Updated April 25: I'm told that D-Link has improved the security of the password, but I haven't verified that myself. I'm now using a Linksys BEFSR41, which is working well.

I had a DI-701 briefly. The DHCP function worked fine.

But I had two primary requirements:

1. I needed the DI-701's firewall function to protect all of my machines, including a web server.

2. Some of my computers connect to computers outside the firewall via Microsoft's "VPN" (PPTP) protocol.

Well, PPTP is out. The DI-701 simply doesn't support it. Strike one.

And guess what? As a firewall, the DI-701 is fundamentally insecure. It can be configured from outside the firewall, and the configuration is protected only by a ridiculous, six-character password. Since telnet is used to configure it, the password is transmitted in the clear.

Worse, the DI-701 allows script kiddies to challenge it over and over again until they find the right password. There's not even a delay between attempts.

So as a firewall, the DI-701 is as bad as nothing at all.

Buy it if you want to share an internet connection. It's cheap enough to be worth it even if that's all you do with it. But don't try to use the firewall feature. And I hope you don't need PPTP.

Recommended: No