My Review of the new Dlink DIR-825 Dual Band Router

After a mishap I had which resulted in the destruction of my superb Dlink DGL4500, I needed a new router, I was off to the store to another 4500 only to find that the Dlink DIR-825 dual band router was available for $149 CDN, so I purchased it. So far the router is running well, the initial setup is just slightly different from the 4500 or the 655, my setup has 2 separate ssid’s for each band, my 2.4Ghz is setup for b and g, my 5Ghz is setup for N only for the reason to achieve maximum 300Mbps on my 2 computers with Intel 4965 AGN cards in it, if in 5Ghz and a setting of G&N, the maximum through put is 180Mbps, I am running a HP Mediasmart Server, so I wanted the best throughput as possible as I use very large files, the problem with the 4500 was I basically had to compromise between my B,G and N equipment, now I can have the best of both worlds with a router running simultaneous 2.4 and 5 GHz . The 825 has 2 antennas where the 4500 and 655 have 3 antennas, I did find the 5Ghz lacking compared to the 4500, but as usual, I go for location and I moved the 825, but this time I had to do a major re-locate, and I did find the sweet spot in the house to handle every piece of equipment I have at max or almost max throughput, I am assuming the loss of the third antenna had something to do with my major re-locate.
There is a few different things in the setup menus but it’s nothing most people can’t figure out, I did find I could do a better setup for what I personally want to do, so it was a plus for me, the QOS is more like the 655 compared to the 4500, the 4500 has a much better manual QOS then the 825, but it is still very good for the gamer who love their Game Fuel. Ok let’s get to the usb slot in the back of the router, the roll down in the setup lists the usb port for, Network USB, 3G USB adapter and WCN Configuration, I really don’t care for any of them although I did try to get a printer working, I didn’t get the printer working, maybe it’s too old or I just didn’t care to look into it further, but to configure the port Dlink wants you to install one of their setup utilities that runs on your system tray, it was getting to the point where you have to watch a dog and pony show, then hire a voodoo doctor or witch to get your printer or storage working, I just haven’t seen much success with these ports from any router maker, and like I said I don’t have any interest in them .
My final thoughts on this router is, I like it, my equipment consists of 2 notebooks with 4965 AGN cards, desktop wired with a gbt card, HP Mediasmart Server with gbt, Xbox 360 wireless running on G, 3 wireless cameras running on G, so to me a dual band is great, I do like the router for everything its got but I am unhappy with the loss of the third antenna, and I did take a bit of a loss at 5Ghz.

 

DBN Router Showdown - InfoWeek: http://tinyurl.com/5fb4ec

Can't beat a Linksys WRT-600N (don't buy the 610 - POS).

 

I noticed you have the xbox 360 running wireless. I am having difficulty with setting up the dir-825 and the xbox 360 to run on the wireless network. It ran fine with my old d-link. Please advise. Thanks in advance. Ghatto.

 

I found your thread and left reply there.

 

There was a review with the DIR - 855 , Airport Extreme and Linksys WRT-600N, the three best routers available, Basically the D-Link had the edge as it has better range/throughput on the 5GHZ N band..

My Setup is like this

Modem - Time Capsule - Airport Extreme - Print Sever

That's how it is connected

Time Capsule is the main Router as Modem is connected to it, Transmitting 5GHZ N only, also acts as NAS as it has 500GB HD

Airport Extreme (Access Point Mode) connected to Timecapsule via Ethernet transmitting 54 B/G

Print Sever (Belkin USB Hub) Connected to Airport

I use the Aiport in 54 B/G mode as it's the only way my DS Lite will work, and then have a few desktop/laptops connected to it via 54G, have Xbox 360 Wired to it via Ethernet

I then have my laptops connected to the Time Capsule via 5GHZ N, Intel 4965 and Atheros 5008 both connected at 300mb, When connecting to the NAS I get 7MB/s read/write via 5GHZ N, 3MB/s via 54G and 15MB/s via Gigabit Ethernet

Not bad, only thing is the 5GHZ N band range is really poor, apparently quite known, so thinking about getting the D-Link 855, where I get 0 Bars on N band I get 3-4 bars reception on the 54 B/G band...

Still the setup performs great...

The D-Link 855 supports QOS, ABN and Dual Band, Live Activity Display and USB Shareport, so could replace Airport/Timecapsule/USB HUB.


- Kurat, The USB 3G dongle sounds interesting but where would you install the drivers on the router?, does it have built in flash storage, also will it act as 3G router then?

 

The drivers for the 3G dongle must be installed on each computer that will be using the router and 3G, its interesting, Im waiting for a report from someone who has tried it.

 

I am having what seems like the same problem with dir and xbox 360, all my pc's can see this network, but not the xbox360 with wireless adapter, we just went from a dlink di 524 which worked fine with the xbox, but it got wrecked in an equipment move

 

Depends on your priorities. If WiFI performance is paramount then the DIR-825 is not the best choice. If LAN performance (torrenting etc) is what you are looking for then the DIR-825/855 is the best.