D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router - Review

The D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router is one of the latest Draft N routers to the market. Believe us when we say it packs a punch. It's by far the fastest 802.11n router we've tested. At $180, it's also one of the most expensive. We've been reluctant to recommend Draft N routers because the spec isn't final and so far, we haven't seen the throughput speeds offered by the standard. There's no guarantee the Draft N products will comply with the final spec, so our advice for now is to wait until we see products actually based on the final spec, probably around midsummer.

• Device type: Wireless router
  
• Network standard: 802.11n (draft), 802.11b/g
  
• Bandwidth: 2.4GHz
  
• OSes supported: Linux; Mac OS 8.x, 9.x, X 10.x; Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
  
• Security options: WEP; WPA-PSK; NAT and SPI firewalls, MAC address filtering
  
• Features: 4 Gigabit LAN ports; DHCP support; VPN passthrough; DDNS
  
• Notable design features: none
  
• Support: One-year warranty; 24-7 toll-free phone support; e-mail support form; FAQs; knowledge base; driver and software downloads

Combined with the D-Link Xtreme N Notebook Adapter, we saw the best throughput speeds to date for any router tested here at TechTaxi. Ready for the numbers? In our 10-foot maximum throughput test conducted with an Ixia Chariot console, the average throughput was 112.56Mbps. This is a whopping 30 to 40 points higher than most draft 802.11n routers we've tested in the past. Mixed throughput (with an 11g client) clocked in at 77.42Mbps while throughput at long range (200 feet) was 33.33Mbps.