Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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287 of 289 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some things to know before you choose a dlink router, March 22, 2008
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.
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55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Happy with a few nitpicks, January 5, 2008
I bought this router almost immediately after it came out and have had it running for about 90 days at the time of this writing. I have it hooked up wirelessly (G) to my Xbox 360 for Xbox live, wirelessly (N) with my MacBook Pro, use it over gigabit ethernet with two other PCs in my house, and have it hooked up to an HP all in one over ethernet. It has worked without problem with all of these devices.
I set it up to use mixed G and N modes and I am seeing very good speeds with the Xbox (about 52 Mbps) and the Macbook Pro (about 117 Mbps). I can easily see about 8 neighbors networks and have multiple cordless phones in the house, so with this router running in mixed G / N mode I think that these speeds are perfectly acceptable.
I have no longer noticed any slowdowns when my wife decides to surf the internet while I'm playing Xbox Live. It seems as though the router's automatic "Gamefuel" QoS technology is correctly prioritizing the Xbox traffic over my wife's internet surfing. I didn't have to set up anything special. I just let the router do automatic configuration of the Xbox via UPNP (no manual port forwarding, etc).
Configuration-wise it is really pretty simple. I had it up and running pretty quickly. However, I would strongly recommend that the first thing you do with this router is go to the D-Link web site and get the latest firmware before doing any configuration (assuming the firmware is out of date).
Nitpicks:
- If you upgrade the firmware, you have to manually export the router configuration to file, upload the new firmware, and then import the saved configuration after the firmware update. Otherwise, you'll lose your settings. It works fine, but is a little annoying since my Linksys used to save setting automatically for firmware upgrades.
-The web based configuration interface is definitely functional, but it looks rather out of date.
- A number of the settings changes require a total reboot of the router and the reboot is definitely slower than it has been on some other routers I've owned.
- The router is dual band, but not simultaneously dual band. You have to choose which band you want to use.
Bottom line:
- I'm happy. I'd buy it again. It works fine with a Mac, a Windows box, a network All-In-One printer, and my Xbox.
WARNING:
- DO NOT UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE ABOVE version 1.15. There are many known issues with firmware newer than this.
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best router I've ever owned! Works with everything! Great web-based interface., February 13, 2008
This router has solved all my home networking woes and I've had a lot of them. Granted, it's fairly complicated for a home network in that there are many devices connected both wired and wirelessly from various macs and PCs, home theater receiver, music server, network printers, network storage drives, game consoles (ps3, xbox, wii), etc. In the past I've used a combination of various routers to make things work properly. From different versions of Apple airport (express, extreme, extreme "N") to various Belkin and Linkysys models, even the supposedly foolproof WRT54G model.
The problem with the Apple airport models has been their inability to allow open NAT for Xbox Live gaming, not to mention the playstation network. I love Airport networks and their integration with OS X and all its cool file/music/drive/printer sharing and networking features but I've always had to combine an extra router to handle the non-Apple side of things. The D-Link DGL-4500 is the first router I've had that plays nice with everything on the network. It just works. It works with Apple-based networks, it provides Open NAT for Xbox Live, it works with PS3 (with some minor tweaks), and it works with just about any challenge I throw at it. Music and video streaming, latency-sensitive online gaming, you name it.
The Xtreme N gaming router is the jack of all trades. It does it all and looks great to boot. The OLED display looks sharp, has access to basic functions and status on the unit itself (a nice touch), and setup was a snap. It basically worked with everything right out of the box without much customization. The only change I made was to set the PS3 in DMZ in order to get from NAT type 3 to type 2. But Xbox 360 had open NAT out of the box. My favorite part about the DGL-4500 is the web-based interface. Although it's not exactly simplified, it is very flexible and well organized. If you have a basic understanding of designing networks, this user interface is everything you could ever ask for. The web-based interface on my previous Linksys and Belkin were all cryptic by comparison. The only thing better is Apple's own Airport utility application, but you can't win 'em all.
A small nitpick I have with the router is the bright blue power LED that shines like a beacon in a dark room. While the OLED display is just as bright, at least it shuts off after a few seconds. The power LED stays on all the time and is quite annoying if you have it setup in the bedroom, bookshelf, or on your home theater cabinet. There is no way to turn it off or turn it down. Cutting a circular piece of duct tape and taping it over solves the problem quite easily.
Although I purchased this router at an attractive price of $175, it still seems pricey for a router. I do think it's worth every penny considering that an Apple Airport Extreme "N" costs as much brand new but isn't nearly as capable or compatible. Highly recommend if you want a comprehensive, do-it-all, compatible-with-all, high-speed 802.11n router.
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