D-Link DIR-825 Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit Router: Second Time's the Charm? [Archive]

Enki42

10-03-2008, 03:59 PM

Thanks for the review, must have taken a long time to do all that. I do have a few small issues though:

1) I thought you said the second hw revision of the 855 has the AR9100 wireless chipset. Is that not right? This might mean the 2nd hw revision also has the newer chipset for the switch too since everything using one part would be cheaper for them.

2) Assuming point #1 is true shouldn't the 855 then have at the minimum the same performance as the 825. (meaning we can sort of see how much better the 2nd hw revision helped the router) The extra memory and the extra antenna should only help the 855 do better.

3) From the perspective of someone who wants a router with good range and chance you could test the router with a better omnidirectional antenna connected? For example I'm trying to decide between this and the 610 from linksys. The linksys has no replaceable antennas so obviously if I get that then I can't further improve the range but if I get this I can easily buy a better antenna to plug in and get a better range.

4) Any chance you could test with a 3rd party wireless card that stays the same with all the routers? Say the intel card that is part of santa rosa or a newer intel varient? The intel wireless card should have no real preference as to which router it works better with, its the card that comes with most laptops so is more likely to be used by most end users, generally seems like the built in laptop antenna it connects to are better then any pc card, ... The other major advantage is it allows compairing the routers more directly since you aren't chnaging the client side too.

5) Checking how perf varies with other networks in the area. This may not really be so useful to do for every router but has come up as a major factor in my apt situation. There are 10+ 802.11 networks visable all in the 2.4GHz range some are even 802.11b and none are 802.11n or 5 GHzso even though all reviews say 5GHz is worse I have a feeling in my case it will perform much better seeing that it has a clean spectrum vs 2.4

I know those ideas arn't easy to do since it adds much more testing.
Thanks

claykin

10-03-2008, 05:34 PM

thiggins

10-03-2008, 05:39 PM

Picked up a DIR-825 today from Best Buy for $149. Will test this weekend and hopefully it will work in my application. Maybe with firmware maturity some of the issues/limitations Tim found will be resolved.
Don't hold your breath. Perhaps a different client will improve performance a bit. But as you can see from the other products that I compared, the performance really isn't that unusual.

claykin

10-03-2008, 05:59 PM

Tim

I'm surprised Dlink chose to use the XSPAN 9001 (or 9100 series) for the DIR-825. Atheros began sampling the 9002 (or 9200) series back in July (also dual band concurrent). The 9002 is claimed to be 3rd generation (as compared to 2nd gen for the 9100 series) and is more integrated and lower cost. Atheros even included a Gigabit NIC.

The 9200 is 2 x 2 MIMO but Atheros claims higher performance when compared to the 9100. That would work well with Dlink's choice for 2 x antennas.

I called Atheros today and they advise that the 9200 series is shipping in quantity.

Maybe we'll soon see a hardware Rev B of the 825 using this newer chipset....

Don't hold your breath. Perhaps a different client will improve performance a bit. But as you can see from the other products that I compared, the performance really isn't that unusual.

claykin

10-03-2008, 06:24 PM

The routing performance seems like a problem they can solve. Hopefully!

Don't hold your breath. Perhaps a different client will improve performance a bit. But as you can see from the other products that I compared, the performance really isn't that unusual.

Bob Cronin

10-03-2008, 07:10 PM

geo

10-03-2008, 08:04 PM

When you consider that we're starting to get within sight of the two year anniversary of the announcement of the DIR-855, I have to say I'm extremely disappointed with the progress of dual-band 802.11n hardware and firmwares over that period. It's downright disheartening.

tipstir

10-03-2008, 11:50 PM

802.11n experimental~ Firmware testing is beta well at DLINK! Oh just maybe one day the engineers at DLINK and the rest of the gang at the other companies will get it right? 802.11g is where most users are at.

thiggins

10-04-2008, 07:41 AM

The routing performance seems like a problem they can solve. Hopefully!

