D-Link DSL-4320L Taipan AC3200 Ultra-Wi-Fi Modem Router

A unique approach to mesh networking.

When we first looked at the DSL-4320L about a year ago, it was one of the very first tri-band modem routers on the market. Where tri-band solutions are readily available on broadband routers, few modem routers have it. A year later, it remains one of the only products to have the technology (plus the Netgear, below).

Something else has been added, too. D-Link calls it ‘Whole Home Wi-Fi’, a kind of mesh-lite networking technology. D-Link routers and range extenders marked with this label can form a mesh-like network with proper roaming and a single shared SSID. That means you can move around your house, between access points and routers, without losing the connection or having to reconnect to a second network. It’s not as elegantly implemented as Ubiquiti’s AmpliFi, however.

The tri-band nature of the Taipan actually makes it a good option for this. Tri-band, in this instance, means one 2.4GHz network and two 5GHz networks, and devices are split between them to balance load. We’re not generally huge fans of tri-band, but it works here: since the D-Link Whole Home Wi-Fi system uses in-band repeaters, which reduce bandwidth, having a second AC network actually works quite well, since that can serve as a functional backhaul network.

It doesn’t have MU-MIMO, but the updated firmware from D-Link is very good, and boasts some advanced capabilities like VPN support, OpenDNS-based parental controls and remote access to attached USB storage. The mobile apps are accessible as well.