DLink Wireless N Router (DIR-615)

D-Link Wireless N Router DIR-615 vB2

Wireless N Router (DIR-615) Review, by Becky Waring, PC World April 30, 2008

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• Reviewed by: Silent_Twilight

  Strengths: Good Signal Strength, Cheap

  Weaknesses: Tech-Support, Not Easy To Install

  Overall: 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

  Strengths: computer seems to load faster at start up

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

  Overall: 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!!!

• Reviewed by: LGratz

  Strengths: Signal strength

  Weaknesses: Complicated set-up (for the non-technician); doesn't work well with hand-held devices.

  Overall: This unit was purchased to replace an 802.11b unit that was several years old, hoping it would provide faster data exchanges with my other wireless machines (2 laptop computers, a Pharos 535v, and a Palm TX PDA). It works fine with the newer laptop with Windows Vista and, after a couple of hours of work, it also works reliably with the laptop that has Windows XP on it. However, it has connected only once with the Palm TX and it took hours to get it to connect with the Pharos 535v. The Palm TX can't even find a signal from the router, although it finds several other wireless units in the neighborhood. It is expected that you will buy the Cisco "Network Magic" program to manage the router settings and your network, once the two-month trial period ends. I've had this router for less than three months and I'm already looking for a replacement.

• Reviewed by: rawbun

  Strengths: Good Looks, Cheap price, Reasonable radio range

  Weaknesses: No 5GHZ Radio

  Overall: First the retailer apparently sold me a return unit, so I wonder why it had been returned. It was missing the ethernet cable, and came with an extra phone cord from some other product. This is my fourth wireless router, and I felt I had plenty of experience configuring these things, but there are so many new features, I was initially overwhelmed. After a few minutes I was able to determine what features I was interested in and found the install reasonabaly easy. I did not even need the CD. Now I must mention that this is a "Draft-N" router, which means that if you are not buying the client adapter from the same manufacturer, all bets are off. Here is what my experience was: I was able to connect with my Lenovo Laptop to connect at 300Mbs with no difficulty. However in an hour or so it would disconnect for some reason, and could not re-connect. Sometimes I could get it to re-connect by releasing the client IP and renewing the connection to the router, and sometimes I needed to re-boot the client to re-connect. I still consider this to be an issue with the Atheros Draft-N chipset in the Lenovo, but have tried the latest drivers... without being able to fix this. I have researched the issue on the internet, and have determined that there may be an issue in noisy urban areas with the early Draft-N routers that use only the 2.4Ghz radios. With Bluetooth, A cordless phone system and a microwave nearby, the chances of keeping a high speed connection going long term is apparently poor. Everything I read indicated that this would be likely fixed in the Draft-N groups latest decision to use a 5Ghz radio, which has a more limited number of channels, but good bandwidth, and few commercial products using this frequency range. Oh yes here is a good place to mention that there was never an issue re-connecting when a connection was lost if I did not enable wireless security (I had switched from WEP to WPA2 when switching to Draft-N) I contacted Dlink customer support, and gave them the best description of my problems. Their answer was to use another client system (Preferably using their host adapter) and report back the results. I have no other system to test this on and did not want to spend more for the investigation, so I just reverted back to 802.11G mode, and have had no problems. I am still using WPA2, and it works fine in G mode, but still needs to re-connect from time to time when I am assuming noise causes a connection to be lost. I have had this issue with all routers I have tried. There is usually 6 or more in range when I view wireless networks in my operating area. The router, and radio seem to be very stable. I have not had to re-boot them unless I have made changes that required it. In Summary I would rate the product well, but I think it is best to forget 802.11N until it is released. I kind of felt like I spent money for nothing as I already had a working 802.11G router. Fortunately for me I was able to sell the old one to a friend in need, which reduced the amount of wasted money.

• Reviewed by: datbates

  Strengths: Speed, Price

  Weaknesses: Ease of configuration, compatibility, configuration performance

  Overall: This is an ok router once you install the firmware update. When I opened the box, it had an installation CD and very little info. There was also tape over the ethernet connections saying to use the CD. The CD wizard is not Mac compatible (even though the box claims the router is), and an experienced network, and software engineer like myself should not need one to configure a router. So I pulled off the confusing tape and plugged in my new Mac (10.5) laptop, figured out the router address, and brought up the ugly wizard. Everything I tried to configure seemed to have problems. I had already read about the firmware update, so I went and found it online. I could not install it with Safari or Firefox. It failed every time. I had to pull out my old windows xp box and use internet explorer to actually get the firmware installed. Once I had gotten that set up, I finished the configuration with my windows box and it worked ok. Every section of the config you make changes to forces a restart the router, and it takes an embarrassingly long time to come back up. Also it kept auto choosing a channel which seemed to cause some of my computers trouble in reconnecting. I configured it to stick to 7, and the problems seemed to go away. The wizard was pretty lame and confusing even for an experienced tech support guy, but I got through it. I can't see there is any difference between Virtual Server and Port Forwarding. Why be confusing? However the router has everything you would expect, and some nice short cuts when setting up port forwarding and reserved ips that I had not seen before. But, the wizard is SO ugly, industrial, buggy, incompatible, and tedious compared to my previous wonderful Net Gear wizard. It seems to work though. I guess I'll keep it until wireless Z comes along. Summing up: tolerable router if strapped for cash, but if you can spend $40 more you can get one from Net Gear or Linksys that hopefully has a better, more compatible wizard and out of box quality.