11b. D-Link has not explained why they're trying to do this, but I suspect that their hardware has either become overloaded or their code so messy that they can't adequately support new requirements without dropping 802.11b support- and that should scare you.

After a full MONTH of trying to get the DIR-825 to work properly, I realized it wasn't me, and it wasn't my setup- it was just that this router sucks worse than any other router I've ever used. I promise you there's not a single setting I didn't investigate or tinker with in my quest to get reliable WiFi, but honestly, even if there were some magic combination of router settings that would make things work, the thing should have been configured to work properly out of the box. I don't have any crazy setup, just a bunch of computers, and a few game consoles and TiVos that are normally quiet.

I purchased the Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router and am MUCH happier now. I don't believe I had to configure any special settings except for the port-forwarding stuff for BitTorrent. I have Vonage connected behind the router again, and VOIP works perfectly. Our connection strength is better on all computers in the home than with the DIR-825, and the only random disconnects we get are on 5GHZ, though they are much more infrequent than with the DIR-825. Save yourself a month of headaches and get something, anything, other than the DIR-825.

P.S. About 802.11n - Note that 5GHz support is an optional feature of 802.11n at this time, so when looking for APs or network cards, understand that not all of them support 5GHz (in fact, most don't). Allways look for "dual-band" or "5GHz" when shopping for 802.11n stuff so you have the most flexibility in your home setup.

PROS:
Easy setup that is somewhat secure
Signal strength seemed better
N was faster

CONS:
Would have like a more comprehensive setup by default
Computer had problems reconnecting after a reboot of the router (probably a Windows problem).
Couldn't figure out the 5Ghz band not getting good signal strength.


First off I am by no means a networking expert. I have a small network at home that includes 3 PCs/Laptops, a Wii, PS3, NAS, Printer, and DishNetwork DVR box. So in all 8 devices that connect on a regular basis. Since the DVR box is downstairs and I don't have it connected via cable, I bought a repeater that hooks up to the network wirelessly, and then shares that connection over a wire to the DVR. Ok now that you see the extent of my network, here is what I thought of the D-Link DIR825.

The Setup was pretty fast and simple. I plugged in the wire that was provided to the router from there to my computer, and plugged in the cable modem. I then used the disk that was provided to run through the initial setup of the router. It went pretty quickly, though there were a few oddities. First off the disk didn't start up right away like it should have. I am not sure if I can attribute that to Windows Vista or what. But opening the disk and running the setup manually was easy anyway. I then ran through the install, which asked for a password for the router, which I was happy about, and by default it enabled WPA2, so you have to enter the passphrase for that. When the process was at the end, the second odd thing happened. The end of the install program asks to write a file to the desktop with the configuration for the router. I found this odd because it has your router password in plain text, and it put your WPA2 key phrase in plain text. I didn't really like this because of course it isn't very secure. It is however on your desktop, so if the computer is password protected, I guess you have some security. I deleted it almost immediately, since I don't want sensitive information sitting around on my machines if I can help it.

By default the only security enabled is the WPA2. The SSID is not hidden, and there is no mac address filter. On my old router I had set it up with these two security measures because they are fairly simple to do, and they make it a lot more difficult for someone to get on to a network with this setup. Now my old router didn't set these up by default either, so it wasn't a big deal. So I poked around in the configuration screens and changed some things that I think are important. I was impressed by how many options you have on this router. It seemed much more robust than my old router, which was a 802.11g router, and is probably 3-4 years old now. I did run into a problem with connecting back to the router after a reboot because I changed some options. I had to reboot to get my computer to reconnect. This didn't bother me all that much, but it was kind of irritating.

Next I went about changing all of my computers over to the new router. This process is fairly painless when it comes to the computers (1 dual boot Windows/Linux which both attached just fine). I basically just had to add a new connection for the new router which is by default on the 192.168.0.x address segment. The Printer and NAS are set up with fixed IP addresses configured on their own boxes, and they are both hardwired to the router, so they were really easy. After that comes the odds and ends. Overall I had this router in within an hour with the configuration that I wanted.

