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[Vemmef]

I have a DIR-825 that has this feature and a secondary DIR-655 (that just bit the dust) that does as well, and as older models are impossible to find at retail I was going to buy a DIR-815 to replace it, as the DIR-835 has serious issues. But I can't seem to find the "Access Control" feature in the 1.00 DIR-815 firmware emulator (strange because even the low-end DIR-600/601 has it) and I am hoping that a firmware update has added this back in.

The Access Control feature is under the Advanced tab, right overtop of Website Filter option in the left margin. If anyone with the latest firmware (or any newer firmware that supports it) could confirm/deny the presence of "Access Control" in the DIR-815 I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

[FurryNutz]

I see that this option is even missing in the user manual so I presume this could have been an intentional removal of this particular option from this model router. I recommend that you phone contact DLink support directly and ask about this so you can get information on this before you decide to make a purchase.

The DIR-835 I had last year as pretty good. I did notice that WiFi was not as good as some other model routers however may have been fixed in the most recent release.

I'm currently using a DIR-836L and has been very good since it's been online. It does have Access Control options and if you are in the U.S., it's available at Newegg on sale for $60. A nice price for a dual band router with Storage, cloud and other nice features.

Let us know what they say.

[Vemmef]

Thanks for the info and since I can't get the N750 DIR-836L in Canada, my backup is the N600 DIR-826L which does seem to have the features I need.

My first choice would be the DIR-835 but there have been so many horror stories about it online, with the hardware dying within a few weeks/months that I am really hesitant to buy it right now. It's really the proper upgrade path from a DIR-825/655 but the mortality rate is scary.

[FurryNutz]

I would recommend checking out the 826L. Seems very solid. I'm still using it out of the box using v1.01 and have not upgraded it. I may eventually to test. Understand your concerns about the 835. If your wanting faster WiFi connection between your devices and router, like 450Mb? Then you might try the DIR-857. Solid router. I enjoy mine.

One thing to consider, if you live near other WiFi routers in your area, say 5 or more, could run in to WiFi congestion on 2.4Ghz. So yes, if you can get into any 8 Series router so you do have a path away from some problems on 2.4Ghz radio, you'll be good.

Not sure about your WiFi needs and all, there are other routers coming out this spring from DLink. Not sure what your time frame is or price range is. Also not sure what will be available in Canada vs the U.S. however we seem to get similar models mostly.

Let us know how it goes. We hope you can help you in the best way.

[Vemmef]

RE: new models in Spring

I know what you mean and that's why I was hoping the cheaper/on sale DIR-815 would have the Access Control feature as that would be a good stop-gap solution for a year or so before I upgraded my DIR-825 and then transitioned it as the secondary router in the house.

But the DIR-655 blowing a fuse or two has got me shopping a bit faster than I anticipated.

P.S. I did call D-Link and about all they can say is that it was not in the initial firmware or the emulator, so there is no guarantee it will be in the updated firmware. The only reason I'm asking is that Access Control has been added to other countries and is now present in non-North American firmware, so I was hoping the latest 03/01/2013 firmware might have added it as well.

[FurryNutz]

Is there any store or company up there that has a refund policy? If so, you could get a 815 and load v1.03 and see.
Problems Resolved:
1. Change band width default setting from HT20 to HT20/40 auto.
2. Fix wrong data rate issue.
3. Fix error message issue when enable/disable QoS engine. The setting can not be saved.
4. Enhanced WPS WPS-PIN security concern.
I don't see anything related to Access Control however they have been known to fix things and not mention it in the release notes. 

If not, then get a refund. Even test a DIR-826L if they have them in stock.

How is the 655 blowing a fuse? Can you explain this a bit more? What Rev HW is this 655?

[Vemmef]

So, assuming that the DIR-815 does not support Access Control, here are my replacement choices right now that feature Access Control, with current retail pricing:

DIR-655 - $59.99 CAD
DIR-826L - $69.99 CAD
DIR-835 - $89.99 CAD

Best choice?

Also, how does the DIR-826L compare to the DIR-825? They seem very similar in features and options.

BTW, the 'blown fuse' was just my way of saying the old DIR-655 was DOA and is the reason I was shopping for a replacement, but as it's secondary I don't want to pay a lot right now.

[FurryNutz]

Ah ok. Was curious what the 655 was doing. DOA could be a couple of things.

I would see if you could get a one at a place that offers a refund policy, some so and you can use the router for like 30 days before returning it. I think I helped my father in law get his DIR-628 years ago at Staples or OfficeMax, Can remember the place in Victoria BC. I think they had at the time refund policy.

I think your best best would be to try one out if you can do this and see how it works. If your concerned about the 835 and it's problems I would not go with it unless you just want to try one out. They have released FW for it since last year so I don't know if it's improved or not. I had mine for only 30 days then sent it back. I do have the other 2 routers and are solid routers.

Just be aware that other variables can cause routers to not work well, external conditions, set up and configuration. We are here to help in anyway in that regard to help you gain the best experience with your DLink products as best as we can. Please let us know if we can help you out there.

[Vemmef]

Obviously anywhere I will buy it (Futureshop, Best Buy, Staples, etc.) will have a full return policy and I just wondered if anyone has any recommendations for the best fit from those, assuming I want similar-to-DIR-825 features and performance.

I could easily buy 20 different routers, try them all out and return the other 19, but I don't want to abuse store policies like that and would prefer to narrow it down before making a selection. If it doesn't fit my needs then I will return it but I'd rather not take a shotgun approach right off the bat.

