Computer Shopper 2019-11-01

ISSUE 381|COMPUTER SHOPPER|NOVEMBER 2019 35

NOTSUREIFyou need awireless mesh
system to get coverage around your house,or
if an updated router would be the best wayto
go? With the D-Link DIR-1960, you get
something in the middle: aregular router,but
one to which you can also add wireless mesh
access points to boost performance.

AERIALVIEW
The DIR-1960’s plain black case is less striking
than D-Link’s gaming-focused routers, though
the four large antennas on topjump out. It can
be placed flat on asurface or wall-mounted.
At the back, the DIR-1960 has everything
you’d expect from arouter: there’s aGigabit
Ethernet LAN port forconnecting the router
to asuitable modem, and four Gigabit
Ethernet ports forwired devices. D-Link has
also provided aUSB3 port forfile sharing.
The DIR-1960 comes preconfigured with a
secure wireless network. Once the router is
plugged in and hooked up to your network,
you can connect awired or wireless device
to the router,connect to its web interface,
and then follow the wizard through –
something that takes only afew minutes.
D-Link’s web interface is nice and
uncluttered. From the main page,you can see
your internet connection status, and view a

D-LINK DIR-1960

★★★★★

£121•From http://www.lambda-tek.com

VERDICT

Averyfast,simple-to-userouterthatyoucan
expandintoafullmeshsystem

802.11ac ROUTER

list of connected devices. Select

any device and you can

reserve its IP address: this

is like giving out astatic

IP address, only easier.

Youcan also select the

router and use the link to edit the

Wi-Fi settings. The DIR-1960 uses band

steering (called Smart Connect here) to

combine the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands under

one SSID.The router then sends connecting

devices to the best network based on features

and performance.Werecommend leaving this

settingalone,unlessyouhaveaspecificreason

to split the networks up,such as an old device

refusing to connect to your new network.

Automatic channel selection is turned on

by default, but you can disable this and pick a

manual channel if you’re having problems.

Youcan also control the QoS settings here.

Neatly,once you’ve run an internet speed

test, the router lets you drag and drop

devices intopriority boxes to set which ones

should get the most of your internet speeds.

There’s asingle spot forHighest priority,two

forHigh and eight forMedium.

That’s all the web interface gives you; to

get more,you need to download the D-Link

Wi-Fi app foryour phone.Aswell as having

mostofthesamefeaturesasthewebinterface,

the app lets you enable the D-Link Cloud

account, which lets you turn on Amazon Alexa

and Google Assistant support, plus D-Link

Defend, which requires aseparateapp.

MINISTRYOFDEFENCE

Powered by McAfee, D-Link Defend is atotal

security and parental control system. It’s made

of two components: McAfeeSecure Home

Platform, which protects devices connected to

your router (there’s afive-year subscription to

this), and McAfeeLiveSafe, which can be

installed on computers (you get two years of

this, otherwise it’s normally £90 per year for

unlimited devices). That’s good value,

although KasperskyInternet Security provides

better on-device protection than McAfee.

Secure Home Platform is useful, however.

This will scan your network, alerting you to

any vulnerabilities it finds, and also includes

completeparental controls. These include the

ability to group achild’s devices under a

profile,controlling both what theycan view

online and how long theycan go online for,

or even pause internet access.

Alexa and Google Assistant integration are

nice to see,too.You can toggle your Guest

Network on or off,reboot your router and get

your router to updateitself using your voice.

The only feature this router misses out on

is support forBTYouView streaming channels:

if you watch BT Sport or the like through a

YouView box, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

SPEEDUP

The DIR-1960 is adual-band router with a

1,300Mbit/s 5GHz network and a600Mbit/s

2.4GHz network. As aWave2802.11ac router,

this model supports all the features you’d

expect, including MU-MIMO forfaster speeds

with multiple clients, and beamforming.

We tested with the router in its default

state, withbandsteeringturnedon.Inallcases,

ourtestlaptopconnectedtothe5GHzband.At

closerange,wesawuploadspeedsof375Mbit/s

and download speeds of 460Mbit/s: that’s

very fast indeed. At range,the router held up

well, with 320Mbit/s upload and 247Mbit/s

download speeds on the first floor,aswell as

upload speeds of 284Mbit/s and download

speeds of 329Mbit/s on the second floor.

That makes the router considerably faster

than the TP-Link Archer C5400 (Shopper363),

which is no slouch itself.Ifyou need abit

more range from this router,then the D-Link

DAP-1620 mesh extenders will do the job.

Forlarger homes or where there’s an issue

getting wireless where you want, the Netgear

Orbi mesh system is abetter choice.Ifyou’re

happywith asingle router,then the D-Link

DIR-1960 is well priced and very fast, and the

optionto extenditto ameshnetworkremains.

DavidLudlow

⬆D-Link Defend provides internet security and full
parental controls through your router

Seepage94forperformancedetails

MODEMGigabitEthernet•WI-FISTANDARD802.11ac•

STATEDSPEED1,300Mbit/s(5GHz),600Mbit/s(2.4GHz)•

USBPORTS (^1) • WALLMOUNTABLEYes•WARRANTYTwo
yearsRTB•DETAILSwww.d-link.com•PARTCODEDIR-1960

SPECIFICATIONS

5GHz2m

5GHz5m

5GHz10m

0200 400 600

418Mbit/s

284Mbit/s

306Mbit/s