Home networking made easy....
Written: Mar 18 '03 (Updated Jul 03 '03)
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Pros: Easy setup for default settings, good security features
Cons: Poor documentation
The Bottom Line: A good product for its market, nicely configured, and with some good human engineering in the software. Unfortunately, the overall effect is ruined by the lousy documentation.
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| rumpel2's Full Review: D-Link DI-604 Broadband Router |
March 18, 2003
I'm a reasonably competent computer user — I can usually make them work, given enough time. But I am no expert when it comes to networking. Normally, I leave all that stuff to the techies in my office and just complain to them when my office computer hardware misbehaves. So when I found I needed to set up a network at home to use an ADSL connection to the Internet, I was a little uneasy. I knew that I wanted some security, so that my home system wasn't wide open to any passing Internet snooper. How do I do this?
A little reading had convinced me that I wanted something resembling a firewall. I had also learned that setting up a full-blown firewall on a home network was not exactly a trivial exercise.
Then I stumbled across the D-Link DI-604 being offered at a very attractive price. PC Magazine had given it an "Editor's Choice" in a head-to-head review of several routers aimed at the home market. (see http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,642878,00.asp.) It scored well in both throughput and security features. So I bought it. I'm still happy with it. But it's not perfect.
Of course, the DI-604 does those things you'd expect a router to do, i.e., share a single Internet connection between several machines and connect those machines so they can share files, folders, or hardware — such as a CD-ROM burner, so that you only have to buy one backup device instead of one for every machine in the house.
The DI-604 provides a 10/100Mb Ethernet connection for up to 4 machines directly, but can address as many as 256 if you have extra routers or hubs that you can daisy-chain together to support all of the machines you want to network. The router itself is a small package — somewhat smaller than an ordinary paperback book, which makes it easy to tuck into a corner somewhere. All connections are on the back, which makes it easier to keep the connecting cables tidy. Like so many externals, it is powered by a wall-wart that will block access to an adjacent socket in a power bar or wall outlet. One 2-meter length of Ethernet cable was included, which is all you'll likely need if you already have a high-speed connection in place. (If all you have is a dial-up connection, the DI-604 is the wrong router. There are better solutions elsewhere for that situation.)
I'm not in a position to provide a detailed review of the security features that the DI-604 provides. But they did seem to me to be much more comprehensive than those provided in a Linksys wireless router I installed for a friend a month later. The DI-604 provides features such as NAT (network address translation), which translates your external IP address into an internal LAN address for eaoh machine in the network and makes it harder for Internet snoops and hackers to get at your machine; VPN (virtual private networking), which allows you to access your machine from somewhere else on the Internet as if it were on the same local area network; a DHCP (domain host control protocol) server, which allows the router to assign internal IP addresses automatically; and rule-based filtering, which allows the router to block access to or from selected IP addresses, machines, or machine ports, either permanently or at hours selected by the user. This last feature can be useful if you want to limit a child's access to the Internet at certain hours on the child's computer.
A "quick-start" setup booklet was provided, with more extensive documentation on a CD-ROM. The "quick-start" instructions were clear, well-illustrated, and reasonably complete, allowing connection and configuration with little difficulty using the default settings provided. Configuration is done through a web browser interface that requires a Java-enabled browser on the machine connected to the No. 1 cable port. That interface provides a setup "wizard" that steps the user through the process, and which is pretty much independent of the operating system or platform connected to the DI-604. One nice little touch is the DI-604's ability to adopt the MAC (media access control) address of the Ethernet card that the cable or ADSL service provider already has in its configuration, which means that the connection with the service provider does not have to be re-configured to communicate with the DI-604. Touches like that meant that it took longer to make the physical connections than it did to configure the router and get it into service.
In short, the DI-604 is easy to install and configure if you are content with the default settings and you already have a high-speed connection that's up and running. But it does help to know a little bit about configuring a network connection. The browser interface with the router does provide on-line help. Where it offers comment, that comment is sometimes clear and helpful — and sometimes not. Sometimes it provides no comment at all on a given topic, or omits salient details — like the minimum character length for a password. Not all headings in the setup interface appear in the on-line help, and the manual on the CD-ROM is little better. One glaring example with respect to the rule-based filtering: the on-line help says only "Firewall Rules is an advance feature used to deny or allow traffic from passing through the device. It works in the same way as IP Filters with additional settings. You can create more detailed rules for the device. Please refer to the manual for more details and examples." The CD-ROM manual repeats that statement and adds only the following: "When virtual services are created and enabled, it will also display in Firewall Rules. Firewall Rules contains all network firewall rules pertaining to IP (Internet Protocol). In the Firewall Rules List at the bottom of the screen, the priorities of the rules are from top (the highest priority) to the bottom (the lowest priority.)" And that's it. That's all she wrote. No further details. No examples.
Another minor irritation in the setup. Two levels of access to the router setup are provided: "admin" (which provides full read and write access to the interface), and "user" (which allows read-only access to the interface). Both are password-protected, and they can be different passwords. But there is no way to change either access level to another user name. The resulting predictability of the user name that has write access to the configuration interface makes the router that much easier to hack.
If you make extensive changes to the default settings, make a backup of those settings. The DI-604 makes that as easy as downloading a file from the Internet using your web browser. Uploading and installing that file in the event of a router crash is just as easy — but if you haven't made the backup, you get to re-set the custom settings the hard way.
Don't forget to do the backup. The DI-604 can, and occasionally will, crash. When it crashes, you lose your Internet access as well as access to other machines on your LAN. My router has crashed twice in as many months. The first time, it objected to a change in the filtering rules I had attempted to apply. I assume that there was a flaw in the logic that confused the control software. The second time, I'm not sure what happened. I was surfing at the time, and I suspect that my router reacted badly to a hostile website. They do exist. If I'm right, what would that site have done to my system if the DI-604 had not been in place? I've no idea, and no wish to find out the hard way.
July 2, 2003 -- An update:
Crashes are not frequent, but they continue to happen once in a while. Which prompted me to visit D-Link's Web site for whatever information might be available. There I discovered an unusually-good FAQ and knowledge base, which is nicely organized by device. Makes finding the information you need quite easy, and goes a long way towards making up the deficiencies in the supplied manual and help file.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 54.50
Driver Availability: Other
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Epinions.com ID:
rumpel2
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Member: Rob M.
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Eclectic public servant into choral music, computers and DIY.
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