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(More customer reviews)I'm not sure why people are having such problems with their DIR-665 Xtreme router - I am happy to report that after three solid days of use, the router hasn't even so much as hiccuped for me.
My DIR-665 from Amazon Vine is replacing my purchased D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Gigabit Wireless Router. For those who know the older DIR-655 model, you will find the updated DIR-665 to be very familiar. In fact other than some cosmetic changes to the faceplate, the physical body is exactly the same between the two products.
I'm an IT person so of course I don't read any of the instructions or follow any of the guides. Out of the box I remove the DIR-665, notice it uses the same power adapter as my 655 so I just pull the local LAN cables, the WAN cable and the A/C Adapter and swap them over to the new 665. I'm in cable-internet country (TWC) so unfortunately the cable modem is somewhat fussy about dynamically releasing and renewing IP addresses on the fly to a new MAC, so I had to unplug/replug the cable modem in order to initiate a power cycle. After that, internet connectivity on physically connected machines was up and running.
So to recap:
1 - Unbox DIR-665
2 - Move LAN/WAN/A/C cables from DIR-655 to DIR-665
3 - Reboot cable modem
4 - Internet is go!
Wireless connectivity was a tiny bit harder since I had a specific pre-shared key that I wanted to keep in order to make reconfiguring my wireless connections easier. In that same theme, I kept my SSID name the same from when I had the DIR-655 installed. This was the first time I cracked open the web-based router configuration (192.168.0.1). Step 1 is always to change the basic blank password to something you'll remember. Step two, I simply did a once-over on the internet settings - every thing was auto-set to dynamic (which is normal for most ISPs nowadays), however if you have specific PPOE or other authentication requirements, they were all laid out here.
I noticed that the wireless config had the option of going through a wizard, so I selected that option first. Wizard is a bit misleading as you assume a wizard would explain what the options you were selecting meant. This would be my biggest gripe about the DIR-665, you really do have to have some knowledge of what you're looking at, setting-wise. Unfortunately the web-based configuration does not help in any way, there are no "?" popups or descriptions. You'll have to Google in order to find out what all the settings mean (which may be an issue if your router is down). The wizard seems to default to the widest acceptance settings, not locking out any wireless configuration, leaving security open to WPA or WPA2 and running on a closed 20Hz channel width. I didn't play around with the wizard too much so your personal results may vary.
Next, I went into manual wireless configuration in order to set up my personal preferences (a screenshot of my settings is included in the Amazon customer photos). Once I had moved to the 5GHz band, mixed 802.11a/n, Auto 20/40 Hz, my laptop reports 216-270Mbps connection speeds (screenshot also included).
One thing to keep in mind with the DIR-665 is that it runs a bit hot (again, just like the 655), so make sure it has ventilation room.
Since installation I have had zero issues with my DIR-665 - my laptop did initially have disconnect issues when I first switched to the 5Ghz spectrum, but a quick driver update for the NIC fixed that problem. In my home there are four wired computers, two wireless laptops (one 802.11g, one 802.11n), an iPod, two XBox360's (one with the new 802.11n adapter, one with the older 802.11g), and a PS3. Almost all of these devices work flawlessly. Streaming HD content from Netflx (via XBox) takes less than ten seconds to buffer. When you switch to the 5GHz network the protocols are limited to 802.11a and 802.11n. Therefore, if you have older devices that only run on 802.11g networks, they will not work when set to 5GHz (this could include iPods, phone WiFi, laptops, consoles, etc, etc). So check your wireless NICs, this may not be the router for you. Of course you could always get a secondary 802.11g WAP to hookup to your DIR-665 (this is actually what I ended up doing). For "gamers" this is how it breaks down for the 5GHz spectrum - the only units that will be able to use the 5GHz network will be XBoxes using the external "black" version of the 802.11N wireless adapter. This means that XBox 360 "slims" and PS3's will not be able to see the 5GHz network. The 360 "slims" can use the 802.11N black wireless adapter if you wanted to hook it up.
Now whether or not you'll be able to get the full oomph of the theoretical 300Mbps speed out of the dual band router is so dependent on your home configuration that it's probably silly to even try and address. Just know that just because something runs in the 5Ghz spectrum it does not mean that it's better than a 2.4Ghz device - we're not talking CPUs here, bigger does not always equate to better. Ideally the DIR-665 when in 5GHz mode is utilizing both the 2.4 and 5GHz spectrum (I really don't know how to check if this is true - if someone has a guide, I'd be willing to give it a try) and using the concept of channel bonding in order to use dual channel communication. I never saw the magical 300 number reported by Windows on my wireless NIC, but it does stay over 200 constantly and maintain a full 5 bars of signal strength.
Misc info - My router is located upstairs (laptop/xbox downstairs) in a home built after 1990. There is approximately 18ft of distance as the crow flies, but that goes through the roof/floor.
This review was done with hardware version A1, Firmware version 1.00NA
*Update 12/20/2010 - Just writing to let everyone know that I've been running this router for a little over a month and a half. Still works like a champ with zero issues. The laptop I'm writing this update from is reporting a 270Mbps connection as we speak.
Click Here to see more reviews about: D-Link DIR-665 Xtreme N 450 Gigabit Router Selectable Dual Band 802.11n
The D-Link Xtreme N 450 Gigabit Router (DIR-665) represents a breakthrough in Wireless N connectivity. The 3x3 MIMO technology in the DIR-665 uses three distinct data streams to enable extremely fast data transfer rates (up to 450Mbps?), making it ideal for streaming high bandwidth content such as HD video.
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