What needs to be fixed? How many buyers have >100 Mbps Internet connections?

thiggins

10-04-2008, 07:59 AM

I'm trying to figure out whether to get an 825 or 855 to replace the 655, and whether to get a 1522 or a 1555 to replace the SMC boxes.

Any thoughts? I worry a lot about the newer boxes having fewer (or no) external antennas as well. Any comments on that (expecially as it relates to my situation)?

I can't predict how 5GHz will do, since every environment is different. I would also consider the Netgear WNHDE111. Even though it didn't have the best distance performance, it did pretty well in this test (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30538/84/1/2/).

I wouldn't worry much about internal vs. external antennas unless you are going to try to attach higher gain dual-band antennas.

tipstir

10-05-2008, 02:25 PM

What needs to be fixed? How many buyers have >100 Mbps Internet connections?

Tim, you know that 10Mbps is more for 6 or lower and 100Mbps is more like 66 or lower.
What I am saying if you have 6Mbps connection you should set the WAN to 10Mbps.
If you have 20Mbps you should set the WAN to 100Mbps.
Until most of us here get 100-150Mbps download/uploads then that would be the time to use WAN set to 1000Mbps.

peste19

10-06-2008, 10:27 AM

The test was done with the 1.0 firmware right? The new firmware 1.01 says the it enhances HT/40 performance so i it might make an impact it signal and performance

Enki42

10-06-2008, 10:44 AM

The test was done with the 1.0 firmware right? The new firmware 1.01 says the it enhances HT/40 performance so i it might make an impact it signal and performance

Where do you see release notes saying that? All I see is "Added SharePort" to the 1.01 build from 9/22/2008

btw what is HT/40?

Any comments on my initial post? Thanks

thiggins

10-06-2008, 10:51 AM

btw what is HT/40?
High Throughput, 40 MHz bandwidth mode, i.e. Channel bonding

Any comments on my initial post? Thanks
Nothing other than what I wrote in the review

Enki42

10-06-2008, 10:53 AM

Tim

I'm surprised Dlink chose to use the XSPAN 9001 (or 9100 series) for the DIR-825. Atheros began sampling the 9002 (or 9200) series back in July (also dual band concurrent). The 9002 is claimed to be 3rd generation (as compared to 2nd gen for the 9100 series) and is more integrated and lower cost. Atheros even included a Gigabit NIC.

Maybe we'll soon see a hardware Rev B of the 825 using this newer chipset....

At the same time Atheros anounced their new chipset Broadcom anounced a new one too but I don't see any devices using either. History also tells us it takes much longer for new chipsets to appear in products based on what I've seen in the past :(

I do wish they wouldn't wait so long.

BTW I think you're confusing internal routing speed with port speed.

peste19

10-06-2008, 10:56 AM

Where do you see release notes saying that? All I see is "Added SharePort" to the 1.01 build from 9/22/2008

btw what is HT/40?

Any comments on my initial post? Thanks

here
http://www.dlink.com/products/support.asp?pid=681&sec=1#firmware

Enki42

10-06-2008, 11:13 AM

Nothing other than what I wrote in the review

Thanks for the explination, should have figured that one out...

So no chance to test with "normal" higher gain omnidirectional antenna like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833980001
(by normal I mean not directional, easy to install, no DIY or hacking an antenna onto the router, relativly cheap (i.e. aimed at home users not corporations)

If the 825 with two of these (one per antenna port to support MIMO) greatly improves wireless speed/range then it would be worth knowing verses it being some other limiting factor. Going by the pics of the router with its antenna it looks like the antenna is a 3dB antenna so the replacement antenna I mention about should give a nice 2dB increase which I'm guessing will help by a nice amount.

And no chance to test against a standard wireless client against all wireless routers so we know the implementation of the client is not the reason for the differences measured?

