Rating: Summary: Long range with my Orinoco Gold Review: I am able to get great range with this router by D-Link and an Orinoco Gold card. I don't get the speeds others are getting with this router and a DWL-650+, but right now I can't afford it. The wireless portion has worked without flaw or disconnect for quite some time now. It's probably been about 6 months since I've had the router up and running and about 3 months since I've been using the wireless portion of this. I am very pleased with this router and all of it's features.
Rating: Summary: Impossible to configure. Review: I bought a DE-614+ in USA and brought it to Santiago de Chile, where we are living now. It was impossible to configure, as my computer (Dell 8250) couldn't "talk" with it through the web browser; I tried a Liksys similar unit (BEFW11F4) without any difficulties. My problem is that I don't get any guarantee service in this country, as I bought it in the States; the local dealeer only responds for the units they sell. Reparing (if possible) or sending it back there is more expensive than buying a new one. Wasted money.
Rating: Summary: Incompatibility Issues Review: The router worked fine for a hard-line connection, but as soon as I tried to set up the wireless connection, I began having difficulties. I had a built-in Wi-Fi card in my Toshiba laptop, and the router didn't want to recognize this card. The instructions are non-existent when it comes to configuring the wireless portion of the "wireless router," and the tech support people refused to help me because my Wi-Fi card was not D-Link as well. I am returning the router in the morning to buy something with better overall compatibility.
Rating: Summary: DO NOT BUY DLINK PRODUCTS: Horrible device & service Review: I purchased this device for my family and I cannot believe the amount to time required to care and feed for this device. I have spent about 3 hours trying to keep it running properly. I will work for a day and then the wireless will just stop. The wired connection is fine. After it is reset, it works fine for another day or two. I have called technical support many times and the first level has less technical knowledge than a Circuit City sales person and level 2 is never accessible. Their phone lines are jammed with 30 minute+ wait times (level 1 35 minute wait, level 2 another 30+ minute wait time, then no resolution!). Wonder why the support lines are jammed? Their products stink.DO NOT BUY DLINK ANYTHING - you will regret it!
Rating: Summary: works after upgrading firmware Review: This is my second wireless access point, the first was an Orinoco that I bought three years ago I think. While shopping this time around it was impossible to find any reviews of any access points that didn't have some set of users complaining about the unreliability of the thing, rampant packet loss, needing to reset the device often, etc. Since I need to put mine in the attic I was very worried about having to do that. I opened it yesterday and had the thing up and running in 10 minutes. I wrote an application to test the speed and while I was walking about the house to see how that affects the speed, the unit hanged. I hadn't upgraded the firmware because my cable modem was down. This morning I upgraded the firmware and re-implemented my speed tests, and here are the results: From wired to wireless: WEP off, 579 Kb/sec, 4.523 Mbits/sec, 75% CPU on laptop WEP 64, 461 Kb/sec, 3.602 MBits/sec, 45% CPU on laptop 20% slower WEP 128, 435 Kb/sec, 3.398 MBits/sec, 57% CPU on laptop 25% slower From wireless to wired: WEP 64, 488 Kb/sec, 3.817 MBits/sec The test was simply opening a TCP connection between a machine on the wired LAN and blasting data from it as fast as possible. Running with WEP 64 enabled causes 20% slow down, WEP 128 is a 25% slow down. With WEP disabled 4.523 MBits/sec is not bad at all but you really need WEP enabled to make sure random people walking around on your streets don't access your home network. Data moving from the wireless laptop to the wired computer seems to be a little faster, which is also something I have seen at my work. The range on this device is vastly superior than my first generation base station. I find that I can get lots of work done from the toilet at the far end of the house now, which is one of my favorite places to work ;-) Even when my old base station worked (it stopped working properly which is why I had to buy a new one) it never was able to reach the far end of my house. We're talking 80 to 100 feet here ... amazing. I am using an internel wireless card in my Dell laptop. I suppose if I put a D-link PC card into my PCMCIA slot that I could get even better thruput, but I cannot go back to having one of those stick out the side all the time. All in all I am pleased but one feature I was hoping to be able to find is, Running with WEP off but with some sort of MAC address form of security. So I could put my one wireless device (this laptop) on my LAN but block all other devices, without having to turn on WEP so I can maintain top performance. I don't think that's possible though, even though it seems like it is almost possible and would be easy for D-link to add. Oh - no packet loss or reboots since I upgraded the firmware at all. Oh, and I am running in access point mode, not gateway mode. I have a linksys router/firewall right next to my cable modem at one side of my house, with the wireless base station in the middle of the house up in the attic. Hope this review helps. I get goose bumps when lots of people say my reviews help! [11/9/2003] So I came to find that my D-link could not hold a connection reliably. Some connections, that is. For some reason my Windows Messenger (the MSFT chat client) would continually log me out. FOr a while I thought it was my flakey cable modem but in fact it turned out to be the D-link. I talked to D-link and they were not able to help me. I know it's the D-link because (1) my wired computer never logged me out and (2) I now have a Linksys 54G wireless base station and it never drops the connection. So ... sadly ... beware.
