Dlink Dir-825 Request for Product Review

[tipstir]

Well until you get your hands on working model for testing then just have to wait this one out for the 825. So everyone just have to buy 655 and stick with A3 hardware and firmware 1.11 for stable network.

 

[geogecko]

Maybe we are getting closer? I got an in-stock notification from D-Link's store this morning at 8:08AM, but when I checked the site at 8:24AM, it shows it is not in stock anymore, so either there were some really fast people on that, or it was a mistake.

On another note, more stores are showing up as having it on their site, some even say in-stock. Amazon has 3 left from Beach Audio, and Techonweb says it will ship in 2-5 days,whatever that means.

Looks like they might actually be shipping this one.

 

[tipstir]

techonweb prices seems very low for $141 bucks and you say free shipping ontop of that deal. I would like to know what I am up against before shelling out good money if the wireless has a limiter, which I am hearing from those who have it and the DIR-655 which doesn't have a limiter unless you use firmware 1.20 or higher.

 

[geogecko]

So was the limiter put on the 655 because it was supposed to be a cheaper model, similar to how the 825 will be compared to the 855?

 

[tipstir]

Not if you use firmware 1.11 with A3 hardware on DIR-655 there is no limiter.

It's either FCC or Wi-Fi alliance requires the limiter now! So if you use DIR-655just use firmware 1.11. Dlink form beta has more info on this. But 825, 855 or higher would have a limiter.

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=2111.0

 

[thiggins]

I would like to know what I am up against before shelling out good money if the wireless has a limiter,

What "limiter" are you referring to?

 

[thiggins]

Maybe we are getting closer? I got an in-stock notification from D-Link's store this morning at 8:08AM, but when I checked the site at 8:24AM, it shows it is not in stock anymore, so either there were some really fast people on that, or it was a mistake.

D-Link says that the 825 is still not shipping yet and there is no firm date.

 

[tipstir]

What "limiter" are you referring to?

good neighbour" feature

Tim someone reported that they were able to get one from Fry Electronics in CA.



reply to tipstir
I live in California and I was able to get one at Fry's Electronics in the city of Burbank. They had 3 in stock... sorry i did not run any bench mark tests and I returned it yesterday once i was fed up being unable to get the relative 10 down 2 up on a LAN connection. The price is 149.99. One notable met ion is that it has these two thicker antennas that say 2.4/5.8 Ghz on the base of the antenna... but worse signal than the 655 and much worse bandwidth. There is something seriously wrong with this product. Anyways i do not have to deal with it anymore.. so that is that

reply to tipstir
My Final Thought On The DIR-825

I did use it and I had many problems. I was very dissatisfied with my individual results of the DIR-825. I will post some detail but I am very happy with reverting to the DIR-655 which is a much better product. I have Verizon Fios. I have an RJ45 setup. I have cat6 wires running. I have my RJ45 connection going to my wan port on my router and I have one LAN out dedicated to a print server one to a Desktop Computer and another to my verizon router which does my STB/Set Top Box functions (Wireless is disabled for the Action Tech). I am supposed to have 10mbs download and 2mbs upload. I get 9700-9950kbs download and 1800-1950kbs upload on my hard lined desktop using Speakeasy.net to measure my speed. This is Using Verizon's crappy Action-Tech router or the wonderful DIR-655 (Keep in mind this is hardlined hardware). When I ran the same speed test on the DIR-825 I had a max upload rate of 450kbs which is atrocious. This was out the wireless on which is irrelevant but I decided to mention this anyways.

Now the wireless tests. The DIR-825's signal strength is not as good as the DIR-655 at the same distance. The 655 out performs the 825 by at least 1 bar once you get past 10 feet. I used (G only) The DIR-655's throughput was AMAZING even at very low signal strength. On the DIR-825 at 10 feet, I managed to get the throughput that I only got with the DIR-655 when I have the lowest signal strength; roughly 6500kbs and below. In fact, i managed to get a higher download rate on the DIR-655 with a very low signal than the DIR-825 at an excellent signal with respective speed tests. Now the stupid upload rate was another issue. I could not even get past 350 which was extremely annoying no matter what I did. These results were the same with or without encryption and I used WPA (and that was very miserable to set up unlike the 655/the laptop kept continuously trying to authenticate without doing so. It was hell to get the DIR-825 working with WPA). Oh one last mention, I could only get the DIR-825 to give me 6500kbs when further than 10 feet on only one channel. That channel is channel 5. I got less than 1mbs/1000kbs DL on all other channels when further than 10 feet and less than 7000kbs/7mbs when next to the router on 10 out 11 channels. It was not for a lack of trying on my behalf. but this router has some serious issues.

