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Dlink Xtreme gigabit DIR-655 wireless router


If you are in the market for a wireless router, and you head to your local Costco Warehouse, you won't find a huge selection. My warehouse only carries the Dlink Xtreme Gigabit DIR-655 wireless router (Costco item number 193683). Don't worry, it is an excellent choice at a good price. You can see the detailed description at D-Link. Among the features I found most useful are the Quality of Service (QoS) engine and the port filter scheduling.

In order to remotely monitor our home, I hooked up the Panasonic BL C131A Network Camera Wireless (not available at Costco). However, when the camera was being accessed, our home network became bogged down, making normal web access painfully slow. Also, for privacy reasons, I wanted to make sure no one could access the camera outside of regular working hours, (when I'm home!). The DIR-665 solved both of these problems. I changed the QoS setting for the camera to be a lower priority than normal web browsing, and I only opened the port that the camera uses from 9-5 Monday through Friday.

I did some comparison shopping, and as of May 2008 these were the prices I found for the Dlink DIR-665:

Price $114.99 at my local warehouse
$119.99 at costco.com (free shipping)
$117.99 at amazon.com (free shipping)

$119.99 at newegg.com (free shipping)

My only complaint about the DLink DIR-665 is that the blue LED lights are so bright. At night they light up the whole room. The engineers who design these things need to put a switch, or a plastic cover over the lights. 99% of the time, you don't want to see them.