SmallNetBuilder

Features

The 857's feature set is a duplicate of the 827's. The router came with firmware 1.00 loaded. I used the Tools > Firmware Check Now button to check for updates before I started testing and got the result shown in the screenshot below. After I completed all testing and was writing this review, I happened to check the 857's support downloads page and found that there actually is a 1.01 version.

DIR-857 Status screen

Fortunately, none of the fixes listed call out performance improvements, so I did not go back and rerun all the performance tests. But D-Link should fix this error, lest paying customers remain unaware of new firmware.

D-Link hasn't posted an emulator for the 857, but you can use the 657's if you want a closer look at the admin GUI.

The feature summary below is copied from the 657 and 827 reviews.

Routing

• DHCP, Static, PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP, DS-Lite WAN types
• DHCP server with MAC address reservation, lease time setting and NetBIOS controls
• Built-in dynamic DNS client for dlinkddns.com and dyndns.com free and custom services
• Static routes
• DMZ host
• SPI firewall disable, UDP / TCP endpoint filtering, anti-spoof checking
• WAN ping allow / deny
• Multicast stream enable
• IPv6 support (auto-detect, static, link-local, autoconfiguration (SLAAC/DHCPv6), PPPoE, IPv6 over IPv4 tunnel, 6to4, 6rd)
• IPv6 static routes
• IPv6 port forwarding
• PPTP, IPsec, RTSP, SIP ALG disables
• Schedulable single port, port range and triggered port forwarding. (Can set source and destination ports on single ports [virtual servers])
• Allow / deny (global) MAC address filtering for network access
• Outbound schedulable port filtering by IP or MAC address with selectable web access logging
• 40 domain-based allow / deny (global) Web access filters
• 8 inbound IP range allow / deny (global) filters
• Remote admin access enable, IP access filtering, port setting and graphic authentication enable
• UPnP support
• WAN port speed set
• HTTPs admin access enable
• Syslog support
• Email alerts and log send
• Ubicom automatic uplink QoS with manual / automatic uplink speed detection and manual rule option

Wireless features

• WEP, WPA / WPA2 Personal and Enterprise (RADIUS) support
• Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) support, pushbutton and PIN
• Auto and manual channel set
• Transmission rate set
• SSID broadcast disable
• Wireless modes: b-only, g-only, n-only, mixed b/g, mixed g/n, mixed b/g/n (default)
• High / medium / low transmit power adjust
• Beacon period, RTS threshold, DTIM interval, Fragmentation Threshold adjusts
• Wireless client isolation (from each other)
• WMM disable
• Ubicom WISH automatic wireless traffic QoS
• Short GI disable

Sharing features

• UPnP / DLNA Media server enable
• SharePort Plus drive and printer sharing
• Sharing to/from embedded SD card reader

Missing features

• WDS bridging repeating
• Physical wireless disable button
• AP / Router mode switch

The 60 second saves got old real quick during testing. But at least you can make changes on multiple pages before saving.

Since this is a Ubicom router, all of its "StreamEngine" features are there. Ubicom's automatic QoS is focused primarily on managing uplink traffic. But it can control downlink speed indirectly by delaying TCP/IP ACKs. Traffic shaping is enabled by default, as is automatic measurement of uplink speed. You still get only 10 sets of rules if you want to tweak Ubicom's selections.

File Sharing

Like the 827, the 857 includes D-Link's Shareport Plus drive and printer sharing feature. There are no storage controls in the router's admin GUI except for a media server enable/disable (enable is default). You need to download the Windows or MacOS Shareport Plus utilities to share printers or if you want auto-discovery of shared drives.

You can reach the drives by opening a Windows Run box and entering \\dlinkrouter. You can also enter \\dlinkrouter in Internet Explorer, but not Firefox or Chrome. Download the Shareport Plus manual for more info.

I ran our standard Windows filecopy NAS test to an attached WD MyBook 3.0 USB 3.0 drive and got the results summarized in Table 2 below along with the DIR-827's filecopy results. Note that I was able to run read and write tests on both FAT32 and NTFS formatted drives. I can't find the supported formats documented anywhere and had thought only FAT was supported, hence the reason for no NTFS results for the DIR-827.

Table 2: File copy throughput

Since the DIR-857 and 827 use the same processor, I attribute the difference in results more to the fact that I ran the test only once instead of my usual three times in each case than to any performance difference between the two products.

I didn't bother checking media sharing from the SD card since it worked fine last time. Remember that the only Media server control you get is an enable - there is no way to force or schedule an content index or safely dismount either an USB drive or the internal SD card.

Routing Performance

Routing throughput was measured running 1.00 firmware, using our router test process and with QoS/traffic shaping disabled (it's enabled by default). Table 3 summarizes and compares the DIR-857 and 827's routing throughput. While there is a slight difference, I doubt you would see any difference in real-world use.

Table 3: Routing throughput

The IxChariot composite plot below is hard to parse given the throughput variation. But looking at the legend for the simultaneous updn test we see upload throughput lower than download

Maximum simultaneous connections maxed out at our test limit of 34,925.

D-Link DIR-857 routing throughput summary