Enki42

10-06-2008, 11:15 AM

here
http://www.dlink.com/products/support.asp?pid=681&sec=1#firmware

Thanks. Weird that its different from http://support.dlink.com/products/view.asp?productid=DIR%2D825

peste19

10-06-2008, 11:46 AM

wondering if that would fix its unimpressive range and performance

thiggins

10-06-2008, 11:58 AM

The test was done with the 1.0 firmware right? The new firmware 1.01 says the it enhances HT/40 performance so i it might make an impact it signal and performance
As stated in the review, testing was done with 1.01 router firmware and Win XP SP2 1.02.01.0000 driver and D-Link V2.1 client in the DWA-160 B1 card.

peste19

10-06-2008, 12:01 PM

my bad i saw 1.0 here in the graph so i thought you didn't use the updated firmware

thiggins

10-06-2008, 12:07 PM

my bad i saw 1.0 here in the graph so i thought you didn't use the updated firmware
What graph?

peste19

10-06-2008, 12:11 PM

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30588/96/1/2/

Under routing performance

thiggins

10-06-2008, 12:15 PM

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30588/96/1/2/
Under routing performance
Sorry, my error. Fixed.

Bob Cronin

10-13-2008, 02:54 PM

Sorry, my error. Fixed.

The supposedly fixed (A2) version of the 855 is now becoming available from online merchants. Any chance you (Tim) might re-review it to see if the problems have been fixed? The 825 seems a bit underwhelming, leaving the revised 855 my only hope of a near term dual-band replacement for my 655.

thiggins

10-13-2008, 04:20 PM

Any chance you (Tim) might re-review it to see if the problems have been fixed?
Not likely. The product is grossly overpriced.

Unregistered - Ran

11-01-2008, 06:55 PM

Thanks for the nice review it helped me deciding of buying this router - which was on sale at Best buy (129$).
I have been using this router for a couple of days and have 1 issue and couple of insights:
* the shareport function seem to work very nicely on 2 XP's that I have - intrestingly you can put a hub on the port and coneect as amny as you'd like devices, and use each one of these on a diffrent computer. Having a multifunction printer - this feature realy made the diffrerence for me. However, I have trouble using it from my 3rd Vista computer - the software seems not to recognise the devices on this port - I wonder if someone can enlighten me on that on? (yes I have upgraded the firmware to 1.01)...

*the range (as is detected by the wirless bars) is somewhat low - although performance is good even with 2 bars.

*It helped me recognize that my laptop has draft N 5G - I didn't know it had that and it was not in the specifications...

Bottom line - very nice device - but I wish I could solve the vista shareport issue.

Unregistered -ran

11-02-2008, 03:00 PM

Apperently it is related to some issues with "shareport" and Microsoft Onecare firewall.
A solution is sugested here:
http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=4045576&SiteID=2

and all you need is to enable usb protcol 6 and UDP port 6303 on the local network.

Enki42

11-03-2008, 12:34 PM

The supposedly fixed (A2) version of the 855 is now becoming available from online merchants. Any chance you (Tim) might re-review it to see if the problems have been fixed? The 825 seems a bit underwhelming, leaving the revised 855 my only hope of a near term dual-band replacement for my 655.

The only differnce between the A2 version of the 855 and the 825 is the 855 has three antennas vs 2 so can correctly use 3x3 radio mode, right? So since the 825 has the plugs internal for the missing antenna you could plug one 5GHz antenna into one and a 2.4GHz antenna into the other and get the same results. (ok, it would break the warrenty)

Jennie

11-08-2008, 09:43 PM

How does the D-link 655 compare to the D-link 825? I just ordered the 655 thinking it is better because of the three antennas but I'm having seconds thought

Unregistered

11-17-2008, 04:44 PM

I'm trying to get to the bottom of this one small problem I have with my DIR-825, and am wondering if anyone has seen it? I have emailed D-Link Tech Support, gone to their forums, and have generally been ignored....

