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 A lot of people think that if it looks and acts like a router, then it must be a router. While that's true, just because it's a router doesn't exactly mean it will work like any other router. This is something I have come to learn firsthand these past 2 weeks.
I have been a Linksys fan boy for years. Every router I own and every network card I own is Linksys. I never had trouble with any of my routers. However, I always thought the user interface for the router was a bit clunky, but that didn't bother me much. So, I stuck with the brand I knew and liked. I have used other brand routers such as Netgear and Hawk, but they, to me, were never as good as Linksys.
Recently, I was able to get my hands on the D-link DIR-655 Xtreme Gigabit N Router; I wasn't expecting much from it. I expected it to just be another router, but now I have a new favorite brand. D-Link kicked ass with the DIR-655.
Now, enough with the blabbering, let me get on to the review.
Installation:
Installing the D-655 onto my network was simple. Power off the modem, connect the modem to the router, power up the modem, and power up the router. Even though it is a wireless router, you must first connect to the router via a wire to set it up. Most of the time, I just connect the router to a laptop and enter the IP address manually to set it up, but I went for the entire n00b experience and used the installation disc. Now with my past experience with Linksys, I have learned not to trust these discs because 99.99999% of the time they never work for me on the first try and sometimes never work at all; I end up doing everything manually. But it was a different story with the D-Link installation disc. It actually worked on the first try, and I was pretty impressed.
Setting up the Router:
After installing the router onto the network, I connected via Internet Explorer to the router, entered the default password (there is a drop down box for two usernames admin and user), and logged in. First thing I noticed after logging in was how nice the UI was. It was better than the UI you find on Linksys and way better than the Netgear UI.
If you have to set up your internet connection on your router (mainly users with DSL), the manual has a set up guide for basically every ISP known to man.
The UI on the DIR-655 is probably the nicest and easiest to use of any router on the market. I say that because I have set up a lot of networks for people and have seen many UIs for different routers.
On the DIR-655's user interface, everything is where it belongs, easy to find, and easy to set up. My only complaint about the user interface happened after I saved a critical setting such as a change of password. I would have to exit out of Internet Explorer and open it again because it would give me a session expired error when I tried to log in. Other than that, the UI was great.
Setting up the router was easy. There are wizards for everything.
Setting up your wireless network using the wireless network wizard leaves you with little risk of messing up your settings. This is a plus for novice users. To test out how easy it was, I called my mom to come over and let her set up the network. She did it easily and even saved the passkey to a txt file so I could add it to all of my computers. If she can do it, anyone can.
Just a little note, the router also has a USB port on the back. If you have a USB flash drive with WCN info, you can set it up like that as well.
As I said before, the router has two user names: admin and user. The admin account allows you to change settings, etc. The user account is basically an account where a third party user can login and check your settings; you can set a different password for each.
Personally, I like the idea of having a limited user account. For instance, if you have kids you can give them the password to the user account; they cannot change any settings, but still have access to the router to help them trouble shoot any connection problems they may be having with a video game or a website they want to visit.
With the DIR-655, you can also set up port forwarding. This allows you to forward an incoming connection to a specific device depending on the port the connection is using. You can also set up application rules, network and website filters, and access control.
The best feature of all is the QoS engine which, when enabled, will improve your VoIP and gaming experience.
Using the Router:
The DIR-655 is a gaming router. It's Wireless N (draft) and it's tweaked to give VoIP and online gaming the best connection it can.
What is Wireless N? It's the newest of wireless technologies and offers up to 14 times faster speeds than wireless G. It makes it almost seem as if you are connected to the router by a wire because the signal is a lot stronger because the router has 6 times the range of a wireless G router.
Do you really get faster speeds? Well, I have a 40 Mbps down connection with my ISP. On my Wireless G router, when I did a speed test I would get 7 or 8 Mbps, but on the DIR-655 I got 35 Mbps. Now I know that isn't the full 40 Mbps my ISP advertises, but it's the same speed I get when connected via a wire. I also compared my speeds to my Linksys wireless N router (WRT300N). I never was able to achieve more than 28 Mbps using that router, but the DIR-655 in the same location as the Linksys gave me a faster speed. The connection to both were pretty stable.
Does the router really improve your VoIP and online gaming experience? YES! I have Vonage, and I compared the quality of calls with the Vonage device connected to my WRT300N and the DIR-655. The DIR-655 delivered the best quality; it was as if the Vonage ATA was connected directly to the modem. In fact, I compared the quality of the device connected directly to the modem and the DIR-655, and I could not tell the difference.
I also tested it in gaming, and my pings were way better than with the WRT300N (when connected wirelessly they were the same when connected with a wire).
Conclusion:
 Overall the router is FANTASTIC. It kicked my Linksys WRT300N butt. This router is so great that we decided to create a category just for it. We award the DIR-655 our Best of the Best Wireless Router Award. Only thing that sucks about this router is that it was loaned to me. I am going to have to go buy one now, but it will be worth it. Anyone want to buy my WRT-300N? I think I will just put it on e-Bay.
The DIR-655 is available at Amazon.com for $119.99 and Newegg.com for $129.99.
For More Information on the DIR-655 visit: http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=530
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