I then moved around the house a little to see what kind of strength I got. Since most of my nics are 802.11g, I first tried that. It seemed about the same to me, though I really wasn't expecting much difference, since there should have been no increase in speed. I did notice that it seemed like I got a little bit better signal strength from further away, even on the older nics. The Wireless N also worked very well. I tried connecting up with a wireless USB NIC and that went pretty well too. I didn't get a chance to check to see if the speed was better by numbers, but eyeballing a couple of downloads from my NAS seemed quite a bit quicker. So overall, the DIR825 seems like a pretty good router to me, way better than my old router which will now be retired.....

The other interesting thing about this router is that it has two bands, it can use 2.5Ghz or 5.0Ghz. Both are given their own SSID, and are basically separate networks. The box says that the 5.0Ghz is meant for streaming HD content, while the 2.5Ghz is meant for the normal junk (e-mail, web-browsing, etc). I was having a problem with the 5Ghz ban not having that good of signal strength. Even when sitting near the router, the NIC that I was using was only getting 23% signal strength, but the 2.5Ghz band was getting 99% signal strength. I looked into it a little, but wasn't able to figure it out. So I ran the test I wanted to run anyway. I connected up with two different computers, one on each band, and tried to take up as much bandwidth as I could. I could tell that it was faster because both of the computers were able to transfer files quicker with each being on their own band, but the 5Ghz band took longer for the same size of files, than the 2.5 Ghz band. I have a feeling that there is just something I was missing, but not sure what it was. Either way, it was nice to have two bands, and it will work out well in my house since a couple of the devices are really close to the router, so they can stay on the lower strength band, and the others can be on the 2.5Ghz band and still get good speed and strength. Since the traffic for each is independent, it works out really nice!

Several months ago, I had bought the D-Link DIR-655, a lower model that did not do 5GHz. It would not get a DHCP address from my ISP and I eventually returned it.

I decided to try again, this time with the DIR-825. Same problem - no DHCP. This time, D-Link support was more helpful and guided me to the actual problem, which was that the router failed to "auto-negotiate" the Ethernet link speed from my FiOS optical network block. No other router or PC I had tried had such a problem. The second-level support rep had me change the speed to 10Mbps (instead of the default 10/100/1000 auto) and it worked.

Well, sort of. What's the point of a 15Mbps service with a 10Mbps Ethernet link? Could I set it to 100Mbps? Yes. Did it work? No. But I then had a think. I grabbed an Ethernet switch I had elsewhere in the house and put that between the FiOS connection and the router. Success! The switch negotiated the speed just fine and presented the router with a GigE link. So off to local store I go and I find the same model Netgear GigE switch on sale for $30. Install that and I'm in business.

Now that it works, I'm very happy with the features and performance of the DIR-825. One can adjust the properties of the 2.4 and 5GHz radios separately, and it has a "Guest Zone" feature which might come in handy some day. I get a strong signal throughout the house and it can be configured in detailed ways or just left alone.

I used manual configuration so can't comment on D-Link's CD-based setup. I have used the WiFi Protected Setup feature, where you just enter a passcode (printed on the bottom of the router or you can generate a new one in the admin panel) and it retrieves the key automatically. Very neat.

If the DIR-825 does the auto-negotiation for you properly, then that's great. If not, you can install a switch (more power and higher price) or look for another brand. I conclude that the Ethernet transceiver D-Link uses is not as good as that of other brands.

Step 1 - Open the box.

Step 2 - Go to the Dlink website and download and update to the latest version of the firmware for the router.

