D-Link DIR-857 HD Media Router 3000 Reviewed

[dvdeo]

The review is incomplete. I am copying file at speed avg 17MB/s (5Ghz) Intel 6300 AGN on client. Firmware 1.01bxx
Should update firmware to 1.01 or later. Details:
======================================================================================
Firmware Version: 1.01b09
Firmware Date: Wed, 04, May, 2012
KERNEL: 2.6.36
SDK: 3.0, Build: 0021, Date: Thu, 02, Feb, 2012
CheckSum: 0x654F23CD
SVN Revision: 2372
IPv6 version: 2.01R
1. When enable NetBIOS and select "Always Broadcast", WINS server IP address fields should be grayed out.
2. The year at Copyright should be modified to 2012 in DUT Web GUI.
3. Storage Device Link URL issue
4. Guest Zone issue (DEUR20120419000003)
5. IPv6 simple security block all traffic (DEUR20120426000001)
6. Only 300MBit wireless connections possible (DEUR20120426000002)

 

[thiggins]

Wireless link rates were reported at 450 Mbps during 3 stream testing.

 

[dvdeo]

Maybe. I haven't check that with OOTB FW 1.00. 1.01 is still beta, so will expect more fixes in coming months. Wireless speed bugs were "fixed" several times according to FW release history. Will try to run exactly the same test as in review.

 

[thiggins]

Yes, sometimes wireless performance can be slightly improved via firmware update for some conditions.

We test products only with publicly released firmware.

 

[emberzhang]

unwise

Things will be better if Dlink just call DIR-857 a "home router" . But Dlink is so unwise and call it "HD Media Router". The 2 selling points of this "home media server" should be DLNA and USB 3.0, but Dlink made both of them fail.
The media server function can almost index noting on the attached disk. Obviously it's a firmware problem and still not fixed in the 1.01 version. But how can they ignore such a important function test before releasing this product?
And the USB3.0, showing it as a selling point on the product page is a totally wrong idea. The MIPS cpu processes USB terriblely. An attached NTFS disk is slower than copying from usb2 udisk to computer directly. FAT32 could be a little better, but which "HD Media" home uses FAT32 as a storage format? And the FW does not support ext3/exfat or any other partition format yet.
WestDigital is much smarter than Dlink. Their new router N900 has 1 USB3.0 and 1 USB2.0 too, but on the product page or the datasheet you cant find any words about "USB3.0". WD just tell you there are "2*USB". They learned a lesson that MIPS should process sata, not usb3.