D-Link 4-Port RangeBooster Wireless-N Router
by D-Link
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List Price: Our Price: $59.99 You Save: $50.00 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $13.95 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of D-Link 4-Port RangeBooster Wireless-N Router
Customer Review: D-LINK CUSTOMER DISSERVICE, CAN I HELP YOU? OBVIOUSLY NOT!
Summary: 1 Stars
I WAS VERY EXCITED ABOUT GETTING THIS ROUTER. ESPECIALLY AFTER READING SUCH GREAT REVIEWS. I GOT IT QUICKLY, AMAZON DID IT'S JOB AND THE PRICE WAS GREAT! WELL THAT EXCITEMENT QUICKLY TURNED TO AGGRAVATION. AFTER FOLLOWING THE INSTALLATION PROCESS METICULOUSLY I FOUND OUT THE FOLLOWING DAY THAT I WASN'T GETTING EMAIL. I TRIED BYPASSING THE ROUTER AND I GOT EMAIL. I CALLED D-LINK AND AFTER ABOUT FIVE MINUTES WAS TOLD IT WAS THE PROVIDERS PROBLEM AND HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM. I EXPLAINED THAT WHEN I BYPASSED THE ROUTER I GOT EMIAL. THEY GAVE ME SOME EXCUSE AS TO WHY THAT WAS HAPPENING AND TOLD ME TO CONTACT MY PROVIDER. I CONTACTED MY PROVIDER WHO SPENT ABOUT 30 MINUTES IN TOTAL, FIRST DOING TESTS FROM THEIR END THEN TAKING CONTROL OF MY COMPUTER REMOTELY CHECKING SETTINGS AND SUCH AS I WATCHED THE CURSOR MOVING ABOUT ON THE SCREEN AS THEY OPENED AND CLOSED PROGRAMS AND CHECKED EVERYTHING. THEY ASSURED ME THAT THE PROBLEM WAS DEFINITELY BEING CAUSED BY THE ROUTER AND ALSO STATED THAT WHEN WE BYPASSED THE ROUTER EVERYTHING WORKED FINE. AGAIN I CONTACTED D-LINK AND AGAIN IN ABOUT 5 MINUTES WAS TOLD IT WAS DEFINITELY THE PROVIDERS FAULT AND THEY TOLD ME TO HAVE THE PROVIDER CHECK THIS AND THAT. I CALLED THE PROVIDER AND THEY CHECKED THEIR RECORDS ON WHAT HAD JUST BEEN DONE AND AGAIN SAID THAT EVERYTHING WAS FINE FROM THEIR END. I CALLED D-LINK AGAIN, THIS TIME ASKING TO TALK TO A SUPERVISOR. AFTER ABOUT FIVE MINUTES A SUPERVISOR GETS ON. I TOLD HIM THAT IF THIS PROBLEM IS NOT RESOLVED THAT I WILL RETURN THE ROUTER AND NEVER BUY ANY OF THEIR PRODUCTS AGAIN. HE ACTED LIKE HE COULD CARE LESS. HE AGAIN SPENT ABOUT 5 MINUTES WITH ME AND SAID IT WAS THE PROVIDERS PROBLEM AND AGAIN ASSURED ME THEY COULD FIX IT IF THEY ONLY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING. HE SAID THAT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A ROUTER TO STOP MY EMIAL AND THAT I SHOULD BE TALKING TO ONE OF THE SUPERVISORS FOR MY PROVIDER. I CONTACTED A FRIEND OF MINE WHO RUNS THE COMPUTER SYSTEMS FOR MACY'S. HE TOLD ME THE THERE WAS DEFINITELY A PROBLEM WITH THE ROUTER. I WENT UP TO BEST BUY AND PURCHASED A CISCO LINKSYS (IT COST MORE THATN THE D-LINK) AND INSTALLED IT AGAIN FOLLOWING THE PROCESS METICULOUSLY. LO AND BEHOLD THE ROUTER WORKED FLAWLESSLY AND WOW "I GOT MAIL!" FIFTY-SEVEN TO BE EXACT AFTER A WEEK OF SPENDING NIGHTS SCREWING AROUND WITH D-LINK AND THEIR BLAME PASSING. BACK THE ROUTER WENT AND I WILL NEVER BUY A D-LINK PRODUCT AGAIN. D-LINK SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT. EVEN THE SUPERVISOR REALLY COULDN'T CARE LESS IF I RETURNED THE ROUTER. THE ONLY THING THEIR CUSTOMER DISSERVICE DEPARTMENT IS AN EXPERT AT IS QUICKLY PASSING BLAME. IT SEEMS THEY HAVE BEEN HIGHLY TRAINED TO DO JUST THAT AND THEY DID THEIR JOB WELL.Customer Review: Unreliable device, drop connections, Slow speeds, unstable performance.
