New D-link Dir-857 Wireless N900 Router Vs Linksys E4200v2

By Author: Ki Grinsing
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D-Link introduces new ultimate speed of wireless N900 router - Dir-857. This is a new router introduction and at the same time Linksys introduces new version of Linksys E4200V2 which is also powered by N900 technology. What makes Dir-857 different than other wireless N900 routers?

The wireless technology grows very fast since the introduction of draft 802.11n wireless technology. Mostly wireless manufacturers adopt this draft version of the wireless technology into their wireless devices and shipped them into the market with the “future of wireless technology” label.

Today the wireless technology leaps higher and higher, from the wireless G technology with the maximum speed of 54Mbps to the ultimate speed of wireless N900 with the maximum speed of up to 450Mbps each band. This means the total bandwidth of both bands is up to 900Mbps ideally. What a high leap?

Currently not many wireless routers are powered by the wireless N900 technology. D-link with its Dir-857 HD router is one of them. And surprisingly, Linksys which is one of the leading networking manufacturers doesn’t introduce new wireless router ...
... which is powered by N900 technology with new name something like Linksys E4500 or something. But Linksys introduces new version of E4200 router with N900 technology, the E4200V2. Users which are loyal to Linksys expect that Linksys introduces completely new product like what Netgear does. Netgear offers Wndr4000 wireless routers and not for a while it also ships the Wndr4500 wireless N900 router into the market with more features including the embedded two USB ports to let you share both storage and printer together. It sounds good to support your “work and play” environment.

Back to Dir-857, what makes this router is different than other wireless N900 routers such as Linksys E4200V2? All high performance wireless routers support gigabit Ethernet ports for their LAN and WAN interfaces including both routers. And both routers also support UPnP media server with DLNA compliant. They also support guest network feature to let you create separate network to respect your visitors to gain internet access without compromising your network resources. So what is the main different between D-link Dir-857 and Linksys E4200V2?

The main different is that Dir-857 includes one USB 3.0 port while Linksys E4200V2 includes one USB 2.0 port. Theoretically, the USB 3.0 speed is 4.8Gbps which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 speed (480Mbps). USB 3.0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0 based devices, so you don’t need to worry about incompatibility issues with your existing USB 2.0 based devices.

Is USB 3.0 feature is the only reason you choose Dir-857? If you demand the speed of USB 3.0 port to transfer huge data for your high speed business applications, this is the ideal router to meet your business. But if you require hosting both storage and printer together, no requirement of purchasing separate wireless print-server, probably Wndr4500 is your ideal solution. Or you may also consider Asus RT-N56U black diamond wireless router, but Asus is N600 wireless router which is theoretically slower than Dir-857 or Linksys E4200V2.

Both D-link Dir857 and Linksys E4200V2 are high performance wireless simultaneous dual band gigabit routers with N900 technology. You may also consider Wndr4500 N900 wireless router with two USB ports. By Ki Grinsing – an MCSE-CCNA engineer.