D-Link DWL-3610AP
A business AP that’s impressively versatile thanks to D-Link’s central management solutions
SCORE
PRICE £89 exc VAT from uk.insight.com
The DWL-3610AP wireless access point is all about flexibility. It works on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band, and can be used in standalone mode or in one of three centrally managed configurations.
It’s affordable too, at just £89 – but note that it’s not the fastest AP in town. D-Link classes it as an AC1200 AP, but this isn’t strictly true as it doesn’t have two radios. It will either support up to 300Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz band, or 867Mbits/sec on the 5GHz band – but you can’t use both bands at the same time. The AP’s web interface exposes options to turn the single radio on or off, and to switch between 2.4GHz 802.11n and 5GHz 802.11ac operations.
Where the DWL-3610AP does excel is in business-class features. It supports up to 16 VAPs (virtual access points), each with its own SSID, encryption key and authentication scheme. Out of the box, the AP has its root VAP enabled on an open SSID, which isn’t ideal – but this is easy to change, and it took less than a minute to secure our test unit with WPA2 encryption. You can also apply MAC address filtering, SSID masking and L2 isolation to stop wireless clients from seeing each other.
There’s a useful set of bandwidthmanagement options too: you can enforce upstream and downstream limits on individual VAPs, and apply quality of service (QoS) for prioritising voice and video traffic. A scheduler allows selected VAPs to be turned off at scheduled times such as evenings, weekends and holidays.
Real-world wireless performance on the 5GHz band is more than acceptable. With a Windows 10 Pro desktop connected over 802.11ac via a Netgear AC1200 USB 3 adapter, we saw close-range file copies to a LAN system averaging 50MB/sec, falling only slightly to 47MB/sec at 10m. Coverage is pretty decent too; the SweetSpots app on our iPad only registered a connection dropout once we’d wandered 40m away, with five other offices and numerous walls between us and the AP.
The clustering feature allows up to eight identical APs to be grouped together and all present the same wireless services. It’s a very convenient way to work: a cluster can be managed via a single IP address, with any configuration changes or firmware upgrades automatically propagated to all members.
For those with even bigger needs, D-Link’s DWS-3160 L2 switches can manage up to 48 individual APs, stretching to 192 when they’re placed in peer groups. Registering a DWL3610AP for management is as easy as entering up to four switch interfaces into its web interface.
We also tested D-Link’s DWC-1000 controller appliance, which costs around £350, including a licence for six APs (which can be doubled to 12 for an additional charge). Our sample didn’t support the DWL-3610AP out of
“A cluster can be managed via a single IP address, with any configuration changes automatically propagated to all members”
the box, but a firmware upgrade quickly sorted that out.
The controller’s web interface opens with an informative dashboard; APs are automatically discovered by the controller and can be quickly provisioned. It uses AP profiles to link together radio, SSID, encryption and QoS parameters, which it pushes to selected APs.
There’s a pleasing range of security features too; you can use approved MAC address lists, enforce wireless client logins and link up with external RADIUS, LDAP and Active Directory authentication servers. The controller can provide wireless hotspot services using time-limited guest accounts, and presents customisable captive portals on selected SSID and login profiles. For even more flexibility, the VPN licence (which costs around £250) also activates a firewall, which can apply custom rules to wireless traffic.
Our only gripe is that we couldn’t customise the dashboard layout: it’s supposed to be possible, but in multiple browsers we were simply met with a “bad parameter” error message. Hopefully that will be fixed before long.
As a standalone AP, the DWL3610AP isn’t particularly exceptional – but partnered with the DWC-1000 controller it’s a great, affordable option for those seeking a secure, expandable, centrally managed wireless network. SPECIFICATIONS Ceiling/wall mount AP 802.11ac 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio Gigabit PoE port RJ-45 console port power adapter mounting backplate and T-rail clips 160 x 160 x 45mm (WDH) 0.26kg limited lifetime warranty