D-Link announced their latest and greatest Xtreme N Gigabit router named the DIR-655. This new range of routers feature intelligent wireless QoS, Gigabit LAN and WAN ports, a wireless security wizard, network management software and other standard features also. The DIR-655 is 802.11n compliant and can deliver 14x faster speeds then the 802.11g which pushes it to ludicrous speed at the moment. Bear in mind that the 802.11n is draft at the moment. Also the range has been boosted 6 times which makes this one mighty powerful router.
High Quality Features
Although the router is draft 802.11n compliant it is also backwards compatible with both 802.11g and 802.11b devices which means you do not need a whole new set of equipment to make use of this powerful device. With the speed of this router it makes wireless networking more desirable for transfering large amounts of files, music, video, printers and network storage. Of course the standards of encryption are included to help make your wireless network safer. The device has 3 external antennas and 4 ports running at 10/100/1000 speeds.
Intelligent QoS
When I first spotted intelligent QoS was included I wondered what it was capable of. A quick read over on D-Links site explained this clearly. Some routers route all wired and wireless traffic such as VoIP, video streaming, gaming and browsing as one stream of traffic all mixed together. Of course if you have VoIP this can sometimes cause an issue where it cannot have enough bandwidth provided for it to make the call clear.
Intelligent QoS sorts this out automatically and can sense what type of traffic is flowing. Anything that streams (VoIP, video streams etc..) is automatically given priority over items that do not stream (such as web browsing). This then prevents the choppyness that can be found on some other devices when overloaded.
Security
Wireless connections have always presented a security problem for homes and businesses. The problem is that a wireless connection is just like being able to tap directly in to a network cable, but with being in another building unspotted. Also there is the issue of packet sniffing and being able to crack WEP keys, or even worse… no encryption. The Xtreme range supports all the latest wireless security protocols which are WEP, WPA and WPA2 which encrypt your data to prevent attacks. The firewall built in also secures both SPI and NAT making the threat from the WAN port side be squashed.
Overall this looks like a nice step forwards in terms of performance on the speed side, network coverage (more appropriate for a large office) and security features.
Via: D-Link
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