D-Link AC750 VDSL2+/ADSL2+ Modem Router product reviews

The Dual Band Wireless AC750 Modem router has something to shout about. As well as being UFB ready it is the first router that I have seen to actively recognise VDSL. Most routers are ADSL and it was a really nice surprise to see this router supporting VDSL. I remember talking to Telecom and they had not even heard of VDSL when I was looking to upgrade. Specification rich and with a surprisingly small footprint, read on for what I thought of this device.

The box is about the size of a standard router that you see these days. Gone are the routers that are the size of your fist and all they do is supply 10/100 speeds through 4 RJ45 ports with minimal GUI to work with. Now the routers of today are proudly boasting their footprint as something that you should even put on display with their timeship warp-space lighting an aesthetically pleasing looks. This router is only 200mmx150mmx50mm and 300 grams and comes in a nice grey black finish. The usual sort of colour. Not piano black, not gloss grey.

Setup is extremely easy and only requires you to connect at the bare minimum the phone line and the powerpack. Once you are powered up, configuration can be done one of three ways. Either through the dedicated Lan 1 yellow port on the back, via Wifi or via the app on your phone. 192.168.1.1 is the address to dial in as per usual and once in you will be guided through the setup. Once you have entered your PPPoE User Name and Password you will be good to go. The wizard is very informative and easy. There is a my cloud D Link service setup right at the end also but this can be easily skipped. After this the router will need to be rebooted.

On the outside there are 4 yellow LAN port connections and one gigabit WAN connection for UFB ready ONT. There is a reset hole for a paperclip, a USB connector (which I might add is incorrectly coloured blue as the convention is only USB 3 is blue), and on the left side there is a power button, another USB blue connector labelled USB 1 (which is even more confusing) a 2.4Ghz and a 5Ghz push button for easily enabling and disabling. Along the top you have a full array of lights which I really like. The convention has been to just have one light for power, one for WiFi on and one for xDSL present.

On the AC750 we have from left to right: Power, DSL, Internet (this is a nice one as it shows the connection is made to the PPPoE) then we have the WAN and the 4 LAN connectors all individually lit, the two wireless lan speeds and the USB connectors so you can quickly see what is plugged in there and recognised. The purpose for USB ports is if you want to share data centrally from the router and also if you want to connect a printer and for some reason it does not have a WiFi connection which is virtually unheard of. I personally have never used the USB ports on any router. The other nice thing is that the lights are multi coloured. For example of the connection is only 10/100 they will be yellow and green on gigabit. They will also be flashing if there is data being transferred or red if there is a problem.

For all the features of this modem the one feature that I love to tweak especially when dealing with VDSL is the signal to noise ratio. This is a buffer that is usually set quite roomy to allow for error correction, but the problem is that it sits directly inside the bandwidth of your connection. If you reduce this db even a few decibels you will greatly increase your download speed. I was able to go from high 20's to mid 30's by tweaking this. unfortunately this is not a setting that is readily adjustable but in the underground forums if you look hard enough you can find firmware files to modify.

Boasting 300Mbit/s through 2.4 and 433Mbit/s from the 5Ghz I was skeptical. Through doing some direct line of sight tests and also behind wall tests I was reasonably satisfied with the results. I got around 55ish up and down in direct line of sight but that was fairly close to the router on the 2.4Ghz channel. This jumped up to over 100 using the 5Ghz band. Behind a wall I dropped to about 33ish up and down using 2.4Ghz and about 75ish through the 5Ghz connection. These are great speeds for wireless and should not be sniffled at. Many Power over Ethernet devices using mains wiring effectively can't claim anywhere near these speeds. Speaking of speeds the VDSL supports all the popular profiles even if you will never be put on those profiles at the box on the street. For VDSL you need to be less that 1 kilometer away.

When you consider the price and its usage and consider it is in its own range of devices ranked the lowest of the 4, it is perfect for home or small office use. Mine did not need resetting or reboot or lockup or get too hot running a week solid whereas my other routers have needed daily reboots and if not daily at least every few days. It only supports 10 devices via wifi, if you have more than 10 devices, you need to get outside more. It has the speed handling, the WPS setup, the footprint, the reliability and the looks. I wouldn't really be bothered looking elsewhere. If I could tweak the gain error bandwidth it would have got a 9 from me for personal choice, but for the price it is in a tough market at nearly $200.