Simply the best residential gateway that money can buy (Updated Oct 22)
Written: Aug 15 '01 (Updated Oct 22 '01)
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Pros: 128-bit wireless, 4-port switch, web-based interface, intrusion detection, fall-back to a modem connection
Cons: can't run the wireless as a closed system, some admin functions don't require a password
The Bottom Line: Forget all the other wireless/broadband router devices on the market, and get this one! This device is leading the pack, and will meet your needs for years to come!
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| dtoombs's Full Review: D-link DI-714 Router |
For the latest update to this review, please see the bottom of the article...
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Every time I walked through the local tech stores, I was impressed by all of the broadband router/switch/wireless combination units I saw. I always drooled with envy over the people that could buy these because - well - I'm what you might call "bandwidth challenged". I had a DSL provider, which was great. But they went Chapter 11 many months ago, so I've been limping along on a dial-up.
"Someday, I'll have broadband again," I would say to myself "and then I can buy one of these neat little devices." I had resigned myself to a life of dial-up access for the forseeable future. And that's a pain when you've got four computers in your home!
Then - while flipping through the pages of PC Magazine, my eyes stumbled onto a review of the D-Link DI-714 wireless broadband residential gateway. "Ho hum," I thought "another product I can't buy." But, being impressed by these devices - I decided to read the review. Boy, was I glad that I did! Much to my delight, the DI-714 is a full broadband residential gateway but it has one feature that all the other devices lack -- the ability to "fall-back" to a dial-up modem connection if your broadband connection fails (or if - like me - you are "bandwidth challenged"). I knew right then and there that I must have this product. So, a quick trip to CDW.com and I had that and a spankin' new Hayes Accura 56k v.92 modem on the way.
I just hooked this device up tonight, and I absolutely love it! As I stated in the title, this multi-function device is the only networking device you'll need for the next five years. It provides you with all of the following in one simple box:
Features
- 4-port 10/100 switch
- Wireless Access Point with 128-bit encryption capabilities
- Broadband router, with support for DHCP, VPN, firewall, intrusion detection, and "Virtual Server" port-forwarding
- External connectivity to a serial modem (analog or ISDN) allowing for "fail-back" connectivity to the Internet
With all of these features, it's hard to think of anything else you could possibly need! For those of you who want to know more about these features - read on. But for those of you who already know that this is what you need - get to buying one of these ASAP.
4-port 10/100 switch
Although this is a common item found in all the residential broadband gateway devices these days, it's still worth mentioning. On the back of the unit you will have 4 10/100 Ethernet ports, 1 WAN uplink Ethernet port, and a serial port for the modem backup. One of the 4 10/100 ports runs as a "crossover" port by default, allowing you to hook this device to another hub.
Wireless Access Point
This is the second wireless access point that I have purchased, and I am just as happy with this on as with the last one I had (a Linksys WAP11). Within minutes, I had this device setup to do 128-bit data encryption. A few minutes later, I upgraded the firmware (which was much easier than my Linksys!) to the latest revision. I was hoping that this system would support running in a "closed" system, where it does not broadcast its existence (there are tools out there that people use to "sniff out" wireless networks in business areas and residential neighborhoods). Sadly, it doesn't support that feature, but with 128-bit WEP encryption, it still provides a good measure of support. This device works well with wireless cards from any manufacturer - I'm using it right now with a Lucent card.
Broadband Router
This is where this device really excels - the feature set on this is quite extensive! In addition to doing basic "NAT" - Network Address Translation that lets you share your Internet connection - this device also detects intrusion attempts from the outside world and logs them for you, supports VPN connections, and a feature called "Virtual Servers". Virtual Servers is the D-Link term for a technology known as "port forwarding". This allows you to have one of the computers that is "behind" the D-Link unit act as a web server, or other server that the outside world is allowed to connect to. All the configurations are handled through the HTML interface, so it is a highly intuitive process.
External connectivity to a serial modem
This is what sold me. If your cable/DSL provider goes down from time or if you have satellite-based broadband and it goes out when you have a storm, then this is the best device you can have. If this device detects that your broadband connection is unresponsive, it will dial into another ISP connection through an external modem. The external modem can be a typical analog modem (supporting speeds up to 56k) or an ISDN modem (supporting speeds up to 128kbps). This capability alone makes this a great device for home, but also a viable choice for small businesses as well. If you have 128k ISDN service backing up a broadband connection, you may never really know which you're using at any given time since this device is so efficent at switching back and forth. Of course, there is a nice little HTML "device status" display which clearly shows which connection to the Internet (broadband or dialup) is currently being used.
Update: October 22, 2001
Well, my D-Link has been acting a bit flaky on me for a while, so I'm moving my review from 5-stars down to 4-starts. Specifically, I started having trouble with reboots and DNS (the system that converts website names like http://www.epinions.com into IP addresses).
Tonight, I finally got sick of the DNS problem, and decided to see whose fault it was - the DLink, or my ISP's servers. Since my ISP is Earthlink, I had a hard time believing it was them. Using a tool built into Windows 2000 (nslookup) I was able to submit a request to two DNS servers -- the D-Link device, and to Earthlink's server. The D-Link is simply supposed to forward the request to the ISP it's connected to, but this feature was failing on me. The long and short of it is that when I asked Earthlink's DNS server directly to resolve an address, it worked. When the D-Link was supposed to do it, it didn't work.
So, they lose a star for that, because that's just plain annoying. I'm a techie, so I know how to work around these things, but the average consumer will really run into problems with this.
Here's the workaround. Find out the DNS server for your ISP (you can call and ask them). In the Basic Setup section of the web-based configuration tool, change the DNS configuration from "Dynamic DNS" to "Static DNS" and then input the value(s) your ISP gave you for their DNS server addresses. You will need to "release" and "renew" the IP addresses at each of your workstations, but once I made this change the gateway was working like a champ again!
This could be because I'm using it on dial-up, but I can't be sure. D-Link designed that functionality as a "backup", but I use it as my full-time link.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 225
Driver Availability: Don't Know
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Epinions.com ID:
dtoombs
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Location: Washington, DC
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Technology consultant and part-time author.
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