| D-Link DI-524 Wireless 54 Mbps High Speed Router (802.11g) |
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Model: DI-524
Brand: D-Link
Manufacturer: D-Link
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 263
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Share your Internet connection with built-in 4-Port switch
Compatible with 802.11g and 802.11b networks
Advanced Firewall and Security Controls
Built-in 4-Port SwitchOperating range of up to 328 feet indoors, up to 1,312 feet outdoors
Quick and easy set-up |
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| Description: |
| D-Link AirPlus G 802.11g Wireless Router - The DI-524 from D-Link can handle all of your networking needs. Utilizing the built-in 4-port 10/100 Ethernet switch, you can wire your computers together in the standard fashion, or you can go wireless with 802.11g technology. Transferring data through the air at up to 54Mbps! The router and built-in firewall portion of the DI-524 allows for easy & safe broadband Internet sharing. Advanced Firewall Features - NAT with VPN Pass-through (Network Address Translation) MAC Filtering IP Filtering URL Filtering Domain Blocking Scheduling Dimensions - 5.6 (l) x 4.3 (w) x 1.2 (h) Weight - 7.8 oz. |
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| User Reviews (263 total): |
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Good for basic home use., July 22, 2008
By Rory B. Bellows
I have had this router for 2 years and it has worked well. I haven't experienced any problems I've read in other reviews such as disconnects, however I found that when running many simultaneous connections (Bittorrent), the router would sometimes begin to refuse incoming connections and would have to be rebooted to resolve the problem. Other than that it has worked fine both wired and wireless connections are stable and configuring my LAN was not a problem. This router is fine if you are just going to surf the web but if you want to do anything that would require multiple/high bandwidth connections you should look for something better.
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Very unreliable. Do not be fooled by price., July 6, 2008
By Ryan Rossette
I've had this router for over three years and it's been a nightmare. The wireless connection is just plain unreliable. Even if I am three feet away from the router and get full bars it could sometimes take an hour to actually connect. And when it finally does it will occasionally drop and have to reconnect, which could again take an hour. It's like a lottery with the wireless connection of this router. You can't rely on it if you need to do work. I have a friend with this exact model who has all the same problems.
I would strongly suggest getting the Linksys WRT54G instead. If you are tech-savvy, get the WRT54GL and hack the firmware. The wireless always connects immediately and has never dropped. You have to pay a little more to get something that works.
This D-Link router is not worth any price. Always read reviews before you buy.
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great router - great price, June 27, 2008
By yellowjol (pa United States)
I have had this router for about 3 years now and have had no problems with it. I originally got it to set up my son's computer wireless - along with the usb air utility - worked great. Now I use it for my laptop and my sons computer - I currently dont even have it hooked to any computers - I just plugged it into my dsl modem and everything is wireless. I do not know anything about the more expensive models because this is the first and only router I have used. I do know that my computers are really fast and don't know how they could be any faster with a $100+ model router!!!
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Lots of features and bugs, May 20, 2008
By Anikin
Not the first D-Link product I bought, and generally satisfied with them. The reason I only gave it 3 stars is because they NEVER in my experience work out all the bugs out of their products before they announce end of life.
I have yet to see one in which all the advertised features actually work as advertised. The support solution rather than fix the firmware mostly seems to be to buy a newer version of the same thing or some third-party equivalent. The latest example was the DDNS feature in this model...
To make things worse, the written directions often lack detail and examples.
So, in summary, my experience with D-Link so far is - ok performance, lots of great features, with lots of bugs in them, which may never be fixed...
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WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER, April 4, 2008
By Tanis D. Partee (USA)
Had a problem with a new router - the quick guide didn't work, the backup installation guide didn't work. Called for tech support, after at least 5 calls and as many hours on the phone (takes about 20 minutes just to get through to a person). They had a case on me and although it sounds like they are putting note in the case, each new "tech" would have me go through all the same things. The last "tech 2" committed a cardinal sin when he became argumentative and would no longer listen. They've lost a customer for life and I will tell everyone I know...
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capable wireless router from a good company, March 17, 2008
By Steven McIntyre (New Jersey, USA)
I'm not going to go into the technical details, because these wireless routers are all basically the same. For some odd reason, the theory of setting up these routers is as simple as pie... except it never is. It should be 1-2-3 and you're surfing, but inevitably there are problems.
And that's why you should buy this router. D-Link offers easy and free tech support, and you're going to need it at some point, regardless of which brand you buy. So why not get a brand that offers great support?