Anyway, I get great throughput across wireless to my Hauppauge MVP via a Linksys WPA300N running mvpcm (www.mvpmc.org). I use this as a frontend for my mythtv setup, and that all works fine. I get totally acceptable streaming media. I get better stability than the WRT610N I tried (It locked up a couple of times during testing, which is totally not cool). I also get much smoother audio/video streaming than using my existing DI-524 and a Trendnet TEW-627 N updater (Basically an N AP).

Here's the problem I run into. I can tune into a clear QAM channel on my mythtv box in the basement, stream it via Multicast RTSP using dvbstream. Then, on a winXP box upstairs, I can use tsreader and I can see that RTSP stream. tsreader allows me to see what the entire Transport stream contains, and allows me to see the individual PIDS within the TS.

Anyway, all that would work fine with my DI-524. When I plug in the DIR-825, all of a sudden this all breaks. Somehow the DIR-825 seems to be mucking with the UDP stream that is running around my wired gigabit network. If I unplug the DIR-825 from my main switch, everything starts working as expected. As soon as I plug the DIR-825 back in, the RTSP stream goes haywire, and tsreader shows loads of "continuity errors", which I guess means that the packets are coming in out of order, causing major problems there.

Has anyone else seen this, or have any suggestions. Since this is all internal, I wouldn't expect the router to have any impact, but somehow it does. I've played with several of the settings (QoS, Multimedia streams), but none of them seem to have any impact.

Any suggestions will be appreciated, and investigated....

Thanks.

thiggins

11-17-2008, 05:32 PM

mgpaulus

11-18-2008, 10:16 AM

Sorry, lost track of what connects to what. And what is a WPA300N?

Ack... That's what I get for typing without thinking, and doing it away from all the stuff.....

The first thing I should say, is I had an adequate network with a D-Link DI-524 working just fine. However, I wanted to bring a media extender into the bedroom so I can watch stuff from my mythtv system. However, wiring the bedroom isn't practical at this time, so I was looking for a wireless solution. This is leading me to N based stuff, so I can get the bandwidth/throughput I need. That said...

Ok, the WPA300N should rather be a Linksys WGA600N, N Wireless Gaming Adapter. I have 2 Linux box in my basement, called mythtv1/mythtv2. Upstairs, I have a windows box. (Actually I have a whole cr#pload more stuff scattered throughout the house, but that's all beside the point). The WGA600N connects to the Hauppauge MVP media extender running mvpmc (http://www.mvpmc.org).

I have 3 wireless routers/AP I can use, a DIR-825 (a/b/g/n), a Trendnet TEW-637AP (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156232&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-), and a DI-524. I figure I can use either the DIR-825 or (the TEW-627 and DI-524).

I have 2 scenarios I'm interested in that I'm having problems with.
1: I want to stream normal recorded video from my mythtv1 box to my media extender via wireless/WGA600N.
2: I want to stream full clearQAM Transport Stream (TS) from my mythtv2 box to my windows box via multicast RTSP over hardwired gigabit ethernet.

So, here's how it plays:
When I connect up the TEW-637/DI-524, I can do the multicast stuff just fine, however, the video over wireless becomes kind of blocky, and the audio becomes choppy.

When I connect the DIR-825, the video/audio over wireless works great, but the multicast starts breaking down with many continuity errors.

I know this is complicated and a lot of information, but for the most part it all works fine.... Just these couple of oddball cases that have to do with my desire to get a better wireless PVR/DVR setup working like I want

thiggins

11-18-2008, 02:42 PM

The DIR-825 is the only gigabit device of the ones you mention. Perhaps your problem is related to it.

Do you have another gigabit switch that you can try?

mgpaulus

11-18-2008, 04:14 PM

The DIR-825 is the only gigabit device of the ones you mention. Perhaps your problem is related to it.

Do you have another gigabit switch that you can try?

In the basement I have all my boxes connected to a USR 997933 8 port Gigabit switch, which is also hardwired to another USR 997933 8 port Gigabit switch upstairs in the office. The connection between the switches shows a blue light (gigabit connection). All the upstairs computers are connected to the USR switch, and one connection goes from the switch to the DIR-825....

