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DLink Wireless N Router (DIR-615)

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Pros
Very good routing features
WPA-Enterprise support in a budget product
Cons
Poor performance at close range and long range
No gigabit ethernet

$29.99 - $95.78
From 10 Merchants

DLink Wireless N Router (DIR-615) Review

by Becky Waring, PC World

Though it has strong features and an attractive price, this entry-level draft-2 802.11n router was rather slow and failed to complete some of our long-distance tests.

The D-Link Wireless N Router DIR-615 is among the least-expensive draft-n routers on the market and has a great feature set. Un?fortunately it performed poorly on our speed and range tests.

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At close range, it pumped out only 36 mbps on average, compared with 48 mbps for the competing Belkin N Wireless Router F5D8233-4 v3. And in our long-range tests (about 60 feet, with multiple walls and appliances in between), the D-Link's throughput dropped to just 3 mbps, versus 13 mbps for the Belkin. Even worse, 15 percent of our long-range tests failed completely due to disconnections, whereas the Belkin had no connection failures.

The model that turned in those results was actually the second DIR-615 router we tried. We were unable to test the first, a revision A1 model provided by D-Link, because it provided no way to turn off 40-MHz channel-bonding (making that unit ineligible for Wi-Fi Alliance certification); as a result, we bought a revision B2 (the latest model, which is Wi-Fi Alliance-certified) for our testing.

The DIR-615's performance may improve with firmware revisions, and the router has a very good feature set drawn from D-Link's higher-end models. You get WPA/WPA2-Enterprise and Radius server security support for corporate use, as well as a laundry list of features such as UPnP, WMM, WPS, DDNS, and DHCP reservation.

The unit's setup, though uneventful, wasn't as well thought out as that of other models we reviewed at the same time. The Web configuration interface is a confusing mix of wizards and manual tools; after initial setup, we prefer to skip the wizards. We also struggled to convert the router to access-point mode, though we finally located the necessary directions in the manual.

User Reviews for DLink Wireless N Router (DIR-615)

Reviewed by: Silent_Twilight

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Good Signal Strength, Cheap

Weaknesses: Tech-Support, Not Easy To Install

Overall Evaluation: The only good thing about this router is that once you get it to work it has a good signal strength. The set-up seems like it is easy but really that couldn't be farther from the truth. The tech-support is awful not to mention very difficult to understand. I managed to fix the problem of not being able to connect to the internet but now i am having difficulty connecting to my playstation 3. I tried calling tech-support again (got the same guy as last time i called)and was told that i needed to contact playstation. I would not recommend this product, it is not worth the headache. Your money would be better spent elsewhere.
Reviewed by: misterjsc

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: computer seems to load faster at start up

Weaknesses: Have never been able to wirelessly connect to the internet!

Overall Evaluation: I have spent over twenty hours trying to get this thing working.Four hours on the phone with Customer Service provided no answers.FYI: D-Link Customer Support menu is VERY time consuming, wait, wait, wait, push buttons, wait, wait, wait, wait, push more button, listen, wait, wait, wait, finally get to speak with a customer service agent...I have updated firmware, downloaded things, changed settings, changed settings again...Computer says it's connected to the D-Link, but when I open a web page, it says "YOU MUST BE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET".Changed settings again and again and again.NOTHING works.I am somewhat good at making computers work correctly, and fix the problems Friends and Family have...This router is a GREAT dust collector, as for function, there has been NONE!This is the most FRUSTRATING and WORTHLESS computer accessory I have purchased.VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTED with this purchase!I have spent hours reading forums and tried numerous "wireless wizards"...NO results, just OVERWHELMING FRUSTRATION!If anyone can offer any tangible advice I would GREATLY appreciate it!!!

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