SEEPEYU

D-Link Xtreme N Dual Band Router

Bought popcorn hour a few days ago, really great Network Media Tank that can pretty much play any format you throw at it, even HD. If you don’t have a Gigabit router (10/100/1000) or Wireless N at home, you will probably see choppy images, constant stuttering, pauses, and even audio gets out of sync when trying to stream HD media.

That’s when I purchased the D-Link Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit Router DIR-825. File transfer rate between computers increased incredibly, mostly via ethernet cable (not so impressive via Wireless N). This gave me the edge on streaming videos at home. I can stream HD to my Popcorn Hour device hooked up to my hdtv, stream another HD video onto my laptop, and play some music on Sonos, all while navigating the internet without a hitch!

It has great security features such as Access Control, Website Filters, predetermined usage hours, data transmission and receiving monitors, MAC address filtering, WPA/WPA2/WEP security, Virtual Servers for Web Servers, and a whole lot of useful features if your into tweaking! It even allows you to create a “sister” wireless network separate or in conjunction with your own so that you can allow “guests” the privilege of using your internet connection, stick in a portal and even make em pay $ for access! (Don’t know if that’s legal, maybe someone can clarify that for me since I see everyone does it and no one seems to care)

The bad side of this router is that the wireless router does not have that great of a range. There are still some parts of my house (try third floor) where the signal is weak (even compared to when I had my Linksys WRT54G, which pretty much covered my whole house). Price a little steep, but you can find it at Tiger Direct for around $129.00 (Price subject to change due to promotions/etc).