I'm conflicted when it comes to the D-Link AC2600 Smart MU-MIMO Dual Band Mesh Router (DIR-2640-US Black). The thing is that I know that most people don't know what a router is, or what it does. They will never go into the settings of the router, beyond just changing the admin password and their wireless SSID and WPA2 settings. I'll give a bit more in-depth review anyway.
The DIR-2640 comes in a slick retail box. Inside, you get the router, a larger than expected power brick, and a flat Ethernet cord. The router is handsome, with 4 flip-up, non-replaceable antennas. Interestingly, the unit sports purple LEDs for the indicator lights. Physical setup consists of plugging in the DC adapter (with it's shockingly short power cord), and connecting an Ethernet cable from the router's WAN port to your cable/DSL modem or fiber transceiver.
"Soft" setup, for me, consisted of connecting to the router's admin page. The router defaults to being a DHCP server, and to parking itself on 192.168.0.1. After changing the admin password of the device, I changed the base subnet and DHCP pool range. Next, I changes the SSID and WPA2 password. By default, the DIR-2640 does not allow you to set the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz SSIDs independently. Instead, the "Smart Connect" feature causes them to both have whatever SSID you specify. I then enabled and set up the "Guest Zone", which is basically a VLAN'd guest network. This is a great feature for all of your IoT devices, since it's best to not have them on your main LAN. The last things I did were to turn off WPS (it's insecure), and turn off IPv6 DHCP.
While the management interface is clean and easy to use, it's super obvious that the router is just REALLY BASIC in terms of its feature set. It's almost like D-Link decided it was best to not offer anything more than the most basic features for fear of confusing the average home user. There's port forwarding (only 24 entries), but no port triggering. There's QoS, but it must be by host (no protocol or port option), and there are only 5 "buckets" for prioritizing devices - so weird. There's some rudimentary access control, but nothing that's really robust enough to be considered parental control. There's a VPN, but you can't automatically generate profiles for non-iOS devices. The frustrating thing is that you know that the SoC is more than capable of doing all of the "big" router things... D-Link just doesn't let it.
As far as the router's performance goes, it is fine. I have the DIR-2640 on a 450 Mbit/s dl/ 25 MBit/s ul connection, with about 30 connected devices. I fired up Chariot and sustained bandwidth didn't suffer, even with the NAT on the device handling 3000 open connections. Not bad for a home router. There's no CPU utilization indicator, so it's hard to say how it would scale to a 1 Gbit/s connection, but I'd assume it would be ok. The wireless performance is extremely good, with a Pixel 3 XL and an iPhone 11 Pro Max both managing to transfer at 300-350 Mbit/s from 30 feet (through two walls). The 2.4Ghz range is particularly good, too. This router supports mesh networking, but I didn't have a satellite AP to try with it.
The bottom line is this: if you want a set-and-forget home router with good wireless performance, the DIR-2640 is definitely worth a look. However, if you are the type of person that will need to actually get in and need to do anything moderately advanced (there's no VLAN support, for example), then this is not for you. Conditionally recommended.
