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D-Link DI-704 Internet Gateway and Firewall with 4 Port Switch

D-Link DI-704 Internet Gateway and Firewall with 4 Port Switch

List Price: $89.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easier than i imagined
Review: ... I've found this to be a wonderful product. I'm only sharing a desktop and a laptop that occasionally bring home, but it's been worth it. I literally shut the machines down, hooked up the cable modem to the back of the router, turned on the router and the machines, and it's as if they already knew what had happened. BOth machines are running XP professional, which might help me out, but this will be the standard scenario very soon. Excellent product, ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simple to Use, if You get the right Help!!
Review: Awesome product. I had it up and running in literally 3 minutes. I had done some research at the FAQ's at the D-Link Website, and found how to make the Switch work with my cable provider, and didn't even look at the manual. Awesome product for the cost!! Lifetime warranty and support...only 1 year with the DI-804.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Broadband sharing simplified
Review: Out of the box to installed and operational in 5 minutes - without any configuration (ISP uses dynamic addressing). Two computers, one running Win98, the other WinMe. I don't see how another unit could be more effective or easier to set up. An aside: when I first connected the unit it was not functional - which I later realized was strictly my fault. Reply to an e-mail sent to D-Link was received in under an hour.

Bravo D-Link!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dlink 704 v 804
Review: I just got a dlink 704, running pretty well no complaints. I would get it again. maybe would have gotten the 804 over the 704?

the 804 (newer) is 15 bucks cheaper. the design is more geared to the consumer (lan ports in back, can be placed on a desk/table with less clutter) and is in a black plastic case as opposed to metal. two less indicator lights on the 804,
and one less cat-5 cable included (about $5). Will have universal plug and play Win ME support. plus one of the lan ports can double as an uplink (instead of buying a crossover cable). not many reviews about it on the web. rack mountable. updated web interface

704 - fairly good reviews on the net. industrial type design lan ports in front, wall mountable, metal case. little more information (lights). tested and tried (newer is not always better). the 704 also has a lifetime warrenty instead of one year for the 804 (well i don't know how much this is worth, these prices are dropping fast, but i am sure if your 704 breaks in a year or two they will send you a new one, maybe an 804? d-link has so-so quality ratings). currently more user support on the web.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Documentation terrible. Too difficult for a newbie to use.
Review: I had a home network with my dial up internet access and when I switched to Comcast@Home was told to go out and buy a router with a firewall. I bought the D-Link 704 in large part because I was under the impression that it integrated seamlessly with my cable service. Setting up the port and attaching it to the PCs was a snap as was getting the network to work. In about 30 minutes,I was up and running. However, the firewall built into the hardware required constant tweaking to get things like mIRC and other software programs that my son uses to work. The package comes with a quick start guide and manual but they were virtually indecipherable to me, an admitted non-techie. After a few days of trying to tweak the firewall, getting a completely unhelpful response from the tech department of D-Link and emailing with some other users who had the same problems (based on usenet posts), I gave up and put everything back in the box. I ended up buying a simple port and using Live Alarm Pro as my firewall. Works like a charm. I will be selling my D-Link 704 on Amazon in a few moments if anyone wants a used one that is virtually brand new!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Horrible Documentation, Good Product
Review: If you aren't into having your network equipment look good (this product runs circa 1983 in design), the network hub works well and provides all the functionality you need for an at home network with shared broadband access. However, the documentation pretty much stinks if you hit any glitch. Also, all of the screenshots were for Win 98, not 2000 which is very different. I am not a "network guy" but reasonably tech savvy and couldn't make the network work on my own (I have @home which is problematic for this product). Essentially, the tech guy at D-Link told me I had to uninstall all of the @home software to make this work and that finally did it. I might try Linksys if I had to do it over.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great product, mediocre documentation
Review: I purchased a D-Link DI-704 to replace a software firewall/router package that I had been using. The -704 worked right out of the box, and I had my network back on line in less than 15 minutes. The advertised features of the -704 work very well, and the current firmware (v2.55b15) supports PPTP VPN connections with no problems. Things I'd like to see in the -704 (but don't) include downloadable access logs and the ability to forward a connection on one port to a different port on the local network. The web-based configuration tool is straightforward to use; that's a good thing, since the user's manual is not very detailed, out of date in places, and omits some important topics (firmware upgrades, console mode features) entirely. If you have computer networking experience, you won't have any problem installing the -704. If you don't, it would be good to learn a little about networking first. But overall, I'm very impressed -- the D-Link DI-704 is a great product at a very reasonable price.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great value for the money
Review: This product was a great deal. It cost me about $60 after a $30 mail-in rebate. Fruitheads on ebay are bidding well over this amount for used versions of this product.

Security is quite good for such a cheap unit. However, it's still a good idea to use a software-based firewall product with this gateway.

The only gripe is that my kit contained 2 of the same type of network cable. Both were "normal" CAT5 cables used to connect a PC to a hub or switch, but I needed a 'reverse' cable to connect the WAN port on the D-Link gateway to my DSL modem. Luckily, I had the proper cable in my box of computer junk.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: ...you get what you pay for.
Review: I got the box up and running with my DSL connection and my WiFi network in less than half an hour. Didn't even have to read the manual, just the quick startup guide. However the box looks cheap and unattractive. The toggle power switch sticks out more that I would like which makes it susceptible to damage. Also, the DC socket is sandwiched right in between the toggle switch and RS-232 port making the L connecter for the DC socket very inconvenient. And lastly the L connector cannot be pushed all the way into the socket leaving about 1/8' of the contact exposed. This makes the connector fall out pretty easily. My suggestion is to shop around at physical stores before buying online so that you can see and feel the product. I would have preferred to pay $10 more for a better designed box. Of course, this box is marketed as a home gateway ..., so maybe I'm being too picky.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Too flaky to be useful
Review: I'm really shocked at the positive reviews I've seen of this product here. I went through two of these units before deciding that DLink has a serious quality assurance problem and switched to LinkSys entirely.

Here's the problem. I set this unit up according to the VERY limited instructions included with the unit. It did not work. So I went to the web site and dug up some detailed instructions (far more detailed than were provided in the printed documentation). By following these to the letter, I was able to get the unit to work.

However, this success was short lived. After a couple of days, the WAN link light just went out for no reason. I tried rebooting the DLink, turning it off and back on, and even turning off my DSL modem and cycling power up the way the FAQ on the DLink site had suggested. Still no link lights.

So I let the unit cool off for a couple of hours and tried it again. This time it worked. But about an hour later, it went down again. The unit had good ventilation the whole time, just sitting on top of a desk with nothing else around it. So I stamped back to the store and exchanged the unit for another one, thinking I had simply gotten "lucky" enough to pick up a defective unit.

Well, the second DLink did the same thing. Please note that I'm not trying to do anything exotic here. I have 3 computers and one DSL modem. No hubs, concentrators, routers, LANS within LANS, etc. I was simply using PPPoE on the WAN side and DHCP on the LAN side. Pretty mundane stuff.

It was after this second failure that I exchanged the DLink for a LinkSys, which I have yet to test. I'll post a review of that unit once I've given it a test drive. One thing is for sure; I'm done with DLink products.


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