D-Link DIR-855 Extreme-N Duo Dual-Band Draft 802.11n Media Router

by D-Link

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.8 x 1.2 inches ; 11.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00127UWV2
• Item model number: DIR-855
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The D-Link Xtreme N Duo Media Router (DIR-855) is the latest addition to the Award-winning Xtreme N product family. The Duo technology in the DIR-855 supports dualband (2.4 and 5 GHz) wireless signals at the same time. This allows you to check e-mail and browse the Internet using the 2.4 GHz band while simultaneously streaming High-Definition (HD) movies and other media on the 5 GHz band. The DIR-855 is designed for users looking to get a true HD wireless connection that can handle multiple HD video streams throughout the house, while being backward compatible with your existing 802.11g and 802.11a products.

The D-Link Xtreme N Duo Media Router (see larger image).

 

4 Gigabit Ethernet ports in the rear (see larger image).

Key Features

• Wireless N connectivity for superior wireless performance, clarity, and coverage

  

• Dual-band Wireless N connectivity for enhanced throughput (2.4 and 5 GHz simultaneously)

  

• Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) for secure, simple 1-button setup

  

• Intelligent QoS technology prioritizes both wired and wireless Internet traffic to enable enhanced gaming and phone calling (VoIP) experience

  

• Capable of streaming audio and video to compatible UPnP-enabled devices

  

• Active Firewall protection

  

• 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for ultra-fast wired connectivity

  

• Secure your wireless network using advanced WPA or WPA2 encryption
• Backward compatible with 802.11g and 802.11a devices including game consoles and digital media players
• Supports Good Neighbor Policy--will not interfere with other wireless networks

5 GHz Technology

The DIR-855 utilizes the 5 GHz band, which is the best technology available for wirelessly streaming multiple HD videos across your network. It achieves this by operating in a clear wireless band to avoid interference that may slow down and limit the range of current wireless technologies like 802.11g**.

Shareport

With SharePort technology you can connect a USB printer or storage device to your router and allow users to access them from anywhere on the network. Conveniently turn your existing USB printers and storage devices into network devices for everyone to share.

Why Intelligent QoS Is Better

With some routers, all wired and wireless traffic, including Voice over IP (VoIP), Video Streaming, Online Gaming, and Web browsing are mixed together into a single data stream. By handling data this way, applications like Streaming Video could pause or delay. With the D-Link Intelligent QoS Prioritization Technology, wired and wireless traffic are analyzed and separated into multiple data streams. These streams are then categorized by sensitivity to delay, so applications like VoIP, Video Streaming, and Online Gaming are given priority over Web browsing. This enables multiple applications like Streaming Video and Gaming to stream smoothly to your TV or PC.

Delivering best-in-class performance, network security, and coverage, the Xtreme N Duo Media Router (DIR-855) is the ideal centerpiece for your wireless network in the home or office.

Get Ready for the Future: IPV6 Equipped With the growing number of Internet-enabled applications requiring IP addresses, the supply of IP addresses under the current Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) system has already been exhausted. The IPv6 protocol solves this network addressing exhaustion by creating more IP addresses, but migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is not necessarily automatic. No worries--this D-Link product is IPv6 Certified and ready for the future.

What's in the Box

Xtreme N Duo Media Router, 3 detachable antennas, CAT5 Ethernet cable, power adapter, CD-ROM with installation wizard and product documentation

* Requires SharePort Client Utility installation on the PC. SharePort upgrade is available for the hardware versions A1, A2.

** Maximum wireless signal rate derived from IEEE Standard 802.11g, 802.11a, and 802.11n specifications. Actual data throughput will vary. Network conditions and environmental factors, including volume of network traffic, building materials and construction, and network overhead, lower actual data throughput rate. Environmental factors will adversely affect wireless signal range. Wireless range and speed rates are D-Link relative performance measurements based on the wireless range and speed rates of a standard Wireless G product from D-Link. Maximum throughput based on D-Link's 802.11n devices.

Product Description

D-Link DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Dual Band Draft 802.11n Media Router

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

292 of 306 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Waiting for This One..., April 7, 2008

By 

The Thompsons (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: D-Link DIR-855 Extreme-N Duo Dual-Band Draft 802.11n Media Router (Personal Computers)

D-Link DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Dualband Draft 802.11n Media Router

Per another customer, here's the differences in the Extremes:
The following will likely save you a couple of hours of research...

The DIR-655 is single-band (2.4GHz).

The DGL-4500 is dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz), however it only uses one band at a time. You choose which band, manually, in the configuration. It doesn't choose the best band in real-time, or anything like that.

The DIR-855 is dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) and uses both bands at the same time.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Router, November 3, 2008

By 

J. Young "DevItHere" (Pittsburgh) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: D-Link DIR-855 Extreme-N Duo Dual-Band Draft 802.11n Media Router (Personal Computers)

The DLINK DIR-855 router is the best router I have purchased to date. I originally thought I was going to have problems with weak signals and the like, but I found that it was the older hardware that I had trying to connect to it that was the problem. Some of the older technology was having a hard time staying connected if it even saw the router at all.

The router is somewhat easy to configure with the included configuration wizard on the CD. I did this using a Vista PC and did not have any problems. For the more advanced configurations, DLink provides the standard and easy to configure web-based browser access configuration screen.

What is odd is that everything I read touts using the 5Ghz range if you can, but that signal is weaker overall even with newer hardware connecting to it. It is a good 10% less. Regardless, my laptop connected easily enough and reports a full 300MB of throughput. Like I said, I did have some older DLink bridges that I was using to connect to my DGL-4300. At the exact same distance with the DIR-855, one bridge could see the router with a 15% signal and the other couldn't see it at all. I replaced those with the DAP-1522's and all is well now.

For those who want to know, this router does not support WDS which is a dissapointment if you want to use older DLink routers to bridge to this. They state in their forumns that they do not intend to add WDS later.

I work at home and need the bandwidth, so if you do as well, this is a great product and very much recommended.

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great, except for one major flaw.., October 4, 2009

By 

Nate Carlson (Savage, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: D-Link DIR-855 Extreme-N Duo Dual-Band Draft 802.11n Media Router (Personal Computers)

If you don't have advanced routing requirements, this will work great for you. The range and speed have been great; no stability issues, etc.

In my case, I needed to add a route to allow local machines to reach another subnet on the internal network. On the router this replaced, it was trivial to create a route on the LAN interface. This router only supports adding static routes on the WAN interface.

This is just silly -- this is one of the most trivial functions a router should be able to do. I contacted D-Link support, and apparently the feature has been removed, and they are trying to find out why.