D-Link Wireless AC 1200 Mbps Home Cloud App-Enabled Dual-Band Gigabit Router (DIR-850L)

I upgraded from an expensive Netgear running DD-WRT because my WAN to LAN throughput was being throttled. I recently upgraded to gigabit and wasn't getting close to that on my old Netgear. No offense to Netgear, it was partially a problem with DD-WRT that's been thoroughly documented. That firmware just does so much computation that the speed is throttled if the hardware can't keep up. This is understandable, and this D-Link worked to solve that problem.This D-Link is capable of some fairly amazing speeds. It was rated at about 900 Mbit speeds for WAN to LAN. As soon as I got it home I snapped in my ethernet ports and clicked that speedtest button. When I saw 830+ Mbit coming back across my screen I knew things were better.I configured the router to use a static external IP, it didn't have a problem with that. I set it up to do port forwarding as I run a number of services on my network that need to be externally accessible. It gave me a number that I could have. I was surprised it would limit it to ~25 or whatever it said. I don't run that many services, or I don't manually require that many ports to be open, but I was close. This could be a limiting factor for another user, so beware.I got the wireless setup, but knew I didn't have any AC devices yet. My N still looks good on there; I got enough speed on my phone and iPad to know it was an improvement, despite no external antenna on the device. Honestly, my coverage was spotty directly above the device, one floor up, so I laid the router on its side and tried again. I saw SIGNIFICANT improvements. I don't know if this is because of how it broadcasts, I didn't make the thing, I'm just saying I had success with it, maybe you can too!I had a friend with a newer MacBook Pro come over to see what the AC was actually capable of. Long story short he got mad at me because he got 200 Mbit faster on my wireless than he gets at his house using an ethernet cable.The interface reminded me of every D-Link I've had in the past 5-7 years, except faster. You could tell that the chip running this router is a bit nicer than what I'm used to.I tried to find a reason to only give this router 4 stars, and couldn't think of one. It works well for people using up to 25 services. It works well for the casual user. It works well with old hardware and wireless technologies. It's not ugly. It's not too loud. Five stars.

Awesome router. I have a D-Link model 650, single band router that I was using until yesterday, because the ASUS dual band router that I had failed after less than 6 months of use. The Asus (my 2nd and my last) would intermittently just disconnect from my devices from a wireless perspective.However, I love dual band functionality, because I could put guest on the 2.4ghz band (with a separate password), while putting streaming devices on the 5ghz frequency.So internet access downtime was minimal, I did this. I plugged in this D-Link AC 1200 router into the power, 'without' connecting it to the internet modem. Once it started broadcasting, I had my tablet ignore the normal network it connects to and connect to the SSID wi-fi signals of this router, using the default password provided by a sticker on the router.. Went into the settings of the router, set a new administrative i.d. password, changed the SSID's to a personal preference (giving each wifi signal its own SSID name), changed the default passwords on each of the bands, assigned specific channels (instead of the auto mode), enabled two firewall settings on it (that are by default disabled), then told the router to save the settings.Again, the router was not connected to the internet when I did this. So my tablet was only talking to the new router only via the IP address. In the meanwhile, other devices were still working with the single bank D-Link, so there was no interference.Shut off the cable modem, connected the D-Link Wireless AC 1200 to it, powered back on the cable modem. Within 5 minutes all devices were working flawlessly. I did a signal strength test with the wifi analysis app from the android store and noticed improvement in strength.I'm sticking with the D-Link brand and very pleased with this new dual band router. It was also recommended by either Consumer Reports or CNET. I can't remember which one.

If you are buying an AC (or other brand) "n" capable router / access point to increase your transmission speed or cut down on delays, think again.I was getting collision interference from wireless / streaming surveillance cameras competing for air time with streaming video to my internet enabled tv.Here's the considerations: Your device (e.g., tv) you want to hook up must be enabled for the ac/n mode to use the 5 ghz band. There are two wireless access points in one: 2.4 ghz and 5.0 ghz. The 2.4 will workd for n, g or b. The 5 ghz will work for ac, n and a. Either access point will run at the mode and rate of the SLOWEST device connected to that access point. You also need to carefully choose your channels so you don't compete for bandwidth with your neighbors.It has a very good built in firewall and even has provision for your guests to be able to get to the internet without your security password (can't see your network devices).The vertical shape is a little unstable when you plug all those wires in at the back -- would have been nice to have a place to screw it so the shelf for stability.That being said, this is a great device. Vendor sold it at a very good price. Shipped promptly and securely.As is usual for Dlink, the quality is excellent and the internal setup is easy.