D-LINK DIR-306
D-Link’s latest implementation of McAfee’s Secure Home Platform slashes the price and ramps-up performance.
“Impressively, the EXO almost scored top SpeedTest scores at all levels – only dropping when two floors up, by 10Mbps. ”
A few months ago we tested a collaboration with Intel and McAfee that saw a D-Link router running McAfee’s Secure Home Platform on Intel SystemOn-Chip hardware. The resulting rice-cookerlooking D-Fend DIR-2680 offered decent performance, good network and client security but only three ethernet ports and a whopping $500 price tag. Purchasers of that might feel put-out to see the DIR-3060, which offers similar security and pimped-up performance for just $379.
It’s a little disappointing to see AC-based tri-band Wi-Fi rather than the all-conquering Wi-Fi 6 but the promises of potential 3,000Mbps speeds partly allay any fears. Nonetheless, we tested its performance against our favourite, TP-Link Archer AX6000 (Wi-Fi 6) router with our new Wi-Fi tests to see how it compared.
We test in a three-storey,
Sydney townhouse with a 115/4 Mbps Telstra cable internet connection on the ground floor. We run Ookla’s SpeedTest on an iPad Pro one floor up and two floors up. However, because Wi-Fi 6 routers have been maxing out performance at all levels we also transfer large, 2GB files using a Synology DS1019+ NAS to an Dell XPS 15 OLED laptop (with integrated Wi-Fi 6) while 4K Netflix was streaming to a TV and YouTube to two, old, Android tablets.
Impressively, the EXO almost scored top SpeedTest scores at all levels – only dropping when two floors up, by 10Mbps. Up close with NAS file transfers it managed 67MBps which was only 1MBps behind Wi-Fi 6. However, one floor up this dropped to 31MB/s (Wi-Fi 6: 43MBps) and two floors up it dropped to 21.2MBps (Wi-Fi 6: 36MBps). While it can’t match the Wi-Fi 6’s large file transfer speeds at distance, these are great numbers which make it one of the fastest AC routers we’ve ever tested. Very few power users will be lamenting slow speeds.
It’s also that bit more practical than the original D-Fend with four usable ethernet ports plus USB 2 and USB 3. Our one gripe with the EXO hardware is that when the antennae are extended, it takes up a great deal of space.
Setting up is simple when using both D-Link’s Wi-Fi app plus the separate, network-security focused D-Fend app although there could be better integration between the two when it comes to labelling networked devices. However, we were impressed with D-Link’s cloud services being accessible with Google Single Sign-On as simply accessing the router’s settings over the internet is potentially very useful. Most other features are standard fare for routers nowadays although D-Link’s feature layout is particularly intuitive and it’s embracing Google and Alexa voice control more than its rivals.
But, what really makes this worth consideration is the McAfee security integration. While Wi-Fi 6 routers routinely offer extensive parental controls and security enhancements nowadays, McAfee provides an unlimited number of two-year LiveSafe subscriptions to every device that connects to it (for five years). This plus a $100-lower price than the AX6000 make it a great alternative to those who don’t need the range of Wi-Fi 6.