Reviewed by: JamesWebb on 18-Dec-09 Rating:

Strengths:Wep work work well with non-dlink wireless adapters N wireless

Weaknesses:WPA/WP2 doesn\'t work well - At start up, windows can\'t log in due to router need to be reset - Advance feature somewhat work - hard to set up even with cd and firmware update

Summary:-Bad network since can\'t use n feature if wpa/wp2 doesn\'t work on daily bases.
-Router setting hard to set
-constant reset of router
-Range is horrible depend on wireless adapter

I could continue but it\'s a cheap router. Good for basic G Internet and low on funds but another router would be recommended if wanting to use more wireless features.

Reviewed by: Silent_Twilight on 06-Apr-09 Rating:

Strengths:Good Signal Strength, Cheap

Weaknesses:Tech-Support, Not Easy To Install

Summary:The only good thing about this router is that once you get it to work it has a good signal strength. The set-up seems like it is easy but really that couldn\'t be farther from the truth. The tech-support is awful not to mention very difficult to understand. I managed to fix the problem of not being able to connect to the internet but now i am having difficulty connecting to my playstation 3. I tried calling tech-support again (got the same guy as last time i called)and was told that i needed to contact playstation. I would not recommend this product, it is not worth the headache. Your money would be better spent elsewhere.

Reviewed by: misterjsc on 22-Mar-09 Rating:

Strengths:computer seems to load faster at start up

Weaknesses:Have never been able to wirelessly connect to the internet!

Summary:I have spent over twenty hours trying to get this thing working.
Four hours on the phone with Customer Service provided no answers.
FYI: D-Link Customer Support menu is VERY time consuming, wait, wait, wait, push buttons, wait, wait, wait, wait, push more button, listen, wait, wait, wait, finally get to speak with a customer service agent...
I have updated firmware, downloaded things, changed settings, changed settings again...
Computer says it\'s connected to the D-Link, but when I open a web page, it says \"YOU MUST BE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET\".
Changed settings again and again and again.
NOTHING works.
I am somewhat good at making computers work correctly, and fix the problems Friends and Family have...
This router is a GREAT dust collector, as for function, there has been NONE!
This is the most FRUSTRATING and WORTHLESS computer accessory I have purchased.
VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTED with this purchase!
I have spent hours reading forums and tried numerous \"wireless wizards\"...
NO results, just OVERWHELMING FRUSTRATION!
If anyone can offer any tangible advice I would GREATLY appreciate it!!!

Reviewed by: LGratz on 11-Jan-09 Rating:

Strengths:Signal strength

Weaknesses:Complicated set-up (for the non-technician); doesn\'t work well with hand-held devices.

Summary:This unit was purchased to replace an 802.11b unit that was several years old, hoping it would provide faster data exchanges with my other wireless machines (2 laptop computers, a Pharos 535v, and a Palm TX PDA). It works fine with the newer laptop with Windows Vista and, after a couple of hours of work, it also works reliably with the laptop that has Windows XP on it. However, it has connected only once with the Palm TX and it took hours to get it to connect with the Pharos 535v. The Palm TX can\'t even find a signal from the router, although it finds several other wireless units in the neighborhood. It is expected that you will buy the Cisco \"Network Magic\" program to manage the router settings and your network, once the two-month trial period ends. I\'ve had this router for less than three months and I\'m already looking for a replacement.

Reviewed by: rawbun on 22-Apr-08 Rating:

Strengths:Good Looks, Cheap price, Reasonable radio range

Weaknesses:No 5GHZ Radio

Summary:First the retailer apparently sold me a return unit, so I wonder why it had been returned. It was missing the ethernet cable, and came with an extra phone cord from some other product.

This is my fourth wireless router, and I felt I had plenty of experience configuring these things, but there are so many new features, I was initially overwhelmed. After a few minutes I was able to determine what features I was interested in and found the install reasonabaly easy. I did not even need the CD.

