DIR 880L Dual-Band AC1900 Gigabit Cloud Router Review. If you’re looking for a high speed consumer router with easy set up, performance and price to boot, the DLink DIR 880L Dual-Band AC1900 Gigabit Cloud Router is an excellent choice for your home for under $200.
The DIR 880L gives you a smooth and stabile WiFi experience with excellent speeds and range. The added ability to run dual band allows you to enhance the speed and performance of any device that can take advantage of the AC1900 standard.
Hardware specs
The dual band AC1900 connectivity utilizes both a 5GHz and 2.4GHz frequency to provide blazing speeds for those end devices that support the protocol. If you need a AC1900 compatible receiver for your pc or laptop, the AC1200 Dual Band USB Adapter is nice and easy to snap into your laptop and stash it in your pocket for travel.
I prefer the traditional flat table top router style of the DIR 880L, it’s low profile and sleek. I’m not a big fan of the experimental shapes, upright standing or cylindrical styles like on the DLink DIR-868L router. The router features 3 high-gain antennae for maximum signal recognition. On the left side of the unit is the 1x USB 3 port, on the rear we find 4 Gigabit LAN ports, 1x USB 2 port, and across the front 6 indicator LEDs. IEEE 802.11ac/n/g/b/a, IEEE 802.3/u.
Zero Configuration Setup
Setting up the router is as simple as it can be with DLink’s Zero Configuration setup. Simply plug and play, it’s all pre-configured for you to use, or use the easy setup wizard. Enter the default credentials on your wireless device using the sticker provided. Although it’s good practice to personalize your SSID and password as soon as possible. Our typical office connection was swift and easy to set up. The router’s configuration settings can be as hands off or complex as you like it to be. If you need to set up some of the more advanced router settings you can log into your router’s default ip address 192.168.0.1.
If you’ve been a user of DLinks routers in the past, you’ll be happy to see (or maybe not) a completely new UI from what you are accustomed to. I love the new interface, however admittedly having a difficult time remembering where everything is. You’ll get used to it like everything else. The interface is streamlined with a fresh new look and new options; your home screen is a sitemap of your network, easy to read and see what devices are connected. Settings, Features and Management buttons are where you’ll find all of router settings pages and advanced options you are used to seeing.
Router Features and Performance
The mydlink lite app lets you administer your network remotely. You can download the Mydlink SharePort app which gives you access to any external drive/s you have connected to your DIR 880L via the available USB ports. Utilizing the drive, you’ll have to be patient as whatever drive you have connected will take a few min to index and mount for you to see remotely. This can be somewhat frustrating if you intended accessing files often while your on the road; still, in a pinch it can still come in handy, but once you are connected you’ll find some decent speeds provided your using the USB 3.0 port, a USB 3.0 drive and your home internet line is decent.
We had 10 various devices, tablets, phones, computers utilizing the router over time and am pleased with the stabile performance. Range on the DIR 880L is great. We are able to connect at greater speeds at higher signal strength on both the 2.4Hz and 5GHz bands, though the 2.4Ghz band seemed to offer a bit stronger signal than the 5GHz band individually.
You will typically not see the full 1,900mbps on as this is the peak measurement; up to 600mbps on the 2.4 frequency and up to 1,300mbps on the 5Ghz band. Performance using the AC1900 dual band is excellent even though we are using the AC1200 Dual Band USB Adapter. It obviously, cannot use the entire boost in dual band speed but I’ll take stability over a few more mbps any day of the week. The range of the signal and performance will vary depending on your surrounding structure as with any wireless device but you’ll no doubt be happy with the extra speed.
We also tested the DIR 880L’s wireless bridge capability. We are successfully, with some ip juggling able to utilize the connection from a wireless mobile hotspot using the DIR 880L and DIR 868L in tandem. The setup isn’t ideal for most, but the ability to utilize a hotspot connection, effectively making your wired devices into wireless devices, can come in handy. In wireless bridge mode we’re able to utilize the DHCP from the wireless hotspot’s internal router so once setup, it’s still easy to use for you.
Conclusion
Stabile performance with some of the best connection speeds we’ve seen available at the consumer level at sub $200.It’s not the fastest AC1900 router out there and isn’t the most advanced but that will not matter for many since it is also less expensive than other AC1900 routers. Remote administration and personal cloud file sharing functionality offer some great convenience for those who are looking for inexpensive options for personal cloud sharing.
The DLink DIR 880L Dual-Band AC1900 Gigabit Cloud Router is solid and offers you excellent speeds, great range, easy setup, at a competitive price.
DIR 880L Dual-Band Gigabit Cloud Router available for $189.99
from www.dlink.com
