Rating: Summary: D-Link DI-704P (Silver Case) Review: The DI-704P does everything that is promised. Port forwarding works with AIM and MSN file transfers. You can play online games right out of the box without any configuring, and you can also host matches as a server with such games as Unreal Tournament 2003, Nascar 2002, and Medal of Honor without exposing yourself in the DMZ, as long as you forward the appropriate port ranges. I run Kerio firewall on all the client machines and allow those forwarded port ranges to only be accessed by the game executables. This gives me full stealth reports from grc, sygate, and pcflank, even when hosting games or doing file transfers. Out of the box, port 113 (Ident) does not stealth. This is easily fixed by forwarding this port to an unused IP address on your LAN, or to a computer with a firewall, such as Kerio, that will stealth it. The most recent firmware (version 2.70) is flexible, easily configured, and stable. The only thing that I find odd with the 704P (silver case) is the seemingly poor arrangement of ventilation holes on the case. The unit gets pretty warm to the touch. It hasn't complained, but it makes me wonder why they didn't provide for more air flow through the case. I found that by moving the provided rubber feet to one of the side ends, and standing it up, a lot more air flows through the case. So, to make it short, it looks good and it works great, and the price is right!
Rating: Summary: Great router when it is working Review: There are at least three versions of this router with the print server. Mine is DI-704P revision B This is a great print server "when" it is working. Unfortunately, it gets hot and unexpectantly quits working. I live in Calgary, Alberta and the temperature has been bitterly cold during the last two weeks. I keep the house temperature around 65 deg F in the winter and the router is well ventilated. To get it working again, I have to unplug it and let it cool down. Then I have to reset the router. I have two other DLink Routers, a DI-604 and a DI-624. The first time that this happened, after reading the manual, I assumed that the router is reset using the same proceedure as my DI-624. After trying many times, I contacted DLink and found out that I was not using the correct proceedure. So, I went back to my manual to see if I had misread the instructions. I discovered that something got lost in the translation from Chinese to English. I have had to unplug (to cool) and reset the router about four times in the last two weeks and have decided to give up and replace it with the DI-604 that I had previously used. This router was purchased in September or October, 2003 and should still be under warranty. I will wait to see what DLink will do. The DI-704P router runs considerably hotter than my other two routers. The high temperature has been reported by others on DLinks website. My experience seems similar to what others have reported.
Rating: Summary: Great router when it is working Review: There are at least three versions of this router with the print server. Mine is DI-704P revision B This is a great print server "when" it is working. Unfortunately, it gets hot and unexpectantly quits working. I live in Calgary, Alberta and the temperature has been bitterly cold during the last two weeks. I keep the house temperature around 65 deg F in the winter and the router is well ventilated. To get it working again, I have to unplug it and let it cool down. Then I have to reset the router. I have two other DLink Routers, a DI-604 and a DI-624. The first time that this happened, after reading the manual, I assumed that the router is reset using the same proceedure as my DI-624. After trying many times, I contacted DLink and found out that I was not using the correct proceedure. So, I went back to my manual to see if I had misread the instructions. I discovered that something got lost in the translation from Chinese to English. I have had to unplug (to cool) and reset the router about four times in the last two weeks and have decided to give up and replace it with the DI-604 that I had previously used. This router was purchased in September or October, 2003 and should still be under warranty. I will wait to see what DLink will do. The DI-704P router runs considerably hotter than my other two routers. The high temperature has been reported by others on DLinks website. My experience seems similar to what others have reported.
Rating: Summary: Does the job well Review: This product works exactly as advertised. We have two computers in the house and our previous setup was with one of the computers being the gateway to the outside (via proxy server software), connected directly to the cable modem. The gateway computer also shared the printer off of its parallel port. Without going into any of my issues with finicky proxy software, this setup just did not work well. Whoever was using the other computer when I decided I wanted to reboot the gateway machine, lost all Internet connectivity and the ability to print. It was a requirement that if the other computer wanted to get on the Internet or print, the gateway computer had to be up. Enter the D-Link DI-704P. This little box solved all of our problems with needing the gateway machine to be on to access the Internet. Now both computers are peers on the network and can reach the Internet and print without any regard for the other computer. This also bumped us up from a 10Base-T network to a switched 100Base-TX network. All of our problems are solved!
Rating: Summary: Does the job well Review: This product works exactly as advertised. We have two computers in the house and our previous setup was with one of the computers being the gateway to the outside (via proxy server software), connected directly to the cable modem. The gateway computer also shared the printer off of its parallel port. Without going into any of my issues with finicky proxy software, this setup just did not work well. Whoever was using the other computer when I decided I wanted to reboot the gateway machine, lost all Internet connectivity and the ability to print. It was a requirement that if the other computer wanted to get on the Internet or print, the gateway computer had to be up. Enter the D-Link DI-704P. This little box solved all of our problems with needing the gateway machine to be on to access the Internet. Now both computers are peers on the network and can reach the Internet and print without any regard for the other computer. This also bumped us up from a 10Base-T network to a switched 100Base-TX network. All of our problems are solved!
Rating: Summary: Good for small home networking Review: This router was a breeze to setup and use. Overall, it works pretty well for home networking with my two desktops and laptop. One thing I noticed about it is whenever I transfer a large number of files in between my networked computers, the throughput seems to lag down dramatically after a long period of time, which can be fixed by a reboot of the router. Kind of an annoying glitch, but other than that, it's been pretty solid.
Rating: Summary: Good Customer Service; Print Server feature is not useful Review: We bought this router because it was well rated on other sites, and one of the few in this price range with an integral print server. Network installation & configuration was fairly easy, but only because Tech Support is now available 24/7. The manual left out a key step, but Tech walked us through it. Neither of our printers would work through the print server... a major disappointment. Tech Support said they are not on their "Compatible" list, and although there are going to be firmware updates, they will not address these incompatabilities. One of our printers is an HP DeskJet 970... how can such a popular printer be incompatible? ADVICE: Call first to check if yours is compatible: 1-800-758-5489
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