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From the manufacturer
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Dual-Band Wi-FiTwo Wi-Fi bands help fight congestion when there are a lot of additional Wi-Fi networks around, especially for those who live in apartment complexes. |
Smooth PerformanceEven when other people in your home are online, the DIR-882’s dual-core processor prevents Wi-Fi slowdowns. |
Connect More DevicesThe DIR-882 uses 4x4 data streams to share Wi-Fi with all the devices in your home, helping to reduce wait times and keep the Wi-Fi flowing for everyone. |
Better ConnectionsThe DIR-882 automatically places each of your devices on the best band, moving devices to the less crowded band when needed and keeping the Wi-Fi fast for everyone. |
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| AC1200 WiFi Router (DIR-822) | AC1750 MU-MIMO WiFi Router (DIR-1750) | AC1900 MU-MIMO WiFi Router (DIR-1950) | AC2600 MU-MIMO WiFi Router (DIR-882) | |
| Ideal Usage | HD Media Streaming | 4K Streaming, Online Gaming on Multiple Devices | 4K Streaming, Online Gaming on Multiple Devices | 4K Streaming, Online Gaming on Multiple Devices |
| Wi-Fi Bands & Speed (Mbps) | Dual Band 300 + 867 | Dual Band 450 + 1300 | Dual Band 600 + 1300 | Dual Band 800 + 1733 |
| CPU Processor | Single Core | Dual Core | Dual Core | Dual Core |
| Range | Better | Better | Best | Best |
| Ethernet - LAN | (4) Gigabit | (4) Gigabit | (4) Gigabit | (4) Gigabit |
| Ethernet - WAN | (1) Gigabit | (1) Gigabit | (1) Gigabit | (1) Gigabit |
| QoS Engine | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
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| Customer Rating | (1642) | (38388) | (66744) | (5727) | (8782) | (1575) |
| Price | $133.39 | $56.99 | $76.49 | $99.99 | $98.99 | $79.99 |
| Shipping | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details |
| Sold By | Hanalei | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| Connectivity Technology | Ethernet, Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi Built In | WiFi | Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB | Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi, Ethernet |
| Data Transfer Rate | 2533 Mb per second | 1750 Mb per second | 1300 Mb per second | 1200.0 Mb per second | 1733 Mb per second | 1900 Mb per second |
| Frequency Bands Supported | Dual-Band | Dual-Band | Dual-Band | 5 GHz | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz |
| Item Dimensions | 7.2 x 10.1 x 1.8 inches | 9.59 x 6.32 x 1.29 inches | 11.22 x 7.2 x 2.44 inches | 10.28 x 5.3 x 1.61 inches | 8.5 x 6.46 x 1.45 inches | 9.57 x 6.32 x 1.28 inches |
| Item Weight | 1.50 lbs | 0.93 lbs | 1.58 lbs | 1.10 lbs | 1.23 lbs | 0.91 lbs |
| Total Ethernet Ports | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | — | 5 |
| Wireless Communication Standard | 801.11ac | 802.11ac, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n | 802.11ac | 802.11ac, 802.11g, 802.11ax, 802.11n, 802.11b | 2.4 GHz Radio Frequency, 5 GHz Radio Frequency | 802.11g, 802.11ac, 802.11a, 802.11n, 802.11b |
Customer Questions & Answers
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2018
Style: AC2600 Gigabit RouterVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2017
Style: AC2600 Gigabit RouterVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Ismail Shariff
Love it .. works perfectly and as expected/mentioned in the description
Reviewed in India on August 8, 2018Style: AC2600 Gigabit RouterVerified Purchase
Arun Jayaprakash
Great Hardware At A Compelling Price Point!
Reviewed in India on April 20, 2019Style: AC2600 Gigabit RouterVerified Purchase
Amazon Customer
The best out there at this price range and does better than the expensive ones
Reviewed in India on October 31, 2019Style: AC2600 Gigabit RouterVerified Purchase
The best out there at this price range and does better than the expensive ones
Reviewed in India on October 31, 2019
Truly genuine product.. I have a 200mbps connection and there speeds are consistently at around 198-200 Mbps on 5Ghz band.... Even at 20 feet the speeds are over 120 Mbps... Good coverage as well.. 2.4Ghz speeds are also on par. Definitely would suggest this product... There are much more expensive ones but at this price range this is the best for home usage. 2.4 ghz speeds around 88mbps
Reviewed in India on October 31, 2019
Images in this review
Moulindu D.
Good router
Reviewed in India on October 3, 2019Style: AC2600 Gigabit RouterVerified Purchase
Shayan Mahapatra
Waste of Money.
Reviewed in India on December 26, 2019Style: AC2600 Gigabit RouterVerified Purchase
Waste of Money.
Reviewed in India on December 26, 2019
First of all I have received an old and used product. Seems like someone used the product and after a bad experience with router sent back to Amazon.Reviewed in India on December 26, 2019
The router is very bad, the signal strength is good but after 2 to 3 attempts you will be able to connect your device to the router. Not only that you will see the real drama when you connect more than three devices, your device will remain connected but there will be no internet. Though I don't know whether the model I received watch defective for all the products this model is defective.
The router is not worth the price.
TP link router of half budget gives much better performance.
Such a waste of money.
Images in this review
