D-link DIR 655 router and comcast question. Please help.

Hello i have comcast high speed internet which is pretty fast at home and iam interested in opinions on this D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme Wireless Router which based on reviews seems like an awsome router.

Just looking for a fast reliable router with good range. Any advice/opinions will be greatly appreciated.

thanks

 

Seems like a router... $65 on newegg.com.

GK

 

The DIR-655 does well for gaming and general browsing. Mine worked just fine in that capacity.

But the question is what are you going to be using this router for? How large an area do you want to cover? What kind of machines will be connecting?

 

The router will be used with (1) i3 processor laptop in my house. Just wanted something for quick web browsing while viewing java loops for met school. My house isn't to big.

 

Should be okay, since your uses don't look that intense.

Antoher suggestion is the Netgear WNR3500L, which comes highly recommended around here.

 

One of the worst routers ever. Number of threads on this router on D-Link's support forums doesn't do it justice since D-Link deletes some of them.

In spite of a good Ubicom CPU that offers good performance it's worthless. The most important thing about the router is stability- something that DIR655 always lacked.
Firmware was terrible- there was not a one firmware version that had all the features working fine even though D-Link resorted to simply removing those that they couldn't fix.

There are numerous hardware revisions as well which have different firmwares which makes the whole thing even more complicated.
Also DIR-655 doesn't have enough RAM by today's standards to work properly with a high number of simultaneous connections.

WNR-3500L that Forge recommended is a lot better both hardware-wise and firmware-wise. Unlike D-Link it's also supported by 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato which is always a good thing in case you run into problems.

Both are similarly priced so just go for Netgear. It will save you a lot of problems.

 

I have Comcast, and a DIR-655, I have two computers connected Lan, and 4 Laptops WiFi, and Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 on WiFi with ZERO issues. I have had this setup for around two+ years. I also have a home security system and wireless printer hooked up too. I think this router is more than capable of running a home network, for gaming and business.

 

So with a 22mb internet service from comcast the DIR-655 is a good fit? I'am not a gamer and wont be downloading huge files or anything. Again just looking for something fast and reliable for collage and work met studies in the way of running java loops and multiple web pages open.

 

In perspective, 22mbps isn't going to stress even 54mbps G.

But I'm going with Downloads on this one: Since they're similarly priced, just go with the Netgear.

 

make sure that you know the difference between megbytes a sec and megBITS a sec.......

 

In the future will i be able to use 2 labtops at the same time with the DIR-655?

 

Yes you will.

 

Are you a fan of this router?

 

No. I wrote about it several posts back.
I have no personal interest in it nor do I hold any grudge against D-Link.
Routers are like cars- for most people's needs they don't have to be very fast but do have to be reliable.
DIR-655 is fast but not stable/reliable so I wouldn't buy it myself nor recommend to anyone especially- that with no 3rd party firmware support you have nowhere to go if/when something goes wrong.

EDIT:
OK. I've made this small comparison of WNR3500L against DIR-655. Source of data is smallnetbuilder- very respected networking site.
D-Link DIR-655 is A4 revision. Winner is in bold letters.

CPU:
Ubicom IP5160U 275MHz in D-Link
Broadcom BCM4718 453 or 480MHz in Netgear

Average throughput (LAN-WAN, WAN-LAN and total simultaneous):
DIR-655- 266mbps
WNR3500L- 285mbps

RAM:
WNR3500L- 64MB
DIR655- 16MB

Wireless:
-Average throughput (locations A to F) downlink 40MHz band.

WNR3500L- 36,6mbps
DIR-655- 29,3mbps

- Location F (the one farthest one from the router)

WNR3500L- 1.9mbps
DIR-655- 0.8mbps

Firmware:
WNR3500L- Netgear firmware, DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato
DIR-655- D-Link firmware

I don't think I have to comment on that.

 

Good comparison, I just can speak from my personal experience , I have Comcast, and a Dir-655. I have had no issues with heavy usage, with 9+ devices running at the same time. I am using ver 1 I believe. No drops, or slow downs. I like the numbers from the netgear, but I doubt I would notice I big difference in everyday use

 

Yep- I'm not saying it doesn't work at all. I'm not recommending to throw it away either- I'm glad that it works for you.
Just don't upgrade firmware- if the one you have right now works fine don't be tempted to see if there's anything better in a new version (especially that sometimes you can't go back to the old one)

 

I agree, I have seen this on other sites. I would like to upgrade to a good dual band router down the road. I would like to run full N speeds, and still have G available for my iphones, and Wii.

 

I was at Fry's this morning, and ask a very knowledgeable sales person about his opinion of it. He told me to stay away. He said for every 1 person that has no issues, theres like 10 more that have problems.

My friend has this TPLINK Newegg.com - TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND 802.11b/g/n Wireless N Gigabit Router up to 300Mbps with USB 2.0 port

He loves it. He says it gets excellent range and fast speed. Very stable too.

He did mention that it took him a little bit to configure for comcast, but it wasnt terrible.

You can get some high gain antenna's for that bad boy too.

Come to think of it, i dont know why i dont just buy one of these.

 

It's a good router. We've recently discussed it here (post #7 onwards) but newegg's price is too steep.
WNR3500L has slightly better hardware so TP-Link should be cheaper.
The reason it's not because newegg adds a "free" Wi-Fi card (that is not for free ). There's no reason you would want 150mbps Wi-Fi card to pair with 300mbps router.

If you want to go for TP-Link find one for Amazon-like $55 or so.
If you were to pay $65 or so it's better to upgrade to WNR3500L

 

DIR-655 was the king of routers 2 years ago.

I bought one then and it is solid.

The ones they sell these days are not as good.

 

I used to really like D-Link, it was my preferred router company for years. So keep that in mind when you read what I am about to say.

I maintain dozens of small offices, I maintain their systems and networks, D-Link was my go to router for them due to price vs. performance. Shortly after I got my 655 I started noticing the D-Links all starting to fail after a bout a year. I also noticed the 655 being unstable as all heck. It was fast, oh boy it was fast, it also had great coverage (when it was on a high), but what good is that when you have to reset it every few days/week or your connection varies from 300meg down to 1 and back again every 10 minutes.

Yes, the 655 sold fantastic, a few people had good luck, but based on what I saw in their forums, most did not. They had 10,000 (I'm not exaggerating) threads in their forum requesting help with that router alone when they purged it. Even after the purge it still had more help threads by far, than any other of their products and it has gone way up again. The most common fix for that router, was to replace it. Many got tired of waiting for a fix, I can't blame them, many were measuring uptime in minutes. It was by far THE WORST router I have ever used, and that is really saying something considering the shear number of bad routers I have encountered over the years. Like I said, I really used to like D-Link, but I won't touch them anymore. The worst part is that this only scratches the surface of everything I saw in dealing with D-link and this router.


Compare this to my Linksys 610n (now called the e3000)
I have NEVER had to reset my Linksys in the 2+ years I have owned it. Not once. I didn't baby it, I run lots of torrents, I streamed a live webcam 24/7, I was transferring 500gigs of data per month for months on end. I run a network printer from it, as well as a file server on it. Not a single issue, it's a rock.