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D-Link Wireless Range Extender (DAP-1320) Review

technologyEdward Kiledjian
Manufacturer description:
  • Extend the range of your existing network
  • Easy setup with the touch of a button
  • Delivering up to 300Mbps wireless performance
  • Universally works with any Wi-Fi device

 

 

Why do I need the DAP-1320 wireless range extender?

In my never-ending search to blanket my entire house with beautiful, warm and comforting WIFI, I decided to test the D-Link DAP-1320 Network Range Extender.  

A WIFI wireless Range extender is an easy way to push WIFI connectivity to every corner of your house without having to pass wiring.

How is the device? 

The device is very small and comfortably fits in a power socket without impeding the use of the second socket on the plug. I like the design as it is small, with soft curved lines that easily blend into your decor (aka it doesn’t stick out). There is one button on the left side of the adapter that is used to pair devices with it or to configure the adapter to connect to your existing router via WPS. There is a small LED indicator light on the front.

The device can be configured using any device but comes pre-configured out of the box so it is almost plug and play. The device comes with 2 built in 2.4GHZ wireless antennas and supports up to 300Mbps. 

My tests 

 

In order to test the device, I moved my internet router to the corner top floor of my 3 story house and made sure I couldn’t get a signal in the basement. I used a WIFI analyzer to ensure the signal wasn’t coming in.

 

I then installed the DAP-1320 on the mid-level (almost in the exact middle of the floor) and went through the 5 minute configuration process using WPS. I then went to the same location in the basement and now had a signal from the wireless range extender (with its original Dlink SSID).  

My internet connection is a 30 Mbps down / 3 Mbps up via cable. My router is a Thomson DCM475 (Docsis 3.0). I tested the DAP-1320 connecting to different routers including a :

 

  • Linksys wrt54g (802.11g router running DD-WRT)
  • Engenius ESR9850 (802.11n router with stock firmware)
  • Belkin N450 DB (802.11n router with stock firmware) 

End devices I used for testing include:

 

  • iPhone 4
  • iPhone 4s
  • Nexus 7
  • 4 year old Lenovo laptop
  • 2 year old Dell laptop
  • A desktop using a dual band 802.11n (with dual antennas) 

In every one of my tests, the DAP-1320 wireless range extender quickly connected to the router and started repeating the signal within 5 minutes. The Linksys WRT54g with its weaker 802.11g was the worst performer but that is due to the wireless G technology and not the repeater. Connected to the e N routers, the DAP-1320 delivered clean and responsive performance.

I have tested a couple of WIFI wireless range extenders and this one isn’t the most powerful but provided good enough signal for internet browsing or streaming audio. Speed tests showed that close to the device (on the same floor), I was able to get 85% of my internet connections full speed. When I went to the far corner in the basement, the speed dropped to 55-70% of my internet connection speed.

If you intend to use it as a repeater with the default DLINK SSID  with WPS, anyone can configure it in 5-10 minutes with no issues. The provided instructions are clear and easy to understand. If you want to play with the configuration of the device however, you will need to be a little more technical as you may encounter some small glitches while connecting to the device or changing configurations.

Verdict

 

Overall I liked this little device and recommend it for most users. It is small, easy to configure out of the box (with default configurations) and will definitely fix your WIFI weakness issues. You can use the same SSID as your main router but for that you will have to log into the device with a computer and change the configuration.

 

  • WIFI Signal Strengh: 6.5/10
  • Ease of use out of the box: 8/10
  • Ease to customize device: 7/10
  • Overall Score : 7.5/10

D-Link PowerLine AV+ Mini Adapter Starter Kit (DHP-309AV) Review

technologyEdward Kiledjian

WIFI Convenient but slow

WIFI is a wonderful thing and makes our lives that much easier. Even with the latest and greatest technologies, WIFI is often slow and unreliable compared to a wired network. Interesting real world tests conducted by Epitiro show that a WIFI connection is on average 30 percent slower than a wired one.

You're not going to wire your iphone, Android or ipad and browsing the web on WIFI works well enough but the minute you start playing games, streaming video, using HD video chatting or other service that requires low latency high bandwidth connectivity, you'll feel the pain of WIFI.

