| D-Link DI-624M Wireless 108G MIMO Router |
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Model: DI-624M
Brand: D-Link
Manufacturer: D-Link Systems, Inc.
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 23
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, 802.11 Super G
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| Features: |
D-Link PRE-N WLS RTR 4PT SWCH-802.11G/SMART ANT SUPERG ( DI-624M )
Introducing MIMO Smart Antenna Technology for better overall wireless coverage than standard 802.11g
Dramatic improvement in wireless speeds over further distances – fewer dead spots
Extensive network protection from integrated NAT and SPI firewall Enhanced wireless security with WPA-Personal
Wirelessly share a single incoming broadband Internet connection |
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| Description: |
| The DLK DI-624M Super G Wireless Router creates robust wireless networks with powerful performance and extended coverage. It offers industry-wide backward compatibility to 802.11g and 802.11b networking devices. This means you don't have to replace your existing network devices to experience the full benefits of extended range. Protect the information flying through your wireless network with with WPA-Personal (WPA-PSK) data encryption. Can be configured for invisible mode, to prevent the network name from being scanned by outside wireless clients |
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| User Reviews (23 total): |
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router with plenty of challenges, March 3, 2007
By Tupos
DI-624M is easy to install and provides good signal (at least within the range of my flat!). However, despite the fact that it is easy to install, it is a massive challenge to make it work efficiently afterward. It usually works okay for some time after installation and re-installation (which happens periodically), but after a while it tends to do its own thing (looks like this device has the mind of its own!). It connects to the internet, but prevents many programmes from accessing it altogether (with an exception of Skype, in my experience).
Pros:
1) easy to install
2) good signal
Cons:
1) settings change without any prior action and/or your intention
2) settings change without any prior action and/or your intention
3) did I mention that settings change by themselves???
If you are considering purchasing a router, it would, probably, make sense to try getting some other product. This may prevent you from pain of trying to work out how to make DI-624M function properly.
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DO NOT BUY THIS ROUTER, January 9, 2007
By Unhappy dlink user
Bought this router to replace a DI-524 that had a broken antenna. Verified the firmware shipped with the unit was the latest, and was able to connect to the internet on the wired pc, but the wireless pc had poor/no connectivity. Tried a different channel, and that improved the signal strength, but still less then the DI-524. Tried to use email, (Outlook Express on Comcast), and received errors that indicated an MTU sizing problem. Tried, unsuccessfully, to change the MTU on the router, so made the mistake of calling DLINK support. After 2 hours on the phone, was informed that I needed to contact Comcast to find out why their modem won't talk to Dlink's router. Heck with it...I put a piece of wire on the DI-524 to replace the antenna, and returned the DI-624M.
Don't buy this router!!!! UPDATE 1/20/2007 - Didn't return it, because the vendor won't RMA it...NO RESPONSE FROM VENDOR. I'm out the $45.00....
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Ok, but performance is terrible, October 29, 2006
By L. Lilly
I bought this to replace my Linksys BESFR41 cable/dsl router and Linksys WAP11 access point. Mistake! Everything worked fine out of the box, but my WAN performance went down 66%. With Linksys, I had Internet download speeds of 9742Kbps, but with this D-link Di-624M I get 3072Kbps. I can't get it to go any faster. I have switched back and forth between the two to no avail. What is the problem? Does anybody know? I'm wishing I wouldn't have bought it now. Wasted my money.
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Great, with new firmware., May 5, 2006
By Aidy (Brisbane, Australia)
This is a great router in terms of speed and coverage. Once updated with the new firmware, the DI-624M has worked really well with "very good" signal, even through brick walls.
While I was updating it, the firmware update page timed-out after about 30mins, though after refreshing the page, it was apparently finished.
Unfortunately though, the router doesn't include Bigpond cable login client which is annoying since I have Bigpond. Also when I changed it's IP back to *.*.0.1 from *.*.1.1 (for ICS), the webconfig stopped working till I restarted it. Besides these two things, it's been great and I highly recommend it.
Apparently it's better to update the firmware when the router's cool (turned off for a while and under a fan), and it is possible to fix bricked ones.
