D-Link DIR-865L Dual-band Router - Average Joe

D-Link Enters The AC Field

The DIR-865L marks D-Link's inevitable entry into the domain of 802.11ac routers. Also known by its longer moniker 'Wireless AC 1750 Dual Band Router", or the "Amplifi Cloud Router 5700" in other regions, the DIR-865L now joins the ranks of ASUS, Linksys, and Netgear, who've already furnished the networking market with access points brandishing theoretical top speeds of up to 1,300Mbps for the 5GHz band, and 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. That said, what does the DIR-865L bring to the table? For starters, the device is packed with D-Link's cloud services; a trend which seems to be growing in popularity with router makers these days. Think Linksys and their latest EA-series of Smart Wi-Fi routers. Now, back to D-Link. By logging in to the mydlink portal, either through a computer or a mobile app, users are able to access and configure their router's settings via the cloud. This applies to paranoid parents on the move as well, especially those who love to check up on their child's web-surfing habits via the router's logs. But first, there are two things you might want to take note.

One, the app in question is called "mydlink Lite", and it's only available on iOS and Android at this point in time. Tough luck if you're on Windows or Blackberry. Two, if you're using a Mac to access D-Link's cloud portal,  remember to install Java for OS X 10.7 and above for Java plug-ins aren't pre-installed with the newer OS X versions. D-Link has another SharePort Mobile app worth a mention. Available exclusively on iOS and Android, users are reportedly able to stream multimedia content on an attached USB drive to their smartphones or tablets. Apparently, the app also enables you to save these 'streamed' files for offline playback. Other perks of the DIR-865L include IPv6 support, backward compatibility with older 802.11a/b/g/n devices, as well as Advanced and OpenDNS parental controls. Let's take a quick look at its design and features before we check out the router's 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless performances.

Dark Tower

Clad in black, the DIR-865L is a tower-styled router mounted on a relatively stable pedestal stand. First impressions tell us it isn't possible to wall-mount this device, and its design is radically different from D-Link's previous suite of N-routers, such as the horizontally-orientated DIR-825 and DIR-655. Unlike the ASUS RT-AC66U, you won't find any external antennas on this router. Instead, the dual-band router hides three dedicated internal antennas for each radio, making it a total of six antennas in all. This router is tall. With an imposing height of 252 millimeters, it is slightly larger than most consumer models such Netgear's R6300 802.11ac contender. The front panel offers a simple spread with only two LED indicators for its power and internet statuses. With their round and slightly recessed design, it's actually easy to mistake them for buttons; of which they're not. Further below sits the Wi-Fi Protected Setup button for easy pairing with compatible WPS clients.

Let's take a quick peek at its back panel. Four of the Gigabit LAN ports are marked in blue, while the lone Gigabit WAN (Internet) port is highlighted in yellow. The single USB 2.0 slot (also dubbed SharePort) enables you to share content over the network, but lacks print server support unfortunately. Other controls include a Reset button, a rocker Power switch, and an inlet for the 12-volt DC power adapter. Air vents are located at the top and back. Last we checked with D-Link's support page, there isn't any new firmware available for this model. We'll proceed with our tests using the stock 1.02 version. The DIR-865L isn't accompanied by any CDs loaded with management wizards. However, less savvy users would appreciate the Setup Wizard available via the web browser. 

User Interface

To access the router's configuration page, you may enter "dlinkrouter" in the address bar or punch in its default "192.168.0.1" IP address directly. Savvy users may bypass the Setup Wizard by clicking on "Cancel" after the initial splash page. As for D-Link's user interface, little has been done to spruce up the unattractive black-and-orange-theme, compared to ASUS and Linksys who've taken a more graphical approach. Navigation wise, users familiar with D-Link's products will be right at home here. Settings are compartmentalized under five main tabs: Setup, Advanced, Tools, Status, and Support. Notable mentions include port forwarding, application rules, NAT and SPI firewalls, comprehensive IPv6 support (including IPv6 passthrough, routing, and firewall), DLNA media server, and parental controls. The latter offers three selections: Advanced DNS, OpenDNS FamilyShield, and OpenDNS Parental Controls. Advanced DNS offers minimal blocking of phishing sites, whereas FamilyShied blocks undesirable content from kiddy eyes but do note that it isn't configurable. To customize your settings, you'll need to choose the OpenDNS Parental Controls option. However, you're required to sign up with OpenDNS to utilize their content filtering and anti-phishing services.

