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D-Link DIR-890L AC3200 router - User Review (Spoiler: Don't buy it)

Mussels

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I managed to win this router in a competition, so hooray for an un-biased review where i don't have to pander to making a company (or an employer) feel good by lying about a product.
Yeah, consider that a spoiler about how harsh i'll be on this units flaws.

At the time of writing this, this unit was for sale over $300 US, upto $350 Au.


Everyone knows what WiFi is, except Geoff. This article is not for Geoff. Sorry Geoff.
WiFi has been increasing in speeds and suddenly boomed with the invention of smartphones and tablets.
Over the last few years progress was slow and steady, with a few proprietary attempts to speed it up that never really worked due to compatibility issues. (108Mb WiFi G, 450Mb WiFi N, etc)

a lot of my insights came from this article here - WiFi AC is more complicated than previous versions of WiFi, with a lot more marketing speak confusing the issue. Without reading up on it various things wont make a whole lote of sense.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/gigabit-wi-fi-802-11ac-is-here-five-things-you-need-to-know/
(first four points are good, point 5 seems like total garbage. even AC3200 doesn't come close to saturating gigabit, and if they use WiFi bridging or 10GbE it becomes irrelevant)

A basic summary of WiFi technologies is here:
802.11b - 11Mb - where it all began for most of us.
802.11g - 54Mb - still really, really common for home routers to this day, especially for people who've been on DSL for years.
802.11n - ranging from 72Mb to 600Mb, this is where things started to get confusing. WiFi N 600Mb runs two different, *separate* WiFi networks, a 300Mb 2.4GHz and a 300Mb 5GHz - and you *cannot* use them both at once, so its better to think as 2x300Mb, and not 600Mb
802.11ac needs its own damn chart (insert image here)
You end up with tri-band routers at the end, 2.4GHz + 2x 5GHz. The routers are meant to be 'smart' and automatically shift you between them on the fly (2.4 at long range, whichever 5 has the least congestion) although due to lazy reviewers its not clear if its part of the AC3200 standard for the smart switching to include 2.4GHz, or purely work on the 5GHz.
For the router i have, it seems to be able to switch between all three WiFi connections, and will try and lump slower 5GHz devices together (if you had three N600 5GHz devices and one AC, it would keep the N and AC devices separate for best speeds)

This article goes into detail about some of the stupidity going on with wifi naming at present

"You can safely ignore claims of 600Mb/s speed for 11n WiFi on the 2.4GHz band – even though all the brands represented here except Apple are doing just that. It’s the bogus ‘600’ number that’s currently inspiring router brands to print AC1900 on the boxes, the sum of 600 and 1300 from two independent radio systems."

"... suffice to say there are no laptops or mobile devices which can join this particular wireless network. It’s worth noting that in the real world, the best theoretical wireless sync speed on the 2.4GHz band using three streams is 217Mb/s. This can give a best-case real-world throughput closer to 170Mb/s."



Detailed facts about wifi AC:
If you're lazy, let this image be your guide as to why the "AC" speeds are misleading, keeping in mind that the max real speeds are 300Mb in 2.4Ghz and 1300 in 5Ghz.

1. Speeds are a lot slower than the numbers make it seem. 'gigabit' wifi is anything but, for a single user. the aim is less congestion for multiple devices, not high speeds for one device.

2. Beam-forming is a new AC feature that is poorly documented, but from what I've gathered most AC routers handle 8 streams (some may do more), and most AC devices use 1 (433Mb) or 2 (867Mb) streams. The goal seems to be that the aerials face in slightly different directions and the AC routers only communicate via the 1 or 2 with the strongest signal - so unlike wifi N that pumps traffic in every direction, AC does its best to only push the signal in the direction directly towards your device.
This will definitely help with congestion as the 5GHz band becomes more popular, and could potentially reduce the ability for hackers to breach networks/sniff traffic.

3. The 2.4Ghz band is capped at 300Mb, despite claims of 450Mb and 600Mb at times. No AC adaptors exist that can use these speeds.

One important thing here with a device that has so many aerials, is that you suddenly have a lot more ways to tweak the orientation and router location to remove or accidentally create dead spots. Have it placed at one side of the house? point them all towards the far side of your property for the best coverage. Got it in the middle of your love dungeon? spread the love, and angle them pointy bits around.


Now onto the review:


Everyone knows that "ITS CHRISTMAS" face as the mail package appears. My son volunteered for the unwrapping/drool smearing part of this.



DRINK PEPSI


The unit is huge, with a honking ridiculous 60W power brick that looks like it belongs on a laptop. Due to its height and pyramid design, this unit really wont stack nicely with other routers, and needs to be on 'top' of whatever your networking setup is, or wall/ceiling mounted. The aerials cannot be removed and only rotate certain amounts (due to beamforming?) so placement of the router is more important than on units with more aerial freedom.