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awful awful, March 21, 2006
By P. Zachary Wolfe (Eugene, OR USA)
after frimware update, it completely stop working.
Followed all the instructions correctly.
Hard reset and did everything i can. I could not recover.
Do not buy. bottom line.
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Do not buy!, March 19, 2006
By Peter (Michigan)
Bought the D-Stink DI-624M about 6 months ago. Worked like a charm until this past week. My internet connection would suddenly cut out and only be accessible again after a hard reset. Then, the web-based administration panel would be unaccessible for several hours. I tried installing the latest firmware patch to see if it would help... big mistake. The wireless stopped working completely and permanently. D-Link technical support was awful. I'll applaud them for taking my calls quickly, but razz them for not knowing a thing about what they were talking about. Pretty much a waste of time to have them read me, verbatum, content straight out of the D-Link Knowledge Base, only to have them finally say "Gee. It sounds like the router may be broken. Take it back to the retailer." So I did, and with a refund in hand, I went for the peace of mind of a new Linksys.
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one more review to hopefully dissuade you from buying, January 31, 2006
By Egao No Oka (Plano, TX, United States)
There are already quite a few negative reviews on this router but just in case you are still considering buying it, here's one more. This router simply doesn't work. I'm on a second one after returning the first completely inoperable one. This second one is just as frustrating and is a waste of space. I am constantly resetting it in hopes of it magically working. Sometimes it works for 15 seconds (long enough to load one page) and when I try to go to the next page, it is already dead again. Arrgh. If I had to choose between the old days with dial up on AOL vs. using this router and completely unreliable access, I'd go for AOL (with all of its re-dials and disconnects). Please avoid this product. Finally, even if the price were reduced by 75%, it still would not be a good buy!
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For casual use, most advanced functions do NOT work., October 12, 2005
By RouterBob (MI USA)
Basic connectivity and wireless work. Any attempt to use advanced firewall rules fail including VPN passthrough. This device could not have gone through even a rudamentory test cycle. Please read the reviews, this is common and these problem were confirmed by my IT dept and also by D-Link's tech's as well. On second one, all of the exact same problems.
Sad to have made a choice, hope they make it right.
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BAD firmware and BAD firmware upgrades, September 21, 2005
By Berkeley Tom (California USA)
In the past, I have good impressions of DLink products with the combination of features and price, but this particular Router is one to stay away from. Dlink should have tested the product much more extensively before releasing it.
The original firmware (Jan 2005) is full of bugs, and two attempts at v1.2 upgrades made the router unusable. DLink support attempted to be helpful, but it seems that they are not aware of the problems with this particular router, and the responses I received were not helpful at all. After going through two routers, I returned them to the store and bought an Airlink SuperG AR420W at half the price (on sale), and worked flawlessly the first time around.
I like the feature set and the web GUI is pleasant, but the bugs are too severe and make the product unusable:
1. DNS doesn't work after a short period of time 2. Incorrect listing of DHCP clients 3. Upgrade of firmware cause the web application on the router to "die".
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No more interference!, September 21, 2005
By M. Brown (Boston, MA)
My old one was giving me nothing but problems. The D-Link works like a dream even on the other side of the apartment. No more dropped signals!
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Works - Finally - Sort of, September 13, 2005
By Wireless in Seattle
Having not read the reviews I picked up a 624M with a large rebate to replace my DI-524. I expected to pick up at least some additional range with my existing B and G equipment. The 1st one I brought home had a hardware problem, the second one with 1.0.1 firmware started out fine but after I tried installing the 1.20 firmware upgrade it no longer communicated with anything. The third, with buggy 1.0 firmware, would not let me clone the network adaptor's MAC address - as Comcast prefers - it insisted on incrementing the last number. The D-link service tech said this unit is basically a piece of junk and recommended that I take it back and get something else. Always a sucker for a challenge I managed to get it working with Comcast using its own MAC address about 30 seconds after hanging up from the tech. Then I added WEP, MAC address filtering, and virtual server inputs for my webcam. I don't dare touch the firmware, and was glad to see that it does clearly outshine the DI-524 in terms of range and stability (so far). I am using it with my existing wireless B and G equipment (PC, personal and work laptops, Axim X50V, DCS-1000 webcam, D-link wireless print server, & D-link DSM-320 Media Server). So far it works well with all of this equipment and with my HotSpotVPN account, and lets me connect sans wires just fine in all rooms of my 3-story house.
