Broadband router manufacturers nowadays need to try harder to stand out from the crowd. For D-Link, their latest D-Link DIR-2660 Exo series router comes with Google and Alexa integration, and five years of McAfee security protection to safeguard your home network.
The D-Link DIR-2660 also functions as a mesh system when you add on one or more DRA-2060 range extenders. Now, even though the DRA-2060 is labelled a range extender, multiple units will really form a mesh connection together with the DIR-2660.
The DRA-2060 (pictured above) is a wall-plug style device. It doesn’t take up much space and you won’t have any cabling that needs to be kept tidy, but do take note that the width of the device may mean you might not be able to use an adjacent power socket.
The DIR-2660 looks like a typical broadband router. It has four long external antennas sticking out, which can perhaps give the DIR-2660 better range and coverage, so you might want this deployed where you need the best Wi-Fi signal.
LED lights on the front of the DIR-2660 provide a variety of status indications. There’s also a USB 3.0 port on the front, so you can conveniently attach an external storage drive to instantly create a shared storage on your network.
Around the back, you’ll find the usual 4 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and one Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, along with power button, DC input jack, WPS button, reset button, and another USB 2.0 port.
The DIR-2660 is dual-band, with an aggregate 2600 Mbps between them, earning it the AC2600 rating, and supports 4×4 MU-MIMO. Being dual-band means that the DIR-2660 has no dedicated back-haul for communication with the mesh nodes.
To protect your security, D-Link has teamed up with McAfee to offer the latter’s Secure Home Platform that is incorporated into the DIR-2660. This is not the first time we’re seeing the McAfee Secure Home Platform. I reviewed the DIR-2680 WiFi Security Router earlier this year that has the same feature.
McAfee’s Secure Home Platform provides smart security for your home network by providing intuitive parental controls, antivirus, network monitoring, and vulnerability assessment. It’s quite a lot more comprehensive than security features found in conventional consumer router products. The security-related capabilities of the DIR-2660 are quite impressive. In particular, if you have young children, the DIR-2660 offers particularly useful controls to manage their Internet access activities.
The McAfee protection is provided for five years. I don’t really like time-limited things. On the other hand, five years is probably long enough that you’ll likely have changed your Wi-Fi router before then.
The Google and Alexa integration is another interesting feature available in the DIR-2660. You can use voice control with your Android phone, for example, to turn on Guest Wi-Fi, among other actions. These are fun, maybe cool to show off to your guests at home, but certainly not something that is essential.
In the box, the D-Link DIR-2660 comes with a power adapter and a LAN cable.
If you’re looking for a Wi-Fi broadband router with power security features, and options for you to extend into a mesh system, D-Link’s DIR-2660 looks to be a promising choice.
For all the features it offers, the D-Link DIR-2660 is surprisingly quite affordably priced. The official retail price is just S$209.
Conclusion
While looking like a conventional Wi-Fi broadband router, the D-Link DIR-2660 comes with powerful security features, and has options to extend into a mesh network system.
Pros:
- Powerful McAfee Secure Home Platform
- Can be extended into a mesh network system
- Google and Alexa support
Cons:
- No dedicated back-haul for mesh nodes