DLink DIR-615 - any good? It's N(300). It was cheap.

[VirtualLarry]

Just wondering if I made a mistake, I have 14 days to return. I bought a DLink DIR615 on a whim, looking for a wireless router for a relative's house, while I was at OD picking out a laptop.

It's N, 300Mbits/sec. They had another router on the shelf for $10 less, that was N150. I figured that spending the extra $10 ($50 in total) was worth it.

But is it any good? If I open it, I own it, due to OD's draconian return policies.

 

[RebateMonger]

I had such a bad experience with an old DIR-524's WiFi section that I've tried to avoid D-Link routers since then. But that's probably not fair.

I actually bought a DIR-601 on impulse at Fry's a few days ago ($30), but found that it didn't yet have DDWRT support so I returned it unopened. Most versions of the DIR-615 appear to have DDWRT support (which I'd like to play with), which would always give you another software option if D-Link's firmware isn't satisfactory. The DIR-615 reviews, where it's currently $35 with free shipping, on Newegg aren't the greatest.

I ended up with a Newegg deal with an N300 TP-Link WR814N router for $28 with free shipping and a TrendNet WiFi G USB adapter included for free. But the free G adapter deal expired yesterday and really wasn't appropriate for an N router. The shipment just arrived via UPS, so I'll probably be testing it with a Belkin N PCCard I got for cheap a few months ago.

I've never owned a TP-Link device, so it's kinda' a shot in the dart, but I thought I'd try something different. At this point, since I haven't even opened the box, I can hardly recommend it.

Edit:
I tried out the TP-Link N router tonight. Setup was easy. With a Belkin Draft-N PCCard and using WPA2-AES encryption, I was getting 275 kbps links, with file transfers of a single large (3 GB) file at 7 MB/sec according to my Win7 client in the next room.

A "ping -t" command showed an occasional long (700ms-plus) ping, with the rest at 1 ms). I've seen that with other N routers.

I know this doesn't answer your original question, but I figured since I'd gotten to test the $28 TP-Link, I'd toss in a preliminary review.

 

[fuzzymath10]

I DD-WRTed my DIR-615. The built-in firmware was already pretty decent (it's not a bottom-end router) but if you insist on DD-WRT you have the option. Make sure the h/w revision is supported (mine is a C1)

Make sure you're cool with having 100mbps wired ports (vs Gb). From wired-wireless I can hit 100mbps (about 10MB/sec) and from wireless-wireless around 4-8MB/sec. It's very stable too; I have all sorts of trouble with the cheap WBR-1310 which I keep in my closet as a backup.

 

[JackMDS]

I ended up with a Newegg deal with an N300 TP-Link WR814N router for $28 with free shipping.

First, it is important to remember that.

Atheros, Intel, Broadcom, Ralink, and Realtek are the ones that design and manufacture Chipsets and Radio for Wireless.

The Brands, and other obscure vendors buy the chipsets with the OEM drivers from one of the OEMs above. They design the interface, and package it into the plastic boxes, or solder them to versions of PCI cards.

By Now, it is possible to write a Book longer the Bible on all of the Bizarre trepidations of Wireless Hardware.

There are devices that No matter what are ill conceived (D-Link 802.11G, and almost all early pre-Draft/Draft are examples).

On the other hand, there also a second group of the low QA devices.

These might be designed correctly and assembled from decent components. However, the QA of the production is very low, and relatively big numbers of these devices fails at the get go.
There are even some packagers that buy the semi working rejects and sell them for very little money a lot of their stuff can be found on eBay).

TP-Link is a "proud" members of the Low QA group, it seems that you are to be lucky and your Router is a good one, thus you will be able to enjoy a Nice Draft for little money.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's really cool to find out that certain versions of the DIR-615 are DD-WRT compatible, I wasn't expecting that.

Edit: Mine is an E1 hardware revision, and the DD-WRT wiki only talks about the C1 and C2 revision being compatible. Darn.

