Many home users have made the switch from 802.11g wireless to the faster and wider-reaching 802.11n. However, speed and coverage soon go down the drain when you throw in interference from nearby wireless networks.

The problem with the 2.4GHz spectrum that both 802.11g and 802.11n operate on is that there are only three non-overlapping channels. This means congestion will occur if there are more than three 2.4GHz wireless networks in close proximity.

The beauty of 802.11n is that it's also able to operate on the far less cluttered 5GHz spectrum, which has up to 23 non-overlapping channels. However, many 802.11n routers are only capable of 2.4GHz operation, which kills off one of its biggest selling points in one fell swoop.

All this finally looks to be changing, though, with manufacturers starting to release routers capable of 802.11n at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The latest model to hit the shelves is D-Link's DIR-825. Before we take a closer look at the DIR-825, it's worth pointing out that there's no built-in ADSL modem, so it's aimed predominantly at cable broadband users.

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It's a smart-looking device with a white and black chassis, two removable antennas (useful if you want to attach your own high-gain antennas) and the usual array of LED indicators at the front. Five Gigabit Ethernet ports are found at the rear (four LAN, one WAN), along with a USB port that lets you share either a printer or storage across the network.

Sadly, though, there's no built-in BitTorrent client, which is useful feature found on an increasing number of routers these days. On the right side of the router is a WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) button, which lets you set up encryption with other WPS-compatible devices at the touch of a button.

The DIR-825 is also able to broadcast on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously, meaning you can have two wireless networks running at the same time. So, for example, you could have an 802.11n network on 2.4GHz for all your web browsing, leaving the 5GHz network solely for media streaming.

Setting the device up is relatively uncomplicated. Various wizards guide you through the whole process and, should you want to tweak settings further, the web-based interface houses a wide range of advanced tools. However, networking novices will be flummoxed by many of the options and, although help for each option is available, the advanced terminology used does little to simplify things.

In our tests the DIR-825 performed well. At a distance of around one metre from the router, throughput at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz fluctuated between 40Mbps and 60Mbps when transferring files. It's worth noting that we almost always experienced slightly faster speeds on the 5GHz spectrum, which is most likely due to less interference. As expected, these speeds dropped fairly rapidly as the distance between router and laptop grew, and at around 20 metres with a couple of walls in the way throughput slumped to under 5Mbps.

The router can also indulge in a bit of channel bonding to provide even faster speeds, but with the already congested nature of the 2.4GHz spectrum you won't make friends with your neighbours if you start hogging more than one channel. It's not such a problem at 5GHz, though, and with the channel bonding switched on we managed peaks of around 90Mbps.

It's also possible to turn off either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio. When we tried this feature, small increases in wireless speeds were noticed, but nothing to write home about.

It's a shame D-Link couldn't stretch to furnishing the DIR-825 with a built-in BitTorrent client, but otherwise this is a well-featured wireless router that's capable of decent speeds at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.