Dlink Dir-825 Request for Product Review

[geogecko]

Great, thanks Tim, I think I'll go that route, a little more expensive than just getting a DIR-825, but if the performance was really that bad, I'd rather have dedicated boxes for each network.

Kind of a stinker about these dual-radio boxes.

 

[jdabbs]

Newegg has the DIR-825 as one of its 24-hour deals; $130 shipped with promo code EMCBABECD. Market price otherwise is $150.

 

[Bullitt5094]

Bestbuy currently has the DIR-655 for $109 and the 825 for $129. I don't mind the extra $20 if the 825 is a better unit even if I don't use all the features now. If it isn't a better unit, I certainly don't want to pay more, for less! Which unit should I go with?

 

[geogecko]

Read just a few posts back, I basically asked the same question.

The DIR-825 seems to have been a let down. I just bought the DIR-655 from Amazon for $94 shipped yesterday, and it just shipped UPS today. Eventually, I plan on buying the DAP-1522 to get my 5GHz band up and running, but just having the 2.4GHz band will bridge me over for now. My main reason for wanting the 5GHz band, was to dedicate that band for media only, and use the 2.4GHz band for data, which happens to be just across the room right now. Also, I wanted to reduce the amount of 2.4GHz transmission in the house, as our baby monitor runs on that same frequency, and has a lot of interference, but some of that is partially due to our cordless phones, but I think most of the noise is coming from WiFi. If I shut down the routers and adapters, most of the noise goes away...

 

[ellinj]

Does anyone know if this router supports bridging mode? I want to disable NAT and just use it as an access point.

 

[thiggins]

Does anyone know if this router supports bridging mode? I want to disable NAT and just use it as an access point.

It does not have an Access Point mode. But any wireless router can be configured as an AP.
How To Convert a Wireless Router into an Access Point

 

[ellinj]

It does not have an Access Point mode. But any wireless router can be configured as an AP.
How To Convert a Wireless Router into an Access Point

I knew about this method but you loose an ethernet port this way. Any suggestions on a dual band router that does have an access point mode?

 

[geogecko]

Tim, I know it's a little off topic now, but I just got the DIR-655 last night, and finally got it all setup. Way more settings than my WRT54G, even running Tomato. I still want to sort through everything just to see what is there.

Just wanted to say thanks for your suggestions. This new setup seems to be working great. The real test will come when I try and stream HD content from the server to an HD extender...

One thing, I assume that I want the router in Auto 20/40 MHz mode, correct? It defaults to 20.

 

[thiggins]

One thing, I assume that I want the router in Auto 20/40 MHz mode, correct? It defaults to 20.

It defaults to 20 because that is the "legacy friendly" mode required for Wi-Fi certification. Setting to Auto 20/40 could cause interference with neighboring 11b/g networks.

Testing has shown that a router in channel-bonded 40MHz mode won't reach as far as when it is in 20MHz mode. Channel bonding needs a stronger signal to work well.

 

[geogecko]

Any more reading material on this particular feature?

It seems as though there was not a recommendation in your post, since there are several variables involved...

 

[thiggins]

Go to the Wireless Charts and select the Open Air Benchmarks, do a Compare Benchmarks on a product and select the 20 and 40 MHz modes.

For 5 GHz, you'll frequently see no connection in Locations D,E,F in 40MHz mode, where there is in 20MHz.

For 2.4GHz, you may see a connection in 40MHz mode in these more difficult locations, but throughput will be less.

There is no set recommendation, other than "do no harm", i.e. if you have close-by neighboring wireless LANs, do not use Auto 20/40. If you have clear airspace, use what works best for your application and environment.

 

[geogecko]

Thanks Tim, will take a look into that.

Why does the 40MHz mode effect neighboring networks? I assume that the 40MHz mode is widening the channel, which can effect neighboring channels (i.e., if on channel 8, it could effect channels 7 and 9)?

There are several networks in our neighborhood, so I guess I should just set it back to it's default.

 

[thiggins]

Why does the 40MHz mode effect neighboring networks?

See this article and this spectral plot.

 

[geogecko]

Interesting. So it may be wise to keep my WRT54G running anyway, especially since I have one Buffalo Ethernet Extender and an iPhone using 11g. That is too bad, since I had originally planned on upgrading the Ethernet Extender to a DAP-1522, but until we start seeing phones with 11n chips in them, it won't make a difference to the overall network.

I guess that makes since to me then. Thanks for your help, and these great articles you put together. I need to start looking at the front page a little more to keep updated on this kind of thing.

 

[geogecko]

If I plug the WAN port of the WRT54G into one of the LAN ports on the DIR-655, I am not able to access the admin of the WRT54G. In order for it to work, I have to hook the LAN of one to the LAN of the other, is this correct?

I've set the WRT54G (DHCP is off) to
IP: 192.168.1.2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1

With the DIR-655 setup as 192.168.1.1

 

[jdabbs]

If you have the routers cascaded WAN<>LAN, you'd avoid NAT issues by using different subnets (DIR-655 on 192.168.0.1 & 54G on 1.1). With your current configuration, you wouldn't be able to access the admin of the 54G from a client connected to the 655 unless you had remote access permitted in the 54G's config.

You could keep both devices on the same subnet and avoid the NAT issue by connecting it LAN<>LAN. That's probably what you were trying to do in the first place.

 

[geogecko]

Yep, I think you are right. I have them connected LAN<>LAN now, and things seem to be working.

One thing though, I kept having the WRT54G AP drop out all the time. The only thing I finally noticed after hours of tinkering, was that I still had the MAC address cloned for my PC (because my PC was originally used to setup our ISP, so it had to be cloned in the router), in the WRT54G, so both it and the DIR-655 looked to have the same MAC address. I don't know if that is what was causing the problem, but I haven't seen the AP drop out since I set it's MAC address back to the default...

Darn, nope, still dropping out for some reason...can't figure that out...

 

[jdabbs]

Could be a general instability issue, but I'd also try to identify any interference.

 

[thiggins]

What is the DIR-655's DHCP server range?

 

[geogecko]

192.168.1.100 - 210