Upgrading WiFi to 802.11n with the Dlink DIR-655 Wireless Router with Gigabit switch
Mar 6th, 2008 by Dave
I’ve switched over to working from home, and so one of the first things I did was to upgrade my WiFi to 802.11n (draft). I picked up a Dlink DIR-655 from Costco for $120 and got it up and running with the Intel Centrino 4965AGN WiFi card in my Dell D830 laptop. There is a USB connector on the back; looks like you should be able to connect a USB printer or a drive to it but - and this isn’t documented very well at all - this connector is just to be able to plug in a USB key and make a backup of your settings.
I first tried the Linksys WRT350N router (I’ve been a fan of Linksys since the WRT54G days and have a couple of those) but couldn’t get the WAN port hooked up. After spending about 1/2 an hour with Linksys support trying seemingly random config changes, we never could get the WAN port to work so I returned it. Some additional research turned up reviews saying that some wireless routers are incompatible with Centrino but the Dlink DIR-655 was; other reviews and testing showed the DIR-655 to be fastest around in the price range. After tinkering with the configuration settings, I’m getting a pretty consistent 130 Mbps with my connection (WPA2 / AES). My old Thinkpad T41 had intermittent connection problems when I was running the router in mixed mode (802.11 n + g); some complaints about a certificate not being available. I chalk that up to the encryption I’m using; not necessarily a router problem. Previously I had been using WEP (I know, not that secure but good enough for our neighborhood) and never had issues with that. The solution I came up with was to put my old WRT54G (actually WRT54GS) as an access point (AP) on the network and configure the old laptop to connect to that so both laptops have dedicated APs and I can configure the Dlink for n only. So far, that configuration is working pretty well. Configuring the WRT54G (flashed with DD-WRT) is pretty straightforward; you just change the IP to a different one that your new router, switch from DHCP server to DHCP forwarder and point to your main router, and then connect not the WAN port on the back but a LAN port on the back to your network. With current technology, you shouldn’t need a crossover cable but if you’re doing this with older equipment you may need one. I did the initial config by connecting a laptop directly to the router with a crossover cable. Works like a charm!
Nice thing about having the WRT54G flashed with DD-WRT on the network is that you have access to all the DD-WRT capabilities like running cron jobs and you don’t have to leave a desktop running.
