D-Link DIR-868L review

The D-Link DIR868L is a dual-band 802.11ac router with a theoretical top data transfer speed of 1,300Mbit/s, four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a USB3 port. You’ll need to use an 802.11ac-compatible device in order to benefit from the DIR-868L’s highest data transfer speeds, but the DIR-868L will also work with older 802.11n, g, b and a devices. You can even administer it remotely.

Setting up the DIR-868L is a doddle thanks to its web interface’s wizard, which walks you through the process of configuring the DIR-868L for internet access and setting up wireless security. As the DIR-868L is a router only you’ll need to plug it into a modem to access the internet.

Given the ease with which the wizard guides you through setup, it’s a shame the rest of the DIR-868L’s web interface is confusingly laid out. You have four tabs at the top of the screen and a series of sub-categories to the left, but this isn’t initially obvious and only becomes clear once you’ve spent much time searching for various options. The fact we’ve used this kind of web interface on other D-Link routers and still found it confusing is testament to the poor layout.

However, the web interface does provide all the options you expect to see on a high-end router, such as Dynamic DNS, port forwarding and even website filtering so you can control the websites users can and can’t access.

The free QRS Mobile app (available for iOS and Android devices) makes setting up the DIR-868L even easier, with clear, uncluttered screens and helpful diagrams guiding you through the process. Thanks to the QRS Mobile app you don’t even need to switch on your PC or laptop to configure the DIR-868L, making the router much more accessible to those who aren’t familiar with such devices.

WI-FI PERFORMANCE
To test the 802.11ac performance of the DIR-868L we used the D-Link DWA-182 802.11ac-compatible Wi-Fi adaptor with our test laptop. 802.11ac only works on the 5GHz band, so we connected to the DIR-868L on this band and ran our wireless test. At one and 10 metres the DIR-868L achieved an average data transfer rate of 139.1Mbit/s, but failed the test at 25 metres. The one and 10 metre speeds are fairly impressive, but one of the advantages of the 802.11ac standard is greater Wi-Fi range, which makes the failure at 25 metres disappointing.

We also connected to the DIR-868L on the 5GHz band with our laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi adaptor. As it’s an 802.11n adaptor it couldn’t match the higher speeds of the DWA-182, but still provided 87Mbit/s at one metre and 90.1Mbit/s at 10 metres. These speeds aren’t too bad, but the test failed at 25 metres once again.

The DIR-868L’s 2.4GHz performance was similarly good at short range but poorer at long range. With the DWA-182 adaptor we saw data transfer speeds of 64.5Mbit/s at one metre and 52.4Mbit/s at 10 metres, with the test failing at 25 metres. When we used our test laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi adaptor we achieved data transfer speeds of 41.9Mbit/s at one metre, 38.7Mbit/s at 10 metres and 5.4Mbit/s at 25 metres.

APPS
As with many modern D-Link routers, the DIR-868L can be accessed on your local network and remotely with mobile apps and through a web browser. One such app is SharePort Mobile, which lets you listen to music, watch videos, view photos and open documents stored on USB drives attached to the DIR-686L. The app works well and has a smooth, responsive and intuitive interface, but will only work when connected to the DIR-868L locally. Although the DIR-868L has a USB3 port, we didn’t notice any significant speed improvement when accessing media over Wi-Fi.

The MyDlink app lets you control your router with a mobile device, even when you’re away from home

The DIR-868L is described as a Cloud router, and to use its Cloud services you must create a MyDlink account and register the DIR-868L with it. You can then administer your router and network remotely through your web browser or with the MyDlink Lite app. However, the best Cloud app is perhaps the MyDlink Shareport app. This works in the same way as the regular Shareport app, except the MyDlink app lets you access your media remotely wherever you have an internet connection. This means you can effectively use attached storage as your own personal cloud storage device.

SharePort Cloud lets you play media stored on USB drives attached to the DIR-868L while you’re on the move. This means you can stream your favourite tunes to your smartphone on the morning commute

The speeds we achieved with both Wi-Fi adaptors and on both bands weren’t terrible but neither were they as good as those of other 802.11ac routers we’ve reviewed, such as the Asus RT-AC66U and the Netgear R6300. However, the DIR-868L is much cheaper than those routers and we tested the Asus RT-AC66U with a Buffalo WLI-H4-D1300 media bridge and the Netgear R6300 with another R6300 in bridge mode due to the scarcity of proper 802.11ac Wi-Fi adaptors.

If you want a cheap 802.11ac router and don’t plan on using your devices too far from it then the DIR868L is a good buy, but if you demand the best performance for your 802.11ac devices then consider buying the Asus RT-AC66U or Netgear R6300 instead.