What's puzzling to me is that if I disconnect the DIR-825 from the USR switch, or during the short window of a reboot of the DIR-825, when it's not actually doing anything, then my multicast stuff works. As soon as I connect the DIR-825 to the USR Switch, multicast goes kaput. So, somehow the DIR-825 is messing with the UDP multicast going on in my network......

Hmmm... I wonder if it's reflecting packets, or resending them back onto the network, causing continuity errors because the 2nd instance of an old packet is coming in after a 1st instance of a new packet:

mythtv2: sends packet #1
windows: sees packet #1
DIR-825: sees packet #1
mythtv2: sends packet #2
DIR-825: reflects packet #1
windows: sees packet #2
windows: sees packet #1 (continuity error)
DIR-825: sees packet #2
mythtv2: sends packet #3
DIR-825: reflects packet #2
windows: sees packet #3
windows: sees packet #2 (continuity error)
.
.
.

And, possibly in some instances the windows sees the DIR-825 reflected packet before the new mythtv2 packet, so in that case, it would be a duplicated packet, and probably quietly dropped....

But that doesn't explain the other issue I saw.....
I did some testing with network probe 2.7 by ObjectPlanet. The consumer version will only let you see the machine it's on running on, which is ok.

Here's what I did: started up network probe on the windows box, unplugged the DIR-825, and started multicast streaming on mythtv2. started up the receiving application on windows. Network probe showed 40+ MBits/second being received.

Then I reconnected the DIR-825, and the multicast throughput to the windows box dropped down to around 8 MBits/second. Unplug the DIR-825, and watch the throughput go back to 40+ MBits/second. Unplug the DIR-825 and watch it drop. The only thing I did was disconnect/reconnect the network cable from the LAN port of the DIR-825. So, somehow the DIR-825 is messing with internal UDP traffic......

thiggins

11-19-2008, 09:12 AM

I would grab a copy of WireShark and run a trace plugged into an 825 port.

Also thought of two other possibilities: make sure the DHCP server is off and also shut off UPnP and WISH.

mgpaulus

11-19-2008, 08:58 PM

I would grab a copy of WireShark and run a trace plugged into an 825 port.

Also thought of two other possibilities: make sure the DHCP server is off and also shut off UPnP and WISH.

Ran Wireshark, and it didn't show any unusual packet sequencing like I was speculating. DHCP is off because I need my mythtv box to do DHCP and tftp for the media extender. I also verified that WISH was disabled, and uPnP.

However, just on a whim, I went under advanced --> Advanced Network, and changed the WAN Port Speed from Auto 10/100/1000Mbps to 1000Mbps. The UDP/Multicast problem is now cleared up. Just to verify, I reset the WAN Port Speed back to Auto 10/100/1000Mbps, and the problem came back. Set it to 1000Mbps, and problem went away.

Thanks for your help and your patience...

thiggins

11-20-2008, 09:16 AM

Glad you got it sorted out. Thanks for reporting back.

Britgeezer

03-24-2009, 02:56 PM

I read the article on the DIR -825 and purchased one to replace multi Linksys WRT310's that would just lock up on me taking down the wired LAN as well. Until then I was a convinced L customer.

So far the 825 is both faster on my Gigabit wired network and on wireless. Signal on 5 GHz is 25% reduced vs 2.4GHz in only one small area. I mix PC and MAC products via wireless although my system is mostly wired, so I'm quite happy.