Box came with the bare minimum you'd expect, router, power brick, Ethernet cable. Nothing fancy here, so boring i forgot to take a photo.

Test Setup:
mine arrived on firmware 1.0.2 which online has a poor reputation, so i manually updated to 1.0.3 before any testing was done. D-link sent me a beta firmware 1.06 which was meant to resolve various issues but in fact, changed nothing except for adding one new undocumented menu option to the QoS settings.



'Casual user' testing

Initial setup is plug and play (its a router, what do you expect?) and the webUI is actually nice and simple. I really do like this UI as everything is simple and easy to find.

"smart connect" seems flawed with Samsung phones that support WiFi AC. my note 4 (2x2 AC) connects at 192Mb while my Note 10.1 (2014) with 1x1 AC connects at 96Mb. They connect at 270Mb/135Mb respectively on my N600 GHz network.
Disabling (not so) Smart Connect got me 866Mb and 390Mb respectively on WiFi AC with those devices.
As a basic throughput test, this meant my note 4 on "smart connect" capped out at 7.2MB/s while close to the router, vs 13MB/s (limit of my SD card) when manually connected to 5GHz. As far as i'm concerned that makes this feature something to definitely be avoided, since it is literally halving the speed of the WiFi connection. Despite D-links tech support telling me firmware 1.06 fixed this issue, it has not.


The router GUI:

The UI is quite simple and user friendly, and to be honest i like it. Its simple and it works well. The one major flaw is that almost every setting you change requires you to 'save' it, which often reboots the router or locks you out for 30-90 seconds. Most other routers let you 'save' the changes on various pages and reboot when you want to apply all of them, this definitely slows down an advanced user who wants to make a lot of changes - such as when setting up a brand new router.





Advanced feature testing

I feel like a torrent or download client would really fit with this router, its got high speeds, a DLNA server, USB 3.0 storage and a decent processor - it'd tie this device in as a router and a NAS in one.

Android App:
So far the "mydlink lite" android app seems really simple, they have a paid upgrade version but i'm not going to pay for that to test it. The free app shows current WAN bandwidth usage (but not in real-time, you have to refresh) and allows you to see and boot devices off your network, and reboot the router.

The TP link app has a few more features, but is more clumsy to use so i feel they're pretty similar with offerings here.

It's quite easy to rename device names (for the user to identify) and set static IP's within the router.. no manually typing or pasting MAC addresses required here (but still possible via the big plus icon) and this feature does not require a router reboot - when the device connects again next, the IP changes.


The router has a basic incoming VPN, but unfortunately its restricted to one user only. While i can see many uses for this, it's quite ridiculous that only one user can be connected at a time, and even more ridiculous that only one username and password can exist at any one time.

The guest network has no bandwidth/QoS limits. at the very least it'd be nice to have a tick-box to force guest users to the lowest QoS priority, at best it'd be nice to match TP-link with a hard bandwidth cap. (note: TP link have $40 routers with this function) It does have the ability to lock guests to 'internet only' which is good from a security standpoint.

Windows to Windows (Gigabit Ethernet on PC 1, WiFi AC1200 USB 3.0 adapter on PC 2. Both using SSD's)
I'll possibly bore you with some screenshots of windows 8's file coping later, but for now the basics:

Wired gigabit was exactly as expected, managed around 110MB/s - nothing abnormal there.

The speeds are erratic on this routers wifi. My N600 router manages far smoother, consistent transfers at this same distance.
Speeds managed a whopping 43MB/s peak with my AC1200 USB 3.0 adaptor - but the 23MB/s my N600 network managed were so much smoother, it actually finished the same file transfer in less time. I will re-test this thoroughly later, but i worry the "beam forming" is screwing with the maximum throughput speeds in this short-distance test by hopping around too rapidly.

Note: this router does have a basic DLNA server for 'smart TV's and other connected devices, but i've never really liked or used that technology (and only have dumb HDTV's in the house) so i've skipped testing that one feature.

It takes about a minute for a USB storage device to show up once connected, but when it does it behaves like a regular windows file share - which is great for compatibility. It takes mere seconds to connect to and save a bookmark or shortcut with "ES File Explorer" on android, turning this into instant wifi media storage.

I tested the USB storage with one of my cheap and nasty Lexar 16GB USB 3.0 drives, and over gigabit it happily maxed out the drives capabilities at 39MB/s - sadly this was where the fun ended.

At this point i was super happy with how it worked, and decided tested larger and faster drives respectively. The good initial experience did not last. All the following results were tested from windows over Gigabit as well and received the same results.

