Reviews. from people like me don't really help you consumers much, as I am a tech freak, so I come on here, already knowing what I want to buy, all I will say is that, if you are looking for a wireless router that has great strength over a moderate distance, then the D-Link N150 is for you. It works for just browsing, and gaming alike. I have yet to lose a connection with the massive use I have going on with it.
I have 9 computers, 1 Playstation 3, 2 Xbox 360's and 1 Nintendo Wii, running off of this one wireless router, and even with 80 percent of those up at one time, I have never been dropped, and have seen full connectivity each time, with perfect latency in between. No lag, Nor overlay.
I live him an apartment, with 3 people. D-Link DIR-601 Wireless N 150 Home Router
I have used many bargain & a few name brands of wireless equipment over the years. I bought this D-Link because it is almost as inexpensive as the bargain brands, some of which worked, some of which didn't & all of which lacked helpful software and instructions. I'm using 2 of these DIR-601's a Wireless Access Points. No interference with each other (BTW, 2.4 GHz portable phones interfere with all wireless network devices, so we switched to Panasonic DECT 6.0 phones). There are simple instructions in the PDF manual, which is quite good overall, for hooking them into a router & using them as WAPs. They connect easily to our laptops and iPad -- just choose your network and type in your password (WPA2 encryption is best) the first time -- no software drivers required. We run both G and N laptops. Range seems excellent. Setup software is easy to use. I like this D-Link so much I bought my son one. He uses it as a wireless router at his apartment and it works fine for him too.
Unfortunately, this router suffers from intermittent lapses in broadcast. I have not had a problem with the hard wired desktop attached to it but the wireless cuts out when using my laptop and Roku player. Both are stationary and all are in the same room as the router. Online and phone support were great but could not fix the problem. Went with a N300 Belkin for ten dollars more and have had no issues. You get what you pay for sometimes.
I gave the D-Link DIR-601 router a 4-star rating based the three most important attributes: Price, ease of setup and performance. It was only $20 at the time I purchased it, which seems less than the cost of the materials to make it(!). Since this was my first experience with a router in my home, I did a fair amount of research and found a lot of not-so-good reviews on many more-to-MUCH-more-expensive routers. The problem areas were invariably poor range and difficult installation. The reviews on the DIR-601 were much better than most, which, combined with price, is why I chose it.
I can confirm that the reviews are accurate. Installation was extremely easy; the "wizard" worked perfectly on an XP computer. I do have some minor range issues, but fewer than those reported by some users of much more expensive routers. The router is in my home office in the BASEMENT of the house. The basement walls are 8" poured concrete and the router happens to be next to the north wall. If I take my Toshiba Win 7 laptop to any part of the house OUTSIDE the planes of the basement walls (the porch and the breakfast-room-extension off the kitchen), the signal strength can drop to as little as 2 out of 5 bars, and download speed can drop from 18-20Mbps to just under 4Mbps. But I'm pretty sure that NO router -- at any price -- would do significantly better if positioned in the same place. Everywhere INSIDE the planes of the basement walls -- even the bedrooms 2-stories up and farthest from the router -- I typically get 4-5 bars. There are times when it falls to 3 bars in one bedroom, but it's not consistently at that level, so the drop-off could be due to transient interference from other electronics (e.g., our three cordless phones or routers in homes near us). I'm virtually certain that I could improve the signal strength in the areas where it's low by positioning the router close to the basement ceiling and away from the walls. But doing that requires (a) a couple of very long Ethernet cables (impractical) or (b) a couple of power line Ethernet adapters (expensive) or (c) getting a repeater (also expensive).
I had one issue that I called D-Link's tech support about. Shields Up (Gibson Research's program that tests the status of the first 1056 ports on your computer) has always shown my desktop ports to be 100% "stealth" -- invisible to the Internet. After installing the router, it showed ports 0 and 1 as only "closed", not "stealth". I contacted D-Link support via e-mail and received a reply within a day asking me to call a support phone #, which I did. The call was answered immediately (no hold time), the technician (South Africa) was knowledgeable and resolved the issue during the call. Turns out Shields Up is measuring the status of the router, not my PC. This tech support experience was completely opposite to what I had been told about D-Link's support -- that it was slow and not very good. If I were rating their tech support, I'd give it 5 stars.
If you're new to routers, be aware that this is NOT an N-300 router; it's an N-150 router. That means (my understanding) that the maximum bandwidth it can deliver is 150Mbps. Since no one in the house plays complex games or streams movies from the Internet, and there are currently only 2 computers using the cable connection, a 300Mbps router would be overkill for us. But if you have multiple (4-5) computers playing Internet games simultaneously, you should probably get an N-300 router.
I never write reviews, but was so impressed by the bang for your buck with this little router, and its ease of set-up, that I decided I would for this product. First off, I'm a mac user, so I was totally prepared for this to be a nightmare for me to set up on my parents' PC. Seriously, I don't know the first thing about PCs, but thought I'd give it a try since I needed a wireless network so I could use my ipad when visiting, and the router was so cheap. I was concerned when I saw the box and it said perfect for the small apartment, as my folks have a large house, but for the price, and since I'd only be using it when visiting, I figured at least there would be a few rooms I could connect. Well, I popped the disc in and followed the easy step-by-step directions, and not only were we wireless in less than 5-10 minutes, but we also had coverage all over the house. Very pleased, and so will my parents be when we start chatting via face time! - Wireless N - D-link - Router - D-link Wireless Router'
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