D-Link 802.11n Range Solution

Introduction

In a recent feature, we had spoken about emerging wireless technologies with a specific reference to 802.11n and the performance leap it promises to deliver. D-Link which enjoys considerable popularity in India, has now made its 802.11n products available in India. How do these products stack up to previous 802.11g products? Read on to find out.

Since D-Link has released these products to be partnered with each other, for purposes of our review we have clubbed the following products together.
1. D-Link Range booster N650 Router DIR-635
2. D-Link Range booster N650 Adapter DWA-645
3. D-Link Range booster N650 Desktop Adapter DWA-547

Features

At first glance, one can easily make out that D-link has taken care to make this product look different from any of the other routers that are available in their current line-up. The body of the DIR-635 is well designed, coming in a sturdy black plastic body. The DIR-635 is also surprisingly compact, as compared to previous generation routers. The same theme has been used on the other 2 products. The DWA-645 (laptop adapter) and the DWA-547 (desktop adapter) sport the same finish in their respective bodies and in case of the of the DWA-645 there are 2 LED present to indicate connection status and activity.

The DIR-635 being a Draft-N range product, has been equipped with three antennas as compared to the standard one we normally see on 802.11g products. All the 3 antennas are replaceable. This is a good feature, as a power-user can easily pickup 3rd party antennas for boosting the range of this product should the provided antennas not be sufficient. Since the DIR-635 is an Internet gateway and not designed to function as a modem, there are no cable modem/ADSL2+ ready points that have been provided along with this router. Instead this router is designed to be hooked up, with your current router or modem and is capable of ADSL2+ PPPOE authentication (via bridge mode) or can be hooked up with a DOCSIS modem to serve directly as a gateway. The DIR-635 also sports 4 network points and can also be used a network switch.__PAGEBREAK__

Interface

The interface of the DIR-635, as compared to previous D-link routers has been completely revamped. From the rather cluttered interface one had come to expect from previous products, the new one is considerably more user-friendly. It has been divided broadly into 4 aspects i.e. setup, advanced, tools and status. Each tab has a series of sub-menus that offer functions related to their particular need. This is a far better menu grouping, as compared to previously where menus were haphazardly placed and searching for a particular function was like looking like for a needle in a haystack. In the same vein D-link, in what probably makes them the first vendor to do has completely done away with the rather insecure WEP security Wireless option which with the right tools could be hacked in a matter of minutes. In its place they offer, the far more secure WPA/WPA2 (Personal) and WPA Enterprise. This is a great move, as one can now build a wireless network without having to worry about it being compromised.

For its wireless offering, the DIR-635 offers a huge number of wireless transmission rates for selection. This will allow you to lock the network to a particular speed in case of incompatible hardware. The wireless transmission can also be set for a mixed network, 802.11n/b/a/g where speed will be auto-negotiated based on the network cards capability.

Performance

For our performance test, we setup the wireless network using WPA2 + Personal option as this offers a considerable level of security with a slight speed tradeoff. As the router is DHCP capable, speeds and IP were auto-negotiated. The machines we used in our test, was an older COMPAQ NX9000 laptop and a standard assembled desktop. As the DIR-645 is a PCMCIA based card a slot that is not being offered actively by most manufacturers, we had to utilize an older laptop for purposes of this test.

For purposes of the test, we copied 2 700 MB video files, a collection of graphic files totaling 500 MB and a smattering of directories which totaled in at 2.2 GB. The results we got from our speed tests were mixed at best. Despite having run multiple speed tests, we only saw average speeds of 36-44 Mb. While this is a fairly decent speed boost it is no where the speeds that are promised with 802.11n. In our second round of tests, we tested the reach of the 802.11n router (set at 100 mW). Here the router fared considerably better. As compared to the reach of our Linksys WR54GS router, the router reached a great deal of distance more and held speeds more stably. At a rough distance of 20 meters the 802.11n router was nearly 2x faster.

Conclusion

At the end of our rather long session of testing, we reached the following conclusion. It is still a WIP and is not yet ready for primetime. On top of the mixed performance, the cost of the products are almost 4x-6x (prices listed at bottom), as compared to the more easily available 802.11g network products. Based on these factors, we suggest you give these products a miss and only go in for them if you want bragging rights.

The D-Link products are available for the following costs. The D-Link Range booster N650 Router DIR-635 is available for Rs. 9,950, the DWA-645 (laptop adapter) costs Rs. 7,100 and the the DWA-547(desktop adapter) is available for Rs. 7,950.