D-Link DIR 625 or Linksys WRT 350 for Intel 4965 AGN?

Hi,

I am getting an XPS 1530 laptop with a built-in Intel Next-Gen Wireless N 4965AGN mini-card, built-in Bluetooth and 10/100 ethernet.

I want to get a draft N wireless router mainly so that I can access the Internet, including small videos and streaming music, from a separate room about 15 feet away from the main computer setup. I may occasionally send printing to a LAN networked black and white printer. I will be using the laptop for 4 to 5 years in a sheet-rocked apartment, and possibly in a trailer in a campground. I currently have a claimed 7 Mbps cable broadband.

Speed is important to me, so I am considering three fairly high-end models:
D-Link DIR 625 (about C$80)
D-Link DIR 655 (about C$130)
Linksys WRT 350 (about C$150)

I would appreciate your advice as to which one would be best.

All have QoS. The D-Link's have an Atheros chip while the Linksys has a Broadcom chip. The WRT350 is the most expensive, but it has a USB port which I think would be useful for an external drive. However, the WRt350 does not claim to be Centrino compatible, unlike the DIR625 and DIR655, which, on the other hand, both have an apparently useless USB port (for Windows Connect Now).

Thanks in advance.

 

For your current need you only need 11g.

 

Blue is right..........

The Intel Card will not get the max 270-300mbps with a single band 2.4ghz router, only 130mbps. It needs a dual band router for peak performance- but that speed is only your networking- not your internet speed........... That's why Blu says G will do you fine.

I disagree to a point, as distance and speed(limited to 54mbps w/ reg G) w/ N is increased, even with one of the cheaper N routers. As we say all the time, to get max perfomance out of N router and card/adapter this point, get matching components from the same manufacturer- or get a dual band router.

Things will not get better until the Final N spec comes out in 2009. That's why many say to hold off until then to buy an N router--> so the manufacturers equipment all work w/ each other(yea right )

 

I'd go for the N, you are going to see better speeds than w/ standard G and if you go the DIR-625 route, particularly if you find it on sale, you will be at the same price point as standard G w/ better performance. I don't really think that for 90% of your use, the fact that G will do, is a good reason to even consider G. G is a waste of $ at this point in the game, buy cheap in and then go spec-N when it comes out (if your draft N doesn't get upgraded to the spec).

FWIW, I have a DIR-625 and the Intel 4965 in my D630. I was getting around ~17mbs thruput w/ my mimo g (Belkin Pre-N). With the draft N, I'm getting 40+mbs, so at least double. If you start trying to do a couple of the things in your list over standard G, it's gonna grind to a halt or produce sketchy music/video quality/playback.

Chris

 

I just bought both a wrt600N (linksys) and the DIR-655 from Dlink to evaluate. The dlink wireless "quit" about 10 minutes after running through their POS configuration stuff. It did show 130Mbps while it was connected and I was trying to make settings for 270.

The wrt600N got me 270 pretty much out of the box. The NAS feature is nice but is MUCH slower than it should be. I contacted Dlink support and they basically said they had no fix for that. I can connect my external drive to a computer connected to the router and share it out and the speed is 3 times faster that way than plugging it in to a USB port.

The router is in a closet ont he second story of my house pretty much over my head and off to the side a bit. This is where I use my laptop the most. When I moved to the back of my house (about 35 feet) it dropped to the low 100's

 

I'd sure love to know what settings you thought you were going to get 270mbps w/ the dir655 and the intel 4965agn card- so would a lot of other folks too

You contacted D-Link support and they said they had no fix for that yet?? For what?? Or did you mean Linksys??

So you compared a dual band, dual radio(wrt600n) to a single band, single radio(dir655)--> what were your expectations going into this test if you had already read the reviews at smallnetbuilder.com?

Thanks for the information!!