My previous router was a netgear without any wireless capabilites. It also wouldn't recognize my xbox 360 on the network and would lose internet access consistently. This is the reason I decided to shell out a few bucks on the DIR-655.

Design: A nice looking glossy white, it reminds me of most Apple products. The addition of the USB 'shareport' on the back adds some nice functionality as well (I'll explain about the shareport further in the review). The folks at D-Link definitely didn't skimp on their wireless-N transmissions, ensuring the range and strength would be top notch by adding 3 antennas to the box. The only possible negatives, which most likely are not a problem for most people, are the status lights on the front. They are informative of course, but are a bit on the bright side and can be an annoyance if the router is in your field of view.

Performance: Granted, I've only been through 3 routers in my entire life, but this one is by far and away the best. It instantly found all the connected devices in my house, and automatically configured its settings to allow access between all of them. I was easily able to choose from my computer which files I wanted to share. Download speeds on the internet even seemed to improve from my previous router. The wireless works like a charm too. I easily have an 'excellent' connection from anywhere in my house and at least 500kb/s download speeds on average(wireless). I haven't had to reset the router at all as of this writing and I've owned it for about 2 months now.

Ease of use: Setting up the router was pretty simple, just had to run a configuration CD and plug it in. I did have one snag however, when the CD tried to run its setup, it kept telling me I had two active internet connections and one had to be disabled, which I didn't understand because I only had one internet cable plugged in. (however I have two Ethernet ports built into my motherboard). I had to go into windows device manager and disable the open port. I can imagine a lot of computing novices having much difficulty with that. After that though, the setup configured everything for me and I was ready to go.

Software/Firmware/Features: The software included on the CD was very simple to navigate and understand. A nice feature D-Link added is the shareport (USB port) on the back of the device. This allows you to plug in any USB compatible device and share its contents with the rest of your network. e.g. a usb stick with music on it. Also if you upgrade the firmware, you can plug in your printer to that port and print from any computer that is on the network. Unfortunately it is a pain to set up. You have to find and install the printer drivers on each computer you want to be able to print from, then search the internet for the shareport software, and finally once you do have it working you have to disable the software on one computer and then enable it on the computer you want to print from every single time you need to print. In my opinion it's a cool idea but a hassle at the moment. As far as the firmware goes, it is loaded with plenty of settings to tweak to your liking but as I said the auto configuration worked flawlessly so you most likely won't need to change too many things in there.

Conclusion: I highly recommend this router. It does what it is supposed to do exceptionally well and then goes one step further by adding in little features here and there. I feel the only thing lacking is dual-band, which they do put in other high-end models. The DIR-655 is really worth every penny.