D-Link was nice enough to send over a DCH-M225 Wi-Fi Audio Extender and a Monopiece speaker to test out with it.  Let’s see how it went!

D-Link was nice enough to send over a DCH-M225 Wi-Fi Audio Extender and a Monopiece speaker to test out with it.  Let’s see how it went!

Product Overview

The D-Link DCH-M225 is designed to extend your Wi-Fi into hard-to-reach zones while providing the ability to connect any speaker.  In essence, as long as you have a speaker with a 3.5mm input jack on it, you can turn it into an AirPlay or PlayTo-compatible speaker while range-extending your Wi-Fi connection.  Here is a good video overview.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_yTDOSPlfk%5D

Specifications

This is a single stream N300 range extender, so it won’t set any speed records.  As it is single-stream, 2.4 GHz connectivity is the only band on offer.

Product Pictures

This is a small form-factor product.  Check out these product shots.

Installation and Use

The DCH-M225 supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup and also can be set up manually.  I did it both ways; WPS worked OK, and the manual install is easy as well.  To set it up using WPS, simply plug the unit into a wall socket close to your router and wait until the LED on the front turns solid amber.  Then, press the WPS button on the router, and within one minute, press the WPS button on the DCH-M225.  It will communicate with the router and establish a connection, and once done, you’ll see s solid green LED on the range extender.  Then, unplug it and set it up where you need it, and plug a speaker in.  You are now good to go.

The manual installation is also pretty easy to do, and even if you use WPS, you will likely need to hit the admin screens on the product to make tweaks to the settings.  Plug the unit into a wall socket, and wait until the LED turns blinking amber.  Then, open up a web browser (I did all of my installation work in IE11) and point the browser to the address http://linkkap.local./ and you’ll see the following screen.

The admin password is blank, so hit enter.  You’ll want to change that later on and I’ll point out how to do that.  You land at the Current Status screen, as in this screenshot.

See that green check?  That means that you are connected to the internet.  You will see a red X there on first installation; this is showing connected as I set the unit up using WPS first.  Click on the Setup Wizard box at the top left of the screen and you see this.

Click Next to start the setup process.

I want to set this up manually so I choose the second option.  If you choose the first option, you will use WPS to effect the setup.  Anyhow, I chose the second option and clicked Next.

The DCH-M225 will now scan for available networks.

I chose one…

Now it wants the password to connect to the wireless network.

Confirm the name (SSID that will be broadcast) and password and click Next.

You can change the name here.  I left it alone.

Confirm everything and then click on Save.  You are done and return to the Current Status page.  Now go plug a speaker into the 3.5mm jack and check your Current Status page.

See how Audio Renderer is now lit up?  Click on it.

The DCH-M225 is now showing up as an AirPlay and DLNA target.  I fired up a video file on my Surface Pro 3 and redirected the audio to the speaker.  First, start up the video and get playback going, then swipe in from the right to bring up Charms.  Click on Devices and then select Play and you’ll see your devices, like this:

I selected the DCH-M225 and the audio was played by the speaker attached to the M225.  Easy as pie…and this worked with the XBOX Music app too!  Nice!  I tested with an Android device (Samsung Galaxy S3) and with an iPad 4th generation and the speaker worked just fine.

Before we get too far, though, I wanted to show you how to change the admin password on the device and how to update firmware.  Head back to our status screen.

See the Management selection in the top right?  Click on it and choose Admin.  You’ll see this screen.

Type in a password in the field marked Password and click on Save.  The unit will reboot and you’ll need to use your shiny new password to get in.  Note that you can also turn on CAPTCHA to augment your authentication.  I opted not to do that.

In order to upgrade firmware, go back to the Current Status page, click on Management and choose Upgrade.  You’ll see this:

Click Check for New Firmware to automatically pull down updates from the internet or if you already have a file, click on Select File.  There was an update available for this unit, and the update was quick and painless, just how I like them!

Under Management, there is also a System tab that allows you to backup and restore settings, restore to factory and to reboot.  Here is the screen.

Performance

Since this is an N300 extender, performance won’t be anything special so I did not run any speed tests.  Suffice to to say that it is plenty of hardware to handle light 2.4 GHz connectivity and streaming music.  I would not try to use it to stream 1080p video content, however.

Overall Evaluation

The D-Link DCH-M225 is a single stream N300 Wi-Fi range extender intended to also connect a speaker to provide an alternative AirPlay or DLNA target for audio.  This is a good choice for a simple-to-install N300 range extender/speaker connection option.  I’d prefer something in this form factor with 5 GHz connectivity, but for what it does, it does it very well.  I award a 5/5 Gold Award.  This product is available at MSRP of $49.99 and I recommend it if you are in the market for a simple range extender and want to connect a speaker for AirPlay or DLNA purposes.