A highly customizable QoS engine is available on the DIR-865L as with most D-Link's routers. Users may define the Queue Weight percentage in terms of bandwidth priority, plus the engine also comes with pre-configured classification rules for applications like YouTube and Google Talk. The DLNA media server feature makes it easy to share content on an attached USB drive over the network. Moving on, two guest SSIDs are available on the Guest Zone - one for the 2.4GHz band and another for the 5GHz (AC) band. This is useful if you want to provide guests with Internet access without worrying about them messing with your network. Routing between host zones and guest zones is available as well. Those of you who require trigger ports would appreciate the Application Rules page, where single or multiple ports for Torrent and VoIP applications may be opened on the firewall. Some of the pre-configured titles include BitTorrent and AIM Talk. 

Now let's touch on the "mydlink" cloud feature. To keep things simple, we'd recommend creating your mydlink account via the DIR-865L's web browser interface. The router has a "Mydlink Settings" under the Setup tab, and it's best to start from there. If you have an existing mydlink account, simply log in and add the device. Although D-Link recommends using the CD or installation wizard, there is no CD in sight and neither is there an installation wizard for the DIR-865L to be found online. Once your account is up (with the router added), you'll noticed two main tabs on the mydlink page - Router Status and Settings. There're a number of critical network info to be found here, including the Internet IP address and the number of connected clients. You can choose to block them if need be. The Settings tab enables you to make basic changes to the router's wireless settings, including its SSIDs, security modes, and network keys. The selection here is pretty limited, but at least it gives you some form of control over your access point when you're away from home. There are also a couple of nifty email notifications you can set, such as when a new device connects to your home network for example. 

Test Setup

Our routine test setup includes a desktop PC, the reviewed router, and a laptop to simulate a wireless home network. The desktop system is used to simulate a host machine, while the router acts as a gateway. And lastly, an external 802.11ac adapter plugged into the notebook is used to fulfill the role of a wireless remote client. For the DIR-865L, we'll be using Netgear's A6200 802.11ac USB adapter for our throughput tests since D-Link has yet to unveil a compatible model.

The router is locked down in N-only mode for the 2.4GHz band, and mixed 802.11ac for the 5GHz band, mainly to prevent the use of varying 802.11 standards. Typically, a channel bandwidth of 20/40MHz (channel bonding) is selected where applicable, while 80MHz is used for the 5GHz AC band. The QCheck application measures wireless throughput (TCP) and streaming (UDP) speeds between the host and client endpoints based on a 1MB data packet. On the other hand, NetIQ's Chariot benchmark offers a more detailed account with average throughput and response time readings recorded over 30 seconds, based on a High Performance throughput script.

Range is determined by the distance between the router and wireless client. Here's how the DIR-865L fared. 

 

Chariot and QCheck Performance Results - 2.4GHz Band

D-Link's performance on the 2.4GHz band is a mixed bag. At close range, downlink results were comparable to Netgear's R6300 with an average throughput of 77.899Mbps measured at 2 meters, and 56.924Mbps with WPA2 (AES) encryption enabled. As you can tell from the graph below, the DIR-865L also fared better than ASUS across all distances, although it failed to measure up to the R6300. Again, the R6300 had the upper hand at 10 meters with a clear advantage of more than 30Mbps. However, D-Link's contender managed to edge past its rivals at the farthest range of 25 meters. Unfortunately, the margin wasn't anything worth shouting about. It was quite a different story on the uplink. Netgear's R6300 was the obvious winner in this round, credit to its superior throughput levels near and far. What we noticed about D-Link's access point, however, is its stable performance which varied between 36Mbps and 53Mbps for all the checkpoints without any drastic drops in throughput. If you were to focus your attention back to the downlink graph, data speeds for Netgear's R6300 plunged significantly at 25 meters, while D-Link's router held its own. Our impression? The DIR-865L offers dependable wireless data speeds on the 2.4Ghz band with a fairly decent range. It won't keep up with 100Mbps fiber speeds for sure, but it's definitely a notch better than ASUS's entry where 2.4GHz results are concerned. 

