| 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 Systems, Inc.
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 253
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 (253 total): |
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This is a junk, August 28, 2006
By bigbirdbeng (San Jose, CA)
I'm a cable subscriber and bought this a year ago. Once the speed picks up, it starts dropping connection. I connect the modem to my PC, bypassing this router, and gets much much faster download speed than with the router.
TAC support is absolutely useless..their suggestion is to reset the modem, reset the router, upgrade the router firmware, downgrade the router firmware.... I would've returned it had I not lost the receipt.
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Buy anything but this!, August 26, 2006
By Boheeber (Spring, TX United States)
I had a Linksys WRT54G (ver 1) router that served me perfectly for many years, but like anything electrical, one day it just died completely. I had read unfavorable reviews about the later versions of the WRT54G (different OS, half the memory), so I bought the D-Link DI-524. Unlike a lot of other reviewers here, I didn't have too much trouble with the wireless dropouts; my problem was with the desktop PC that was hard-wired to the router. Streaming audio and video was choppy at best, and at many times nonexistent. I flashed the router to the latest firmware, replaced all CAT5 cables, and still the problem persisted. Any internet speed test that I ran showed great throughput, but the problem with streaming media persisted. I exchanged the week-old DI-524 for a Belkin F5D9230 and all those issues disappeared. I'm not saying that the Belkin is the only solution, but I do know that I was extremely disappointed with the D-Link router. Maybe I got a lemon and your mileage may vary, but this was my first and most likely last experience with a D-Link product.
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Don't Buy This Router!, August 24, 2006
By Wyatt J. Thurston (Sanbornville, NH United States)
I bought this router after a friend reccomended it to me. I followed the instructions exactly yet the connections kept resetting continously. I contacted the manufacturer three times and they were unable to solve the problem. I also called my Internet Service Provider and they were no help. I replaced the item and the problems continued.
Save yourself the trouble and do not buy this router.
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Effective & Reliable, August 22, 2006
By Digitalkafka
I've used my DI-524 for several years and have no meaningful complaints. I am fairly computer literate, and so did not have any difficulty setting up a small home network and sharing internet connectivity (thank you, Windows XP, for making it easier). The 524 is not a perfect solution for anyone who unfamiliar with basic networking concepts such as IPs, ports, WEP, and VPNP.
That aside, this is a solid piece of hardware. I understand that some folks who use the 524 find themselves performing a hard reset several times a day. I have not. Four stars- knocking one star off for the UI, which is not designed for the computer illiterate.
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Cheap, effective router. But buggy., August 14, 2006
By Mike
This router has a great price, especially when on sale. The firewall (built in) is pretty good as well. But the problem with D-link, with their 500 series is that it disconnects you from the internet occassionally.
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This can be solved by unpluging/plugging,
through command prompt (start>run and type CMD) (type ipconfig/release and then ipconfig/renew).
You can also run through the wizard (type 192.168.0.1 in the address bar, put in username/password, press wizard. go through steps.)
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But its still annoying. I suggest paying a little extra to buy a less buggy router.
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D-Link Router: Grade-A Material!, August 13, 2006
By Luke Marsden
Upgrading from a Microsoft router to this name-brand fine piece of quality was wonderful. Not only was it easy to set up/use and reliable, but the specific configuration options for the router are awesome. Perfect for a family's basic needs, perfect for a pro's customization.
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Its good, easy to install and fast., August 10, 2006
By Ravi Rayabarapu
The Router is small, occupies little space, easy to install and good looking. It works well and I can see no trouble until now.
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Disappointed, Poor D-Link, not recommended, August 10, 2006
By J. GE
I decided to buy this set of wireless Router and Adapt totally because of their brand, D-link. Actually many local computer stores have cheaper sets but with other brands, Netgear, Linksys, etc. However, I am now a little disappointed for them. The signal is not good even the desktop is less than 15 feet away from the router. Unstable - disconnected for several times in the first week.
Moreover, to set the router up is absolutely a hard task - almost mission impossible for those who are not familiar to computer. I just could not set it up with the cd enclosed, always told me that unable to configure the router. Then I tried to call the custom support of D-Link but waited for 40 mins without an available technician, poor service. Finally I found that the driver on the provided CD is wrong!! After I downloaded a new driver, I did it. But it took me a whole night!
From now, I won't trust D-Link. Disappointing products for the well known brand and price!
