Rating: Summary: Great value, solid performer, with some room for improvement Review: Pros: reasonable price; three ports for wired connections; reasonably simple administration procedures and usable interface; integrated print server (parallel connector)Cons: no support for bi-directional communications with my HP LaserJet 1200se (e.g., it no longer tells me I'm out of paper, etc.). After scouring the Web for insight and equipment reviews (the PracticallyNetworked site was especially helpful) of the myriad of router options, I decided on this one from D-Link. My housemate and I needed to share our newly installed cable Internet service in our three-story house, so wireless seemed like the easiest option. I put the router in my office on the second floor, and he has no trouble accessing the Net by laptop from his office on the first floor, and I can usually get 500+ Kbps (on a PII-333 laptop running a NetGear PC card) in the living room on the third floor. 2Wire's bandwidth meter clocks about a 1.5 Mbps connection for my P4-1.2 wired directly to the router. I haven't had to call D-Link for tech support, so I can't speak to their abilities/response time. I did use their Web site to download a firmware upgrade. All told, I had our wireless net up and running in less than an hour (which also included a call into RCN to get them to tweak our cable modem on their end). One thing to bear in mind: pick access clients that are solid performers, whether they're PC card or USB devices. Routers like this are only the access point portion of the wireless equation -- speed and range can be easily hobbled by anemic clients that can't hold up their end of the bargain.
Rating: Summary: Great product, read before setup Review: I got the DI713-P and a Dlink DW650H card from Amazon, at great prices ... . Prices have gone up quite a bit after that. Delivery took longer than usual about a week. First of all, set it up with an access readily available to the net. Check inmediatly the firmware level (in my case I upgraded the unit from 2.57 as shipped to the latest 2.60) and upgrade it to the lattest, from the D-Link site (either www or ftp). This was the absolute first thing to do and by wired connection. Firmware upgrade and reboot was a snap, about 20 seconds. Initially tested it at the office, with both a wired PC and wireless cards, the one I bought and a Cisco 350 card, no problems whatsoever. Setting it up at home with cable modem also fast job, be sure to check the manual (not extremely detailed but enough). Run into small trouble as my ISP requires to use the same MAC address, but a convenient Clone button is available in the Tools Menu of the router. This step was also covered on the manual, which of course I read after the trouble. My home setup is two wired desktops with Win 2000 Professional, my laptop with a Cisco 350 also win 2000 and wifes laptop with Win 98 and the Dlink DW650H card. Everything setup within minutes loading the apropiate drivers. Printer is an HP 600, also no problem to setup. Have not tried the WEP security or backup modem facility. The wireless reach is going to be less than expected from specs. Be sure to place in apropiate convenient middle of the road location, as distance and walls dramatically decrease reach. If not able to get there, either get an external booster antenna or if you enjoy doing it, build your own, plenty of specs available on the net. One word of advice: this is a fairly simple product to use if you understand networks and setup of apropiate drivers, if you don't, better read a lot before hitting the wall ... . My only trouble using it was the setup to be able to use Netmeeting behind the firewall, had to use the DMZ option which is only for one address at a time, but that is good enough for myn home use, might be a problem with some games if you want to use more than one PC at a time and need a DMZ access for all.
Rating: Summary: Reliable Review: In September 2001 I set our office up with a Broadband 802.11B Wireless Router from D-Link. That puppy gave me fits. I couldn't keep anything connected. Finally about a year ago it got so bad I replaced it with this router and access point. Setup was easy, range is sufficient for us-- A two story 1890's home make into an office, and most of the network problems eased into oblivion. I thought we were having a problem last week but it turned out to be a Siemens Wireless Network connector in its last throes. When it comes time to replace this router I'll probably go for a D-Link again.
Rating: Summary: Decent wireless router for the price Review: So far the 713P works as advertised. The set up instructions are not real clear and are directed at W98 users. (I'm using a wired Win98 PII 233 and a wireless Dell Inspiron 8200 with an internal wireless modem P4 1.8Ghz XP pro) I found more helpful info on the D-link web site FAQ's. It took me around an hour to get my LAN and wireless connections working and because the router is in the corner of my basement I get a weak but usable signal on the far end of the upper level of my house. I didn't bother with the encryption settings as the signal outside isn't strong enough for anyone on the street to pick up. I still need to configure the printer port but that shouldn't be a problem. All in all it's a good product... Update - had to buy a new printer to work with the Printer Port (old one was 5 yrs old). You need to make sure that your printer is "networkable" so I got a HP 5550. 30 minutes to set up new printer on wired and wireless machines and I was printing just like that. The lack of Bi-directional information is kind of a pain but the ability to share a printer makes up for it.
