D-Link EXO AC2600
It’s not very fast or stuffed with features, but the EXO is an affordable router that does everything you need
SCORE PRICE £104 (£125 inc VAT) from ebuyer.com
The EXO AC2600 is a very sensible router. The design is compact and scrupulously sober, and the technical specification carefully ticks all of the important boxes, without wasting too much effort and expense on niche features.
Needless to say, that begins with 802.11ac, powered by a single 5GHz radio and partnered with a secondary 2.4GHz transmitter for legacy devices and long-range connections. D-Link claims a maximum throughput of 1,733Mbits/sec on the 5GHz band, which in theory ought to mean it’s as fast as the Netgear Nighthawk X10. But, in practice, the EXO’s smaller antennae and cheaper internals have an inevitable impact, and the EXO AC2600 consistently placed towards the back of the pack in each one of our tests. That doesn’t imply terrible performance, but if you need to fill a large house with fast Wi-Fi, this might not be the best option.
For wired connections, there’s the expected four Gigabit Ethernet connectors at the rear, and a WPS button at the side. Perhaps the EXO’s one burst of extravagance is the provision of not only a USB 2 port at the back but also a SuperSpeed USB 3 port at the front. You can configure up to nine users, and give them access to USB media via either SMB or FTP; DLNA streaming options consist of a simple on/off toggle, and printers aren’t supported at all.
Explore the rather austere-looking management interface and you’ll also discover that there’s no sort of AP or bridging mode. Parental control features are quite limited too: you can blacklist up to 24 specified URLs, but this affects all users, and there’s no category blocking at all. You can, however, create multiple access schedules, and apply them to individual clients.
The D-Link EXO AC2600 isn’t the fastest router on the market, and it’s certainly not the most featurepacked. It is, however, one of the cheapest options in this month’s group test, and it does everything that most people will require. If you’re struggling with an outdated router, this unfussy little box is well worth a look before you move up to the more expensive options.