Summary: 1 Stars
This is one of the worst Router I have own. It drops connection all the time losses speed little by little until it gets to 1Mbps and then it losses the signal. I don't know if this is a problem with the wireless N or is just a hardware problem. By the way this is a revision C2 hardware with firmware 8.06. Another thing is that this works on 2Ghz not 5Ghz
The product advertise X4 more distance. Thats not true at least for mine. I get full signal (5 bars) on my 2 year old Linksys wireless G Router and with this brand new Wireless N Router I get excellent (4 bars) it still connects but come on X4 more distance should mean X4 more distance. Everything is in the same place so at least I expect to be the same signal.
The product advertise up to 12x faster speeds and 4x farther range than 802.11g. Well.... I did get more speed but not 300Mbps more like 150Mbps at least in my case and thats after a lot of network tunning. Definitely not a job for the technologically challenge. The device will connect at 150Mbps but most the time is not a solid connection meaning that the device will get at 150Mbps tops but the average connection is 85Mbps to 120Mbps thats not enough to make me want to upgrade to Wireless N since apparently this is less reliable than Wireless G. I get a lot of drop connections now.
I manage to make this work better by upgrading the firmware from 8.06 to 8.08 and tuning the device from the web browser administration Product Page. This is my set up.
Enable Wireless : Always
Wireless Network Name : Network Name
802.11 Mode : 802.11n only
Enable Auto Channel Scan : yes
Wireless Channel : Automatic
Transmission Rate : Best automatic (Mbit/s)
Channel Width : auto 20/40 Mhz
Visibility Status : Visible
Security Mode : WPA-Personal
WPA Mode : WPA2 Only
Cipher Type : AES
Group Key Update Interval : 3600
Pre-Shared Key : Your Pre-Shared Key
Another thing is that you need to modify your wireless card properties in Windows. To do that go to: Network - Network and sharing center - Manage Network Connections - Wireless Connection - Right click - Properties - Configure - Advance Tab - 802.11n Channel width for band 2.4 - set it up to auto or 40 Mhz if possible. After doing all this at least I get decent speeds and less drop connections.
Overall I don't recommend this to anyone but if you already got it and return it to amazon is not an option try to use this settings to at least make it usable.
Customer Review: A quality piece of equipment
Summary: 5 Stars
It's pretty difficult to make a wireless network router simple to configure and operate for a non- (or anti-) technical person. As long as you go into a purchase of a router with this in mind, you'll probably be okay.
Personally my technical knowledge of network and computer operations is pretty high, so my experience with this product may be different than most. I have to say that I love this router. In the world of routers, this isn't a "top of the line" product (see the D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router for that) but it's just one click down from that. I can't really justify spending the additional $30-$50 for a few more esoteric options.
This router does wireless N and G very well. You will likely have to do some tweaking and pre-planning on your client side if you want to get wireless N to work. My wireless connections are always strong (I probably venture about 30-70 feet away from the base station) even through walls. I even have one wired connection on the router. I've never experienced a drop in the wireless signal or any sort of random reboot of the router.
