D-Link DIR-890L AC3200 Wireless Tri-Band Gigabit Cloud Router

I have been reading reviews on the D-Link DIR-890L AC3200 Wireless Tri-Band Gigabit Cloud Router a while back and recently. With the launch of D-Link DWA-192 AC1900 Wireless USB 3.0 adapter,  a matching wireless external adapter for the router, i decided it is time for me to bring home the monster..

DIR-890L and DWA-192

Technical Specifications

General

Device Interfaces

• 802.11a/g/n/ac wireless LAN
• Four 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN ports
• 10/100/1000 Gigabit WAN por
• Two USB ports (one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0)

Standards

• IEEE 802.11ac
• IEEE 802.11n
• IEEE 802.11g
• IEEE 802.11a
• IEEE 802.3
• IEEE 802.3u

Functionality

Advanced Features

• SmartConnect
• Guest zone
• mydlink SharePort™ web access
• Multi-language web setup wizard
• Green Ethernet
• DLNA media server support
• Advanced AC SmartBeam
• Dual active firewall
• Network Address Translation (NAT)
• Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI)
• VPN Passthrough (PPTP/L2TP/IPsec)
• Advanced QoS
• QuickVPN - L2TP over IPsec

D-Link market DIR-890L as AC3200 over its previous generation of AC1900. AC1900 is the combined throughput of 600 mbps in 2.4 GHz and 1300 mbps in 5 GHz giving a total of 1900 mbps. DIR-890L uses Tri-Band Technology which have 3 radio operating in the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz spectrum delivering a total of 600 mbps + 1300 mbps + 1300 mbps = 3200 mbps and thus the name convention of AC3200

Tri-Band Technology delivering AC3200

With Tri-Band Technology and speeds up to 3200 mbps, it delivers performance to power demanding connected homes claiming it the best wireless home router for gaming.

Tri-Band Wireless

DIR-890L comes in 2 variants. Hardware wise, they are exactly the same except for the black and the red housing. In line with our nation's 50th years of independence, its not surprising that i chose for the bolder red version.

DIR-890L

The box containing DIR-890L is HUGE. The amount of stares i garnered bringing the monster back home on public transport is tremendous. Lets see the contents in the box.

DIR-890L Contents

To support the increase in third wireless radio, D-Link bundled a 12V 5A power brick delivering up to 60W of power!

12V 5A power brick

The DWA-192 AC1900 Wi-Fi USB 3.0 Adapter lets you connect over the 2.4 GHz (600 Mbps) and 5 GHz (up to 1300 Mbps), for faster streaming, gaming, and VoIP calls. In addition, its Advanced AC Smart Beam technology brings high-bandwidth wireless connectivity, vastly increasing the speed and coverage of your network via USB 3.0 

DWA-192 paired with DIR-890L 

Packaging contents of DWA-192

DWA-192 larger than a tennis ball

DIR-890L powering up

Another layman speed test this morning on 22nd Sept

New box outside flat

Have been away for quite awhile, will have new stuff coming up shortly ;)

In the mean time, this.

It dosn't look like a fibre closet, but will we have FTTH by SingTel soon?? :D

New browser for Windows - KDE: Konqueror 4

hi all~!
I'm back for another round of blogging.

Today I am going to touch on alternative internet browsers and a new kid on the block.

With the current browser war getting hot, we have many variant to choose; ranging from Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox/SeaMonkey, Netscape etc as compared to the previously dominant IE using some propriety web rendering standards.

Just as you thought you had enough of trying to think up which browser is good for choice, here comes KDE: Konqueror 4, the alternative open source GPL based internet browser cross compatible on different OS platform.

What makes it special, you may ask.

Konqueror web browser is originally a package under the KDE X window mainly for Linux.
As we know how some programs for Linux are usually multifunction. Konqueror 4 spots file browser capability, accessing of local network drives, and even protocol like telnet/ssh and bittorrent feature compared to other which has somewhat partial implementation only.

Now, here comes more. It is even capable of directly opening zip files, read first few bits to determine what type of file it is, rip audio CDs, viewing of formatted document like text directly. You can also input a file from off-link url to a HTTP upload field on some webpages and it will do the job.

While the intention of feature may be good, there are quite a few function like ctrl+enter not working in the browser. Maybe it was developed more towards the taste of diff users.


To begin off trying, you may get the necessary file from http://windows.kde.org/

Giving it a go, you will realise that the interface is quite neat and plain, loading of webpages is fast, while additional function like search box was not present. Here is a screenshot


As Konqueror 4 is a recent release by KDE and is somewhat a unstable release - still in the alpha porting stage, there are quite a few problem which you have to accept. Such as no adobe flash player and rendering issue, like:


This will change when more people uses and develop, so, start using now as a trial, form a community to give feedbacks, or even better, help in porting and development =D

Download here: http://download.cegit.de/kde-windows/installer/

WIFI on the buses

Courtesy of Nokia. Connecting people! :D

Quick Tip

Use a good quality coaxial splitter to get better signal for your modem and TV Images :)

Regal splitter given by default is a decent one

Hope it helps.

Leo

3.75G modem - HuaWei E270

It sure been awhile, abit busy with school's related matters and other misc stuff(and actually is also because I lacked new toy, LOL)

I am now back with the HuaWei E270 in impression.

Huawei E270 3.75G modem

I believe model is abit smaller compared to the E220 from M1 and SingTel, depending on how you see it.

Tied to MaxMobile Unlimited, the speed I got downloading was a constant 400 kilobyte per second. Making it roughly 3.2Mbps. Not bad a speed, with HSPA as reported by the Starhub branded software utility.

However, it is strange why Huawei bundled 2 USB cable. Shown in the picture, the one with 2 USB connector, one of it has a label reading Assistant power. Using that, you will get access to its flash memory to install the software and drivers.
On the other hand, the shorter usb cable is redundant and useless, it does not work all. You cant access the driver/setup files, nor after installed, it allow you to connect at all.

For those of you with problematic USB controller issues, do be careful.

My new modem

Hi all,
This is Leo again. It has been quite awhile since I last posted :)

Today I will write about my new modem - the Thomson Speedtouch ST536.
Here's picture to go along.


Its wonderful how advancement in engineering allow device to become smaller and smaller, taking up less space at home with a pack of punch.
However, taking a look at the AC/DC transformer. Its a question, why (many) companies constantly loves to supply big, bulky adapters. :S

Its has a good design on the exterior while having features like command line interface(CLI) as well as routing features. Yes, it is a gateway actually and not as claimed - a pure modem. Firmware well written.

However, there are quite a few downsides.
Firstly, like most small devices, it runs HOT - despite many ventilation holes. Heat is a bad thing for electronics, so watch out!
Second, not only is the adapter big, it has a funny output of 18V 1A to the modem. Seems to consume more power than others.
Lastly, despite it being one of the well known ADSL2+ capable modem, it has poor ping times compared to other models. Mediocre...

Seems like too much hype that I got it even, ehhehe.

For those interested in seeing the PCB - lets compare it with the Siemens SpeedStream 4100
Just maybe, I'd post more on modems and information.

See ya soon!

EDIT: Its a AC/AC adapter instead