| 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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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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No Customer Support, July 26, 2006
By Paul Jacobs (Temecula, CA USA)
I got this router free with a new laptop: You get what you pay for. After it failed to connect as advertised, I spent 45 minutes on the phone waiting to reach customer service. Between that and the 3 hours I monkeyed with the router, I gave up for a product with tech support and found it in Linksys. The Linksys WRT54G had the same initial problems as the D-Link, but there was virtually no wait for tech support and they walked me through the steps to get my network up and wireless.
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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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Fast and unreliable, June 19, 2006
By Pace Ripley (Somerville, MA)
I got this router free from Verizon with my FiOS broadband service. Performance-wise, it offers very fast connectivity, whether wireless or wired. The wireless range is more than decent, althouh I am not using it in a multi-story environment which normally provides the most challenge to wireless routers.
That said, compared to my older SMC Barricade router, this D-Link unit suffers from a bad management user interface and worse than all, reliability issues.
The user interface for managing the router is clunky and does not make sense. There are multiple tabs, with multiple options each. Saving and updating settings does not make sense and the router does not offer you the ability to limit access based on MAC addresses.
Still, more than anything you want a router that you set up and forget about. This is not the case with this router; repeatedly and unexpectedly this router will lock up and although the lights will keep on flashing, die. Updating firmware did not help and in this dead state you cannot access its administrative interface to check anything. Eventually, you get the hang of it - you need to power cycle the device. Without knowing or getting any indication when this lock-up will happen is an issue for a person like me as I use the router with Vonage. Losing the router kills your phone service too.
In summary - if you have to pay for a router, buy something else. Not worth the hassle.
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Only worked for a year and a half, June 11, 2006
By Mr. Kenneth J. Bruno
Bought this in 12/04. Just an FYI, allow windows to manage your network connections to get it to work. Worked fairly well but just died last week 6/1/06. Not very impressed that it only lasted 1.5 years
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Decent only because it was free;, June 6, 2006
By Electronics Student (Middle of Nowhere)
I have gottne two of these for Free, Revision C, and D or E for the other. I sold the second one to a friends mom and she said it kept crashing which from this board i can believe it.
PROBLEMS
Im back form college and have noticed that couple times a day my router at least hte wireless part crashes. and kicks me off for 2min and sometimes i have to turn off and on my wirelesss card to get it to work. Good news if u get a revision C it is possible with some modicifcation to firmware files to upgrade it to i think a 624 or something like that plus it a generic chip of couple other comapnies so plenty of options.
Also note my router sits 2ft from my computer NO WAY signal is blocked. somewhat decent range for what i use it for and i live in the country so it is IMPOSSIBLE for any other networks to be interfering with mine.
FINAL WORD:
Substandard product that they have to give away but it gets the job done. If it critical to need a good network, my advice is go with a linksys "WRT54G" read alot of good things plus alot of firmware to make it do almost whatever you want, even pick up other networks.
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The little router that couldn't, June 3, 2006
By Chanda Lyons (Duvall, WA United States)
Short version: I never got this router to work, even after talking to tech support twice. They said it was defective, but I suspect it might be a bigger problem than just my unit.
Long version: I got a DI-624 router (revision D) to replace an old SMC 802.11b router that started picking up a lot of RF noise and dropping connections. After I got everything unpacked, I followed all of D-Link's instructions to run their network setup wizard. After it failed twice, I tried digging into the settings pages to see what the problem was. The router couldn't get an IP address from my DSL modem (Westell modem from Verizon). I never had this problem with the SMC router, so I called D-Link tech support. They told me that I had to get a PPPoE username and password from Verizon even though the SMC router wasn't using PPPoE. I called Verizon, and as I expected they said PPPoE isn't used on the west coast. So, I called D-Link back, and they said Verizon was wrong, but that the unit might be defective and that I should just return it. It's hard for me to believe that a single unit is defective only in that it can't get an IP address from the cable modem. I've been developing commercial software for 8 years, and this smells like a poorly tested product revision rather than a problem with a single unit.
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This router is the worst I have ever owned., May 27, 2006
By Robert Lucas
Well unfortunately, I purchased this router about 3 weeks ago and I received the defective (according to the tech support) revision D. The router locks up about once a day (with all lights on front on) and I have to unplug it and wait about 3 minutes to get it to reboot. This hard lock behavior also happens when making changes in the config/setup menu and I have to do the 3 minute un-plug/replug procedure.
I called tech support and was told that this rev. D has had some issues but he could not RMA it without talking to a superior. Well after sitting on hold for 20+ minutes the superior who was VERY hard to understand tells me that he will RMA but only if I do a hard reset of the router, and a myriad of other tests. Well that is fine except that means all of my settings would be erased and I would have to spend the afternoon reentering them plus downtime for my network.
In my mind I bought a defective product. The Dlink support admitted this, yet I have to jump through hoops to get a new unit. Plus they did not offer crosshiping so I would be without a router for at least 2 weeks. I will never buy Dlink again.
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Good to go, May 25, 2006
By lindguini (Los Angeles, CA United States)
PROS: Easy setup, small unit, nice quality, good wireless range
CONS: Built-in settings utility somewhat complicated to navigate
REVIEW: I bought the DI-524 to replace a new Linksys WRTP54G wireless router that I returned due to a number of installation issues. The D-Link unit is much smaller, runs cooler, and ran a perfect setup right out of the box. I was up and running in 10 minutes. The D-Link CD provided bulletproof setup instructions (I can't say the same for the Linksys).
One recommendation: Make incremental changes to the router settings and don't try to change a whole bunch of parameters all at once. This can cause the setup utility to lock-up or lose connection. Change one thing at a time, wait for the "save settings" to fully complete (this can take a couple of minutes and the utility does NOT inform you of the progress so you're left hanging to some degree). This general setup rule of changing one thing at time is probably a good rule-of-thumb for most routers.
My experience with Linksys showed me that the name's not everything. D-Link's DI-524 is impressive and capable.
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Great product, inexpensive, May 24, 2006
By Michael J. Runyon
I love this product, easy to use and startup. I have setup 2 networks with one of these, and got it up in less than 90 seconds.
I have experienced this problem with constant disconnection in the past, but only after upgrading the firmware. After downgrading the firmware back to the original factory settings, then the problem dissapeared and I was able to achieve uptimes with the device measured in months ( and then only because of power failures).
Great buy!
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Completely Useless product, not worth it even when this product is very cheap, May 22, 2006
By M. Eberhart
Even though this router is cheap, its a nightmare to maintain once you own it. I purchased it to replace my DI-614+ which I thought was a decent product. As it turns out I have switched back to the DI-614+ due to the DI-524's terrible reliability. I have had to reset it almost daily because it crashes frequently causing my entire network to go down. The DHCP server completely fails to assign ip addresses on the LAN under most circumstances and so IP addresses must be manually set on each computer connected to the network. It also has a tendency to prevent certain network functions from working properly such as Microsoft file and printer sharing. Dlink tech support is terrible and when they can't figure out whats wrong they tell you they will replace the product, the catch is that you have to pay for shipping which is going to cost you more than the router did in the first place, plus they want a credit card number to bill you with if they determine the product is not defective, (they will bill you the list price of $69.99) so its a big risk to try to have it replaced.
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