Performance

I’ve got two new Wi-Fi adapters from D-Link that are recommended for use with the DIR-655. One is a PCI card (DWA-552) and the other is a PC Card for a notebook (DWA-652). Both are based on an Atheros chipset, the same as is installed in the DIR-655.

DWA-652

DWA-552

I also had a Wi-Fi adapter for notebooks, Linksys WPC300N, based on an Atheros chipset as well. This gave me the opportunity to perform a compatibility check of Wi-Fi equipment from different manufacturers. I didn’t include the Linksys WRT300N router into this review for the reasons that will be explained shortly. I just want to remind you that this router’s ports are Fast Ethernet only.

Here is a list of equipment and software I used for the tests:

• Two Category 5 Ethernet cables
• Intel Centrino notebook
• Linksys WPC300N PC Card
• D-Link DWA-652 PC Card
• D-Link DWA-552 PCI adapter
• PC based on a mainboard with an integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller
• IxChariot’s High_Performance_Throughput and Throughput (where marked explicitly) scenarios

I tested the DIR-655’s wired interface first. The router’s speed on the local network is indicative of its peak bandwidth.

LAN-LAN:

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The three following tests show the bandwidth on the WAN port. The first two tests were performed when the router’s services were disabled, but I enabled QoS, firewall and inbound filter for the third test. The second test was performed with enabled DMZ.

LAN-WAN:

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WAN-LAN:

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LAN-WAN (loaded):

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It’s hard to evaluate the results without having any point of reference, yet the numbers look good to me, especially the small reduction of the channel bandwidth under load.