Rating: Summary: Works great--easy to install and secure Review: I did a great deal of research on wireless products before choosing this one. It has worked great since I installed it. Setup was easy (browser-based), and I use it with a DWL-650+ PC Card adapter in my laptop, as well as three wired computers. Be sure to download the latest firmware and drivers. There is a feature that will allow you to save your router settings to a file. Use this before installing new firmware, as the upgrade will wipe out all settings (restore the saved settings from the file). Only had one problem with keeping the wireless connection, but this was resolved after updating the driver in the laptop. You need to accept the fact that with any product, you'll have to check for new drivers every few months, at least for the first year, to get the latest security features and fixes. Also, be sure to change the SSID, turn on 256-bit WEP encryption (make up a key), and use MAC and IP restrictions if posible. These are not set by default. Make an admin password for the router. Range seems to be good. I can use this from anywhere in the house, even the basement under the metal ductwork, and in any part of the yard. One final thing to consider. D-Link recently released a 802.11g version of this router that is backward compatible with 802.11b. It costs a bit more but will probably quickly replace this due to the faster speed. You may want to purchase this instead, along with the associated 802.11g network cards. I plan to use this soon in a new installation for a friend. Rebates are usually available to lower the cost.
Rating: Summary: Very simple setup Review: Setup is a breeze, read the manual/quick install guide and you are all set. speeds are great, especially with the new 4x firmware upgrades. reliability is fine for me. i read that other people have had problems, but i have probably read just as many that said the've had no problems. i am int he no problems catagory. i can try and get online via my laptop wirelessly at any time and the router is up and running just fine. i have MAC filtering on and 128-bit WEP on.
Rating: Summary: Happy Family Easy Install Everyone On The Net Review: This is a great product: easy plug and play (I hooked up my XP laptop, 2 Windows98 Desktops, and a Windows95 P1 to the router). Our cablemodem now runs 4 of us at the same time! The old Win95 desktop wouldn't take the wireless card but fortunately this router has 4 ethernet plugs on the back, so I just plugged the VERY OLD pc with a regular network card into the router. I can go anywhere in the yard or the house with my laptop now. You don't have to leave any pc on! BIG ADVICE: You will need a wireless printer server next for your printer: GO FOR THE ROUTER WITH THE PRINTER SERVER FOR $50 MORE! Did you know network cables cost $1.50 a FOOT! Don't need them! This was very very easy to set up and worked instantly!
Rating: Summary: Great product Review: Easy to set up but I did have to call tech support for some assistance with configuring it. Manual has little help for Mac users and the telephone tech support is worse when it comes to their knowledge of the Mac.
Rating: Summary: Took longer to unpack than setup! Review: With MAC address cloning, the installation of this was absolutely seamless. If your cable modem company uses MAC address authentication, they won't even know you have a router if you use the cloning. It took me longer to unpack the item and plug everything in than to get it configured to work! It has a fantastic wizard for beginners that will get you working on your DSL or Cable Modem in minutes if not seconds. For advanced users, the WEP encryption is great and having a completely web based administration system is always a plus. When used with a 650+ aircard, this system is nearly perfect. I VERY rarely have to reset this router, it just always works, 24/7. Plus, it's one of the cheapest ones out there. Definitely a plus!
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