An All-In-One For Wireless

Unveiled this year to a lot of fireworks, D-Link's DIR-685 router (also known as the Xtreme N Storage Router) is just about ready to hit distribution and retail shelves. The CRN Test Center was able to put one of the first production units through its paces to see if it lives up to the hype.

It does.

Billed as an All-In-One Router/Storage/Photo Frame, the DIR-685 mixes the features of an SMB Wi-Fi router with the convenience of a NAS device, and adds the personal touch of a photo frame. This is truly the definition of convergence.

The router part of the DIR-685 is similar to most of D-Link's recent offerings. An 802.11n router (backward-compatible to 802.11g), it supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption as well as WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) for the easy addition of newer devices. Four Gigabyte ports are located in the back for wired connectivity and the Quality of Service engine prioritizes digital phone calls (VoIP) and online gaming.

One of the most unique features of the device is a slot on the side where a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive slips in. With a hard drive installed, the DIR-685 becomes a NAS that users on the network can access for storage. The drive can be used as part of an FTP server, iTunes server and streaming media server, too. BitTorrent support is also included, which allows users to download files using the popular peer-to-peer protocol via a built-in client that downloads and shares files without the need for a PC to remain on or connected. During our testing, the Bit- Torrent feature worked very well, exceptionally better than most of the others we've seen on competing NAS devices.

Designed to stand upright (presumably on a desk), the DIR-685 has a 3.2-inch, 1.6 million color LCD screen that, besides being capable of displaying system information and status of the device, also functions as an Internet digital picture frame. The photo frame feature can display pictures that are stored on the internal hard drive, as well as from Internet photo-sharing sites such as FrameChannel, Flickr, Picasa and Facebook.

Other uses for the LCD include the availability of widgets that can display feeds such as news, sports scores and weather on the screen.

Measuring 7.6 by 4.6 by 1.2 inches, it's sharp—black, with an array of multifunctional, touch-sensitive buttons to the right of the display. Although reactive, reviewers found that the buttons weren't sensitive enough to be activated without having to hold the unit in place while pressing them. Once accustomed to this, it wasn't much of an issue.

On-screen menus are intuitive, as is the browser-based administration console that shares the same layout with other D-Link routers, with additional tabs for the new features such as storage.

Installation of the hard drive is accomplished simply by opening a small door on the side of the unit and sliding the drive into place in the bay. Should it be necessary, removal is just as easy, requiring just a push of an eject button on the opposite side. After powering up the router for the first time, it immediately recognized the 80-GB drive, prompted us to format and did the complete format in less than a minute.

The digital manual is extensive in explaining features and settings but a little lean on how to connect to the internal storage from computers on the network. After a little trial and error, we were able to figure out the correct path for mapping a drive to the device and everything worked as expected.

With D-Link's new Shareport Technology, any device, such as a printer, that is plugged into either of the two USB 2.0 ports on the back can be shared across the network. And, as with most of the company's new devices, the DIR-685 incorporates green features such as automatically powering down ports that have no link and adjusting the power output to each port based on the individual Ethernet cable length.

Having a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $299.99, not including a hard drive, the DIR-685 is a jack of all trades. The combination of two common networking appliances gives it a unique functionality that no other device has yet to deliver. We hope D-Link continues to be creative with its future offerings and we'll be keeping an eye out to see how the competition reacts.

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