 

[RebateMonger]

TP-Link is a "proud" members of the Low QA group, it seems that you are to be lucky and your Router is a good one, thus you will be able to enjoy a Nice Draft for little money.

I was going to ask you what you thought of TP-Link. Guess I don't have to. LOL.

I had a self-imposed limit of $30 for this purchase and I didn't want to bother with rebates. I have a glove-box full of expired Rebate Cards - the new way that companies avoid paying their rebates. And I wanted the option to play with N and DDWRT. That ruled out most of the name-brands.

As you point out, the WiFi chip makers, like the video chip makers, issue reference designs that most equipment makers follow. Of course, the quality of the components, boards, and assembly can vary. The most common Newegg reviewer complaint was that the router runs hot, which it does.

Regarding "Draft N", I thought this was interesting. Belkin, who seems to have established itself as a "name-brand" nowadays, makes an interesting statement about 802.11n compliance:

"Is my product 802.11n compliant?

Although the 802.11n standard was only ratified in September 2009, Belkin's 802.11n products have been compliant with the 802.11n standard for several years prior. The IEEE published draft versions of the 802.11n standard as early as 2006, and since 2007, the standard has not evolved substantially as pertains to home networking products."

http://en-us-support.belkin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/554/kw/draft/r_id/166

 

[VirtualLarry]

I DD-WRTed my DIR-615. The built-in firmware was already pretty decent (it's not a bottom-end router) but if you insist on DD-WRT you have the option. Make sure the h/w revision is supported (mine is a C1)

Make sure you're cool with having 100mbps wired ports (vs Gb). From wired-wireless I can hit 100mbps (about 10MB/sec) and from wireless-wireless around 4-8MB/sec. It's very stable too; I have all sorts of trouble with the cheap WBR-1310 which I keep in my closet as a backup.

Can you tell me which DD-WRT firmware you used? I returned my E1 revision hardware for a C1 revision (they had one left on the shelf in the back). Going to DD-WRT it now.

Edit: I got it figured out. I had to hex-edit the firmware file and add a 00 in front of the firmware identifier at the end of the file.

Edit: I downloaded 14896 too.

 

[fuzzymath10]

I'm using the newest version (as of Aug 2010) build 14896 v24 sp2. I had to go through some hoops to get it to flash from the d-link firmware (kept refusing) so be mindful of that. Also there's a bug common to dd-wrt in general which limits N connections to 130mbps. In practice I don't care since the router is limited to 100mbps on wired anyway. At 130mbps, my effective speeds were around 50-60mbps (about 6-7MB/sec) which is good enough.

 

[Vincent]

I have the Trendnet TEW 652 BRP v1.1 which is a clone of the C1 DIR-615. The early versions of dd-wrt that supported it didn't work for me but now it is working well. I also had to install heatsinks on some of the chips inside because it was getting really hot. But it has been working very nicely for the past few months. I found the dd-wrt forum threads discussing it helpful.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=43228
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=37949

From the dd-wrt ftp site it looks like there may be support for the E revisions of the DIR-615

ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/

 

[vailr]

The DIR-655 is supposed to be a really top-quality N-router.
If not too much more expensive, consider trading up to that model.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have the Trendnet TEW 652 BRP v1.1 which is a clone of the C1 DIR-615. The early versions of dd-wrt that supported it didn't work for me but now it is working well.

Did you have to install the Dlink firmware first, and then upgrade from that one to DD-WRT, or is there a way to install DD-WRT directly onto the TrendNet 652 v1.1 now? I bought a TrendNet 652 v1.1 and installed it at a friend's house, DD-WRT support might help them.

 

[Vincent]

I no longer remember what I did with my 652, but the factory to dd-wrt firmware posted at the FTP site is intended to allow you to flash directly from the factory firmware.

ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/08-12-10-r14929/trendnet-tew652brp/