DIR-655 (Highly Recommended)

[Kiryu]

I want to start off by clarifying that I AM NOT A D-LINK FAN.

I used to have a bad experience with dlink equipment being buggy and poorly implemented.

I stumbled across this : Smallnetbuilder Review for DIR-655

After reading the review, I just had to try if it was as good on paper in practice.

Bought my kit from www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk and got my stuff the next day. Great!

Now to clarify, I used to own a WRT54G v2 running Tomato 1.21 due to its excellent QOS and efficient routing performance. I was easily getting my full 20Mb/768k on my Line.

My network consists of:

1 laptop running Ubuntu with Squid proxy server for some external clients.
1 laptop for P2P (uploading linux distros and updates)
1 laptop which was for general browsing
2 desktops for gaming and downloading your favorite BBC vids on iPlayer.
1 RTX dualphone 3088 Skypephone (my voip provider)

So you can see, my network gets alot of heavy use but my poor WRT54G just couldnt cope when the 2 laptops were doing their stuff and the network would lag so bad, calls wouldnt go through and nobody can browse.

Going back to the DIR-655, 1 thing that impressed me most was the CPU which runs at a cool 275MHz. As per the review, this CPU incorporates "Stream Engine Technology" that automatically classifies network traffic with its QOS. And i can say, it does a great job of it.

Learn about Stream Engine

Wireless coverage is excellent, not had a chance to try the 802.11n side as only have 802.11g clients.

Wired however is very stable, been playing online on UK servers with pings as low as 3ms-5ms. (thats with everything else running on my network at full blast.)

Conclusion: you have to try it to believe it, make the most out of your connection!

[saabmania2]

i will 2nd that the dir-655 router is an excellent piece of kit, it's brilliant if you are on 20meg bb

[Richy99]

i got the 635 and it is very good

[fractionater]

Chaps,

I have just bought this router and haveing major problems configuring it to my Virginmedia(ntl) connection.

the isp is up and running as my previous router (netgear) still works fine, however when I run through the setup cd and plug the ethernet into the router (router is also connected to cable modem), the wizard "can't detect the device"?

I have also tried doing the setup manually by logging on to the router via the wireless connection - but it seems that the router can't connect to the ISP.

I have select DHCP and tried with no DNS + DNS server settings supplied from virgin + also whever was configured on my Netgear router.

I'm going to give D-link customer services a call today, but was wondering if anyone else had experienced something similar? (could the router be faulty?)

[jellybaby]

Did you restart the router after changing routers?

[fractionater]

yep the router reboots itself after each setting change.

(I've also powered down the router).

[Graham M]

You need reboot the modem too

[jellybaby]

Just read what i put lol....meant modem

[fractionater]

I'm sure I did - but will re-do again this afternoon when I'm home.

I'm quite keen to get this router working - also bought the corresponding DWA-645 notebook adapter card...but won't install that till I've got everything up and running!

On a side note - I've got the 20mb service, but have had the same cable modem (NTL grey box) for years now - do you think I need to get this upgraded to a newer one to fully utilise the 20mb connection?

[12noon]

I've just ordered the same router from Amazon for £75.60 and i hope it's as good as the reviews i've read. I've got a old-ish Netgear router and 10Mb cable modem at the moment hooked up wireless to a Windows Vista laptop, a Windows XP netbook, an Apple mini mac and a Apple macbook.

Lets hope that this new D-link DIR-655 works better with that lot.

[fractionater]

Well after spending nearly 45 mins on th ephone with D-link support going through the router setup and many combinations, I couldn't get the router to "talk" to the NTL cable modem. I also couldn't get a "wired" connection from my laptop to the router via ethernet so could not configure the router.

I can get the router setup via a wireless connection but, just can't get an internet connection via the modem.

connecting my laptop directly to the ntl modem (after rebooting it) gets me a connection ok. but if i unplug the modem wire from th erouter and ut straight into my laptop I have to reset my ethernet adapter.

I can't be asked with all this messing about so I'm returning it to Amazon and will give them the benefit of doubt and assume its a faulty router - I really do want one based upon the reviews.

hope you have more success with your setup - please post up your experience of the setup for reference.

[medicman]

how many people are using this router on virgin?? can one of you check you can access:

http://threestore.three.co.uk/default.aspx?ID=1201

my plexus wont acces this and before I replace it withthe d-link DIR 655 I hope that someone will confirm that this site is accessable.

cheers

[OldGeezer]

Originally Posted by medicman

how many people are using this router on virgin?? can one of you check you can access:

http://threestore.three.co.uk/default.aspx?ID=1201

my plexus wont acces this and before I replace it withthe d-link DIR 655 I hope that someone will confirm that this site is accessable.

cheers

I have a DIR-655 and can access that site OK (although it was a bit slow to complete the page load).

[medicman]

cheers for that Oldgeezer, it not that i'm so desperate to get ont he site, it just that I can't access my internet bank account as well as the three shop!

Looks like this router is a contender for my replacement if no one can find me a fix...

Cheers !!!