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D-Link AirPlus DI-614+ Wireless 22 Mbps Broadband Router

D-Link AirPlus DI-614+ Wireless 22 Mbps Broadband Router

List Price: $89.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Nothing But Trouble
Review: Let me start by saying that I work as a system and network administrator, so I know what I'm doing when it comes to this stuff. I have successfully set up many wireless networks at employees' homes, usually using Netgear products.

I went with the D-Link this time because I needed extra range and wanted to use their DWL-800AP+ Range Extender. This part worked as advertised, and increased the range by at least 50%. I decided to use the 802.11b (rather than g) product because it seems I read about fewer problems with b products.

However. the DI-614+ has been nothing but trouble. It works...for a while. Then the wireless hosts suddenly lose connectivity even though they still show strong signal strength. Also, when the laptops (both XP and OS X) woke from sleep, half the time they wouldn't see the network for a while. I called D-Link technical support several times and various techs had be try changing various settings, but we could never get it working reliably for more than an hour. This was using firmware release 3.35.

The kicker came, though, when I turned on Static DHCP. Once this was enabled, the router started rebooting every minute or so. I called back and they had me do a full reset of the router and it was back to its kind of working state. But once I re-enabled Static DHCP (I need this so that I always know the IP addresses of various hosts so I can reach them when performing my own tech support) the constant rebooting began again.

The tech suggested I downgrade to 3.20CM, but I saw in the notes that Dynamic DNS is broken in that release, and that's another feature I need. I tried 3.28 and it had the same trouble with Static DHCP.

After messing with this for almost a week, I'm going to run out tomorrow and buy my old reliable Netgear MR814v2 and an antenna.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst tech support ever
Review: By the time Tier 1 and Tier 2 tech support were done we had more problems than we started with. They fixed nothing and broke new things. Every time we called back they had lost the notes and had no record of the case numbers they'd given us, so we had to start all over. Tier 2 was even worse than Tier 1 -- gave up, made a few vague suggestions with no real direction and pushed us off the phone because he didn't know what to do next. He left us with our entire network down.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: If only it all worked as advertised!
Review: I bought the DI614+ and DWL650+ from Amazon in December 03. I have to say that the router is packd full of features. The features that I used in particular were the 256 bit encryption and the MAC filtering on the wireless access, both of which are generally easy to setup and ensure that drive-by cyber squatters cannot get onto the network. The basics worked fine and the web browser setup is a good idea, BUT: 1. the help did not correspond to the on-screen options; 2. I never got the 22Mbps that I should have, it peaked at 12Mbps even when the laptop was 5 feet from the router and both were properly configured. Dlink support was useless in 4 attempts to achieve that performance. Once I started going through walls, the bandwidth dropped way off (1-4Mbps). I sold the set before completing what may have been a more promising exchange with yet another support fellow (Jerry H.). 3. Reconfiguring the router requires the user to figure out the idiosyncracies of the router software (i.e. how to 'kick it around' via a sequence of config steps) to effectively change the setup. Apparently the product mangement tried to stuff it full of features but then did not commit to sufficient QA resources to ensure that config changes would actually work correctly. 4. There is no excuse for documentation that does not match up with what one sees on the config screen, particularly the on-line help. What documentation there is is minimalist and doesn't really describe what the various features do. Overall I am less than excited about D-Link and that firm now accompanies SMC as 'last resort' or 'so cheap I can't pass up the deal' places to do business.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Router, wireless signal not strong enough
Review: I bought this unit a couple of days ago. I used Linksys BEFW11S4 (V2) for about 17 months before it's dead. The BEFW11S4 would be a 5 star if it was not dead.

The setup of DL-614+ is easy. It took me no time at all. I just pluged it and it worked fine. The only problem I had is the wireless signal is not good for some wireless card. I have a netgear and a SMC card. I set up the unit on the west side of the second floor and I put a dell laptop with the netgear on the east side of the first floor of the house. The singal and link are only about 60%. But it worked fine with the SMC card. The SMC card is with a strong antenna built-in. So both signal and link are good. I pluged the SMC card in the dell and both are above 95%. I even moved the dell to the basement, and the signal and link are above 90% most of the time. Linksys BEFW11S4 has stronger singals than DL-614+. With the same condition, I had no problem at all using the Netgear card with BEFW11S4.