Now I must mention that this is a \"Draft-N\" router, which means that if you are not buying the client adapter from the same manufacturer, all bets are off. Here is what my experience was:

I was able to connect with my Lenovo Laptop to connect at 300Mbs with no difficulty. However in an hour or so it would disconnect for some reason, and could not re-connect.

Sometimes I could get it to re-connect by releasing the client IP and renewing the connection to the router, and sometimes I needed to re-boot the client to re-connect.

I still consider this to be an issue with the Atheros Draft-N chipset in the Lenovo, but have tried the latest drivers... without being able to fix this.

I have researched the issue on the internet, and have determined that there may be an issue in noisy urban areas with the early Draft-N routers that use only the 2.4Ghz radios. With Bluetooth, A cordless phone system and a microwave nearby, the chances of keeping a high speed connection going long term is apparently poor. Everything I read indicated that this would be likely fixed in the Draft-N groups latest decision to use a 5Ghz radio, which has a more limited number of channels, but good bandwidth, and few commercial products using this frequency range.

Oh yes here is a good place to mention that there was never an issue re-connecting when a connection was lost if I did not enable wireless security (I had switched from WEP to WPA2 when switching to Draft-N)

I contacted Dlink customer support, and gave them the best description of my problems. Their answer was to use another client system (Preferably using their host adapter) and report back the results. I have no other system to test this on and did not want to spend more for the investigation, so I just reverted back to 802.11G mode, and have had no problems.

I am still using WPA2, and it works fine in G mode, but still needs to re-connect from time to time when I am assuming noise causes a connection to be lost. I have had this issue with all routers I have tried.
There is usually 6 or more in range when I view wireless networks in my operating area.

The router, and radio seem to be very stable. I have not had to re-boot them unless I have made changes that required it.

In Summary I would rate the product well, but I think it is best to forget 802.11N until it is released. I kind of felt like I spent money for nothing as I already had a working 802.11G router. Fortunately for me I was able to sell the old one to a friend in need, which reduced the amount of wasted money.

Reviewed by: datbates on 05-Apr-08 Rating:

Strengths:Speed, Price

Weaknesses:Ease of configuration, compatibility, configuration performance

Summary:This is an ok router once you install the firmware update.

When I opened the box, it had an installation CD and very little info. There was also tape over the ethernet connections saying to use the CD. The CD wizard is not Mac compatible (even though the box claims the router is), and an experienced network, and software engineer like myself should not need one to configure a router.

So I pulled off the confusing tape and plugged in my new Mac (10.5) laptop, figured out the router address, and brought up the ugly wizard. Everything I tried to configure seemed to have problems. I had already read about the firmware update, so I went and found it online. I could not install it with Safari or Firefox. It failed every time. I had to pull out my old windows xp box and use internet explorer to actually get the firmware installed.

Once I had gotten that set up, I finished the configuration with my windows box and it worked ok. Every section of the config you make changes to forces a restart the router, and it takes an embarrassingly long time to come back up. Also it kept auto choosing a channel which seemed to cause some of my computers trouble in reconnecting. I configured it to stick to 7, and the problems seemed to go away. The wizard was pretty lame and confusing even for an experienced tech support guy, but I got through it. I can\'t see there is any difference between Virtual Server and Port Forwarding. Why be confusing?

However the router has everything you would expect, and some nice short cuts when setting up port forwarding and reserved ips that I had not seen before. But, the wizard is SO ugly, industrial, buggy, incompatible, and tedious compared to my previous wonderful Net Gear wizard. It seems to work though. I guess I\'ll keep it until wireless Z comes along.

Summing up: tolerable router if strapped for cash, but if you can spend $40 more you can get one from Net Gear or Linksys that hopefully has a better, more compatible wizard and out of box quality.