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DI-624M is not a mature product. needs further development., September 11, 2005
By linus (bay area, CA USA)
I purchased this to replace a di-624.
I read reviews, that were very negative regarding this product, especially regarding dlink's firmware version 1.2 which makes the router inoperable.
I took this with a grain of salt since my expereience with the DI-624 has been excellent. It has a full feature set.
Initial setup was easy, but the firmware 1.01 would only allow 2 static ip clients. So, I upgraded the firmware to the 1.2 version from dlink's web site (which allows 8 static ip clients). This firmware rendered the router inoperable. I could not gain access to the router again. So, the other reviewers were right.
This router is going back to the store and I will be going back to my trusty di-624.
In addition the di-624m get's very hot, this is a big concern.
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Horrible firmware update process and VPN doesn't work, September 3, 2005
By Daniel J. Gilley (San Jose, CA USA)
I'm on my third DI-624M. The first two were killed attempting to update to the newest firmware. Note that there is new firmware available on the D-Link website now. Previous reviewers have said there is not so apparently they finally posted some.
Be VERY careful when you try to do the firmware upgrade! Even though the manuals and online instructions don't say anything about waiting a long time, after starting the firmware install you have to wait 10+ minutes for it to complete! No warnings, no progress indication, just a spinning hourglass on the web browser. If you interrupt the web browser, you just killed the router forever. Eventually, the browser times out and looks like it fails. After that, the router won't talk. After a few power cycles it finally started responding and worked with the new software intact. On the third router, that is! The first two were permanently killed by this process. Ridiculous.
So at that point I had the latest firmware and the router worked fine for normal internet access. So I moved on to the next challenge - VPN access to my company network. My company uses Nortel's VPN. This router cannot handle VPN worth a darn. I spent hours talking to their tech support people, tried opening various ports, etc. and it never worked. My girlfriends VPN (different brand, I forget which) also won't work through this router.
My old Speedstream worked fine for VPN right out of the box with no issues, no configuration changes, etc. Too bad it died or I'd still be using it.
I guess I need to return this sucker and try a Linksys.
Bummer. These things are so cheap now that they are practically disposable but I'd easily pay 2x for one that just worked consistently with no issues.
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Poor performance and Firewall, August 24, 2005
By C. Godden (Modesto, CA)
I have had very good luck with dlink 802.11b routers so I was sure the new di-624m would deliver. I was very wrong. Coverage is very poor. The router would not work out of the box and required new firmware which took hours with the help of the tech line. The routers firewall does not stealth the ports on the router and only reports them closed. After many talks with the dlink tech line they stated what I already had figured out, "The router is not set up to stealth ports only to report them active but closed." I was told to look forward to another firmware update in the future. Stay away from this product and check out Linksys.
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this router performs WORSE than 802.11b/g routers, July 31, 2005
By I. Chow (California)
I bought this router thinking that it would give me extended range over my previous DI-624. Its range is actually even worse. I can't believe they even put this product on the market. Their claim of 8x the range is simply false advertising. Don't waste your time with this. Shame on you D-Link.
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It just does not work!!!, July 28, 2005
By juron (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
I have a Mac Powerbook, and have sent back two of this routers allready, because, basically they don't work, the first one stoped working after a firmware update, the second one's wireless simply stoped working, no explanation from Dlink, simply a send it back. I'm going back to Linksys.
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Poor range performance, July 11, 2005
By B. Weinberg (Cleveland, OH USA)
purchased this router because I have had good experience with D-link 802.11b routers in the past (particularly the DI-614+), but this one really did not live up to expectations.