Start passing the wires

If your lucky enough to build your new house, you may be able to wire every room with nice and reliable Category 6 cable. You can then route all the cables to one central location and interconnect everything with a gigabit switch.

But most of us won't be building a new home anytime soon and making holes in perfectly good walls and floors is out of the question.

Enter Powerline adapters

Powerline adapters are small little devices that plug into your electrical outlets and use your house's existing electrical wiring to transmit data. Powerline networks aren't as fast as a direct wired Ethernet network but they are the next best thing. There are various models currently available but you should expect between 200Mbps up to 500Mbps networking performance.

Even the slowest name brand powerline adapter will provide enough bandwidth to play games, transfer large files and stream high quality video. It will provide wireless coverage anywhere you have a power plug and in most cases will be much faster (and more reliable) than your WIFI setup.

Dlink PowerLine AV+ Mini Adapter Starter Kit (DHP-309AV)

Looking a the box, I thought the adapters would be huge but I was oh so wrong. These adapters are small and light. Installation couldn't have been easier. I plugged both adapters into separate power outlets, I then pressed the little button on the bottom of the first adapter, I then pressed the button on the bottom of the second adapter and within 2 minutes I had setup a secure network connection between these 2 adapters.

It's important to note that these adapters should be plugged directly into the wall without a power adapter, no extension cords or other line conditioner. It is also recommended that you not plug these next to a power hungry appliance. Otherwise you shouldn't experience any issues.

Click on the image to see the full size one in a new window.

My test

At first I was going to test it for a couple of days and write my review but I had such a wonderful experience, I decided to do a longer 3 week test instead.

My internet connection at home is fiber to the house with 16Mmbps down and 8Mbps up. When plugged into the main router, my speed is always constant with only 8ms latency and I always hit the advertised speed.

I conducted WIFI tests with an Engius, Linksys, Apple Airport Extreme and the WIFI built into my fiber router. All wireless routers were configured into a forced 801.11n mode and I chose a channel with very little interference. Most devices were MIMO with multiple antennas.

My test devices were a laptop, desktop with gigabit Ethernet adapter, iphone 4, iphone 4s and an ipad. I tested my internet speed on each of these devices using all of the Wireless routers (only 1 router was online at a time so as not to create interference). My first tests were conducted in the same room, then I move one floor up/down and the last test was from the basement.

The best performance was when I was in the same room as the router and I was very close to wired performance. The next test from 1 floor up/down showed good degradation and my speeds were almost half or worse. The last test from the basement was the worst with speeds less than a quarter of wired.

I then placed one of the powerline adapters next to the router and went to the furthest point in the house (based on location and wiring layout). I then plugged my laptop and desktop (separately) and conducted my tests. I started with a speedtest. Then I tested transferring large (2-20GB files). I also played latency sensitive internet using games. My last test was streaming an mkv super high quality video file from my server to a set top box. Everything worked flawlessly and everything was super speedy. The powerline setup added a 15% latency (negligible). Tests to and from the internet delivered the full capacity of my internet connection. Transfers from my laptop to my desktop where happening at speeds of between 120Mbps to 178Mbps (these adapters have been designed for 200Mbps).

As for latency, WIFI game me 30-100ms of latency whereas the powerline adapters were 12-15 ms (with a wired connection into the router I get 8ms)

I lent these to a friend who connected his Xbox 360 to the internet and everything worked perfectly. No lag or slowdowns. No degradation. It just worked.

Comparing to others

I compared the performance of the Dlink to other 200Mbps rated powerline adapters from Tenda, TP Link and Trendnet. Dlink seemed to outperform its competitors by 8-17%. Dlink really shined when I started streaming HD video. Some of the others caused the stream to buffer whereas the stream powered by DLink was consistently fast and smooth.

Considering the others are sold at almost the same price, Dlink seems to be the better investment.

Purchasing them

Doing a quick internet search, Americans can pick these up from Amazon for about $49. Canadians can scoop up a pair from FutureShop for $69.