Reviewed by: silviun on 06-Mar-08 Rating:

Strengths:fast, easy to install, very good range

Weaknesses:none so far

Summary:I replaced my old 108 Mbps USRobotics router with this one. The range for a good connection is considerably larger, and the connection is rock stable. Very easy to install, can be installed on a wall with the included kit. The firmware is easy to upgrade. It accepts WAP, WEP and WAP2 encryption,which should help you if you have older devices. For the price ($45) is a fantastic buy, much cheaper than other n-Routers

Reviewed by: resalerail on 06-Mar-08 Rating:

Strengths:Low price point for any N router. Easy setup. Esthetically pleasing product.

Weaknesses:WPA doesn\'t work on the N-ONLY setting.

Summary:For the price, this router delivers a great bang for the buck. This router has excellent signal strength and speed. Setting up this router is quick and easy. This will be an easy router for a total novice user to connect in their home.

I have not had to power down this router at all. This router effectively manages 4 PCs in my house. I would recommend this router to anyone on a budget who wants to upgrade to wireless N capabilities.

Reviewed by: lken14 on 16-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Bought ours as a replacement several months ago and worked at first then after hours and days of support calls nothing and that has been months ago. Looking to purchase another model.

Weaknesses:setup and management of router sucks

Summary:too difficult to manage. worked at first but after a few months could not use the wireless feature. hard wire is fine. had to spend numerous hours and on phone with customer service and they could not figure out any problems other than interference although our old linksys worked fine for years until is could not access and we had changed channels, etc, and we had not done anything different to our equipment in our home. So here we go searching for some way to acess via wireless vs just wired connections. Get tired of walking around with wires. Have hard wired desktops but want wireless laptops. wired laptop defeats the purpose of wireless router.

Reviewed by: misera on 05-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Looks, features, security, N, Average price

Weaknesses:Many things to configure

Summary:If you\'re looking for something to easily configure to work (with security) in 5 mins, this isn\'t for you. If you do buy this, please upgrade the firmware (current new firmware is version 1.1) immediately because it updates many many things. Until I upgraded the firmware, I had been unable to connect to any messenger programs. Everytime I tried, the router would enter another entry under the virtual server tab and reset the router. It also kept dropping the connection every few minutes regardless of what I did. Try to fully set up the router before doing anything and test it out to make sure it\'s what you want. It has many features that are nice but the MAC filters don\'t seem to work correctly. I had it on but it would block the computers listed, and then when I changed it to deny, it would let them connect to the router but not onto the internet. Eventually I removed it completely since I already have WEP enabled. Also for WPA2 and such to have the full usage of the \"N\" part of the router, make sure your network cards support it. Most do, but older cards will not. Again, make sure you update the firmware immediately because it gives it a boost and fixes a lot of things.

Reviewed by: OpinPC on 30-Jan-08 Rating:

Strengths:Excellent range, easy setup.

Weaknesses:none.

Summary:This things works great. The only thing I would beware of is that there are several different hardware versions of this device out there, so check the rev info on the dlink website before buying, to see if it is wireless n upgradeable.

Reviewed by: highroler2 on 12-Jan-08 Rating:

Strengths:Good range. price.

Weaknesses:Software configuration was a pain. I just connected the hardware to bypass it.

Summary:Overall this router is worth the price. However, I ran into some difficulty with the software configuration. The configuration worked once, but I had to reroute the ethernet cables due to my internet phone. Once I had the phone connected, I tried to reload the software and it would not detect the router.

Reviewed by: whitey_fisk on 28-Dec-07 Rating:

Strengths:Seemed to work fine at first.

Weaknesses:24 hours later, wireless speeds slowed below dial-up speeds.

Summary:I installed this wireless router without difficulty yesterday. I was pleased with its performance and had a 54.0 Mbps connection speed throughout my house with my g laptop. Speakeasy.net showed me at around 2500 kbps download speed on my claimed 3.0 DSL service. Today it is incredibly slow. My hard-wired desktop is still testing out at 2500, while my wireless laptop has scored an utterly amazing 62 kbps download speed. I have called customer service 3 times now. The first time the automated answering service hung up on me right off the bat. The 2nd and 3rd times it waited until I was about 5 minutes into the menus to hang up on me. This is going back to best buy as soon as I can pack it back up.