Rating: Summary: We're off to a good start Review: The D-Link 713P was a first venture into networking for me, and so far it has gone pretty easily. We now have shared access to our cable modem from two offices. The 713 was connected to my PC (1.3 Gig Athlon, Win XP Home) and the modem in a matter of minutes. I was wary when the first step in the instructions didn't work on my XP-based host. However, it connected to the D-Link web page flawlessly, and everything was smooth from there. I bought the unit recently from Amazon, and it came with the latest firmware available (2.57 build 3A1). My only non-standard point was that Adelphia requires a cloned MAC address, and this is mentioned on the D-Link wireless FAQ page. Everything fell into place after that. The system is talking through a wall,bookcase, and 30 ft. to an SMC 2602 PCI card in a Win95 based system with no problems - 80% signal. The print server installation was easy, although the documentation has options for Win95, 98, ME or NT,2000 but no mention of XP. I simply followed the Win2000 option, and had no trouble. It is working well with an older Epson Stylus Color for now. I have an ATI Radeon video card, which doesn't seem to cause a problem despite prior comments. The unit seems excellent, but the documentation is less than clear or lacking detail in places. I will update later when I complete the link to my Laptop with a Netgear MA401 card, and after some more taxing use.
Rating: Summary: Affordable, easy to install and it works ! Review: I purchased this product to share my cable modem Internet connection at home with a Desktop (purchased D-Link DWL-500 11Mb Wireless LAN PCI Network Card) and Laptop PC (purchased D-Link DWL-650 11Mb Wireless PCMCIA LAN Network Card 802.11b).
1) Went to the website... and downloaded the ZIP file containing the latest Firmware and saved it on my laptop PC.
2) Installed the wireless PCMCIA on my laptop (very easy). 3) Unpacked the Router/Access Point and plugged in the Cable Modem UTP to the "WAN" port on the router and powered it up. 4) Went to the Router Admin Tool in my Web Browser and configured the "hostname" of the Cable Modem provider and upgraded the firmware. 5) Powered down my Cable Modem and Rebooted the Router (via the web browser).
Everything worked perfectly. I installed the NIC card in my desktop PC and everything worked there. I am surfing on both machines and walking around with my laptop and eventually moved my desktop to my office (away from TV where cable modem is located).
If your needs are similar to mine, I advise you to buy this product. ... for a 2 PC wireless network at home. Awesome.
Rating: Summary: Don't forget to update the firmware Review: I wanted a DSL/Cable router with wireless access point, 10/100 switch, and built-in print server, and only 2 products fit my budget: D-Link and SMC. I picked D-Link primarily because one of its product had a pretty good rating in PC Magazine wireless testing.
I first attached my desktop through a standard ethernet port, and it worked like a charm. The installation was no more than 10 min - really! Then, I installed D-Link 650 wireless card to my notebook, and to my surprise it too was working in 10 minutes. But, the mystery began once I reboot my notebook. My notebook could see the router, but for some strange reasons, router wasn't giving out the correct IP address. I spent the next 6 hrs trying out all possibilities, and I was ready to call it quit and ship it back. Then, as a last resort, I updated the firmware, and boom ... everything worked all of a sudden. The print server works with my Brother laser printer, but not with Epson ink-jet. The signal strength is always at Good or Excellent inside my home. The signal gets weak and drop at certain angles from the yard, but I could still surf the net at the speed of well above 1 MB from my hammock. I only wish that the boss would let me work from my hammock everyday :) Overall, I'm very happy with it. I only wish that I updated the firmware sooner.
Rating: Summary: Works, Most of the time Review: This is a good product that does what it says it does, most of the time. The reason I dont give it 5 stars is that every once and awhile it becomes dumb, it simply forgets that there is a cable modem hooked up to it, and the only way to fix this is to reboot it. It is a minor inconvenience, but can cause quite a bit of frustration in critical moments.
Rating: Summary: Excellent Review: Plugged it into the laser printer, hooked it up to the cable modem, and then installed the wireless adapters on two workstations and it configured itself to work with the cable modem without even having to log into the setup menu. I don't know how other Wireless router combinations compare in "range", but I would imagine there are some that work better through walls and indoor distances. All in all, it is very stable and reliable at a reasonable price.
Rating: Summary: Decent, but mine has some issues Review: With the latest firmware, this has practically all the features I'd want in a 802.11b router, but, unfortunately, the wireless functionality has some problems, at least on my hardware. I had some minor trouble getting it running to begin with, but armed with the latest firmware, I had a functioning wireless network. Unfortunately, after awhile I began to notice that the signal would unexpectedly drop, suddenly and completely, and restore itself after about 3 seconds to 3 minutes (doesn't seem like a big deal until after you've been dropped from your third network game). Tech support wasn't a great help-- they seemed to initially be stuck on the idea that it was a signal strength issue, advising repositioning the antennas, moving it away from the wall, etc., which, predictably, didn't improve matters any. A later firmware upgrade helped somewhat, without completely eliminating the problem. Finally, tech support decided that the D-Link wireless PCI adapter wasn't compatible with XP, case closed, no refund/replacement, though everything seems to indicate that it's a problem with the router. Anyway, I've resorted to running 25' of cat5 cable, and everything's fine now. The print server had some issues with my HP inkjet printer, but that was a documented problem with HP printers and print servers, so I don't really blame that on D-Link. Anyway, I think I'll buy Netgear next time.
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