I called Dlink and they were very unhelpful. All they attempted to do was change a feature under advanced from 10/100 Ethernet port to 100 only. And they were like "You are the first person to call about this router and I am sorry but there is not much we can do. you have to wait for a firmware update or return the product" and they did not have a time table for a new firmware release. I was shocked at how unhelpful these techs are. VERY UNHELPFUL. I do not have the patience to wait while (incompetent in this case) DLINK gets a firmware update God knows when while I go through hell trying to figure out the problems with an unfinished product.

The 655 has tons of pages of tech support information when you google it. The reason I stumbled on this board was not to start a conversation although that would be interesting from time to time. but it was to get help with the 825. But instead all I found is the specs of the DIR-825 and people drooling over obtaining a DIR-825. I feel sorry for everyone that will be getting this product with the garbage performance it gave me.

All in all, I am more than content I got rid of the DIR-825 in favor of the DIR-655. I am unwilling to invest in something that will not work to its full specs.

For everyone who purchased the DIR-655 and recommended it, you made a great choice.

For all that are waiting for their DIR-825, good luck because you will need it.

My suggestion is to return the product and buy it when a better firmware is out for it. If you really want to own a DIR-825, Good luck! It really pales in comparison to the DIR-655 in hardware and in firmware.

I did not care to run benchmarks on a product that did not even give me average internet DL/UP speeds based on my averages with the other routers I used.

 

[geogecko]

I cancelled my order from NowDirect, due to some of the early reports of this router, and secondly, because it did not look like it was going to ship anytime soon.

They cancelled it this morning, then just now sent me an e-mail, saying they got some in today, and if I wanted it, to resubmit my order, and they would have it packaged and shipped today.

So, if you want one Tim, there is an opportunity to get one. I'm going to wait for a review right now, based on some of the other experiences I've seen with these routers...

 

[thndr]

I got one at Fry's Electronics in CA also. Seems to work ok, but I don't have a fast enough connection to stress the LAN-WAN interface (only DSL, 3M/512k of which I get full speed).

For the WLAN 2.4GHz to WLAN 5GHz, using a DAP-1522 at 5GHz and my laptop at 2.4GHz, I was getting about 16Mbps sustained. The DIR-825 page showed signal rates of 60% at 2.4GHz and 35% at 5GHz, with the DAP and DIR at about 60ft thru a few walls. One thing that probably hurt my throughput were the other 802.11g devices on the that were talking at the same time. I'll play with it some more, plus placement.

WLAN 5GHz to a linux machine on a 100Mbps ethernet line, I was getting about
19Mbps sustained both ways (up and down). Same setup as above.

Router options are better too. Had no issues getting WPA2-PSK AES up on both channels, and the Guest WLANs are an interesting option too. I only enabled them quickly to see how they worked, but they allow a separate SSID to only access the internet, not the private LAN devices. Very painless and smooth setup.

 

[geogecko]

Interesting. While 19MBPS (152mbps) isn't that close to 300mbps, it would for sure leave my WRT54G in the dust. Are current non-dual band routers capable of getting anywhere close to the 300mbps with encryption turned on?

I'm interested in some more testing before I buy though. I've bought things early before, and been burned, so I think since I've waited this long, a little longer isn't going to kill me.

 

[snoopy3525]

Hey there. I'm new to this forum but was looking into this router also.

Was doing some browsing. Not sure if you have Thundr, but new firmware came out yesterday on the d-link website that supposedly increased performance for this router.

Any chance you could do a test when you have the time please?