This router is a great value for the price. It has all the current bells and whistles. 2.4 and 5.0 Mhz, simultaneous dual band, gigabyte ethernet ports, USB port to plug in any USB device to share. The user interface is really nice and has a lot of features to set your router up any way you want. This router has all the features of the more expensive "gaming routers". I'm using this router for everything; web surfing, gaming, voip phone, video streaming, media server with PS3, and file and print sharing. This router doesn't miss a beat. I have experienced no shuttering or slowdowns. Video streaming is smooth and steady, and voip calls are as clear as a landline.

If you buy this router, download the latest firmware for the router on the dlink website. I struggled for two days trying to get the shared printer to work. But once I downloaded the latest firmware it worked immediately. There is a little button in the user interface that says "check for latest firmware version" or something like that. When you click it, it says you already have the latest version. That was the first thing I checked when I had problems with the printer. Two days of struggle later, I went to the dlink website and saw there was a much newer version of the firmware. So, don't believe the little status button in the user interface, go to the dlink website and look for yourself, download and update to the latest firmware.

Most of the problems people reported in earlier reviews have been corrected with the latest version of the firmware. So save yourself a lot of time and hassle and update to the latest version. Even if you just opened a brand new package, it probably still has an old version of the firmware installed. So, go and update the firmware first thing. I think the orignial problems dlink had in late 2008-early 2009 was that they released this router before the firmware was ready for prime-time. Now the problems appear to be fixed in the newest version of the firmware.

I love this router! So many features! A big upgrade from my three year old wireless G router.

The only real negative I read on reviews from other websites concerning this router was the signal range. I live in a two story concrete house. The router is in the second floor in the far front of the house. I can go outside all the way to the back of my back yard and still get "excellent" signal with all bars showing. That's got to be a total distance of 200 feet through about four drywall walls and an exterior concrete wall. So the latest firmware might have solved that issue that was reported with the first versions that came out in late 2008.

I ordered this router from Amazon because two WRT160N's from Linksys both locked up within 10-12 hours of use, in spite of directed cooling fans.

This is a very preliminary review that attempts to help solve some problems that might face anyone converting from the popular Linksys routers to this fine piece of equipment from D-Link.

First of all, I never use install software for routers. I configure them manually via the web page. This is where I encountered my first problem (although the included software install utility fell victim to the same issue).

I had my existing machines configured with static IPs. I could not connect to the router from any of them. It turns out the D-Links expect an IP address to be in the range 192.168.0.xxx and not 192.168.1.xxx, during configuration. Until I discovered this little "anomaly", I could not connect to the router's web page. The simple cure to start was to take the computer I was attempting to do the configuration of the router with and let it get its IP address from the router. Immediately I could connect and begin configuring the router. Setup was very easy (Manual). I understand enough networking stuff to configure a router in just a few minutes, and the internal web page layout is intuitive and well described, including excellent help screens, if needed.

For all my machines configured with Static IPs, I had to edit each one from 192.168.1.xxx to 192.168.0.xxx, or none of them would connect. Of course, I could have just let the router assign IPs, but I prefer my own network topology.

If you have other networked devices like Network Drives, etc., be sure to set them to DHCP before changing routers, or you won't be able to access them easily. I had them set for static IPs, and had to spend two hours finding out how to get access to them, because again, they were in the 192.168.1.xxx range. (I had to discover how to reset them to DHCP with special utilities and/or special button presses on a MyBook World 1 TB and Buffalo Pro Duo 1 TB)

Once configured for the service provider's static IP, etc., assignments to me, I was on the net.

Throughput was an issue. I was only seeing about 15 to 20 percent of maximum throughput on G (2.4 gig), and had not tested N (5 gig) yet. Some poking around and I found that QOS was turned on to "Shape" WAN traffic by default. This provides priority to gaming activities (which I have no interest in). By default "Shaping" is on. Doing internet speed testing, I was getting 70 KB/sec downloads and only 9 to 12 KB/sec uploads. I disabled "Shaping" and instantly the speeds were up to snuff. So, a word to the wise...you may want to turn off "Shaping" to start with. The setting is in the Advanced > QOS section in the Web Page setup.