One of the most important things you'll need to do, however, is to update the router's firmware as soon as you get it. Then create an administrator password to access the router's configuration. Then carefully take the time to set up wireless security of WPA or WPA2 strength. Unfortunately nowadays there are many free "hacking tools" available on the internet that can crack WEP security - it's just too weak regardless of the length of your password.
Some great features of this router: there is a built-in firmware update tool in the web-configuration that lets you click a button and check for the latest firmware. It also has a "WPA/WPA2" security setting that will force clients that support WPA2 to connect via WPA2, or if the client doesn't support WPA2, it will connect via WPA (if the client supports neither then the connection is refused). This keeps things a little more compatible, but still secure. The web-configuration also includes a setup wizard that will walk you through setting up all the security settings on the router, including the admin password and WPA/WPA2 access security.
I feel that this is a solid and secure router and highly recommend it.
Customer Review: Linksys WRT54GL vs D-Link DIR-625
Summary: 1 Stars
After four years of service my old Linksys WRT54G started to intermittently drop its client connections, requiring me to reboot to recover. Four years isn't a really long time but I decided to replace it with a new wireless router. After some research I purchased a D-Link DIR-625 looking forward as an alternative to the Linksys. I currently have a D-Link wireless print server (DPR-1260) downstairs that is working just perfectly from which I print wirelessly from anywhere in the house.
The DIR-625 came with the standard router with 2 antennas, power adapter, and setup CD. Being in IT I was tempted to skip the setup CD but went ahead and fired it up. I followed the simple disconnect this, then this, now reconnect this instructions. The last step is for the DIR-625 to "configure itself" and then connect to the internet. Alas it was able to configure itself (I could connect to it) but it could never negotiate an internet connection with my DSL modem. My previous Linksys, or a PC plugged right into the modem, was fine so it wasn't the DSL modem. I spent a fair few hours troubleshooting, even logging directly into the DIR-625 (192.168.0.1) to check out settings. It just couldn't establish an internet connection.
Frustrated, I repacked it, got an RMA number for return, and ordered a Linksys WRT54GL. I received it tonight. It came with the standard router with 2 antennas, power adapter, and setup CD (sound familiar). Again I resisted the temptation to skip right to manual setup and instead followed the setup CD. Within 5 minutes of unboxing I was online, indeed writing and transmitting this review via WRT54GL wireless connection. Incidentally both devices have similar signal strengths (I was expecting the "Rangebooster" D-Link to be stronger but now suspect there's more marketing than range boosting).
My DSL-modem-wireless router setup is pretty basic. I may have received a defective DIR-625, and had I requested replacement it may have been fine. Regardless, I'm back to a Linksys wireless router (WRT54GL this time) and the D-Link wireless print server.
Customer Review: Delighted with this router!
Summary: 4 Stars
This router works flawlessly with wireless PCs, X-Box, X-Box 360, PS-2, PS-3, Wii, Nintendo DS (all versions), corporate VPN, and (of course) wired Ethernet. It never needs to be cycled or "bounced". (I have not tried the "N" protocol; I only use the b/g modes.) The router is in the basement near steel beams and a brick wall, but the signal is strong all over the house.
I have withheld the 5th star because the admin software is not well organized. I often find myself searching all over for this setting or that. Wouldn't you look under "Setup" for "Time Configuration" (choosing your time zone)? Well, it's under "Tools". Wouldn't the MAC filter go under "Access Control" since its purpose is to control access? It's not. Why is "Dynamic DNS" not under "Advanced" while simply setting transmit power is under "Advanced/Advanced Wireless"?
Also, you set up MAC filtering by selecting devices by their names (XBox, Wii, Laptop) but thereafter, only the MAC addresses are shown. The column that should show the clients' names says "Computer Name" on every line instead of the name computer's name. If you get rid of a device, there is no way to tell which entry to delete from the list. Lists of active sessions, connected devices, etc. are all just addresses, so you can't easily tell who or what's connected.
But, once you finish configuring, you forget about it and enjoy the way it provides stable, reliable service for every kind of device! [I still stand by this review as of 7/23/09.]