Review on 📶 D-Link DIR-645 Wireless-N Whole-Home Router (Discontinued by Manufacturer) by Timothy Cole

[EDIT 1/26/2013] Unfortunately I have some issues with this router that are important enough, I've removed them two stars, in fact it is currently bricked up. Some important information I found out afterwards is that there are strange firmware update recommendations for this device. I wouldn't normally recommend updating the firmware, but post-purchase, I found a few items that were important enough to warrant attempting a firmware update. One of the main reasons I bought this was because I shared media on my network. Unfortunately, converting this device into an iTunes media sharing device resulted in the crash - several other built-in tweaks resulted in the same result. Apparently I've found that updating firmware through Firefox (on Windows) and Safari on Mac is recommended. You should always back up your settings, but I've found that D-Link also recommends factory resetting the device before updating - this is a very strange prompt as the firmware update process should factory reset the device on its own . It seems to me that if standard browsers and settings are enough to mess up the firmware, it's important enough that the firmware comes with a "read me" file that contains these instructions, or the process shouldn't be be published as is. [END EDIT] When I ordered this product, it was ordered earlier - with an estimated delivery time of 2-5 days from the day I write this. Amazing - it arrived yesterday so I set it up yesterday too. I also set up the software for a connected Western Digital My Book Essential USB 2.0 1TB external hard drive and it works great on my Mac and PC - iTunes took care of the media sharing right away. I have several devices at home. a network not connecting to my previous router - the devices connected to it are not causing any problems and the router reports a connection of 94% or higher. In short, here is a summary. reinvented the meditation room of Dalek or Darth Vader) Easy procedure for initial setup Fairly easy setup for wireless Very easy to update firmware! (I suspect one of the bugs wouldn't have been an issue if I'd updated the firmware first) Connected to *all* my WiFi devices (including two known WiFi connection issues) Bad: Manual setup didn't work the first time - required going through the setup wizard and going back to manual controls to tweak a setting or two - it's hard to deduct more than 1/4 star as it was easily fixed (firmware issue?) Not suitable for wall mounting - ie do I need to get a shelf or make a hanger for it (I knew this was happening so I'm not taking the stars off). iTunes media sharing crashes the device along with some other built-in features even though advanced firmware update settings locked the device. I'll keep updating this as I run into issues, downtime/dropouts when trying to connect more devices or set up connections to specific devices on the network (port forwarding etc.). While I didn't do "real testing," the few video streams I watched actually buffered faster and had fewer crashes on my old Roku. . The real test will come when I start streaming to multiple devices and migrate the entire network and run it entirely from that device.