I recently moved to a new, larger apartment (probably 80 ft long and 18 ft wide or so, 2 bedroom) and wanted to upgrade the router because the old one was getting poor reception in the back of the apartment. So, I was looking for a product that would add additional range with my existing equipment, which was 3 laptop computers with 802.11g built in and 1 desktop with a USB 802.11b card. I anticipated that the MIMO antenna technology as well as the move to an 11g router would add the additional 20 or so feet of range that I needed.
After installing the router, I found that its reception was really not improved above my former D-link router that is more than 4 years old. The front of my apartment, which is fairly open, got good reception and maintained 54 Mbps connections, but the back, which has more walls, got low reception and low speed (<10 Mbps) connections. Particularly, the desktop with the USB 802.11b card could not maintain a connection from less than 30 feet away (although through several walls). When I moved the router closer to the back of the apartment, near the desktop, the problem reversed and there was bad reception throughout the front.
After much tinkering and disappointment, I decided to try my girlfriend's old Netgear MR814 802.11b router in the back of the apartment, and to my surprise, the whole apartment now has outstanding reception. So I returned the router to Microcenter where I bought it (thankfully they have a nice return policy), and I'll use the Netgear router for now.
It's too bad after half a day of fooling around with a $100 router that's supposed to be the forefront of wireless technology that I couldn't supply my 2 bedroom apartment with internet access. I suppose that D-link's proprietary 108 Mbps MIMO cards might have better range, but it's hardly worth the $100 per computer I would have to spend, when the $15 Netgear router performs brilliantly. When prices drop further, perhaps I'll try out the Belkin Pre-N or Netgear RangeMax routers to see if they perform better (so I can upgrade to a 54 Mbps network). I probably won't buy any addition D-link products after this experience, and this router only rates 2 stars because it may perform well with the D-link cards. I also posted this review on CNET to save anyone else the trouble of getting this card to improve the reception.
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Never Worked, June 21, 2005
By A. Gottschalk
I bought one of these routers, and I was NEVER able to get any of my computers to get an IP address from it while WPA encryption was turned on. It wasn't just the single unit either, I had exactly the same problem with a replacement unit, and between two different laptops, one with an Intel wireless-G card, one with a Broadcom.
If you want to use high encryption on your wireless network, forget this box.
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Not recommended as of June 2005, June 19, 2005
By J. Neuman (Hawaii)
I originally purchased this router in April. The original product on which this is based the DI-624 got excellent reviews. The 624M was supposed to be the same great product w/ MIMO support.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with the original firmware. As mentioned in previous reviews, a new password would take several minutes to become active. The menu options would work intermittently, or not at all. The router would hang on several occassions. The ports would not stealth automatically as in the original DI-624.
To top it all off, as of this writing, there hasn't been a single firmware upgrade/fix available on the D-Link support site to address these issues. This router has been available since at least January of 2005.
I ended up returning this one, and purchasing the DI-624 instead. (No problems with that model at all.)
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Quick Install, but..., June 13, 2005
By Matthew Clower (Gilroy, Ca)
For me, the D-Link DI-624M worked fine as soon as it was plugged in for the first time. That goes to say, that once it was plugged in, the computer connected to it via RJ45 and another computer via wireless could connect to the internet. It wasn't until I tried to actually configure it, that it started freaking out. The first thing that I noticed is that it seems to take a very long time for new settings to take effect. I changed the admin password, for example, and I had to use the old password until 10 minutes later all-of-the-sudden it wouldn't let me log in anymore. Installing WEP and changing the SSID was easy, but I had to run the Wizard twice because the firmware is very unreliable and inconsistent and the wizard froze the first time through. Several of my devices, I later noticed were connecting 54Mbs when they should have been connecting 108Mbs, though my remaining devices were fine. It was when I started configuring the LAN's DHCP that I was convinced; I'm taking it back as soon as I'm done posting this. It seems that the only thing this router is good for, at least for now, is connecting to the internet. The interface on the device is SO bad and inconsistent (many times pages don't display properly or load completely), that even if it does support the services I was going to configure, it's not worth the headache. I went to the D-Link support site and couldn't find newer firmware (my current firmware is Feb 2005), but that is because there isn't any available for this model router; at least, not yet. Hopefully they fix the problems, but for now I'm going to the competitor.
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