D-Link DHP-1320 Hy-Fi Wireless & Powerline Router Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2012-05-07
·
1,127 words · ~5 min read
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welcome to an unboxing of a product that um is not a retail product so like
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there's no proper packaging inside but I cannot emphasize enough that if you buy
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a dlink router it will not come with no packaging inside inside the box but I
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want to talk about the dhp 1320 and what
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is special about this part particular
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router this uses a Qualcomm chipset that
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allows not only wired and wireless
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operation but also Powerline operation
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built right into the router using the and I can never remember this number the
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1 1905.1 standard so what that means is
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that just by installing this router in your home you have the flexibility to
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use either a wired connection to say the computers that are in the same room or
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that you can easily run a wire to wireless to your mobile devices and then
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power line to things like televisions in the future that adopt this standard um
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things like just regular Powerline adapters even from other brands right
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now interoperability between Brands is something that Powerline doesn't
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really uh doesn't really feature so
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that's something that we're going to have due to due to this new standard and
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uh so let's let's talk about the router a little bit here so this is uh okay
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sorry the dhp 1320 and it's got a a
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little note here a dhp 306 AV or a w306
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AV Adapter is required to create a powerline network but the one that I'm
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going to be demoing when I do my NCI Tech tips is going to be from a completely different brand just to
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emphasize that as long as the device complies to this standard it is going to
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work so okay Dink Green Power think green it's designed to conserve energy
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all that good stuff so that's kind of neat so power saving by link status
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power saving by cable length so it doesn't use more power to transmit a
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signal than it has to power saving by wireless land scheduling and an onoff
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button that you can use to turn it off when it's not in use whole home coverage
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with no unsightly cables yes I if you
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guys have watched my videos a fair bit you know that I'm a huge advocate of
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power line I love power line and what this does is it actually makes it even
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better so the convenience of Wi-Fi so
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this is a Wi-Fi N300 Router and then on the back okay you know what let's just
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start looking at it here we go this is the router itself and I apologize for it
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being beat up this is like uh an eval sample that sort of made the rounds
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before it's uh before it's gotten to me for me to have a look at and see if I'm
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as impressed once I actually try it as I am when I hear about the initial
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technology so you guys will have to subscribe to my ncixcom channel if you
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want to see that video where we're actually going to try it out I can tell you now it's pretty heavy for a router
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we got some ventilation holes on the front remember Powerline adapters often
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get quite warm and that's one of the reasons they're often positioned away
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from the wall so I can see why yeah you've got vent holes on the bottom vent
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holes on the side vent holes on the front because all of that Powerline
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technology is now in here as well as a router a switch and a wireless access
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point so there's a whole lot of Technology going on in here we have a
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WPS button as well as a yeah there's no manual so I'm going to have to rely on
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someone to post a comment and tell me what that one does uh on the back we
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have three Lan ports a Wan Port so instead of having a five port switch
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this has a four port switch built into it we can actually put it in AP mode or
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router mode that is a very handy little button to have and that's one of the
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cool things about this particular standard is that it also allows you to
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use devices whether they're little Powerline access points or whether
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they're Wireless extenders very very easily with very minimal setup so that's
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what's going to allow you if one device is not enough to cover your home you can
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actually set up repeaters in order to make sure that with a couple of devices
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you can get full coverage so I guess that's one of the reasons they might
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want you to be able to put this in Access point mode so you can just buy another one plug it into an existing
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power line connection uh or rather right here right power line and then use it as
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an AP got a reset switch USB for storage
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the onoff switch is right there and AC in so the AC in check this out and a a
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router that doesn't use a power brick
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that's one of the other reasons it's heavy because it has an internal power
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supply because that power supply is not only powering the device but also acting
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as a powerline network so if you don't understand how powerline network works
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it uses the cables in your walls the wires in your walls to transmit data as
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well as electricity rather than using an Ethernet cable if something's far away
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it can actually go through your circuit breaker and access your entire house
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I've even used it in a warehouse before that was a few thousand square feet away
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from where I had my uh my actual router and one power line adapter and then I
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used a notebook way way way far away and it still worked just fine so that's the
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key difference here instead of needing an Ethernet cable to a power line
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adapter to an extension cable to the wall now your router has already made
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your entire home network power line ready just by plugging it in so thank
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you for checking out my little video about I guess it was sort of about the
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dhp 1320 but what it's really about is the see I forget the number again the
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1905.1 standard which is going to allow us to more easily Network our homes
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using power line