The router's default http address is different from the Linksys. The D-Link uses 192.168.0.1, while the Linksys uses the more familiar 192.168.1.1. Don't forget if you have static IPs on your machine to change them to match the "0" ...leaving them at "1" would not work for me.

Overall setup is a dream. G range is very good. N range and performance have not been evaluated yet. I was especially fond of how easy and intuitive it was to set up port forwarding, and band/performance parameters. Everything made sense, and nothing left me "guessing". I'm using a Netgear USB G adapter and a WGA600N dual band adapter (when I get to the N section). No compatibility problems so far.)

They warn not to configure the router using a wireless connection. Once configured and rebooted, I have found I can go into the router web page any time I like and make edits using a wireless machine.

If N lives up to G, I'll be a very happy camper. I'll submit another review after I do my N evaluation. I'm waiting for a firmware update of another device to be able to test HD Television streaming from an HD Satellite DVR to another sat box. This is a very demanding environment and should be a good test.

Initial Throughput Assessment:

G (2.4 gig) = 2.5 megabytes per second
N (5 gig) = 10.0 megabytes per second

High Definition TV Streaming: N band performance is EXCELLENT at about 30' away, through one wall/window. No halting or other video/audio anomalies. Signal levels near 100% on both N and G.

Throughput measurements done with Linksys WUSB600N Dual Band Wireless N USB Adapter

Setting up this router is basically a breeze. The first thing you do is drop in the included CD and it walks you through each step. It's a hand holder. Step 1 remove the sticker covering the ports on the back, and then unplug this wire, and plug it in here etc. Each step of the instructions has individual screens for each of these baby steps; read one tiny step, click next, read the next etc. By the time you are done you are easily connected to the internet and the router wireless is working fine.

Now that I have said that, I also have to add that I spent 2 days working with this router due to a couple of setup anomalies, ones that are unusual due to my networks configuration. You know when someone reads you a riddle, or gives you a mechanical puzzle and you spend hours on it, and finally they tell you, or you figure out the answer, and you say, "Oh, I knew that" or "Oh that's easy". You get the idea. Hopefully these tips may help someone save a lot of time.

Dilemma 1: I run a server environment on my home network; Windows Server 03 R2 Standard with an active domain. When I installed the router I got instant internet access, but was no longer able to access the controller file server. On other machines in the network I was able to access the server files but not on the machine I put the CD in to install the router. Then I realized that DLink uses a different default IP address than the one that Linksys uses. The DLink default is 192.168.0.1 and the Linksys uses 192.168.1.1. Even though the TCP/IP properties were set to the server settings, I was still unable to access the server files. So I decided rather than reset all of the machines, including the server to the default IP of the DLink router, I changed the router IP address instead. This presented another challenge; in the router configuration, I changed the IP over to the Linksys default of 192.168.1.1, but in the next configuration box, when I set the range to 192.168.1.100 thru 192.168.1.199, it gave me an error message when I tried to save my settings. Finally after working on this for so long, I saw the instructions in the routers manual. Re-setting the IP address of the router was standard fare, so I figured, let me just try that alone. So I did, and I saved the settings. Then I rebooted the router, and noticed the IP range was automatically reset for me. Wah lah, the router still worked, and I had access through the new address to the router, and my server network was back up again.

Looking back on this it all seems like, "Of course". The beginning of my journey was confusing because I have been setting up Linksys routers, wireless and hard wired for quite some time, without any of these problems, but more importantly, I set up the Netgear wireless router which shares the same default IP address as the DLink and never had to do any of this as well. So something in the DLink automated setup changes something that prohibits me from accessing the server files which is neutralized when you re-set the routers IP address back to one that is compatible with your server's, or any devices using a fixed IP address. Anyone who wants to chime in using the comments section is welcome. Share with me, share with others, your thoughts on the subject.

