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.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/mrmick
[2] http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u90693/dlinkrouter-full.jpg
[3] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/reining_router_rabble
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/asus_rtn13u
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/lenovo_thinkpad_x200s
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/belkin_n_wireless_f5d82364
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/linksys_wrt120n
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/netgear_wnr2000
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/trendnet_tew652brp
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/files/verdict-images/dlinkrouter-verdict.jpg
[11] http://dlink.com
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/dlink
[13] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews/hardware
[14] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/hardware
[15] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/networking
[16] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/reviews
[17] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/routers
[18] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine/2010/february_2010
[19] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine/2010
[20] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews
[21] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews/hardware/networking
[22] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine
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