D-Link DI-624 Wireless Cable/DSL Router, 4-Port Switch, 802.11g, 108Mbps

I read reviews and decided to get this system with the D-link DWL-G650. I held my breath when I started setting it up. I was waiting for the minute when I would realize that I would need to call customer support. That didn't happen. This system did almost set itself up. I have a 2.4GHz phone and it doesn't seem to effect the range. I live in a brick house and I just went outside in my driveway, on the other side of house from where my wireless router is set up and I was getting almost 100% full signal strength. The online interface is very easy to use and the instructions are easy to follow. I did upgrade the firmware before I set up any of the hardware and the 108Mbps system is up and running. I can't say if this system will work tomorrow, but today I am very suprised at how it works.


Works perfectly   August 20, 2004
Milos Eric (Belgrade, Serbia)
68 out of 75 found this review helpful

Compatibility issues are always present and, depending on hardware you already have, there is a chance that any given router will not work for you. That said, I had a chance to test my DI-624 on four networks (both LAN/Ethernet and Wireless B/G) and it worked perfectly. Cable modems I've used were Motorola, Cisco and Netgear.

I know D-Link's tech support is somewhat sketchy in the US, but I don't think this is a product you'd need support on. It self-explanatory, really. You can access it's configuration interface from any PC that's connected to one of it's four LAN ports via Internet browser on 192.168.0.1. However, there's only wireless SSID and optional password to set, everything else in plug and play. Unless you want to customize firewall, DHCP and things like that. Actually, there's a demo of this interface on manufacturer's site so you can check it out yourselves.

Using DI-624 in a home network with 3 "wired" PCs and 2 wireless notebooks has been a trouble free experience. Suddenly, all 5 PCs were connected to the Internet and were in LAN. It's range is superb - I can connect to it from the parking, which is some 300ft from my builing, and router is on the 5th floor, behind a reinforced concrete wall. Of course, inside the apartment itself, reception is always perfect. I just had to set password, though, so I wouldn't provide free wireless Internet to entire building.


Low price for faulty hardware = waste of money   November 14, 2004
Donovan G. Rinker (Cambridge, MA)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

EDIT: After a firmware upgrade, the unit is working far better, and has been in use for about 3 months at my residence. Still, it drops out intermittently, and there are better choices.

(1) Drops connections - a lot.
(2) Many - hundreds of websites - report the same problem.
(3) D-Link hired lots of marketers to write good opinions of this device. Don't trust them.
(4) I know what I'm doing. I've set up my computer on literally a dozen different networks without a problem, and configured routers of various stripes for almost a decade. This isn't a newbie error - I was floored for many hours trying to get this thing to work.
(5) It still doesn't work reliably.
(6) This issue isn't a 'bad unit' issue - many other people sent in their D-Link routers, got a new one, and had exactly the same problem.

Bottom line: one of the worst purchases I have made -- and I know what I'm doing. AVOID AVOID AVOID!


Wireless devices cannot communicate with Wired Devices   February 15, 2004
Proud Parent (Maryland)
25 out of 33 found this review helpful

While all other features of this product work fine, there is one key deficiency that is not evident to consumers via presales information. The problem is that computers with wireless network adapters cannot access devices/computers that are physically plugged into the router's ports. This was confirmed by DLINK's level two support. DLINK simply won't talk to you about this limitation because they consider it a "networking issue" and therefore, you're on your own (aka SOL).

How will this impact you? Well, if you want to do file sharing between a laptop and desktop computer you're going to have a problem. In my case, I have a DLINK DP-300U print server plugged into the router. I can print to it just fine via wire, but I can't print via wireless. Can't even ping it from wireless.

I mean, the fact that you can't form a network amongst the devices connected to this product via wired and wireless connections is an amazing oversight. No, it's not firewall software, etc., etc. Using a laptop with a USB "wired" adapter and two "wireless" (g and b) adapters, the same result appeared in all tests. Wired worked for communicating with devices physically connected to the DI-624, but wireless did not.

In case I wasn't clear earlier, all devices, wired and wireless can talk to the DI-624 and they can access the Internet. Again, the problem is that on the DI-624, wired and wireless devices cannot communicate, making a home network a pipe dream. All devices in these tests interacted perfectly with the DI-624's DHCP server and all were on the same subnet.


Great router, online in under 10 minutes   March 19, 2004
R. Reuben (San Francisco Bay Area, CA United States)
24 out of 27 found this review helpful

This router is my first wireless one ever and I am very pleased with the purchase. After a lot of research, I decided on the D-Link. I have read that LinkSys routers set the standard for ease of use, but I cannot really imagine how much easier installation and setup can get! Honestly, I had the router setup in under 10 minutes with my laptop connected to my cable modem and accessing the internet via the router's LAN port (i.e. ethernet cable). The router sports some nice firewall features. I was not too impressed with the online help however. Several options that the router offers for configuration were not described in the online help (stored in router firmware). The D-Link support site has decent information, perhaps enough for you to get most problems taken care of. However, I had an issue when using the D-Link DWL-G650 card with WAP security which after about 6 hours of frustration got resolved in about 5 minutes with a phone call to customer service. Anyway, this was no fault of the router itself since the blame lies on the outdated driver D-Link ships with the PC card. I use AT&T VPN solution to access my office network and the router works just fine. The DHCP server came up just fine and my machines were happily on the network via wires.
Pros:
- easy to setup
- good security features
- D-Link website has pretty good cust service info
- IPSEC VPN passthrough worked without any issues
Cons:
- online help included in firmware not the best
- Several advanced options of firewall etc not very well documented (ie. not that easy to use for those inexperience with advanced security settings)
Overall, I'd give this router a 4.5 stars and would definitely consider it a good buy for both the novice as well as experienced computer users.