I just have to play a little more with my wireless printer - haven't got that up yet .. so it has a temp long LAN cable .. :rolleyes:

D-Link speak is a little different than Linksys speak - but these forums are a help.

ttran55

05-10-2009, 06:28 AM

Hello,
I got a new Dir-825 (revA) and the just found out that my old Rangemax MIMO 824 gives better wireless G range than the my new Dir-825 even I turned off everything except the g only. My old router gives me 54mbs vs 18mbs. I don't know if the two numbers are deceiving when using the windows connect status. The reason I got the Dir-825 because I want to pair with the Netgear WNHDE111 5Ghz for media streaming and Gb switch for my NAS4300.
I will get a wireless n adapter to see how much improvement over the g.
I have read the article about saving the old router so I disabled the DHCP of the Rangemax and use it as my g only access point and the Dir-825 for n only.
I don't know if I want to return the router. Any advice ? any tip to improve the Dir-285 range?
Regards,
Ttran.

thiggins

05-10-2009, 11:27 AM

Try 5 Ways To Fix Slow 802.11n Speed (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30664/228/)

cocomonk22

05-14-2009, 03:19 AM

I'm finding the dir-825 wireless to be less stable than the di-524 which I used to use. Occasionally the signal drops for no apparent reason. This is with 802.11g, since most of the clients of this router still use g rather than n. The signal strength is -63dBm in inSSIDer and channel 11 since the neighbors' routers use 1 or 6. The 2.4 band is set on g only. Should I switch back to my old router or is there a way to improve the wireless stability and performance?

thiggins

05-14-2009, 10:27 AM

I have seen with all draft 11n products that throughput is less stable than I saw with 802.11g products. I believe the throughput dropouts are due to the higher complexity of 802.11n.

I have been told that it is possible to stabilize throughput by using techniques such as Forward Error Correction. But this trades off throughput stability for maximum speed and it appears that manufacturers are unwilling to make this tradeoff.

You would think that by setting the router mode to 11g only that you would see stable 11g performance, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

If you are using mostly 11g clients, you are getting no benefit from associating them with a draft 11n router. If you want throughput stability, go back to using the 11g clients with the 11g router.

ttran55

05-17-2009, 05:33 AM

I'm finding the dir-825 wireless to be less stable than the di-524 which I used to use. Occasionally the signal drops for no apparent reason.

I found exactly the same thing and I thought my Dir-825 was faulty. I had my old Rangmax 824 and the Dlink825 at location A(see Tim's test setup) and two dell laptops at location D and my old router beat the DIR-825 in term of signal strength and speed. Not only that, my Dell D620 locked up once for a while if I connected to the Dlink (825 A1 v1.21)
I have the WNDHE111 and the 5Ghz wireless N didn't give me any benefit over the g. I forgot the number but it's way below 3.0MB/s

Today I went to Fry's and get the Dir-655 rev A4 firmware 1.21. I repeated the same test as I did with the Dir-825 and the signal from the Dir-655 is much better. However my dell 620 also locked up once for a while when connecting to the Dlink. My other Dell D600 didn't have the same problem.

I also found that Gb switch wouldn't give me any advantage when connecting to the Promise NS-4300N.
Setup diagrams and the results when ftping 2.2GB video file from the NAS:

Laptop <-----Cat5e---Dlink655---------<NS4300N (1): 5.5MB/s
Desktop <----Cat5e--->Dlink655--------->NS4300N(2) 7.5MB/s
Laptop <-----Cat5e--->Rangemax824--------->NS4300N (3) 10MB/s
Desktop <----Cat5e--->RangeMax824--------->NS4300N(4) 10MB/s

I used Fastlynx utility to transfer 2.2GB video file from the desktop(powerful intel workstation) to my laptop:
Laptop <-----Cat5e--->Dlink655---------<Desktop : 2.05seconds
Laptop <----Cat5e--->Rangemax824--------->Desktop 4.55seconds.

My conclusion: No more Dlink and I may not need GB switch. I will look into the WRT400N or WRT320N.
TT.

Andy S

05-21-2009, 11:29 AM

mikeny

05-21-2009, 01:01 PM

Anybody that's updated to the new 1.11 firmware having stability issues? I haven't done a lot of diagnosis yet, but I've had to reset a couple of times in the last few days and my wireless seems to drop out occasionally. These two things never happened before, as it was a pretty stable router.