BTW, why did you return the DIR-835 and how does the DIR-836L or 826L compare to it in terms of wireless performance? Also, are there more internal antennas in the 836L vs the 826L?

Thanks for all the help.

[FurryNutz]

Understand.

All 8 series routers are and do have the same features and performance of the 825. Dual banders. Newer generation routers do have a few more features than the 825 does like storage or cloud. However the antenna configuration is different on the newer 8 series, the Cylindrical looking routers:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=51380.0

I haven't opened my 826L to confirm if the antenna configuration is the same as the 645 however I presume it's very similar to the 645, just in a smaller case.

As you can see at towards the bottom of this linked page:
http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/connect/routers/dir-826l-cloud-gigabit-router-n600
It gives the differences between these model routers. Pay close attention to the row with WiFi Speed. This is the actual connection speeds between the router and devices that is possible. Not actual file xfer speeds, thats a different animal. So if you have supporting WiFi adapters, you should see WiFi connection speeds at 300Mb, UP and DOWN on 2.4 and 5Ghz. As you can see, the other higher model routers can do a faster connection with devices, however, please understand that your devices need to support the faster connections, so newer devices can or some don't. Please check with the Mfr of the devices to see what they can officially support. Also some devices can be updated or connected in a way that you can use the faster connections speeds by using upgraded devices like DAP or DWA products. This is just information for you.

Can we can you what are you network needs that you want in a router. Maybe if we can get some idea about your needs, we can better help you figure out what is best for you and maybe also future proof your network as well. Any gaming, video streaming, large file xfers from places or torrenting, things like that and what are your WiFi needs?

I returned the 835 due to that I already had the 857 which does about the same on WiFi connections speeds, 450 UP and DOWN on both 2.4 and 5Ghz where the 825 only did 450Mb on 5Ghz and 300 on 2.4Ghz if I remember correctly. So was not advantageous for me to keep the router. I mainly wanted to experience the 835 due to others in your regional complaining out this router and not being able to watch youtube videos. It got to the point where I wanted to see if this was a regional ISP or HW problem. I got one and of course could not reproduce the problem here in the U.S. So we deemed it a problem between the ISP and this model router. Turned out it was a setting on the router that just needed to be disabled, was not a HW problem persae, since the ISP was not support IPv6 and this router does. Other than the WiFi not being as good as the 857, I really didn't see a lot of issues with the 835 and figured that with FW updates, it would improve and be a great router as the rest. I don't know for sure if FW has improved on it or not.

Yes the 8 series L routers are all internal antennas and follow the DIR-645 antenna configuration. I have been enjoying the 826L very well and do mostly gaming on wired connections however I need to go back and reset the wireless connections. I don't recommend gaming or video streaming on wireless since both can be bandwidth hogs and it's my personal preference. However, I do understand that not everyone can run CAT 6 LAN cables all over the place so I try to test and real live wifi gaming and video streaming when I can. I'm currently testing a DIR-657 for WiFi performance. Then I'm going back to the 826L, this week I hope.

[Vemmef]

Well I am running on a newly setup DIR-826L right now and so far it seems pretty snappy and wifi connections work as I would expect.

The only issue was that for some reason this router needs cookies enabled to log-in, I kept trying and trying and the web interface would just reboot until I allowed the 198.xxx url to my cookie list. Weird, as I have owned maybe 10-12 D-Link routers and never had a problem logging in with my current (high) security settings.

[FurryNutz]

What browser are you using? I use Safari, Opera and FF on Mac and IE, Opera and FF on Windows and don't see any issues with logging in. What FW is currently loaded?

Nice little router isn't it?

[Vemmef]

I am running Firefox 15 with cookies disabled and it refused to initialize the log-in until after I enabled cookies for the router's IP/URL. When I logged in, it would load the first page, then reload the log-in screen over and over and over. Firmware 1.01, updated now to 1.03

Then I enabled cookies and it loaded no problem. I disable cookies and it goes back to reloading the login page.

I also just checked my Firefox cookies and bingo, there is a 'HasLogin" cookie listed for 192.168.0.1 - lol

[FurryNutz]

Cookies have to be enabled for accessing the UI I believe.

[Vemmef]

Cookies have to be enabled for accessing the UI I believe.

Not in the past and certainly not for the DIR-655 or DIR-825. This has to be a recent change as I go way back with D-Link routers and this is the first time I had a problem. Probably something to do with the Cloud feature, right, as there is no logical reason to have your hardware router spitting out cookies.

This kind of requirement should really be in the Quick Install/etc. documentation as with all the online scams, phishing and other stuff going on, there are more and more people with high security settings on their browsers, and may return the router thinking it's defective.

And I also should note that other than that little hiccup the DIR-826L has performed quite well and I tested it on iPods/iPads, Xbox/PS3/Wii game consoles, WDTV/Asus/AIOS media players, a D-Link Wireless N bridge, laptops, netbooks, HP wireless printers, etc. and it worked perfectly.

2.4GHz Wireless-N compatibility and performance is about the same, but the ability to link to the 5GHz SID is much better than the DIR-825 and compatibility is enhanced. All the Ipad Minis work great (as usual) at 5GHz as do other stable Wireless-N devices, but two of them were trouble with older routers, a new Acer Netrabook and an old Touchpad, were quite finicky about linking to the 5Ghz channel of the DIR-825, but both linked up quick, and with excellent reception, to the DIR-826L. Nice range too, which was my main concern with these "tube" routers.