wired routers

I purchased this router to replace my D-Link DI-614+ and it works great! The first thing I noticed immediately out of the box was the size. The DI-524 is VERY small. About 1/3rd the size of the DI-614+. But it still has all of the same great features. Antenna signal strength is stronger and I am very pleased with this unit.

And here's a quick note regarding the problems some people seem to have connecting this device to the Internet via their Cable or DSL modem. It seems that the WAN port is configured out of the box to be locked in at 100 Mbps. This is where the problem comes from. The vast majority of Cable and DSL modems out there operate at 10Mbps per second only. Uh-oh! Bad move D-Link! Because if you plug the router into the modem out of the box and you have a 10Mbps modem you won't be able to connect the devices and you won't be able to go online. Very dumb move D-Link. I bet tons of routers have been returned for service just because of this simple and fixable issue.

This is easily corrected by logging into the router and going to the "Tools" menu and then choosing "Misc". Scroll to the middle of the page and find "WAN select to 10/100 Mbps" and select 10Mbps and click APPLY. Once the router reboots, your router and Cable or DSL modem will be working happily together and all is good. But there really is no reason that this device should be shipping with 100Mbps switched on by default. I hope that future firmware revisions will correct this issue so more novice users can easily setup this great router without issue.

Otherwise, a very good purchase and very good piece of equipment for anyone who is looking for an affordable and reliable WiFi router. Highly recommended.

I'm not sure if the other reviewers have problems reading instructions or if they just skipped steps. Had no problems at all getting this unit set up and establishing connections between my desktop and Inspiron 5150. Take it out of the box, connect an ethernet cable between the desktop and router and plug it in. Use your favourite browser to connect to 198.168.1.1 and run through the setup wizard. Then once you've got everything set up, read through the manual, go through the various setup options and tweak as desired. I opted to go with the WPA-PSK authentication protocol because its supposed to be more secure, but if you have other devices that don't support it, you'll probably have to stick with WEP.

It can be laid flat on the desk, or propped up on end vertically using the little rubber feet that are supplied. There are 4 ethernet ports that allow you to connect via 10/100 Ethernet and the WAN port to connect to cable, DSL or LAN. The antenna is on a swivel and can be rotated to just about any convenient orientation.

The only thing I don't like about the router is that it doesn't have an internal clock, so every time it is powered off the router's system time goes back to it's default start value. It can be configured to set the time from an NTP server, but only if it's connected to a WAN network (via DSL, cable or LAN). It's only a minor inconvenience though. The other thing is that the router's web interface only seems to work properly if you use IE. Using Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox sort of works for most things, but not everything.

Either I'm stupid or the reviewers who found this thing easy to set up are just lucky. I fought with this thing for several hours and two calls to customer service. Both useless, by the way. The instructions are beyond horrible. They're inadequate clues at best. The encryption process is cruel. You have to do it in the proper order - I believe the base computer you're using for set up and then the your wireless computer. No mention of the order in the directions. Learned by trial and error. Do it backwards and you lose your connection. No instructions for the event you just want to set up your wireless computer without a base 'setup' computer. Having never done encryption I didn't realize that I supply the encryption code. Finally figured that out. Possibly the others out there are just as bad. Now that I've got it set up, it generally works fine. I also set up a d-link wireless printer adaptor. Equally frustrating and directions better but left out one very important fact.