 

[pogiboi]

I just picked this router up yesterday at my local Fry's electronics in Houston, TX. They had about 5 total when i arrived there. I previously had a Linksys wrt610n which was very disappointing. I plan on having my N network reserved to my TV/Tivo/NAS and my G network for everything else. The Linksys simply could not keep a stable connection to any of my devices. For my entertainment system i had a Linksys N bridge connected to a switch. The bridge would lose connection every 5 minutes or whenever a wireless G device was turned on. My notebook would lose connection at least once every hour.

The dir-825 was a different story. First off the amount of control given to a user is much more advanced than the Linksys gui offered. I have yet to drop a single connection over 18 hours of use. Haven't done any throughput tests but it seems to match what the 610n did. Signal also seems to be about par with the 610n. If you want a STABLE dual band router that can use both bands at once, the dir-825 is the answer.

I am still using version 1.00

 

[tipstir]

On the box there should be a white space on the side? Or in the GUI Admin screen? What does it say for HARDWARE / FIRMWARE?

 

[pogiboi]

Product Page: DIR-825
Hardware Version: A1
Firmware Version: 1.00

 

[thndr]

Interesting. While 19MBPS (152mbps) isn't that close to 300mbps, it would for sure leave my WRT54G in the dust. Are current non-dual band routers capable of getting anywhere close to the 300mbps with encryption turned on?

Sorry, I meant 19Mbps (bits per second). It's actually a bit low, but still faster than the X-550 it replaced for the same location. I'm not sure if it's a function of the DAP-1522 or the router. If I get some time I'll play with it some more and report back.

 

[Stephan]

Interesting Findings

Last night I was testing my DIR-825 and i noticed that as i had to reboot the unit based on settings that I changed, I was getting different results on speedtest.net as well as Speakeasy.net/speedtest.

Basically, i noticed that when the unit is testing the gateway connection, that it comes up with different results that affect the speed (or tests). I also noticed that the QoS engine was limiting the upload speed as well.

so after rebooting the unit several times to get the better download speeds and manually setting the uplink speed in the QoS section to 3072 this is what i now get from most tests.







prior to these reboots, i was getting results as low as 10K kb/s and uploads of 284 kb/s.

Updated the Firmware to version 1.01 and the QoS uplink test did better but still had a value of 2560 which i changed manually for 3840 which I got on a previous test.



For certain, when the DIR-825 is testing the Gateway, from test to test of it... it definitely impacts the speedtests.

 

[tipstir]

Firmware update

http://support.dlink.com/products/view.asp?productid=DIR-825#apps

The 1.00 is the shipping firmware
The 1.01 is the latest firmware has some fixes already!

¤ Enhanced HT/40 performance.
¤ Added SharePort. 9/22/2008

Prior post, clear out the browser cache before you run your next speedtest, as the results will vary.. Good speeds there from the 350MHz CPU in your 825. If it was 500MHz CPU and you had cable modem that can hit 43,000KB/s then you numbers would go up higher. I've tested that when I had one N with the CPU 500MHz and RAM 32MB

WZR2-G300N CPU 500MHz

DIR-655 A3 1.11 CPU 275MHz

 

[geogecko]

Yep, Snoopy already pointed this out, but he forgot to mention SharePort. I downloaded the manual for SharePort and it looks kind of interesting. The thing that doesn't look cool, is that from what it says, only ONE computer can connect to a device at a time, which from what I can tell, means that if you wanted to share a USB flash drive or hard drive, only one computer can be connected to it at a time, therefore, that computer has to disconnect before another computer can use it. Kind of stinks, IMO. But, the printer sharing looks cool.

The other interesting thing, is that they show two devices connected, so would that mean you could hook up a USB hub to the router, and run multiple devices (scanner, printer, and USB drive) at the same time?

 

[tipstir]

You should be able to run USB 2.0 High Speed HUB. I just ordered a USB 2.0 10/100 Print Server to use with my 4 port USB 2.0 High Speed Hub dirt cheap. I'll use that even if the USB can be use in the same matter. By-the-way those here who still have DIR-655 the latest beta firmware is allowing us to have these features with the USB too and SharePoint, Secure Spot too.