Wireless networking seemed to be a fitting supplement to the efficiency and convenience offered by broadband connectivity, but I had held off on going wireless for the longest time in the wake of the many security-related alerts and the horror stories related to setup that I had heard.

My selection of this device was based primarily on three factors: the vendor's reputation for a good consumer-oriented product portfolio, apparent ease of use, and price. In addition, they also tout their 24/7 free support line, and that's always a good nice-to-have.

After getting it from Office Depot one afternoon, I headed home wondering how long it would take me to get the setup and security right. Popping the box after I got home, I flipped through the thin, graphics-intensive user manual to realize that it was probably going to be a lot easier than expected. Setup turned out to be a piece of cake - it took about a minute of plugging in a couple of Ethernet cables and turning on the power before I was presented with the Web-based administration console for the device.

This is one thing that I truly like. Having a Web-based administration console for the router means that the configuration can be accessed and changed from any computer on the network, without needing any special software installed to do so. Furthermore, the setup process seemed very security-oriented as well. The setup process had me changing the router's password from its default value to a new value, and then walked me through auto-detecting my broadband connection and setting up the required level of WEP security.

A couple of minutes later, all the settings I wanted to do were done and the device restarted. Almost immediately, one of my notebooks popped up a little dialog box from the system tray saying that it had found a wireless connection. All done!

Ever since, I've played with security settings, network configurations, the bundled firewall and updated the firmware - and have been impressed at the ease of use each time. This is a true start-and-forget device!

For the security-conscious among us, this device allows 256-bit WEP security with D-Link wireless client adapters (the cards or the USB devices that allow computers to access the wireless network). Its also not necessary to have a "D-Link only" wireless network. I've got the router talking to a Cisco PCMCIA card and a Dell PCMCIA card, with 128-bit WEP security enabled over the transmission. I couldn't enable 256-bit WEP security because my cards didn't support it. I've seen that D-Link cards support 256-bit WEP, though. In addition, the router allows for a "4X speed boost" when talking to other similarly outfitted D-Link wireless cards.

Its a small-sized, highly-functional, simple-to-use device that has been a great help to me. I would certainly recommend it to anyone, and have already helped quite a few others among friends and family get and install it for their wireless networks. Kudos to D-Link - every wireless router should have form and function like this one!

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 35
Driver Availability: Windows only