Overall, I am pleased with the unit for the price.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: BETTER THAN THE LINKSYS but not without fault
Review: It was fussy out of the box but with a download of the firmware from their website I had it going quick and without serious issue since. I tried a similar product by LINKSYS prior to buying this box and had lots of problems with permanently losing the wireless connection with my laptop. The only issue I have is the link quality is either 100% and working, or drops to a value of 80-99% and the link stops for a few seconds, (BUT ALWAYS COMES RIGHT BACK). The quality # can be 80 or 90% and the link is fussy. I think the weighting of the link quality is certainly different because the LINKSYS would work down into the 20-30% range. I am a broadcast engineer with some networking experience and I did not give up, but many people might be likely to throw in the towel.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: (un)plug & play!
Review: I liked my DI-614+, especially with a DWL-650+ PCMCIA card for my laptop at the time. I *literally* plugged it in the wall, plugged my DSL modem into the WAN port on the router, configured my desktop to use DHCP and plugged it into one of the four LAN ports, and I was online. Total time spent: less than one minute.

The only SERIOUSLY major problem I have with the DI-614+ (rev A), is that if I'm connected to remove systems for FTP or SSH (I do web development) and leave my computer idle for a few minutes, the router kills the connection. I've logged almost a dozen calls to D-Link and tried every version of their software in an attempt to fix this but nothing has helped. That, however, was the ONLY problem I ever had with it. I eventually switched to a DI-714P which puts my printer on the LAN but I lose the 2X/4X data rates...

Otherwise, the 614+ is a GREAT router.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: Configured easy, worked with dwl800ap+ flawlessly... for about 20 minutes. M2 light came on, game over, back to the store. Read the reviews people.. these units are junk. Reinstalling Linksys with hi-gain antennae.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I've had mine over a year and it works fine
Review: I get good reception and speeds through several walls, about 75 ft away is where I usually use it. There is a whole bedroom in between and I even have photos in front of the router in order to hide it as I do not consider most electronics as decorative. I can sit on my balcony as well and always have at least "good" level and 22Mbps. I occasionally get interference but this is better since I configured the security on it, which tech support helped me through step by step. I think my wireless phone and wireless phone jack all could interfere and I live in an apartment and pick up other peoples wireless systems so this helped. Also with tech support, it's the luck of the draw. If you call back you eventually get someone who knows what's up. I find their support better than my notebook or ISP or antivirus or 4in1's tech and they are all big names. If you do change from wireless to hardwired you may need to reset the router. Very easily done by replugging power to modem then the router after waiting several minutes or by using a paperclip in the reset hole per instructions. The manual is often vague for other issues ie setting up the firewall and filters etc but again I was able to get tech support at all times with no worse waits than most. As with all electronics companies supposed tech support I find you just have to try back until you find someone who knows your product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great for apartments
Review: I use this in my one bedroom, 750 square foot apartment and have over 90% signal strength no matter where I am. I keep it in the hall closet, in the middle of my unit, with the cable modem. The range is great. With this router in my unit on the third floor I can sit outside my building in the common area and still get reception of 60%. The reception is also great with my PDA that has built in wireless.

I did notice the dowload rate does slow compared to a direct connection to the cable modem. However, you will ony see this when downloading large files and not with your daily web surfing or emailing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great product and easy to go
Review: I bought Linksys wireless-G router first. After 2 days, the setup was still not finished and couldn't get on the internet, especially with the wireless one.I hope I had bought this product first. I plug it in and turned the power on, then It WORKS!! so simple and the signal is so strong. Now I can use my laptop everywhere in my house by a wirelss network card. What a great product compared to the even more Linksys junk!!!!


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