The reason I suspect the router is that I haven't been able to log into the router when this has dropped, but it still could be other things going on I have yet to identify.

I've got a Rev. A if that matters.I thought it was generally stable but I had two clients recently that started cycles of disconnecting due to unauthorization and reconnecting due authorization. After restarting those systems they seemed to stay online. In the first case, I suspected Vuze again causing issues. Yesterday though was another client and without Vuze running.

I have seen this in the logs. Have you enabled logging? If so, you could check the entries to see if whether the band got restarted, or a reboot or client disconnect thing like I witnessed.

Andy S

05-21-2009, 02:20 PM

I thought it was generally stable but I had two clients recently that started cycles of disconnecting due to unauthorization and reconnecting due authorization. After restarting those systems they seemed to stay online. In the first case, I suspected Vuze again causing issues. Yesterday though was another client and without Vuze running.

I have seen this in the logs. Have you enabled logging? If so, you could check the entries to see if whether the band got restarted, or a reboot or client disconnect thing like I witnessed.

I don't see the bands get restarting, its more of the whole router locking up.

I didn't have any torrent clients running when the net access dropped, though.

If it keeps happening and I can't figure out what's going on, I'll post again some logs if I see weird things.

This router has been pretty stable for me for months, so hopefully this is just a weird coincidence.

sxr71

05-29-2009, 02:03 AM

I have a DIR-655 already, which I use for both computing and media streaming. A couple of my PC's and all the media streaming devices (TiVo, AppleTV, Roku box, etc.) are connected wirelessly to the 655 through SMC 802.11n wireless bridges (at 2.4GHz). I am interested in moving the streaming media off to 5GHz and leave the general purpose computing stuff on 2.4GHz. However, one of the locations where streaming media boxes live is quite far away from where the router has to go (up 2 floors with several sheetrock walls in between). I get about 50% signal strength up there with the 655 on 2.4GHz. THe other streaming location is close, and signal strength there is typically close to 100%.

I'm trying to figure out whether to get an 825 or 855 to replace the 655, and whether to get a 1522 or a 1555 to replace the SMC boxes.

Any thoughts? I worry a lot about the newer boxes having fewer (or no) external antennas as well. Any comments on that (expecially as it relates to my situation)?

Running ethernet cable is not a viable option.

Thanks much for any insights.

Bob

My thoughts with whatever little experience I have in networking is to keep the DIR-655 (excellent box by the way) and supplant it with an inexpensive but high performing (see the wireless charts) single radio 5GHZ router. Sure you will have 2 routers and 2 networks, but I like to see them segregated. I would put all my N equipment on 5GHz and all my G equipment (phones, Xbox, squeezebox etc.) on the 2.4Ghz. No point really running N at 2.4Ghz since all the G equipment slows down N networks anyway.

Unregistered

06-02-2009, 11:24 PM

I don't see the bands get restarting, its more of the whole router locking up.

I didn't have any torrent clients running when the net access dropped, though.

If it keeps happening and I can't figure out what's going on, I'll post again some logs if I see weird things.

This router has been pretty stable for me for months, so hopefully this is just a weird coincidence.

Your issue is probably with the "DNS relay" feature. Turn this off and it should clear it up. There seems to be some problem with this feature that got introduced in the 655 also.

If you read the dlink forum, it seems they are changing the hardware for the b2 revision. It will no longer be based on the Ubicom platform. Any chance smallnetbuilder can get dlink to ship one over for some testing?

Osamede

06-03-2009, 07:30 PM

I would put all my N equipment on 5GHz and all my G equipment (phones, Xbox, squeezebox etc.) on the 2.4Ghz. No point really running N at 2.4Ghz since all the G equipment slows down N networks anyway.
The issue is running G and N on the same physical router. Even if it is a 2-radio router, there is reduced throughput.

