D-Link DIR-878 5 GHz router review, is it worth it?

The D-Link DIR-878 (DIR-878) router released in 2017. It is powered by MediaTek MT7621 @ 880 MHz chipset, 64 MB of RAM and 8 MB of flash. The AC1900 router is compatible with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standards, and the maximum speed that you can get with DIR-878 is 600 + 1300 Mbps. The router has 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN and 4 x 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN ports.

The DIR-878 is a versatile router that offers more than just basic functionality. With its advanced features and capabilities, it provides a reliable and high-performance networking solution for both home and office environments. D-Link is widely recognized as a reputable and established manufacturer of networking equipment.

Table of contents:

• D-Link DIR-878 specifications
• D-Link DIR-878 pictures

D-Link DIR-878 (DIR-878) specifications

Body

If you have limited space available for your router, such as in a small apartment or office, the dimensions can determine whether it can fit in the designated area or not. It's important to consider the physical size of the router, including its height, width, and depth, to ensure it can be accommodated in your space. The weight of a router can be a consideration in certain situations, but it is generally not as crucial as other factors such as performance, features, and compatibility.

System

The MediaTek MT7621 @ 880 MHz CPU, combined with other factors such as RAM capacity and firmware optimization, determines the overall performance and responsiveness of the router. The DIR-878 comes with 64 MB of RAM. The amount of RAM in a router can impact its performance and capacity to handle concurrent operations and traffic. Higher RAM capacity allows for better multitasking, larger routing tables, and improved overall performance.

The 8 MB flash memory in the router serves as the storage medium for the router's firmware. It is a non-volatile memory that retains its data even when power is removed from the device. The D-Link often releases firmware updates to enhance the router's functionality, improve security, fix bugs, and add new features. Firmware updates can provide performance improvements, compatibility with new devices or protocols, and address vulnerabilities. The D-Link provides the appropriate power supply (12 V / 5 A) that matches the voltage requirements of the router. The power supply unit is designed to deliver the correct voltage to the router, ensuring its proper operation.

Network

Like many modern routers, the DIR-878 supports many network standards too. The majority of networking equipment, including routers, switches, and other network devices, is designed to support IPv4. The DIR-878 router is also compatible with IPv6. IPv6 provides a significantly larger address space and offers various enhancements and improvements over IPv4. The DIR-878 has 4 x 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN and 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN ports. The LAN ports of DIR-878 router are numbered and are used to establish wired connections between the router and devices such as computers, gaming consoles, smart TVs, network-attached storage (NAS) devices, and other network-enabled devices.

This router has Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, which provides data transfer speeds of up to 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps) over Ethernet connections. The WAN port on a router stands for "Wide Area Network" port. It is used to connect the router to the external network, typically provided by an internet service provider (ISP). The DIR-878 router supports Gigabit speed on its WAN port, that can support speeds up to 1000 Mbps. This router ensures that you can fully utilize high-speed internet connections provided by your ISP.

Wireless

This router has 4 x 2 dBi antennas. Many modern routers feature multiple antennas and use Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology. This technology enables simultaneous transmission and reception of multiple data streams, increasing overall throughput and improving the Wi-Fi performance. This router is 2.4 GHz capable. The 2.4GHz band refers to the portion of the radio spectrum between 2.400 and 2.4835 gigahertz. This frequency range is unlicensed and globally available for various wireless applications, including Wi-Fi.

This router operates on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands, allowing you to connect devices to the most suitable band based on their capabilities and requirements. The DIR-878 belongs to the Wi-Fi 5 class. Wi-Fi 5 operates on the 5 GHz frequency band and utilizes wider channel widths and advanced modulation techniques to deliver higher data transfer rates. The AC1900 refers to the maximum combined data transfer rate supported by the router across all Wi-Fi bands.

The DIR-878 is capable of a maximum throughput speed of 600 + 1300 Mbps. The real-world speed of a DIR-878 router is typically lower than its theoretical maximum speed. The maximum TX power of DIR-878 router is 23 dBm. Adjusting the TX power of a router can be useful in situations where you want to optimize the Wi-Fi signal strength and coverage. The DIR-878 router offers several security protocols: WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPS.

The WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) was the first security protocol for Wi-Fi networks but is now considered weak and easily compromised. It uses a static encryption key and has known vulnerabilities, so it is no longer recommended for securing Wi-Fi networks. The WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) was introduced as an improvement over WEP and provides stronger security. If WPA3 is not available, WPA2-Personal with AES encryption is still considered secure.

The DIR-878 router offers WPS. The WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) provides a simplified and convenient method for connecting devices to a Wi-Fi network. Instead of manually entering the Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password, users can use the WPS feature to establish a connection with the push of a button or by entering a PIN. Once the guest network is set up on your D-Link DIR-878 router, your guests can connect to it using the specified SSID and password. They will have internet access, while being separated from your private network.

Connectivity

The DIR-878 router doesn't have file-server or print-server functionality.

Administration

The D-Link router setup panel is accessed through a web browser. Connect your computer to the DIR-878 router via Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable. In the address bar of the web browser, type in the 192.168.0.1 IP address. If you are unable to log in to the setup panel of your D-Link router, performing a reset can be a helpful troubleshooting step. It is highly recommended to change the default password of your DIR-878 router after the initial setup. If you forget the new password in the future, you may need to perform a factory reset on the router to revert to the default settings.

The specifications above are based on the official data published by the manufacturer, but we also take user reviews into consideration. If you found an error or something lacking in the specifications above for the D-Link DIR-878, then don’t hesite and signal the problem to us.

D-Link DIR-878 (DIR-878) pictures

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