I tested three drives, starting with "old and slow" - a 16GB lexar USB 3.0 stick. It worked perfect at 40MB/s read over the network, maxing out the drives capabilities.
Next up was my newer, faster, smaller USB 3.0 drive, a 32GB Sandizk Cruzer Fit capable of 140MB/s on my PC... and it only ran 11MB/s on the routers USB 3.0 port. I formatted it between NTFS, EXFAT and FAT32, but nothing changed.

A 2.5" 320GB SATA2 laptop hard drive in a USB 3.0 enclosure didnt fare much better as my 'high capacity' test, achieving erratic write speeds that varied from 5MB/s to 35MB/s, spiking wildly. Maybe its the size of the drive, but performance couldnt have varied more wildly between the three i tested. This needs retesting with more drives, and/or a firmware update of the router.

The one shining light to this router. I have goddamn terrible internet. During the day i get 8Mb down, 0.8Mb up. Between 7PM-Midnight, i get 2Mb down, 0.4Mb up. Welcome to Australia, if the spiders don't kill you - the lag sure as hell will.
Previously i'd simply used TP-Links "Bandwidth Shaping" and set a bunch of bandwidth limits so no one device could max out my download or upload (which was a nightmare with my varying speeds)

The following screenshot shows the almost too simple click and drag QoS setup. I was incredibly dubious about such a simple feature working better than the complex bandwidth limits i'd used in the past.
I feel like it needs the option for more high or medium slots, since this routers AC3200 standard *is* designed for heavy users with lots of connected devices.
I had the QoS set the game server as "Highest" with the teamspeak server ("Default") and my gaming PC as "High".


As a nightmare of a torture test, i did the following:
1. Hosted a game on my game server
2. Hosted Teamspeak 3 on a second PC.
3. My brother joined both of those over the internet - whilst i connected locally
4. To do something utterly insane on a crap internet connection like mine... i started uploading youtube videos of our gameplay, while he was still connected.

His ping went from around 80 to 110, but teamspeak stayed clear and he noticed no lag in game. Without the "QoS Engine" or "Advanced QoS+" (D-link have different names for it in the router software and the physical box) this definitely would not have worked. *This* feature worked fantastic, and makes this router worth having to me.

As a side test after all this was done, i checked his ping as he idled in teamspeak afterwards - it spiked to over 220ms as the videos were still uploading. As soon as we started talking again, it dropped very rapdily back to the 110ms range. Its definitely doing this dynamically and doing it well.

Buried away in the router settings is something i find useful, which shows you real-time bandwidth usage on the WAN port, 2.4GHz, 5GHz and LAN. Rare to see stats per interface and not just one global, so this is quite nice for an advanced user.








Pros:
Fast WiFi speeds if Dumb Connect(TM) is disabled, average to good wifi range.
Clean, simple UI even a beginner could use.
QoS works like it should, even for someone with garbage internet. Exceeded my expectations on this one.


Cons:
Large, Heavy.
Odd shape makes it difficult to fit where most routers would fit fine.
Potentially really hot if it uses that 60W of power
Features that do not function as expected (USB storage, VPN, "smart connect")


Conclusions:
What the hell D-link? For a $300+ router you expect high end performance, high end features and a well thought out product.
What we've got is a half assed one, where it feels like a bunch of features got tacked on in a rush and never tested before launch.
Super high speed WiFi with the feature to become a NAS? go for it, just don't use a drive bigger than 16GB?
VPN functions to allow others to join your network... well, just one actually.
A smart wifi function that... cripples your WiFi speeds?


Overall rating: 6/10 - While the wifi speeds are great (if a little inconsistent), having half the advertised features on the box non-functional or crippled really sours the experience of such an expensive device.

D-link will be emailed a link to this review and contacted about this, and they are welcome to reply at any time - and i will happily update this review as new firmware updates come out.



Bonus Image: I won the router in a contest saying i'd use it to scare women and children. No need, the australian variant of this is actually a red-back router, and tends to make its own webs and hang around the ceiling to improve signal strength.

 
Last edited:

Mussels

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this was a little rushed with tidying it up, point out any screwups/repeated parts/missing screenshots and i'll fix it up.
 
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FordGT90Concept

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The antennas can't be replaced?


The main screen doesn't look very good compared to Asus's. Asus is at least able to retrieve the motherboard/NIC manufacturer from virtually every connected device. All that shows is unknown over and over.

For the ridiculous price, it seems it falls flat everywhere except wireless performance.
 
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Mussels

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You should put titles in the spoiler tags. e.g. [spoiler=Advanced QoS]


The antennas can't be replaced?


The main screen doesn't look very good compared to Asus's. Asus is at least able to retrieve the motherboard/NIC manufacturer from virtually every connected device. All that shows is unknown over and over.

For the ridiculous price, it seems it falls flat everywhere except wireless performance.

i'll look into the spoilers, forgot we could do that. and yeah the rest of it sums up my thoughts for a $300 router
 
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No guest limits on QoS??? not even a speed cap??? wtf? o_O
 
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last pics ... OMG IT'S A FACEHUGGER!

thanks for the review!
 