Dilemma #2: Setting up the wireless devices, an individual laptop to connect to the router is relatively easy if you are adding an adapter such as the D-Link DWA-160 Xtreme N Duo Dual band Draft 802.11n USB Adapter I am highly reccomending it at this point after an A-B comparison with the Netgear Adapter using it with this DLink system. I was getting drop outs with the Netgear, and not such problem with the DLink. At first I didn't like the D-Link because I was getting a poor signal only 6 feet away, but from the other side of the room it is very good. So I figure the sender and receiver parked right next to 2 cordless phone sets was the problem. It is easy to install. They provide a disk with built in installation and an instruction manual. By the way I found that setting up that adapter the manual method went without a hitch. The auto-connect button did work for me with the Dlink adapter.

The dilemma is not in using the DLink N adapter, but in setting up a laptop using the built in wireless function in Windows XP. The strength of the signal in another room, through walls was excellent but getting it to validate, by entering a security key was another challenge.

The answer was finally found, and it seems easy in retrospect, because I realized that the older laptop had a built in adapter that did not support the newer WPA encryption, it only supported WEP. WPA2 is the advanced security encryption that is incorporated in this latest release router, and I do not want to downgrade the encryption scheme so that the one laptop can connect; buy an N adapter instead, and enjoy the benefit of the wireless N, as well as more advanced security. WEP is based on the MAC address of the device, which is information that is easily obtainable by a hack.

Some additional comments: I was confused over the issue of the 5GHz signal and the 2.4 as to which was stronger, a confusion that arose from my delight in the improved performance I received when I got my 5.8GHz cordless phone, as compared to the 900MGHz. Although there may be a slight distance advantage with the 5, the real benefit was derived from the improved lack of interference in the 5GHz range. It was delightful being able to talk, while near a working microwave.

I noticed in the DLink manager application, they give you with the router, you are able to activate individually, the 2.4 and the 5. I was getting 100% signal strength out of the 2.4, and only 97% out of the 5. Then I realized the real signal strength advantage was in the N, whether you were using 2.4 or 5. So as DLink puts it, "Use the 2.4 for your data needs, and the 5 for streaming HD and video". By the way do not park your receiver right alongside a 5.8GHz phone or it will strongly affect the strength of your signal.

Overall the big advantages of this DLink Extreme Wireless N router are twofold: one because it is the new wireless N with multiple times the signal strength power and multiple times the distance, and two because it has "Gigabit" hard wired connections as well. The speed of a gigabit connection is 1 Gig (1000) instead of 100 Mbps, which for internal network traffic is a big advantage. I back up machines across the network all of the time. For internet purposes it doesn't matter because the limit of the internet speed at only 1.5 Mbps DSL or whatever, is nothing next to even the old G standard wireles at 54.

If you have one of the old original wireless routers by Linksys for example it is time for an upgrade. The improved signal strength and security is worth it. I have to share a funny story with you. A woman had the older style wireless router inviting the whole world to share her connection, on a tech call it was discovered why she couldn't get an internet connection; it was because there were 4 neighbors already patched into her router. Since there were only 4 ports which were already used up, there wasn't any space for her to log in as number 5. Now that's funny.

I know of those who install wireless adapters in their desktops, or use the one built into their laptops, and simply choose which wireless connection they want to tap into, click on it, and they are on the web. One person has 12 different connections to choose from in one apartment building. With the old routers anyone can access it. Plus if you do not change the default user name and password, as many don't, others have instant access to your whole system/network. This DLink and others use the more advanced technique of requiring a security key be inserted into the device trying to gain access in order to get in. (Plus be sure to change the user name and password as well) They can see the network signal; they just are not given an open door to use it.

One final note is that WPA is not absolutely hack proof, but do you have something that an advanced level top tier hack wants to access? If you do, go strictly hard wired and incorporate the rest of the protections available. If you have really sensitive files here is an answer. Get McAfee Anti-Theft 2009 1-User it places an encrypted password protected vault in your computer. Of course once you open the vault to use it, you may want to lock down your firewall to make sure someone else isn't sharing it with you.

