News D-Link Announces New SMART Wireless AC Routers

[Julio Urquidi]

D-Link has added two new dual-core processor powered routers to its SMART line of wireless products announced at CES.

The new models are:
AC2600 MU-MIMO Gigabit WiFi Router (DIR-2640-US) - $149.99 MSRP

• Dual-Band with maximum wireless rates 800Mbps (2.4GHz) and 1733 Mbps (5GHz)
• Four external high-gain antennas
• Four Gigabit ports and two USB ports (2.0 & 3.0)

AC3000 MU-MIMO Gigabit WiFi Router (DIR-3040-US) - $179.99 MSRP

• Tri-Band with maximum wireless rates of 400 Mbps (2.4GHz), 866 Mbps (5GHz) and 1733 Mbps (5GHz)
• Six external high-gain antennas
• Four Gigabit ports and two USB ports (2.0 & 3.0)

Previously announced at CES 2020 were:

AC1750 MU-MIMO WiFi Gigabit Router (DIR-1750-US) - $89.99 MSRP

• Dual-Band with maximum wireless rate of 450Mbps (2.4GHz) and 1300Mbps (5GHz)
• Four external high-gain antennas
• Four Gigabit ports

AC1900 MU-MIMO Gigabit WiFi Router (DIR-1950-US) - $99.99 MSRP

• Dual-Band with maximum wireless rates of 600 Mbps (2.4GHz) and 1300Mbps (5GHz)
• Four external high-gain antennas
• Four Gigabit ports

All four include features like mesh networking capability, MU-MIMO, router setup and management via the free D-Link WiFi app, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa integration and profile-based parental controls.

All D-Link SMART Wi-Fi routers are available now on Amazon.

 

[RMerlin]

Odd to see a manufacturer release a series of new AC routers in 2020 when most companies are pushing out multiple AX models. I guess the key component here is their mesh capabilities.

 

[thiggins]

I guess the key component here is their mesh capabilities.

AC is still fine and cheaper than AX. Manfs other than ASUS are adding Wi-Fi Easy Mesh support.

 

[RMerlin]

AC is still fine and cheaper than AX.

I agree. It's just odd to see a manufacturer release a whole bunch of new AC products at this point in time where they typically already have a fairly large portfolio of AC products on the market. I guess they chose to release new SKUs with mesh capabilities rather than add it to existing products.

 

[Frankflash]

I wonder how many firmware update you will get before they give up on them

 

[L&LD]

One.

 

[thiggins]

I guess they chose to release new SKUs with mesh capabilities rather than add it to existing products.

Of course! Why provide a free upgrade when you can sell more stuff?

 

[gfondeur]

I wonder how many firmware update you will get before they give up on them

 

[sd70mac]

One.

This alone is why I'm more interested in routers with OpenWRT support or otherwise well supported with firmware updates (such as Ubiquiti gear). It might be worth adding a box to any reviews listing if a device has or will have support from the more popular third party firmwares, as it is very useful information when choosing what device to purchase.

 

[L&LD]

The only Asus firmware that I recommend to my customers and use myself, even without any additional features enabled, is RMerlin.

The availability of additional third-party firmware isn't a factor at all.

Solid, as bug-free as possible and usually the most secure router firmware available at any given time period. The combination of excellent hardware and exceptional firmware makes other possibilities effectively invisible to me.

 

[CrystalLattice]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I see very little security coming out of the AsusWRT-Merlin shop. There is no evidence of tracking CVE's besides the little he shares on an update: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/issues .

I have been severely attacked by some here as an openwrt supporter here, but i am not. I only have an M.S. in Computer Engineering from UofP, home of the first computer(ENIAC). My search was to find the most readily available and supported FIREWALL for free. After a year of searching I concluded it was openwrt. I didn't want to use it at first because it wasn't 'easy' like most router firmware.

Then i found out i could buy a used gigabit router for $10 from ebay, apply openwrt to it, and have the equivalent of a $2000 CALIX firewall. I was shocked. They had the 'split ' 2 years ago, which caused slow updates, re-orgd, & now update about 6x /yr. They just did an update 3 weeks before the PPPD possible hack was announced. openwrt running cve's, fixed: https://openwrt.org/releases/19.07/changelog-19.07.2#security_fixes

I'm happy with the price for this effective ROUTER as FIREwall, and only use it a gateway. I only use multiple ASUS and NETGEARS, some of which are ax, as AP's. It's just a hobby as you can't make any serious money in networking anymore.

 

[L&LD]

@CrystalLattice your point of view is a consideration, but for a single device that is so capable as something like an RT-AC86U or an RT-AX88U and a spare USB key that almost everyone has, there is nothing comparable. The highest priority CVE's are always addressed in a timely manner. If they are applicable to the routers code, of course.

For $10, it is worthy of pursuit. But many, including myself, just don't have the time to do openwrt, in addition to our wireless routers too.

 

[RMerlin]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I see very little quality coming out of the AsusWRT-Merlin shop.

The majority of CVEs are fixed upstream. It's not my job to repeat Asus's own changelogs, which do mention every CVEs that they fix, because I have no way of knowing how those fixes are actually implemented - all I get is one giant 1.2 GB tarball of code. And Asus has a very good track record of quickly resolving these for the past few years.

Also, CVEs are generally kept private for a period of time, during which only the manufacturer has access to the details. I can't fix security issues that are a) in proprietary binary blobs, or b) that provide zero technical info as to what the issue actually is.

So, I don't know what you are expecting here - I can't fix what I don't know...

But unlike D-Link, it does eventually get fixed.