D-Link DI 714 - Wireless router - desktop

by D-Link Systems, Inc.

Product Details

Product Manual [1.88mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds
• ASIN: B00005KB26
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,405 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 18, 2006

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The D-Link DI-714 is a broadband IEEE 802.11b compliant wireless gateway with a built in four-port switch. The DI-714 provides the ability to share a DSL or Cable Modem through either its four Ethernet ports or via its integrated Wireless IEEE 802.11b component. Also, the DI-714 is equipped with a serial port to connect an external analog modem for a backup dial-up connection. The DI-714's integrated Router and Firewall provide NAT, DHCP, and packet-filtering services between the local network and the Internet.

D-Link's DI-714 allows wireless LAN users to share a single Internet connection while providing the safety and security of port blocking, packet filtering, and a natural firewall. Static address support, integrated DHCP, PPPoE, and device name support will allow it to connect to nearly any broadband provider whether Cable or DSL based, and at the same time simplify local area network settings.

The DI-714 provides two levels of security support. First, it masks local users' IP addresses from others on the Internet, making it much more difficult for a hacker to target a machine on the network. Second, the DI-714 blocks outgoing ports unless they're required by applications specified in Virtual Server settings.

The DI-714 provides special pass-through support for common VPN implementations, including PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol), L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol), and IPSec. The Virtual Server allows the user to expose HTTP, FTP, Game Servers, and other local services to be accessible to Internet users located outside the LAN. A DMZ setting can be applied to a single client behind the DI-714 to expose it to the Internet and ensure complete Internet application compatibility even if specific ports are not known.

Unlike proxy server or NAT software, which requires the software server to remain visible on the Internet, no local computers are directly externally visible when the DI-714 is in use. Also, the DI-714, like broadband, is always on, so you don't need to constantly boot up a software server whenever a client wants access.

Integrated DHCP services allow up to 252 users to get their IP address automatically on boot-up from the DI-714. Client machines require no software; simply set them to accept a dynamically assigned IP address and reboot. Each time they are powered up, the DI-714 will recognize them and set their IP address to instantly connect them to the LAN.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great little wireless router, September 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: D-Link DI 714 - Wireless router - desktop (Personal Computers)

I struggled a bit to choose between Linksys
and D-link DI-714. Some people's negative
experience with the Linksys product made me turn to the D-link product even though there is not much review for the relatively new DI-714.

I opened the package today and the experience so far is excellent. It was 2 hours from the time I opened the package to
me surfing the internet from a laptop. Most of the time is spent in configuring my desktop to talk to the DI-714. I had fixed IP address with my cable modem provider. The instructions given to configure my desk top to this new environment were woefully
inadequate. Even now, I am not sure if I have set all the TCP/IP
parameters properly on the desktop. This experience of taking too long to configure the desktop to talk to the router is the reason I gave this product a 4 star as opposed to 5 star.

Once the router was given all the TCP/IP settings, setting up the laptop was less than 5 minutes and it established the wireless connection ( with D-link DWL650 ) right away. It was
a very pleasant experience.

Throughout the house, the link quality is greater than 75% and
signal strength is greater than 65%. Even at the low end of these numbers, I did not see any deterioration in speed.
I could watch video at 300kb/sec easily. It is just a cool thing to see full screen video on your lap top as you walk around with it.

My advice to D-link would be to provide better documentation on the quick install manual about how to change the desktop if it is configured for static IP addresses with the DSL or Cable Modem provider. If I just follow the instructions given, it just does not work. It says, run winipcfg and select releaseall and renewall. That does not do anything. I had to statically
assign the router IP address to talk to it first. I do not know
what the problem is.

I did not have to download any new firmware. Dlink website has great scope for improvement. When I went there to see if there is any firmware update for the 714, it is just absolutely unuserfriendly to figure this out. Even now, I do not know if there is a firmware update or not.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, Reliable, Easy Set-up and Ready for the Future, August 30, 2001

By 

Charlie S. (BAM!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: D-Link DI 714 - Wireless router - desktop (Personal Computers)

This is another great router from the D-Link Wireless Router Family. The difference from this one and the more popular DI-713P is that the DI-714 has detachable Antenna for future utilization of bigger and stronger Antenna. This would allow for a much stronger signal and a bigger area in which you can establish a connection. This would come in handy for larger homes, or small offices that have many walls or interference.
Although the DI-713P has a built in Print Server, you might be like me and already have a Print Server on your network. The DI-714 seems to have traded it's Print Server for an extra Ethernet Port. In my book these two trade offs are just what I needed. I just don't want to wait so long to get the bigger and better antenna.
The Set-up and configuration is very easy with the DI-714 because it is all HTML based and you can access it from any computer on the Network with a web browser. And the built in firewall is a bonus. I was running a software based firewall, but now I don't need to with my built in hardware firewall.
Everything has been coming up D-Link these past months, and I always check to see if they have something that can fit my needs first. And I highly recommend this product.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars D-Link 714 wireless router our experience, April 26, 2002

By 

Ruth Henriquez Lyon (Duluth, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: D-Link DI 714 - Wireless router - desktop (Personal Computers)

We have been running a home LAN using a combination of borrowed ethernet cards connected using isolated sections of cable TV coaxial cable inside the walls, and ethernet cable stapled to the ceiling. This has not been the prettiest LAN in existance, but until recently, it worked well and didn't need a router. Recently though, the system quit working. Possibly the rabbits who live downstairs had something to do with the unreliability of our coaxial cable.

A wireless network made the best sense for us. After doing quite a lot of online research about our options, I narrowed the field to the Siemens router and the D-Link 714. The D-Link has had nearly universal good reports. We bought it and two Linksys WMP-11 PCI cards. We had no trouble installing the router. My 15 year-old son ( the most eager to get back online) did it in a little over 20 minutes. The router defaults to settings that match our needs well. We are sharing a connection to a cable modem with a dynamically assigned IP address. We updated to the latest firmware quickly and easily using D-Link's Website. Installation of the WMP-11 cards went easily as well. The two remote computers are located about 30 ft from the router and receive a strong signal consistantly.

The router control interface is a webpage at it's default local IP address (192.168.0.1) and allows administrative access to all the router's features. One thing that I was suprised to see after the router had been on for a couple of days was the number of port scanners and other attemped incursions on our system that were detected and blocked. Without a router ( and it's firewall) we had been unaware and unprotected. I think that may explain some of the peculiar problems we have been having on our computer in the past.

In summary, the D-Link 714 was shipped quickly, installed very easily, and works very well. I highly recommend it.