Some quick performance comparisons: This DLink XTreme is also outperforming the DLink DIR628 in upload speeds. I got 690Kbps out of this DLink Extreme in upload, and consistently only got 314 out of the D-Link DIR-628 RangeBooster N Dual Band Router with 4-Port 10/100 Switch 2 Antennas and Dual Band Draft 802.11n. In regards to download speeds, I got around 1500 on download out of both units.

The 3rd comparison is the Netgear RangeMax WNDR3300 Dual Band Wireless-N Router which was faster than the DLink 628 on the upload speed by 15% but nowhere near this DLink Extreme N which was 209% faster; in actual numbers. DLink Extreme N upload speed is 655 and the DLink DIR model number 628 only achieved 314. (Measured using Verizon Online Speed test using a 1.5 DSL connection.) The download speed of all three were comparable, or within a 3% margin, meaning roughly 1450 to 1500. The upload speed of this DLink 825 Xtreme far and away out performed the others by a margin of 2 to 1. Sending your requests in half the time has a profound difference in your overall performance results.

So considering the speed difference, the Gigabit wired connections, having a true dual radio 2.4GHz and 5GHz output, as compared to the 628 with only a single choice, either or so to speak, this DLink Extreme N is my choice. I have all three and this DLink Extreme N is serving my wireless network needs nicely and is my wireless router of choice. I obviously haven't tried them all, and I am sure there are some others with gigabit connections that are doing a great job, but out of those three, I'm going extreme. Highly recommended overall.

Let me start off by saying that I replaced my D-Link DIR-655 router with this DIR-825 (firmware 1.01) and combined it with a D-Link DWA-160 USB Adapter (software 2.2). I really wanted to like this router combo, but there are too many issues with the 5GHZ portion to recommend this as of now. The signal strength on the 5GHZ portion is only about 1/2 that of the 2.4. At about 10 feet, I could copy a media file at about 14 Mps on 5GHZ. At about 40 feet with a story in-between, it then drops to about 5Mps. At 80 feet and 2 stories, the 5GHZ signal is no more. You must use the D-Link software to use the 5GHZ channel (which is fine unless you swap to the 2.4GHZ due to range). Then it requires a system re-boot to get back the superfast speed on 5GHZ. Without a reboot, the router performs just like it was at 2.4. Also, I saw no tangible, measurable difference in speed on 2.4GHZ band when using the N DWA-160 than when using the G internal card in my laptop. Wish I had better news to report.
I expect that the software and firmware for these two items will improve with time, but at this point I cannot say that it is stable enough to justify the premium price for dual band technology.

Well, I should congratulate D-Link. It seems they have a group of talented people who have brainstormed to get list of router features user may want.

*Installation*
Of course, as many products in this area this one is not totally "plug'n'play", though D-Link has demonstrated great progress toward this direction.
Just for review I stopped being geeky and decided to follow supplied D-link wizard to replace my old Linksys router. To my amazement it worked.
Well, the wizard refused to start on multihome system (that is when you have many network cards or virtual machine adapter or... hopefully this is not your situation) and then it hang trying to detect newly plugged router, but after reboot it managed to pickup installation process and in the end I got router in working condition along with WiFi network security properly set. All members of the gang of my WiFi devices - T-mobile cell phone (802.11b), Wii (802.11g), two laptops (802.11a,n,g) and IPod connected successfully on their preferred networks... Wire connection for desktop and NAS storage drive was never a problem too.
It also was fast finding my ISP. Not bad at all!

