D-Link Wireless AC600 Dual-Band Router
- The cheapest router you’ll find with 802.11ac, the latest WiFi spec
- Router setup doesn’t get much simpler than this
- “Only” 10/100 wired Ethernet, if you prefer your devices wired together
- Probably doesn’t do DD-WRT or Tomato, but if those phrases mean anything to you, you probably figured that out by now
- Model: DIR-808L
The perfect router for visiting Meh.
Need a router that can handle 4K movie streaming? Do you play a lot of Steam games with in-home streaming? Are you a professional video editor who needs to move raw broadcast-quality video footage around to different computers on your network? Do you always mod your routers with Tomato Shibby?
Then go buy some other router. For five or ten times this price.
If none of those phrases mean anything to you, then here you go.
Think back over the last week. How did you use your network connection? To browse the web? Check your email? Stream Netflix? Maybe Skype with the in-laws? And did you do it all, or mostly, over wireless? This mediocre router is all you need. Just by having 802.11ac WiFi, this D-Link is a clear upgrade over that router you bought five years ago.
It’s funny how the authoritative tech experts will say something sucks, and then the less techy types will assume those guys must know what they’re talking about, so this thing must objectively suck. What the power users really mean is “this sucks at the things that are important to me.”
If the same things aren’t important to you, why spend three, five, ten times more for capabilities you will never actually use? Why not settle for mediocrity? All you need is something that’s easy to set up, that does everything you ask of it, and - best of all - is very, very cheap. That’s this one.
It’s not that the techy guys are wrong. It’s that there is no wrong or right. It all depends on what you’re looking for. There is no objective suck, especially at this price tag. One geek’s trash is another person’s router.