There's plenty going on under the hood of D-Link's DIR-615 wireless router.
D-Link’s DIR-615 carries a $70 list price, but most of the retailers we checked were selling it for around $40 when we wrote this feature. At that price, this router is an absolute steal.
The DIR-615 was slower than our zero-point, Trendnet’s TEW-639GR, in four of our six test locations, but it and the Belkin N Wireless were the only models in this group fast enough to wirelessly stream high-definition video to our media room. And unlike most of the rest of the field, it had no problem delivering usable bandwidth to the client in both of our long-range outdoor test locations. Taking the zero-point out of the equation, Belkin’s N Wireless router was faster at the two locations where the client is closest to the router, but the DIR-615 was faster than everything everywhere else.
In addition to speed, the DIR-615 offered a more complete feature set than any other router we tested. You won’t find some of the latest features, such as the ability to operate a guest network or share a USB printer or storage device, and its integrated switch is limited to 100Mb/s, but the DIR-615 does offer UPnP support, D-Link’s vaunted QoS Engine, and a host of features you typically see only in high-end routers.
Cheap; fast enough to stream HD video to our media room; delivered usable bandwidth long-range.
Lacks the ability to share USB printers and storage devices; unable to operate a guest network.
| D-Link DIR-615 (Rev. B2) | Trendnet TEW-639GR | |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen, 20 feet (Mb/s) | 71.4 | 106.0 |
| Enclosed Patio, 38 feet (Mb/s) | 31.0 | 57.1 |
| Bedroom, 60 feet (Mb/s) | 32.2 | 51.3 |
| Media Room, 35 feet (Mb/s) | 24.3 | 11.1 |
| Outdoors 1, 90 feet (Mb/s) | 15.7 | 4.8 |
| Outdoors 2, 85 feet (Mb/s) | 5.8 | 9.0 |
TCP throughput measured using IPerf. N/C indicates no connection at that location. Best scores are bolded.
icub4me
March 28, 2010 at 8:46am
After reading the review on this router I upgraded from a linksys WRN54G to the Dlink DIR 615-n . Bfore I changed over iI ran a speed test on all my computers to compare before an after. What a difforence an not in a good way. The best i got on my Gateway desktop hardwired in was 21.07 meg after it was 5.26 an every other computer showed a simeler drop. I cann't see why PC Maxumin likes this so much in the real world it just does not work I'm going back to my G linksys ( i know my spelling is bad without spell check i'm lost)
Pinkyblister
January 23, 2010 at 9:24am
I purchased the D-Link DIR-615 (Rev. B2) router over a year ago when it was on sale for $19.95. It is the only wireless router I have ever had. I just plugged it in, turned it on, and set it up. After a year it still runs reliably with decent range and speed, and I cannot imagine doing much better unless I want to spend $150-$200 for a high-end router.
cfmwarren
January 21, 2010 at 8:55am
I have the 625, and it is a really great router. I can game while someone is watching Hulu in the HTPC and someone else is surfing the interwebz. Great router and it does what it needs to.
CloudRider
January 20, 2010 at 8:12pm
I've had nothing but bad luck using D-Link brand products for wireless networking. What I'd really like to know about this router is if it can go longer than two weeks without the Wi-Fi radio flaking out, necessitating a power cycle to correct.
blackzarg
January 20, 2010 at 12:27pm
How do I know if I have a Rev B or not? Is this just a firmware update? I have one that I bout in late 2008 - would this be considered a Rev B?
Keiro
January 20, 2010 at 6:46pm
Look at the bottom of the D-Link DIR-615 Router.
There should be an identifier saying which revision it is. Mine's Revision B2. Then again, when you go visiting the router's admin page @ http://192.168.0.1 (default for D-Links, I've found.), you'll notice that there's another identifier of the version of the router that you have at the top right of the admin login screen.
Mine displays the firmware and hardware revision as: Hardware Version: B2 Firmware Version: 2.24
If you've got the B2 version, I wouldn't recommend updating to firmware version 2.25. It made mine go nuts until I dropped it back down to Firmware Version 2.24, which made it rock solid.
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