Wireless Reviews

Routing Performance

Routing throughput was measured running 1.0.7 firmware, using our router test process. Table 4 summarizes the results.

The IxChariot composite plot below shows steady and essentially Gigabit wire-speed throughput in the unidirectional benchmarks.

D-Link DIR-850L routing throughput unidirectional summary

But the simultaneous up/downlink benchmark plot below shows some serious problems in balancing traffic loads in heavy use. You probably wouldn't see this problem with typical ASDL connections like mine, which is 10 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. But folks with symmetrical connections might want to steer clear of the 850L.

D-Link DIR-850L routing throughput bidirectional summary

Wireless Performance

The DIR-850L is Wi-Fi Certified for 802.11a/b/g/n (not ac) and defaulted to Auto 20/40 Channel Width on the 2.4 GHz radio and Auto 20/40/80 MHz bandwidth mode for the 5 GHz radio upon power-up. The router comes with different 2.4 and 5 GHz SSIDs set, so you'll be able to connect to your desired band without having to change router settings.

I successfully ran a pushbutton Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) session with a Win 7 client. The WPS session completed quickly and resulted in a WPA2/AES secured connection with the same WPA2 pre-shared key set for both radios.

All tests were run using our new wireless test process and 1.0.7 version firmware loaded. The router was first reset to factory defaults and Channel 6 was set for 2.4 GHz and Channel 153 for 5 GHz. 20 MHz bandwidth mode was set for 2.4 GHz and 80 MHz mode (to enable draft 802.11ac link rates) was set for 5 GHz. The test client was connected using WPA2/AES encryption.

The router were positioned 8" from the chamber antennas in all test positions. The 0° position had the router front facing the chamber antennas.

The retest Benchmark Summary below shows the average of throughput measurements made in all test locations.

D-Link DIR-850L Benchmark Summary

Since we have tested only two other AC1200 routers so far, pickin's are slim for comparison. Comparing average 2.4 GHz benchmark values with other AC1200 class routers, the 868L's 50 Mbps downlink and 49 Mbps uplink results ranks it between the other two in both cases. The 102 Mbps simultaneous up/downlink result also slots it in the middle.

For 5 GHz, the 850L's 76 and 70 Mbps average results for downlink and uplink and 285 Mbps simultaneous up and downlink throughput also put it smack in the middle of the other two competitors.

For a look at full throughput vs. attenuation plots, I included the other two AC1200 class routers currently tested, NETGEAR's R6100 and TRENDnet's TEW-811DRU. Keep in mind that the R6100's 5 GHz wireless performance is limited by its 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports vs. the Gigabit ports on the TRENDnet and D-Link.

But the 2.4 GHz downlink profile shows that the NETGEAR's slower Ethernet isn't holding it back. Of the three, it clearly has the best range performance. The 850L, however has the highest throughput at 0 dB attenuation of the three, which ranks it #1 for that benchmark.

2.4 GHz Downlink Throughput vs. Attenuation

The 2.4 GHz uplink plot shows essentially the same result as downlink—NETGEAR best for range and D-Link tops for maximum throughput at 91 Mbps.

2.4 GHz Uplink Throughput vs. Attenuation