[RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT, for around $150

[Sean Cody]

I have this unit and the it isn't great.

The range is pretty bad relative to my previous unit (WAP54g).
I replaced the antennas with higher gain ones but the reception didn't get better probably worse.  Finding dual-band SMA antennas is not easy as most of the antennas out there on the commodity market are single band only.

Could even be antenna positioning issues on the N band but it is driving me nuts trying to figure out why it doesn't work well.

The N band support is so aggravatingly bad I don't connect to it, you can't stream from it (at least in my house) and decent throughput happens if I'm standing over top of the unit.

I could probably move it a bit and see about better range but given I had better luck with an older device attached with the _same_ screw mounts on the wall doesn't let me to believe much other than it's not a great device.

The G band support is fine so maybe the unit isn't the issue but radio properties of N band devices in my house.

On 2010-06-13, at 3:06 PM, Kevin McGregor wrote:

> But does it have removable antennas a la WRT-54G? Do you know of any (other?) N devices to which you can attach external antennas (i.e. unidirectional, specifically)?
> 
> Kevin
> 
> On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 2:51 PM, athompso at athompso.net <athompso at athompso.net> wrote:
> 
> Further to my comments at the last meeting, I was pleasantly surprised
> when I bought a D-Link DIR-825 and discovered it can run DD-WRT.
> 
> This is a *simultaneous* dual-band (i.e. two radios, one at 2.4GHz, one at
> 5GHz) 802.11N router with 5 GigE ports, a USB port, two antennas, and the
> usual array of activity lights on the front.
> 
> There is a beta build of DD-WRT that runs on this unit (and thus
> presumably OpenWRT will also support it soon if not already).
> 
> Range & performance are OK but not great.
> 
> The price, however, is impressive: you can typically find it online (in
> Canada) for under $150.  If it were a $250 unit, it would be utterly
> unremarkable (aside from being one of the first dual-radio models to run
> DD-WRT) but considering that you can still regularly find 802.11G and
> single-band 802.11N routers for over $150, that makes it impressive - for
> now.
> 
> With the stock D-Link firmware, the USB port can be used for (apparently)
> *any* device whatsoever, and includes software to remotely connect a
> Windows PC to the port.  Not sure how they've done this, but I'm told it
> should work for any USB device (subject to bandwidth limitations, of course
> - USB2.0 is still faster than 802.11N).
> 
> DD-WRT can expose USB storage devices and (I think) printers; so you do
> lose something compared to the factory firmware.  Flashing DD-WRT onto the
> device requires TFTP while putting the device into disaster-recovery mode;
> it was harder to find the instructions online than to actually do it.
> 
> Also see CNet's review here:
> http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link-xtreme-n/4505-3319_7-33246906.html#cnetReview
> 
> -Adam
> 
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-- 
Sean


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