Over the past 1.5 years I've moved the router around and had no problems using it on DSL and cable broadband connections. The only time I had issues with setup was in Florida at my mom's condo. Turns out Bellsouth (now AT&T) has some funky DSL modems that need special settings. Not the D-Link's fault, but the D-Link techs were able to help with with it. Nice!
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Waste of money, March 6, 2008
By Paul Lutskovsky (Portland, OR USA)
This router only lasted a week or so prior to having consistent problems. It's gone through pretty much everything mentioned on this page and has made me jump through all kinds of hoops (including having to use IE to manager the router settings because their javascript on the config pages doesn't work in Firefox) just to keep it functioning. Thank you D-Link. I've learned a valuable lesson, worth much more than the $30 I paid - Next time I feel like gambling, I'll buy a lottery ticket.
Just for kicks - here's the latest problem with this router that I've come across: random DNS failures, even when setting DNS to OpenDNS IPs. Example: www.yahoo.com will fail while www.google.com will load.
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Nice entry-level router, chokes on Nortel VPN, February 20, 2008
By harrkev (Colorado Springs, CO United States)
I like this product, a lot. It is a great entry-level router. It does not have fancy things like QOS, but this is a budget router. D-Link even has a feature that is hard to find on other routers: static DHCP. With this feature, you can assign certain MAC addresses to pre-specified IP addresses. This means that you can put your network printer on 192.168.0.200, and you network storage at 192.168.0.101. Other routers remember what IP address a device had, but does not let you specify it. I love this feature. The wireless portion also seemed rock solid with my wife's laptop,including watching a number of Netflix high-bandwidth movies. It was easy to configure using Firefox under either XP or Ubuntu. Alas, I had to retire mine. The problem is that I could not get this router to work with Nortel VPN client (which I need for my job). So, I replaced this with a Linksys WRT54GC that I had lying around. Nortel VPN now works, but this router is inferior in every way, and my wife now has problems connecting the wireless sometimes. Most people will never need to use Nortel VPN client, so if this is a big deal to you, choose another router. Otherwise, highly recommended.
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It's served its purpose, January 13, 2008
By Chunger (Albany, CA)
I'm not a power user of any sort. My home network is used to access internet, print from laptops to a printer connected to the home office desktop Mac, and transfer files.
This router was easy to set up, and has run without much thought for ~2 years except that I never was able to get better encryption than WEP running on my mac (tech support useless). It is now about to croak.
Prior to trying this Dlink, I had tried Linksys, netgear, and belkin products, and they had all been difficult to make work for one reason or another. After I installed this Dlink which worked pretty well for me, I discovered Buffalo and really liked their product (installed in mother-in-law's house), but unfortunately, Buffalo is having legal problems right now and is under injunction not to sell wireless products in the US. Also unfortunately for me, the N standard is about to be released and my router is deciding to croak a couple months too soon.
In my opinion this is an early failure. I expect devices like this to be phased out. . . not burn out. The case design is too small, and I feel it runs at a higher temperature than it should. Over time, it wore out.
I decided to throw down for the 655 due to good reviews and with hopes that it will still be able to run when the n standard is official.
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Don't Buy This, December 27, 2007
By Belle Larsen (Seattle, WA United States)
I have had this router for just under two years and it has been nothing but trouble. I think it finally and oficially died on me yesterday. ...And don't even bother trying to work with D-Link tech support.
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D-Link make it pretty easy to get a wireless network up-and-running, December 14, 2007
By Film, Music & Book lover (New Zealand)
This D-Link wireless router was easy to connect to for configuration but it took a visit to the D-Link site to figure out how to secure my network as the configuration utility was not intuitive.
My two PCs use the G-122 USB key to connect to the network. These work like a dream with Vista once you can find the driver at the D-Link site. Vista sorts out all the configuration for you. Also works well with Windows 2000 but you have to configure the USB key using a utility, which is not that intuitive to use - again a visit to the D-link support site is required to figure out how to set up a security. G-122 didn't work on my Windows ME PC when the network was secured but did work when it was unsecured.
Had to change my router to channel 11 to avoid interference from my 2.4GHz Panasonic cordless phone.
Altogether a pretty good product for D-Link that makes it easy to set up your own wireless network.
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No syslog support, email is unauthenticated, but its solid, December 8, 2007
By yoshiro (mark) aoki (usa)
I found this in a box of computer parts in my garage while looking for something to
provide legacy WEP access to my network. I have no idea where I got it from.
