D-Link DIR-655 part 2 - Configuration

Now that the router is plugged in, its time to get more out of it than blinky lights. I plugged in my MacBook to one of the LAN ports and promptly picked up a DHCP address. As per the instructions I pointed my browser at 192.168.0.1, and noticed there were two available logins - user and admin. Since this was the first start I selected admin with no password, which is the first thing I changed.

Next thing I changed was time. There is an option to configure an NTP server, so I just plugged in my time zone and pointed it to ntp.ubuntu.com, and it synced immediately. You don't have to do this, but it helps scheduling and logs actually make sense.

As I navigated through menus and saved changes, sometimes changes would not "stick" and I got real used to this one:
Save a change and you have to wait 30 seconds, and then the screen does not refresh, you have to hit the continue button. A minor annoyance, but an annoyance nevertheless.

The next step - securing the wireless. Like every other aspect of the router, this is very configurable. WEP or WPA, WPA2, TKIP and AES are supported. Even authentication via RADIUS server is supported, that's not seen often in home routers. Do you run your own RADIUS server? me neither.. On this page, B/G/N support is selectable, as is a guest SSID to keep your visitors out on their own network. Very nice.

I've read that this router does not support simultaneous dual band but this screen shot begs to differ. Its showing devices here simultaneously connected at "G" and "N" speeds.


Do you run servers at home? These options could be helpful. Not only does the router support port forwarding, so that requests from the Internet can reach your servers, it also supports what D-link calls "Virtual Servers" say you have a web server at home running on a particular box on port 80, but your ISP blocks it... then you can connect remotely from another port, say 8080, and the router can forward that request to port 80 on your server, very cool. There is room for a ton of them.

Full Logging support is available, and there are even options to have the log sent to your own syslog server, or E-mailed at intervals or just when it is full.

There are tons more features I did not dive too deeply into. there is UPnP, free Dynamic DNS from D-link, remote management via HTTPS, QoS for traffic prioritization, scheduling of firewall rules, selectable wireless strength, configurable WAN ping via Access list, static routing for other routers and networks in your home, and a great deal more. For home use, this router is EXTREMELY powerful - and that's coming from a guy who is used to supporting Cisco routers in an enterprise environment. If there is interest, I'd be happy to explore the more advanced features and report back.

Next in part 3 - I'll talk about speed, range, and general user experience.