D-Link DIR-655 review

D-Link's DIR-655 is the only single-function router in this test.

Although you can use any device here with an existing wired network or a cable modem by connecting a network cable to one of its four Ethernet ports, the DIR-655 is explicitly designed to be used in this way. It has a fifth, dedicated wide-area network (Wan) Ethernet port, and its firewall is designed to protect the remaining four ports from Wan traffic. The ADSL modem/routers are only designed to protect you from threats from the ADSL connection, so you need to be careful if your cable modem doesn't have a firewall.

Uniquely in this test, the DIR-655's ports all run at gigabit speeds (1000Mbits/sec), allowing for much faster data transfers than a standard 10/100 port. Although data is unlikely to move a full 10 times faster through the switch, it's significantly quicker in practice. Using the Netgear DG834N's 10/100 ports, we copied our 200MB file set from a gigabit-capable PC to our MacBook in a speedy 25 seconds. Using the DIR-655, the same test took just eight seconds.

Repeating the same copy test using our 10/100Mbits/sec network storage device took 32 seconds, showing that you only get improved performance with gigabit-capable devices. All current Mac computers and many PCs have gigabit Ethernet ports. Usefully for anyone using the DIR-655 as an access point on an existing fast Ethernet, the Wan port also operates at 1000Mbits/sec.

Impressive though the D-Link DIR-655's wired performance is, it's disappointing in other important respects. Although it has a web-based interface, the drop-down boxes used for options such as the radio channel and encryption mode were greyed out in Safari, and some other pages wouldn't load fully. We had to use a PC to finish configuring our wireless network, but had to change the router's auto WPA/WPA2 mode to WPA only before we could connect one wirelessly.

With the network finally configured, we got excellent data transfer to the Centrino notebook, but our 6MB/min connection to the MacBook was woeful. Mac users who don't need an ADSL modem should buy Apple's AirPort Extreme, which is much more Mac friendly.