The D-Link DIR-LX1870 is a Wi-Fi 6 router that uses mesh technology to eliminate Wi-Fi dead zones in the home. It covers 3,000 feet alone and can be expanded with additional units to cover larger areas. The router is easy to install and offers basic parental controls, but 5GHz throughput and signal strength performance were barely adequate during testing and it lacks malware protection. The LX-1870 has a matte white mini-tower enclosure that measures 7.6 by 3.9 by 3.9 inches (HWD).
It features a gray plastic grid on top and a small LED indicator on the front that flashes orange during setup, turns solid red when the router has lost connectivity, and turns solid white when everything is working properly. On the back are four gigabit LAN ports, a gigabit WAN port, a WPS button, and a power button. On the base is a reset button.
The router is powered by a quad-core CPU, 256 MB RAM and 128 MB flash memory. It is a dual-band AX1800 device that can achieve maximum (theoretical) data rates of 574 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz radio band and 1,200 Mbps on the 5 GHz band. It uses four internal antennas to provide coverage for homes up to 3,000 square meters and supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology that includes OFDMA packet transmissions, direct-to-client beamforming, intelligent band selection and WPA3 encryption.
It also uses D-Link’s EasyMesh technology that allows additional access points to be added to form a scalable mesh network. It does not support 160 MHz bandwidth or link aggregation and does not have USB connectivity. The LX-1870 lacks the anti-malware tools and rich parental controls offered by the TP-Link Archer AX50, but it does have basic parental controls that allow you to create profiles for each family member. You can block certain websites and create access schedules, but it lacks age-based web filters that automatically block access to adult content.
The router can be managed via a web-based console or mobile app (available for Android and iOS), but only the web console offers advanced settings such as IPv6, Virtual Server, Firewall, and Port Forwarding. The console is also needed to view system logs and network traffic statistics and to access the QoS engine, where drag and drop can be used to assign bandwidth priority to specific clients.
The router can be managed via a web-based console or mobile app (available for Android and iOS), but only the web console offers advanced settings such as IPv6, Virtual Server, Firewall and Port Forwarding. The console is also needed to view system logs and network traffic statistics and to access the QoS engine, where drag and drop can be used to assign bandwidth priority to specific clients. You can enable and disable guest networking and disable Internet access for specific clients using Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands, but that is pretty much all you can do with voice commands.