Can't get syslogs from this thing, only emails, and those are
unauthenticated...quite lame. Signal strength is good, though, and it
punches a signal out more typical of costlier units.
I have it out in a DMZ, handling legacy WEP access.
For managed environments with multiple subnets, thats about the
only place to safely put something like this.
Its el-cheapo, but a solid el-cheapo with WPA/WPA2 and mac/ip/site filtering. I have not used the WPA support as I have that handled by
more capable hardware. I do make use of its filtering capability,
so its not totally defenseless out there in the DMZ running WEP.
For something almost cheap enough to find free in a box of cereal its a good little gizmo.
3-stars.
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It does it's job, November 11, 2007
By S. Bernhardt (NH)
I've had this project for the past two years and it works great and is reliable. I didn't have much problems setting it up and I've had no problems since.
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don't buy, October 10, 2007
By Alfonso Carlberg (USA)
I made the mistake of buying this piece of hardware in despite of the bad reviews I found everywhere in the net...I guess the D-Link brand was strong enough for me to make a decision to consider it as the first option to set up my first wireless network at home...huge mistake.
Not even the Customer Service people I called where able to figure out why I never had internet after connecting this device in my XP OS PC, they tried the IP configuration, the WAN set up, and many other things, even changing the firmware to a previos version!!!!
After some 10 hours of fighting I decided to return it to the local retailer where I bought it and got instead a Belkin Wireless-G router (see review on this piece)...It just took me 15 minutes to set it up and I was wireless finally...
Stay away from this model of D-Link router...
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Good and easy to setup, but nothing extraordinary here, August 29, 2007
By Predrag Sunjka
Nice wireless router, easy to set, I've never had any internet hiccups, and it's on all the time. The bad things? First of all, its range: I live in a condo, and when I'm in the other room, signal weakens to 60-70% (drywalls, no concrete here). I can't imagine what would happen if I lived in a house. Speed is fine, even on 20-30% of the full signal range. Oh yes, one more problem: when my laptop goes to standby/sleep modes, when I awake him, my internet is gone. I have to restart either the router or the laptop itself. Not sure whether this is the problem with the router or my computer.
Overall, what would you expect for app. 30$? Good value for this price.
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Not worth the money, August 24, 2007
By Niner (Northeast, PA)
I have used this router for over a year now, and I have finally had enough of the darn thing needing to be unplugged for 5-10 mins after any power hiccup. I've never tried the 'freezer method' that Uwe uses (see below), but I have the exact same issue on a Rev D product. The reset button is useless... I am buying a Linksys this time. Maybe I can dump this one on eBay.
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Unreliable-customer support LOL, August 13, 2007
By Michael OLeary (Seattle, WA USA)
I purchased the D-Link DI-524 and installed it fairly easily, and I'm no computer wiz. It worked fine for about 3 weeks and then it would lose the Internet connection every other day or so. Then it got worse. I called D-Link support and waited about 40 minutes to talk to someone and was told the warranty had expired and they could not help me. I will never buy another D-Link product.
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Not for permanent connections, July 16, 2007
By uwe (Berthoud, CO)
I bought a DI-524 about 2 years ago for our home network. We are connected to a microwave link, so it is an ALWAYS ON connection. The router works... most of the time. Sometimes we lose the internet, usually after a power outage. The problem is the router. Unplugging it from the power supply for a while and then plugging it back in works... but not always, unless you leave it unplugged overnight. The reset button will work sometimes and not on other ocassions. The only surefire way I have gotten this router to sucessfully reset EVERY TIME is to take the unit, unplug it and put it into the freezer (yes, the home freezer for food stuff) for about 5 to 10 minutes. My analysis: Some electronic component inside the unit may get to warm and then hang the whole darn thing. The unit gets warm but not very. Go figure...
If you plan on powering the unit down every night before you go to bed it might work for you. If you planing on having a permanent connection, beware! It may run fine for weeks on end and then crash every other day for a while.
I would NOT buy it again but would spent a few bucks more for something more reliable!
For what it's worth...
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Useless piece of Junk, April 28, 2007
By Vinay Kashyap (Appleton, WI USA)
Kept dropping the signal. When I upgraded the firmware, it didn't work and after painfully waiting for CS, they said that my warranty was void because the firmware was beta version. Better invest more and get a better router
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Very basic router, April 21, 2007
By Huckleberry Hound (USA)
When I have 2 wireless computers connected, it frequently drops the connections. I know this product is cheap, but please spend a few extra bucks on a better router. It's not worth the headache.
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