*Features*
This is where this router shines:
- two separate WiFi networks: 2.4 GHz 802.11 b-g-n and 5GHz 802.11 a-n
- WiFi guest network support (so your friend with laptop cannot see your locally shared My Pictures folder when connecting to your home WiFi)
- excellent web interface: clean, powerful and fast; wizards for easy setup of ISP, wired and wireless networks; lot of "manual controls"
- ability to (almost) share USB device (including hard drive) between network computers
- dynamic IP providers support (like DynDNS)
- secure connection (one, I would guess - and it works)
- quotes and schedules (so you kid machine goes off internet at 9pm)
and many other standard features, like firewall and Upnp, port forwarding, DMZ, etc

*Problems and drawbacks*
- N-network is disappointment, I can always get strong 54Mbit/s for G, but N signal is weak and I always get mediocre 24-36 Mbit/s; may be this is just interference with my 5GHz phone?
- I had dropped connections problems with my old Dell D620 laptop; driver upgrade helped, but not 100%; it looks like when router sees b,n,a and g devices all together some bug manifests itself and WiFi signal may physically disappear from air for several seconds...
- Only one network computer can control shared USB device at a time, special utility must be installed for that and this utility UI is not beauty context winner

*Conclusion*
Way to go D-Link!
Yes, new product, some bugs and quirks are inevitable (and I still want, my 150 MBit/s per stream for 802.11n) but general impression is very positive.
I hope after another firmware upgrade I can firmly put the fifth star to the product rating.

Pros: Simultaneous Dual Band (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) connections; In-Depth Router menu; Slim side plugging transformer; SharePort feature; Price

Cons: No printed manual (108 pages is not fun scrolling through Adobe); Still shipping with older (v1.00) buggy firmware; Poor signal transmittal both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz; Could have used 3 antennas rather than 2 to help improve the signal quality; LED's should be another color other than blue to reduce brightness and introduce a softer tone; WPS did not work for me; Slow SharePort speed (When using external HD)

The Router did not take full advantage of Wireless N out-the-box. I had configured this router without the use of the supplied installation CD. I set up my network manually, albeit its Wizard, and I was connected quickly. I found myself connecting at 160Mbps and decided to look into it. I discovered that the Channel Width settings were set to 20Mhz, which wont allow for full 300Mbps N tranmittal. Changed to Auto 20/40 on both bands and now Im connecting at 300Mbps even with a fair connection on the 5Ghz band.

Also do yourselves a favor once your connected, update the firmware to v1.01 as it fixes performance issues with N and also adds Shareport to the USB feature of the router allowing you to connect devices like Printer, MFP, Scanner and Storage Devices.

Let me say that I am happy with the router at the moment and that some of the negative reviews others and I have mentioned are just a few shortcomings the router and the 5Ghz technology have.

It is important to point out that the reason the 5Ghz band operates so poorly in contrast to the 2.4Ghz band is because its more susceptible of being absorbed by objects such as walls, doors and furniture. This ultimately, regardless of router, will hinder its performance by weakening its signal. Unfortunately, the 2.4Ghz signal quality was worse than my 6 year old G router it replaced. This router should either be performing on par or better on the 2.4Ghz band given the time it has been given to mature in this area. Fortunately it is only a slight set back for me which I could live with. For those with signal issues, try making parabolic reflectors for the antennas and point it in the direction where you need a stronger signal, you could see +3db boost in signal strength and its free and easy to make.

Overall, Im happy with the performance of the router, but it definately has room for much improvement. Scouring the web gives mixed reactions on many other dual band routers and I decided on this model because it seems to have more favorable reviews regarding simultaneous 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz transmissions. I am also interested in using it with the D-Link DAP-1522 to create a Wireless N network bridge for my home entertainment center since I cannot hard wire ethernet there to connect to my devices LAN ports. This will allow me to use the 5Ghz band for streaming and high bandwidth tasks and the 2.4Ghz band for the rest wireless devices.

Its important to note that the older DIR-655 is essential the same but without the 5Ghz band and 3 antennas. The DIR-855 is esentially the same as the DIR-825 but with an OLED display, 3 antennas and costs substantially more.