Chariot and QCheck Performance Results - 5GHz Band

Although D-Link did fairly well on the 5GHz band, its 802.11ac performance failed to match up to ASUS which blazed its way across the tested distances between 2 to 25 meters. The DIR-865L netted a peak average throughput of 138Mbps at close range, with a similar result of 135.341Mbps with WPA2-AES applied. Its downlink speed dipped slightly to 112.699Mbps when the range is extended to 10 meters, and 120.41Mbps at 25 meters. That's not too shoddy, considering it outdid Netgear's R6300 contender at every checkpoint. However, the DIR-865L pales in comparison to the unforgiving ASUS RT-AC66U, which maintained a steady throughput of 162Mbps (give or take) for all ranges. Transfer time for a 1GB file took 38 seconds, versus ASUS' timing of 32 seconds. Sadly, D-Link's average uplink figures were less impressive compared to its downlink results. It peaked at 108Mbps at 2 meters, with a final data rate of 89Mbps at 25 meters. If we had to nitpick, these numbers are closer to that of an 802.11n router rather than that of a souped-up AC alternative. It's also interesting to note that all three models are equipped with Broadcom wireless chipsets, which suggests ASUS' deployment  of external antennas might have something to do with its noteworthy 802.11ac performances.

Man in the Middle

For the most part, the DIR-865L is a stable and functional networking unit based on the draft 802.11ac standard. Unfortunately for D-Link, we were unable to find a compelling reason to recommend the router over the competition. We have nothing against its tower-like frame, and although we would have preferred more LED indicators, its minimalist design would suffice for day-to-day use. The web browser interface lacks the visual appeal like those proffered by some of its competitors, but to D-Link's credit, it ensures the router remains customizable enough for networking enthusiasts. Its comprehensive IPv6 support is worth a mention too. On the other hand, D-Link might want to put in more effort into its cloud portal. Without the mentioned Setup CD and Installation Wizard, less savvy users might be confounded by the instructions given at the sign-up page. In addition, mydlink does not grant users complete access to the router's controls over the cloud, but rather, offers a watered-down version for its wireless and basic network settings. SharePort is nice, if you appreciate sharing content over the network, but its lack of print-server support also makes it less attractive than 802.11ac models produced by competitors like Netgear and ASUS. 

Performance-wise, it is apparent that the DIR-865L fared better on the 2.4GHz band compared to its 5GHz performance. We did not encounter too many lost packets with the UDP streams, and it's good to note that its wireless throughput did not drop below 32Mbps, even at the furthest range of 25 meters. This applies to both its downlink and uplink results. Sadly, its real world performance on the 5GHz band was nowhere near the touted 1,300Mbps rating. The access point managed a fair result of 137Mbps at close range, with an uplink throughput of 107Mbps. The DIR-865L is noticeably faster than Netgear's offering, although its long range performance was overshadowed by the RT-AC66U, a router which appears to be unfazed by distance. In conclusion, D-Link's first 802.11ac contender is a decent effort, and it's more than capable in tackling basic wireless tasks like web surfing or VoIP calls. However, if you want a router to handle demanding applications like HD video streaming or gaming tasks on the AC band, the ASUS RT-AC66U is undoubtedly a better fit. As things stand, the 802.11ac standard is currently in its Draft 4.0 stage, and it might be wiser to wait this one out before the standard is ratified in the months ahead.

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