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Never buy D Link, August 9, 2006
By Kevin (West Hartford, CT)
I bought this unit about a month ago, it worked well for the first fifteen days. Now it crashes every few hours or more and looses wireless signal every half hour. It locks up and needs to be reset at least 2 to 3 times in a day. Its frustrating when you constantly loose signal.
In short: Don't spend money on this, its not worth it.
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Adequate - but does not support non-IE browsers, August 8, 2006
By T. Payne
After a recent firmware upgrade (to the current version, 1.21), I can no longer configure the router from browsers other than IE 6 in Windows. Using Safari 2 or FireFox 1.5, I can view the configuration, but when I try to apply changes, absolutely nothing happens when I click the apply settings button. Opera allows me to change some settings but not others.
Several emails to D-Link support later, and I'm told that this is a known issue with no known date to fix. D-Link's official support position is to use IE, despite the specs for the router showing that any Java-compatible browser will work.
I don't support companies that don't support my platform (Mac) so I'm unlikely to buy another D-Link product.
Other than this issue and the support surrounding it, the performance of the product has been exactly what you'd expect from this class of router. It's easy to set up and works.
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no surprises, August 5, 2006
By Marv (Missouri)
The router installed easily with no surprises. The only disappointment was that the configuration software that comes with it is only a DEMO that will expire in a month or so but it will continue to work with Windows XP utilities.
It is reasonably priced and small. It has a detachable antenna so it would be possible to install a stronger or an external antenna if one was needed. This unit requires an AC adaptor (wall-wart) that is a problem if you want to mount the unit high on the wall because the DC wire is only about 6ft long so the adaptor may have to be plugged into an extension chord and have to just "hang" in space on the wall. I understand that some routers get their power through the network cable coming from the modem so that an adaptor isn't necessary. Great idea! I haven't checked but I assume those units are the more expensive ones I didn't look at buying.
Bottom line, the unit works well, is small and not too expensive and does what I needed to do and that is give me wireless access and mobility in my home.
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reliable, compact and priceworthy, August 4, 2006
By chavalmas (NY, USA)
Well the most important is that is hasn't let me down yet.
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Faulty router, August 3, 2006
By Manivannan Elangovan (San Jose, USA)
Like many others, I also ran into the classic problem with this router. It locks up and needs to be reset at least 2 to 3 times in a day. Plug out the power and plug in the power supply, and the router would work next few hours. At some point it gave up and would never work... !! I returned this product within a month.
May be you need some luck to get the non-buggy version. It has fabulous 5 star reviews from others :-(..
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A waste of time, effort, and money for sure!, July 26, 2006
By Anne M. Cassell (Mebane, NC United States)
Fuggettabouditt! Even free, this thing's not worth it. First off, after I connected it all up, it wouldn't respond to it's own firmware ISP call, using I.E. Then a call to the D-Link "Tech help" and they couldn't figure out what I was trying to tell them (I speak English)! They kept telling me to "reboot it", but there's no power switch. By the time I figured out what oonplooog it meant, I just wanted to talk to somebody who spoke English and didn't sound like a recorded message. After twenty minutes of oonploogging" and other assorted b.s., I told them to forget it. I had the solution to the problem. Throw it in the trash can! Now D-link would have to PAY ME to use any of their products.
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Horrible Router, July 24, 2006
By mtck01 (Queens, NY)
Worked decent for the first month. Now it crashes every few hours or more and looses wirelesss signal every half hour. I got it for $10 but that was way too much. I have Rev-E with 5.10. Stay away!!!
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Died after 6 weeks. D-Link Support extremely frustrating. Not for Gamers., July 16, 2006
By Sergeant Math (Mountain View, CA)
I bought this wireless router and was happy with it for about 6 weeks. It was easy to set up, worked fine, and had good range (I live in a smallish townhouse so I can't vouch for how well it would work for larger homes).
Then it stopped working suddenly and nothing, including restarting it or even using the reset button got it working again. I know enough about networking equipment to tell that this was a hardware issue, not a software misconfiguration. I was tempted to just throw out the router and buy a new one, but since it was still under warranty I decided to use the form on their website and sent them a message, clearly describing my "symptoms" and the different things I had tried to get it working and see what they could do for me.
