Recently I wrote about my frustrations with the several WRT-54G Linksys routers I have bricked and suffered through over the past few years. I've been on a search for a good replacement. A number of people have recommended sticking with the Linksys hardware, but since I have been through a few of them, I really just wanted to make a change. My friend Omar and a few others suggested the D-link routers, specifically the ones that do QoS traffic shaping for a variety of network services. Those people using the D-Link Platinum series routers spoke so highly of them, I decided to look at them seriously and decide which one would be best for me. Omar uses a model that is billed as a gaming router and he loves it.

While at Costco earlier today, I discovered they were stocking a Pre-N "RangeBooster" wireless router, the D-Link DIR-625 model. I saw that it had the QoS engine that people were heralding, and being a -N model it has some future to it, which is nice. Omar had noted to me that these routers have the ability to be configured and tweaked in fine detail right out of the box (in other words the firmware you get on the thing is incredibly capable and sufficiently detailed for advanced users), and he was certainly right. You can granularly configure almost anything you can think of. The device will even email you when system events occur or when a new firmware upgrade is available, if you want it to. Quite cool.

I have been up and running with it all evening and am very, very happy. My wireless network connection is now rock-solid and the user interface for the router is top-notch. Not once has the network paused, glitched, dropped or otherwise puked on itself, which is quite a change. I could get used to this, heh.

You can check out an online emulator of the DIR-625 router's web interface here (use a blank password). Product information can be found here. The support and firmware page for this model is here.

Setup was quick and easy, simple enough for anyone due to good packaging and a CD-wizard driven installation routine. This router is highly recommended for both home users and geeks.

UPDATE: 1/15/2007 - I have been running the router for about a week now with exactly zero problems. This thing is as solid as a rock and shapes traffic quite well. I should have made this move long ago.