DLink DIR-836L

I saw this hot deal (a DLink DIR-836L Wireless N750 Dual Band Gigabit Router, 4 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Ports under US $16 -- after a $10 Adorama mail -in rebate). S/H will ONLY be free if total order is $49. So, either get two units (which rebate allows) or pay for S/H ($6.90). Anyway, I searched through Google and did not find more information that has been mentioned in this link, i.e. Ralink RT6856 CPU (clock?), Mini PCI slots, but no RAM/FLASH capacity. I wonder if its Mini PCI slots has already been preoccupied by a WiFi board or is still available. If it is still available and with plenty of RAM, I think this router can be a good candidate to hack into a very inexpensive NAS by adding a Mini PCI SATA board. What do you all think?

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No, don't get it. For $50 elsewhere you can get one great(er) router that will accept OpenWRT and/or DD-WRT.

It's your decision, and right now before Thanksgiving is that sweet spot for low prices between now and Black Friday week. Because whatever you get for $50 now, you'll get a spare for cheap down the road.

Either way you're looking at pros and cons. Pros rock :-)

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Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2015 04:37PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Thanks Joey and I will let it pass. But, if it goes under US $10 (even after rebates), I will grab some.

It's still a good deal at $16, and I don't mind the D-Link firmware which (on my DIR-857) require a reboot most times you change anything. Another point of buying or denying would be, if the WAN connection lets the LAN traffic hum along at Gigabit if that WAN only offers 100Mbps (my DSL does that to me). Some routers take it all down to 100Mbps. My D-Link seems to have an internal Atheros switch for whatever is plugged-in LAN. And jumbo frames, again if it'll do that and do the independent switch thing, that's a great deal.

Tough call; if you do decide to pounce, at least someone else (me) has a D-link, and I'm happy with mine. But we can't run 3rd party firmware (that I know of).

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2015 04:14PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Until I know the capacity of its RAM/FLASH, I would let it go. I just don't feel like to use this device with its stock firmware, especially most reviews are bad. Despite all bad reviews, I had bought some refurbished Netgear WGT634U WiFi routers back in 2006 from a CrapUSA online store. It was well supported under OpenWRT and I managed to use for a few years as my PBX System (running on a vanilla asterisk) until I got a Seagate DockStar. It had been solidly serving my VoIP needs.

BTW, I wasn't aware of internal speed gets dropped to 100 Mbps if the WAN connection drops to 100 Mbps. I reckon this probably explains why the transfer speed from my Linux desktop computer to my Seagate GoFLEX Home through an 8-port giga switch can only sustain 4 MBps (~32 Mbps).

BTW, does anyone here know if this router is supported by debian?

yeah routers take it down, but switches honor the traffic speed. So if a router says it has an internal switch that's good.

And a Gigabit LAN to a switch with 100Mbps router, the switch part is vaguely comparable to an Interstate highway with a ramp leading to a 25 Mph street (Welcome to Router Town). I'm not sure if packets get lost and recreated, or the packets bounce back and forth on the Interstate, but it doesn't change the Interstate and the 25 MPH sign is enforced.

Don't feel bad, I test a LAN product for a respected company and only learned this a year ago! Fortunately it's fine on 100Mbps network as well, so I didn't notice.

This all begs a solution that's easy, some LAN traffic analyzer that I'm currently unaware of. In addition I don't know what happens to Jumbo frames at some point in the LAN > Internet gateway, but it's spiffier when the whole LAN is 9K or thereabouts.

Overall I've been a workstation guy for decades and actually avoided networking because a computer is like a milk jug, and I don't want dirty strangers drinking off it LOL

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2015 01:34PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.