DIR-890L

amazon DIR-890L reviews

Design – Configuration:

The DIR-890L has a very “strange” design with lots of hard lines, like a spacecraft. An inadequacity of this design is its enormous size: 890L occupies an area of ​​38 x 23 cm – almost double that of other common routers. However, this product is also aimed at users with high demands, where there is ample space for such devices.

The router is equipped with Broadcom 1GHz dual-core CPU and triple-band frequency with theoretical speeds up to 3200 Mbps – 1300 Mbps for dual band 5GHz and 600 Mbps for 2.4GHz band. This led to the production of up to six navigable antennas, which provided the highlight of the tunnel design, but unfortunately they were not removable.

Above the router is a state-of-the-art LED indicator system that includes power, WAN, Wifi (2.4 and 5 GHz) and finally a USB device.

Behind the included interfaces (from left to right): USB 3.0, USB 2.0, reset button, WPS, 4 Gigabit LAN ports, 1 WAN port, power button / switch and power port. Just above the coolant is designed eye catching.

Establish:

Setting up the D-Link DIR-890L is easy and quick. As soon as the router is plugged into the system, the user just follows the instructions. The interface is designed to be drag-drop and divided into clear and user-friendly items. While most users will appreciate this friendliness, high end users may feel more customized.

D-Link also supports setting up routers over the phone. With the D-Link QRS (Quick Router Setup) application, users can install any D-Link router in the system quickly.

Function:

The DIR-890L comes with a number of remarkable features including:

Guest: Allows the user to set up a private network for guests. This network is completely separate from the available internal network. This feature is especially useful for companies, small cafes using the same router to connect.

Smart Connect: The theoretical feature is quite simple, you just set an SSID and a password for all three bands, the router automatically manages and adjusts the equipment between bands for high performance.

Experience this feature on the DIL-890L quite smoothly. Devices are automatically raised to higher frequencies when using more bandwidth and vice versa and the best thing is that the writer does not fully recognize the layer transition when enabled.

– Quality of Service (QOS): priority for devices when devices are scrambling bandwidth in the same network.

The 890L only supports QOS over IP to ensure user-friendliness. However, to achieve the highest performance, QOS should be set up via port, which 890L does not support.

where can you get a DIR-890L online

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File sharing via USB:

The 890L allows file sharing on local area networks (NASs) as well as two USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. USB storage devices are easily recognized on the network as well as through the MyDlink application.

Performance:

The router is tested in many different broadcasting areas: In the same room – 2m, adjacent room, through the thin wall – 5m, through a thick concrete floor – 8m, through two thick concrete floors, 10m and finally through 2 floors, located at the corner of the router – 15m.

Testing using the D-Link 802.11ac DWA-192 network adapter via USB 3.0

Capacity:

Using the iPerf test to monitor traffic, the DIR-890L delivers impressive performance. At a distance of less than 5 meters, the transfer rate is almost up to the capacity of the AC adapter (limited by the USB 3.0 transfer rate on the network adapter).

One point worth noting here is the ability to penetrate the wall of 5Ghz waves quite well. The advantage of 5GHz band is bandwidth, not wave range. However, the test range is not inferior to the 2.4GHz band.

Watch movies, transfer files:

With bandwidth up to 438 Mbps at about 55 MB / s, streaming video, transferring files over the DIR-890 without any problems. By testing, even with Blu-ray movies rip up to 35,356kbps from the NAS, the router streams smoothly. I also tested the video editing using Adobe Premiere via Wifi for quite similar results with working directly on USB 3.0 portable hard drive.

Transfer via USB:

The read speed recorded through removable hard drive is about 55MB / s read and 21MB / s write. Although not comparable to specialized storage devices such as NAS but the number is enough to satisfy the need to share files, stream movies or music quickly.

Stream game:

The D-Link DIR-890L is at the top of NVIDIA’s recommended wireless router list for stream PC games to SHIELD devices. Unlike stream video, stream games except for high bandwidth (30MBit / s for 1080p – 60fps) but also low latency and stability.

Using Steam In-Home Streaming, games are transferred from a desktop computer to a laptop at a distance of 5 meters over a thin wall, an impressive gaming experience. With the highest configuration option in the game, the average latency from the network is only about 5ms – which is lower than the latency from the screen. All actions in the game, including the terrible games like MGS V or GTA V are 1-1 versus host.

The game is streamed to the phone using the moonlight streaming application on android. Even with 802.11n equipment, the stream game is very smooth. I can transfer games to the device without realizing any latency up to a distance of up to 10m.

DD-WRT:

The 890L officially supports firmware from third-party DD-WRT. DD-WRT offers more advanced options that advanced users can use to make the most out of the router hardware.

Conclude:

For the basic needs of households, small businesses as well as cafes, the D-Link 890L is more than capable of satisfying. The strongest point of this router aside from its strength is its stability. During the test in a rather complex wave environment, the device always allows for near-instantaneous connectivity and absolutely no mid-wave loss. Although there are some downsides in terms of size, non-removable antennas as well as 2.4GHz band performance, the D-Link 890L is one of the great options for high-end wireless router segments.