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---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: D-Link DIR-628 5GHz 802.11n on cheap price & performance
author:
display_name: ''
login: ''
email: ''
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wordpress_id: 189
wordpress_url: http://blog.10ninox.com/2008/06/30/d-link-dir-628-5ghz-80211n-on-cheap-price-performance/
date: '2008-06-30 00:13:22 +0700'
date_gmt: '2008-06-30 05:13:22 +0700'
categories:
- review
- gadgets
tags: []
---
<p>I have heard a news about this router last week that it was the first sub $100 dual band router; it actually $119 MSRP, but only $79 on BestBuy. I'm so thrilled to get one to be able to achieve 300Mbps and don't have to plug in CAT5e for Gigabit anymore. Although I don't expect to get Gigabit performance with draft 802.11n, I still think I would get any better than 2.4GHz 40MHz channel width 802.11n that gives me 130Mbps connection regularly (but it's only a bit better than 802.11g in practice)</p>
<p>Then I don't hesitate to grab it @ Bestbuy. It really looks better than DIR-625 the one I have.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.10ninox.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/snv10134.jpg"><img height="157" alt="Dlink DIR-628" src="http://blog.10ninox.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/snv10134-thumb.jpg" width="209" border="0"/></a> <a href="http://blog.10ninox.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/snv10140.jpg"><img height="157" alt="Dlink DIR-628" src="http://blog.10ninox.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/snv10140-thumb.jpg" width="209" border="0"/></a>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The selling point of this router is dual band; Dlink doesn't forget to remind customers that this is dual band antenna as well =)</p>
<p><img height="157" alt="Dual band antenna" src="http://blog.10ninox.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/snv10141-2.jpg" width="220" border="0"/></p>
<p>Setting up part was flawless like every router. Plug and Play; change WAN MAC address a bit; then you are good to go. I, however, tested this router as only Wireless LAN (802.11n) access point; I just connected this LAN to my main router (D-Link DIR-625) and disabled DHCP server on DIR-628 also.</p>
<p><img height="291" alt="300Mbps Wireless Connection status" src="http://blog.10ninox.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/image4.png" width="400" border="0"/>&nbsp;<img height="72" alt="image" src="http://blog.10ninox.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/image5.png" width="400" border="0"/> </p>
<p>It was very exciting to have 300Mbps via the air; imagine that was 3 times faster than Ethernet even though you would lose a bit throughput for header. Just so you know that this was 5GHz band and it's the only way get 300Mbps connection with Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN. In a router configuration, there were choices of only 802.11n or only 802.11a or mixed. I tried with only 802.11n and both. I haven't found any different though.</p>
<p>Yep,<em> there is no difference at all.</em> From 2.4GHz to 5GHz, the speeds Windows reports were different, but it's different story in practice. I don't have any scientific result for this since I copied back and forth between my Thinkpad X61T (802.11n) and my media center box (Gigabit LAN) several times. What I got was only about 4-6MB/s and 7-8MB/s for copy from and to media center box respectively for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz mode. There is no reason to test for that low performance; it's so disappointed because it's only 48Mbps and 64Mbps which were only about 802.11g theoretically speed. At least, I expected to see 100Mbps throughput (approx. 12MB/s) for 300Mbps connection. Just so you know, I got over 40MB/s via Gigabit LAN, so sometimes, most of the time in fact, I prefer to plug the cable in at all time. It really has a significant difference, no lag while transferring data since most of my data were on network drive. I hope final 802.11n would gain what it aims soon. When the time comes, I'm ready to switch immediately. Now, I just have to return this and stick with what I already have.</p>