D-Link DIR-842 AC1200 wireless router review

Affordable MU-MIMO Wireless Router

D-Link DIR-842 is a new affordable Wireless AC1200 router from D-Link and it seems that they abandoned their cylindrical design for a more conventional router design. The router now have 4 antennas of which 2 will be dedicated for 2.4Ghz and 2 more for 5Ghz. At prices under RM300 at time of writing this article, this is the most affordable Wireless AC1200 MU-MIMO router in Malaysia. We shall see how well this router actually perform.

All the ports that come with the D-Link DIR-842 is in this picture. One thing you notice is the lack of USB port but that is forgivable considering how cheap this wireless router is and USB performance on lower range routers are generally slow and not really useful. But, the good thing is it comes with Gigabit Ethernet port so LAN file transfer speed should be fine.

Firmware and Features

So the firmware, there’s not much bell and whistles over here since this is a low range wireless router. But, you do get all the basics here. The homepage is user friendly and able to tell you the status of the connection. Everything is nicely displayed and you can see how many devices are connected on your network.

D-Link included their drag and drop QoS traffic shaping feature but you really shouldn’t use QoS unless in an extreme case where you absolutely need to throttle some connections. There is no USB port on this router so there is no USB file sharing or printer sharing. Not a huge loss considering how cheap this router is and not much people actually utilize the USB port on a router. The full list of features of this router is below.

  • Guest wireless
  • Wireless HyppTV / Unifi TV
  • VLAN Internet ISP support (Unifi, Maxis Fibre)
  • Drag and Drop QoS
  • Website filter
  • DDNS

D-Link DIR-842 Unifi configuration guide

D-Link is one of the supplier for TM Unifi so you should expect their router to work properly right out of the box. The DIR-842 is compatible with Unifi and it comes with wireless HyppTV or Unifi TV support. Configuration on the other hand is not as simple as other brands where additional steps are required to enable the VLAN functionality on this wireless router.

Configure the Unifi PPPOE authentication

Change your internet connection to PPPOE under the Settings > Internet tab. Then, you can insert your Unifi PPPOE username and password you obtained from TM’s customer service. Save the configuration and navigate to the VLAN settings.

Enable the TM Unifi VLAN profile

First thing to do here is to enable VLAN. Next, you will see the service provider selection field. Select your desired ISP which is TM Unifi for most people. If you use the HyppTV, do remember to change LAN Port4 to IPTV. In this case, connect your HyppTV or Unifi TV to LAN port 4. Save the configuration and the wireless router will reboot. Unifi Internet connection will work after the reboot.

Performance Overview

The bottom of the DIR-842 with all the necessary passwords listed below

Despite the D-Link DIR-842 is an entry level wireless router with a really affordable pricing, it packs quite some punch. It comes with Wireless AC1200 with MU-MIMO support which means in theory, it should be faster than the rather well known DIR-850L. You really shouldn’t purchase a non Wireless AC router these days as they cannot really support the speed of Internet today. 

The performance is decent for a router this price, both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz displayed good range and decent bandwidth profile. We do not see any issues with around 15 devices connected to this router on a 100Mbps Internet connection. The wireless range is definitely enough to cover a 1200sqft apartment. As usual, We ran our iPerf test to compare the performance against the D-Link DIR-850L.

Close Range

We do not expect any surprise at close range to test the peak speed of the 5Ghz radio. The DIR-842 is able have a higher peak performance over the DIR-850L. Not a surprise considering the DIR-842 has a much newer chipset. 

Long Range

On longer range, the DIR-842 is pulling ahead of the DIR-850L where the DIR-850L is struggling to reach 100Mbps on the 5Ghz radio. The DIR-842 is a decent upgrade over the DIR-850L to enjoy better performance. 

Final Thoughts

D-Link DIR-842 comes with individual indicators for all the LAN ports. A good step up from the DIR-850L.

D-Link DIR-842 provides a great value for the price. At the price point of sub RM300, it is competing directly with Asus RT-C1200G and TP-Link Archer C1200. Only the D-Link comes with MU-MIMO support out of the 3 routers with similar specifications. On our testing, the wireless performance of D-Link DIR-842 is actually faster than both of the competing routers. However, the DIR-842 lacks a USB port where both the Asus and TP-Link have a USB port for file sharing and printer sharing.

Well, it is all up to preference. If you are looking for an affordable and well performing router without the need for a USB port. The DIR-842 is a decent choice. The firmware is no frills and simple to configure and D-Link is happy enough to include 3 years warranty with this wireless router. For more Unifi routers, check out our Unifi router list

79 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Hi. I recently bought this DIR-842 from Ookas and I’ve done setting it up. Running well, with download speed exceed 300Mbps (my unifi turbo-ed to 300Mbps). Didn’t encounter any problem till last few days. I never switch off my router and running 24 hours. I’m having trouble with slow loading from mainly Facebook and Instagram. YouTube seems to be working fine, streaming from browser is fine too. Fb and insta is the problem will loading. Sometimes it shows “no internet connection”. I’ve upgrade the firmware to 3.02 thinking it would fix something. But still having the same problem. But when… Read more »

Just an update. After switching off ipv6, everything runs well. Default setting was on.

Hi, I was provided with this particular modem router from UniFi. Would you recommend upgrading this to TP-Link Archer C1200?

Two issues:
1) Sometimes, certain websites are not accessible even though I have changed the VLAN to manual and DNS settings to Google DNS. I need to resave/reboot it and then no issue.
2) Infrequent latency issue.

Was wondering if not using UniFi’s provided router will provide a better experience?

One of the features is wireless hypptv / unifi tv.
You mentioned “If you use the HyppTV, do remember to change LAN Port4 to IPTV. In this case, connect your HyppTV or Unifi TV to LAN port 4.” I gather this is wired connection from router to STB box. How to set up wireless hypptv?

I have the D-Link DIR-842 from unifi but I can barely reach 150 Mbps on the 5Ghz. I can reach 500+ on the wired LAN.

How far the long distance and short distance you mentioned above?

Lack of software features. Cannot reboot remotely and need to reset if connection issues arise.
Lousy range. 5Ghz drops considerably with distance.

I can access to all websites except for google and its related sites.
Should do anything on IPv6 ? Dynamic IP address settings ?
Please advise further.

Is this router compatible for 500 mbps plan?

Nice write up. Do you think this will also be a good repeater?

Hello Alvin,
I have a Unifi issued DIR-842 router now but having difficulty setting up the access to my existing CCTV recorder . I could set up the DDNS facility in this router – no problem and did set up the virtual server thing but still not access. The old thunder-stricken RT-AC68U router was a breeze to set up and was using for a year plus without much issue.

Now, need your expert advice, did I setup wrongly or I need another brand/type of router ? Kindly assist. Thank you in advance.

I follow the step to configure my dlink router, but couldnt access to internet.
In the dlink webUI shows internet connected, but i try both wifi and LAN, it is not working.

Thanks for the review. great infoz..but my TMrouter does not have Triple-play and mine is DIR-842 HW:C2 FW:3.01TM ….ive tried to upgrade to latest firmwares 3.10 11.7.2018 but failed..any suggestion?

Dear Abas, I found a way to get into VLAN. TM hided the VLAN settings just on the ipv4 settings, click on the ipv6 settings & you should see a VLAN setting popup 🙂 Thank me later.

79
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
Scroll to Top