SmallNetBuilder

Two units purchased to replace two AirLink routers and work mostly as wired routers in a small business environment... Installed just recently so I can not comment on long term reliability yet... Just a few comments based on one week of usage.
First the setup interface menus are laid out a bit different then any one else, with no on-line help and an outdated manual; I had to experiment and find how some of the features really work. For example using static routing I had to manually enter the MAC address as the router does not pick the units connected automatically. There is a limit of max 10 MAC's in the static table which I find very low compared to other routers. To enable MAC filtering under Security I had to manually enter the MAC's again and luckily I was able to enter more than 10. It is unclear if this table includes the WiFi MAC's or not, probably not as there is another yet table of MAC Filters under Wireless setup. Setting up the schedule, the QoS it's a bit of a hit and miss and was able at some point to freak out the unit into a complete and unintentional reset to default values. I had one unit set as a pure wired router; the second unit had initially worked as router + AP WiFi in the 2.4GHz b/g/n but did not perform very well and since I turned the WiFi off.
Performance wise, the WiFi in the 2.4GHz g was less stable and much weaker compared to a Netgear 3700 resulting into dropped connections much too often, one floor away and a few dry walls in between. The wired routing seems to be alright a bit faster than the AirLink routers but not by much... I will update again after a few months of use.
Lastly, both unist are h/w rev 1.0 running f/w 2.1.0

I've ordered this router, but it hasn't come in yet, so disregard my ratings (it wouldn't let me leave those blank). I found two things that maybe of interest, .

There are some hidden commands:

Settings Bridge:
xx.xx.xxx.xx/bridgelan.htm LAN Port Birdging and MAC Address Bridging Settings

Monitor:
xx.xxx.xx.xx/stasmonitor.htm Monitor WAN and WLAN Bandwidth

Mutlicast Settings:
http://xx.xx.xx.xx/wanadv.htm

Advanced Firewall Settings:
xx.xx.xx.xx/fwadv.htm

Advanced WMM Settings:
xx.xx.xx.xx/wlwmm.htm

And due to the generosity of a few individuals, one of these has been sent to the DD-WRT developers. It got there late February. Someone got a version of DD-WRT loaded, but since this router uses a separate LAN interface that will have to be developed.

Pros: Great for standard home or business use... Good speed and coverage, with a number of advanced features.


Biggest Con: Inappropriate for use with a SIP sever (e.g. TriBox, FreePBX, etc)

I'm a little disappointed with this router. I bought it because of how fast it seems in tests. Unfortunately my tests are showing it ever so slightly slower in both down and up speeds vs the DIR-655 it replaced. I've even tried disabling SPI firewall, enabling QOS even though my testing computer was the only thing connected, and other random things like a static computer IP, different secondary DNS, whatever I could think of. Unfortunately this router just can't catch up to my old DIR 655.

Application QOS was never used, only port-based, and Network Turbine was always enabled.

For the price, however, it seems like a bargain. It's a no-frills, serious, and great router.

I did not test wireless.

All tests were done with the new 2.0.0.98 firmware.

I got one in the mail today, to replace my more than 8 year old Asus WL500g, which got too slow on LAN connections and kept dropping the WAN connection when there was a lot of traffic (OpenWRT Kamikaze)

The upshot is, I'm sending it back, returning to my trusty Asus for now. Maybe I got a defective unit, but if this is typical, then I can't recommend this to anybody who needs the wifi function.

The LAN routing is very fast indeed, but the wireless is unusable. The signal deteriorates very quickly with distance, and at a distance of about 25 ft through two glass doors and nothing else, the connection becomes unstable, drops constantly, and slows down to about 100 kBit/s while it is alive. I checked many locations in my apartment, various settings, all available firmwares, to no avail. My old Asus easily reached across the whole apartment with net speeds of 10MBit/s. Even when sitting next to the unit, the WLAN connection drops regularly.