But, if you have the networks running on separate routers ie
- one router with its own SSID running a G network at 2.4ghz
- and the other router with own SSID also at 2.4ghz.
then, in such a case, the traffic is separated. Short of sticking the two units right in the same spot, you wont have any problem.

gyrfalcon

06-26-2009, 01:58 AM

But if you want to try to turn an 825 into an 855, forget it. All the components required to combine the 2.4 and 5 GHz radio outputs aren't loaded. And you'd have to scare up an additional dual-band antenna, too.

Does anyone know what Tim means by this....what components aren't loaded?

Wouldn't you only have to solder on a SMA jack and mini-coax SMT connectors? Dual-band antennas are the same as any other 802.11 antenna right?

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Hirose%20Elect%20Photos/U.FL-R-SMT(01).jpg
http://rocky.digikey.com/weblib/Amphenol%20Connex/Web%20photos/132136.jpg

thiggins

06-26-2009, 08:40 AM

There could be other components. I don't remember.
You won't see a huge gain in performance. The third antenna is used only for receive and most clients use only two antennas. Not worth the hassle, IMO.

claykin

07-14-2009, 11:17 PM

Tim

Dlink has released the DIR-825 B1 hardware revision. These units come with a V2.x firmware so I'm fairly confident that this means a chipset/hardware change of some sort. Any ideas? Maybe you can poke around at Dlink and get some answers from them???

**UPDATE** After searching some more it seems that the B1 is using the Atheros 9220/9223 combo with a Ubicom CPU. So, Tim, any reason for a retest??? Hint, hint. Nudge!

thiggins

07-15-2009, 10:40 AM

**UPDATE** After searching some more it seems that the B1 is using the Atheros 9220/9223 combo with a Ubicom CPU. So, Tim, any reason for a retest??? Hint, hint. Nudge!
Nope. Still the same basic Ubicom / Atheros beast. New chipsets are probably cheaper.

claykin

07-15-2009, 11:38 PM

Nope. Still the same basic Ubicom / Atheros beast. New chipsets are probably cheaper.

Tim

Agreed, but revisions also bring improvements. Atheros claims the 9220/9223 supports something called "weak signal detecton" that is not on the 9001 and earlier chipsets.. See here: http://www.atheros.com/pt/bulletins/AR9002AP-4XHGBulletin.pdf

You seem to like the Linksys WRT400 and from what I understand it also incorporates the same 9220/9223

claykin

07-20-2009, 11:53 AM

Tim

I'm now reading in some forums (including DLink's) that the B1 rev is using the Atheros 7161WNPU in place of Ubicom and that it may support open source firmware. Sure would like to see an updated review. :)

**UPDATE** I downloaded the source from ftp.dlink.de and there is a directory \\platform\ar7161. Also some of the Readme files indicate a Linux core. Should be good for open source firmware authors...

l:x

08-19-2009, 05:54 AM

gyrfalcon

08-19-2009, 11:10 AM

I've bought a DIR-825 and I'm happy with it on my little appartement. A friend of mine has one too, but he has having these range problems.

Is it an option add a repeater/range extender/what-do-you-call-it? And if so... you'll probably need a dual band, right?

Range extenders/repeaters (WDS) (http://www.keenansystems.com/newug/bblog/?postid=17.) cut down on the wireless bandwidth you have available. They're more or less a gimmick and shouldn't be used.

The best way to extend your wireless network is to run a wired network connection to the location you don't get service, and setup another AP in bridged mode.

jalyst

09-18-2009, 01:22 AM

This sounds very interesting, have you heard any more about this, wonder how it'll compare to the 610n v2?

Tim

I'm now reading in some forums (including DLink's) that the B1 rev is using the Atheros 7161WNPU in place of Ubicom and that it may support open source firmware. Sure would like to see an updated review. :)

**UPDATE** I downloaded the source from ftp.dlink.de and there is a directory \\platform\ar7161. Also some of the Readme files indicate a Linux core. Should be good for open source firmware authors...