I got an e-mail back and was pleasantly surprised to read that they agreed that my router was defective and they would replace my product through their RMA process (meaning I would mail back the defective unit and they would mail me back a new one). I assumed that this meant I would just have to call them to get an RMA number to use when mailing the router back to D-Link. Little did I know that what I expected to be a simple 2 minute phone call would take up almost 2 hours of my time.
I was connected to a call center in India and was told that before I got an RMA number I would need to do a few 'routine tests' on the unit with their support staff before they could authorize the RMA. I asked how long this would take and they said 10 minutes. Over then next 90 minutes I came to understand that D-Link's support call centers are either run in a completely incompetent way, or they are purposely designed to discourage people from staying on the line to get the help they need (in my case this would prevent me from returning a defective product which would save them the cost of replacing it). During the 'routine tests' my call was dropped three times, forcing me to call back. Each time I had to repeat much of the same information and repeat some of the tests I was doing. At no point did the tech support people have me try anything new that I had not already tried and described in my original e-mail to them. At several points I was put on hold, sometimes for longer than 5 minutes. The whole thing was an exercise in frustration.
Finally my call got transferred to a higher level person, who read over my original e-mail, had me try another 'reset' (which I had already done at least 3 times) and finally issued the RMA number. (If I could have skipped the rest of the support people and gone straight to the last person that could be considered reasonable).
Next I gathered up the router and everything that came in the box with it (power supply, cd, the little rubber feet that they give you that no one ever uses) and mailed it to them (I had to pay for the postage myself). They sent me an e-mail acknowledging they received the package but with no information about when they would send the replacement - it took about 2 weeks, and I got the same model with a higher revision (E instead of D). If the new one breaks, it's just going in the trash - I'd rather spend the money to replace it with something that works, rather than deal with their support people again.
Update: After getting the replacement router, I haven't had problems with it. It seems like buying this router is a crapshoot - from the number of bad reviews here it seems like you have a pretty good chance of getting a bad unit and dealing with it disconnecting all the time.
One limitation I just found out about recently is that this router will not let you do port forwarding for more than 32 ports. If you use a router to do NAT this is ridiculously limiting (and I can't imagine why they would put this in - most routers let you forward an unlimited amount of ports). Even a single game (like Counter-Strike for example) may need to have more than 32 ports forwarded to work properly... if you're not sure how many ports you will need there is good information on portforward.com (and it will also help you figure out which routers will do the job).
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Excellent Wireless Router, July 1, 2006
By Harmon (Winchester, VA)
This economical router was very easy to set up, especially with the included software. It has been working flawlessly for over a month now, and the signal is at least "good" in all parts of my one-story home and outside on the patio.
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Crash a lot, June 30, 2006
By Shin Sou Wang
the connection speed and ease to use are all fine. but it crashes too often. seems like it's sensitive to the electricity also. besides the everyday , now and then crash, it crashes when ever i have power surges.... and you have to unplug everything , including all the network cables on it , to make it alive again.
my is a HW D firmware 4.00, no updates yet on the web
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So easy, June 30, 2006
By Mom with anxious child (North Texas)
I read all the reviews and finally decided on this router to replace my malfunctioning Robotics router. I was expecting a certain amount of headaches during the swap over. I have DSL. I put in the CD first as it told me too. I am still in shock as to how easy it was. I found the range to be acceptable. For reasons I never understood before I could not get enough range from my Robotics router and wireless card. I did buy the Dlink wireless adapater for my PC at the same time. Once again I actually followed the instructions and once again it was a breeze, however I expected that one to be easy. I was up in 15 minutes, surfing the net on my two PCS and my laptop. For the price and the ease of use it's a win win in my book.
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um, it was free!!, June 29, 2006
By Mr.BLB (CT)
well, ive had this for maybe a year now maybe a little more or maybe a little less, cant recall to be exact but it has finally given me enough crap that i had to go and buy another one.
for the past 2.5 weeks i lose connections once aday. first thought it was the dsl modem, so i bought one, seemed to have fixed the issue but nope. so i finally caved and bought a Buffalo WHR-G54S wireless router.
the d-link when i bought it was known for having issues but i thought it might have been more cause people didnt know what they were doing and well it gave me a few at the beginning but i fixed it, but now its just do darn much. not worth the headaches in the long run. i recommend buffalo and dont skimp out cause of price. i get to aggirvated and its not worth it for you either!!
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