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it's scrrrry lookin. indeed
 
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Those bugs, seriously WTF?

I would like to see one more test, max parallel connection and bench them, for example running torrents on each device with 50-100peers and on how it performs with 1 or 2 and 3 devices and using 2.4 and 5 simultaneously, maybe youtube streams can also do the trick.

And mate... child photos... really ?
 

Mussels

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Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
Those bugs, seriously WTF?

I would like to see one more test, max parallel connection and bench them, for example running torrents on each device with 50-100peers and on how it performs with 1 or 2 and 3 devices and using 2.4 and 5 simultaneously, maybe youtube streams can also do the trick.

And mate... child photos... really ?

1. my internet connection is going to throttle that long before torrents or youtube get in the way.
2. i tried taking them without him. he's... persistent.
 
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Keyboard Logitech K740
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Benchmark Scores Network: APs: Cisco Meraki MR32, Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC-LR and Lite Router/Sw:Meraki MX64 MS220-8P
I think the pics were cute LOL. And he's gonna upgrade the firmware by drooling on it!
 

INOCsolutions

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Thanks for the review. It's hard to find an unbiased review for router systems nowadays, and your review does have some interesting points of comparison. Still, as with Ferrum Master, I would like to see more tests on how these babies go when exposed to extensive internet use.
 

Mussels

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Thanks for the review. It's hard to find an unbiased review for router systems nowadays, and your review does have some interesting points of comparison. Still, as with Ferrum Master, I would like to see more tests on how these babies go when exposed to extensive internet use.

and as i said to him, you provide me with better internet and i'll do it. 8Mb DSL is the best money can buy here, and i already hammered the crap out of it for the QoS testing.
 

dorsetknob

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Good Review
were your USB hard Drives powered by the USB port on the Router or were they PSU Brick powered ?

How many USB ports and how many Volumes does the device support

eg Supported Volumes: Only two USB storage devices with up to eight volumes could be activated simultaneously, up to four USB storage devices with about eighteen volumes could be recognized.
 

Mussels

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Video Card(s) Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
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Keyboard Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
Good Review
were your USB hard Drives powered by the USB port on the Router or were they PSU Brick powered ?

How many USB ports and how many Volumes does the device support

eg Supported Volumes: Only two USB storage devices with up to eight volumes could be activated simultaneously, up to four USB storage devices with about eighteen volumes could be recognized.

one USB 2.0, one 3.0
all devices powered by the router.

no idea on max volumes, all my drives are single partition and windows wont allow you to format USB mass storage into more than one.
 

dorsetknob

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another Query
cross comparing Functionality (of Course)

Does it have a FTP Server feature

If So whats the Tranfer/bandwidth speed ?

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server allows you to share the files on the USB storage device to the local or public network. You will need to define the shared folders and assign the user's authorization for the different folders.

Any onboard Media Server ?
 

Mussels

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it has a DLNA server, but no FTP. SMB sharing only.
 

dorsetknob

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Ah'em Hint Suggestion
How it fares with open 3rd Party firmware

:respect::cool:
 

Mussels

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Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
Ah'em Hint Suggestion
How it fares with open 3rd Party firmware

:respect::cool:

theres only one beta DD-WRT released for it, with zero documentation or support.
 
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having half the advertised features on the box non-functional or crippled
This is why I stopped buying Dlink routers.
I had one of their DGL gaming routers a while back and it failed in every way.

Not to thread hijack but Open source firmware like DD-WRT has been keeping up with the wifi speeds and such right ?
 

dorsetknob

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I was not Suggesting that you Flash your new toy but to Revist the thread in the future when open source firmware has caught up with this and is more reliable
 

Mussels

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Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
I was not Suggesting that you Flash your new toy but to Revist the thread in the future when open source firmware has caught up with this and is more reliable

oh i definitely will be at some point, i'm just giving Dlink a chance to sort out the issues first.
 
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Never really rely on consumer router usb
Best to get a NAS. Every router Ive tried with USB sucked with speeds and they often fry the drives.
 

OneMoar

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can't say I didn't see this coming Dlink are garbage
would probably be fine with DD-WRT Or OpenWRT meh ...
ARM support on DDWRT/OPENWRT is still really spotty
 

Mussels

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Cooling Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory 2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage 2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
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Audio Device(s) Logitech G560 | Corsair Void pro RGB |Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
I missed a secondary feature of the router (statistics) and have updated the review to include them.
 
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Benchmark Scores Network: APs: Cisco Meraki MR32, Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC-LR and Lite Router/Sw:Meraki MX64 MS220-8P
Too bad it doesn't show application usage like my meraki does.. and at 300dollars ... my meraki was 160
 
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