D-Link Amplifi HD Media Router 3000 (DIR-857)

D-Link's Amplifi HD Media Router 3000 (DIR-857) is the company's highest-end consumer router, with theoretical throughput speeds up to 450 Mbps on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. What may have been excellent throughput two or three years ago is below average when compared with that offered by competing dual-bands, such as those from Netgear, Linksys, Buffalo and now Western Digital. Although the DIR-857 is a bit cheaper than the average competing dual-band router?$170.00 versus the average price of about $200, the router needs an interface refresh, dropped its WAN connection coming back from reboot several times, and gets fairly hot after only a few hours of uptime.

Specs and Design
?D-Link's latest Amplifi series routers all look so much alike, when I get a new one I think, "Didn't I review this already?" It's got the black, attractive housing of its other Amplifi Media routers, with a high gl0ss casing (the only smudge-resistant high-gloss casing on a device I've tested) and a herringbone-like decorative overlay on the top of the case.

This dual-band 802.11n router features D-Link's HD Fuel QoS technology, as well as its SharePoint Cloud capability for remotely accessing content from an attached USB drive or from an SD card. Yes, D-Link retains its unique feature of offering an SD card slot. There are also four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a USB 3.0 port.

Setup
The device ships with a CD marked "Start Here." Start the CD, and a wizard opens up. The wizard checks the state of the network adapter on the device you are using to configure the router and for Internet connectivity. Setup walks you through connecting the router.?

You can enable CAPTCHA to secure access to the router's management interface and Advanced Domain Name services purported to enhance your Internet experience.? The setup connection instructions get a bit weird as they have users connect the LAN ports to the setup computer and then to the WAN. I recommend always establishing the connection from a DSL or cable modem first to the WAN port and then connect the LAN.

The setup instructions do work, however, in getting the router up and running.? Annoyingly, when you are in the final stages of setup, you are asked to install the Google Toolbar (although it's optional). After setup, the browser opens to D-link's product registration page and you are done. As an alternative to setting up the device with a computer, you can use D-Link's QRS Mobile device to set up from an iPad or iPhone.

Managing the DIR-857
D-Link's management UI has not changed much in several years, but there are added features with the Amplifi line, such as support for IPV6 and options such as guest network, access control, and content filtering.? Parental controls are offered through a choice of three services: Advanced DNS, (which is more for protection against security threats such as phishing), and OpenDNS' Family Shield and Parental Controls services.

More advanced capabilities include: QoS, virtual servers and DDNS and application rules.
You can use a ?Web browser to remotely access files on an SD card or on USB storage by enabling Web file access.? By default, access is provided through port 8181.? Shareport Web Access lets you upload and access multimedia files and documents.

Making any significant change in the router interface requires a 60 second full reboot. As if that wasn't irritating enough, I also noticed a few times after coming back from reboot that the WAN connection was not enabled. I could not get Internet access during these times without an additional hard reboot of the router?making the reboot time feel extra-long.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/dbSeMu7B3wg/0,2817,2406544,00.asp

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