Customer Reviews

D-Link AirPlus DI-614+ Wireless 22 Mbps Broadband Router

5 star:		(134)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(55)

 

 

1) 256-bit WEP with other D-Link adapter cards. (The other brands have 128-bit as the highest encryption). Plus enabling this level of WEP doesn't effect speed performance like other brands do.

2) MAC Filtering. I can restrict which actual adapters can connect to my network, wired or wireless. The advantage is clear for wireless, but the advantage for wired is in case someone brings a laptop with a wired adapter. They can't just sit down and plug in, they need permission first.

3) Setup/Configuration is a snap. You just login with your web browser and click on what you want. It is very clearly laid out and easy to navigate.

4) You can disable SSID broadcast, you have been able to for a long time. You can also turn off the wireless portion of this router so that when you aren't using it, or say are going on vacation you know you are safe from those pesky wardrivers. (eventhough the MAC filtering and 256-bit WEP should be enough)

5) The 802.11b+ speeds. a.k.a. 22Mbps - plus 4x mode. With these enabled and with your D-Link wireless adapter card (DWL-650+ and other + products) I can get 10Mbps raw data transfer speeds. Most 802.11b networks can only achieve 5Mbps if they are performing optimally.

6) The range on this router/AP is plenty adequate. In my 1500 sq ft home I get almost full coverage with my AP in a central location away from most electronic devices. There are only certain places where I don't get signal, but lets just say I get the signal where I need it. I can be outside on the porch, in the bathroom, in any of the bedrooms, kitchen, parts of the den, and so on.

7) The combination of this firewall, smart downloading, and windows updates keeps me virus free.

Overall I feel very safe, very comfortable and very free to roam the house with my laptop. Plus my other PCs are safe and work fine.

I've had this router for about a year with no problems and upgrading is always fun since D-Link is either fixing bugs, adding more speed, or more features with every upgrade.

Only you can decide for yourself which router you get, but for this price and you get all this I'd say your search is over.

I purchased the D-Link AirPlus DI-614+ based on rebates from Dlink and my need for a wireless connection. I found setup to be a breeze from the router's side, but the wireless PCI NIC was much more work. Out of the box, both worked, but my speeds were low and I knew I had no security. On to configuration as wireless is inherently insecure. I played with the settings and read the manual to try and make sure 3 things happened: I wanted encrypted data, connection speeds of 22 Mbps and I do not want my neighbors piggybacking on my connection or into my LAN. I achieved all, but with some work and technical knowledge. The problem is that many manufacturer have moved to manuals with simple definitions of features, not detailed information about configuration. I suppose they know we rarely read them. I network Windows 2K daily, but I think others might have some difficulty configuring the advanced (necessary) features of this device. Many may not even think about security issues since it will work out of the box more or less, which will leave them open. DLink does not stress the need for security and does not explain clearly how to implement it.

There is another reviewer who previously said you cannot keep your neighbor out of your LAN. This is not true as you can keep you SSID from being broadcast or use encryption to only allow your computers to connect. I tested this and verified with D-Link tech support (replied by email overnight!). He was right that they do not implement it in the same way they use to or how he wants it, but the capability is there. It again is just not done in a straightforward manner.

This router also has four ports for wired access as well, so I also hooked up my other PC. Now that everything is set up, I love it. The problem I find with this and other home NAT routers is that the manufacturers put many features in the routers, but supply poor assistance and explanation in configuration. The web interface for this device is not as clear or as well organized as others and the manual is mostly definitions. This means a less technical person will spend a good deal of time setting security and may not get the 22 Mbps promised. Since this sells in Best Buy and here at Amazon.com for the standard user, more step by step instructions would help on the setups that require multiple field configurations.

Overall, this is a very good product that I found works great once configured. I am not sure you will get much better in other brands. I have used Linksys, Siemans and Belkin routers and they all have some level of limited documentation and funky interfaces. PCWorld verified the 22 Mbps speed of this device and with 256 bit encryption the D-Link AirPlus DI-614+ begins to stand out among the rest.

I have had minor hang-ups since I bought this router. I bought it to be able to handle my VPN connections, my kids' gaming habits, file sharing programs, and all on wired OR wireless. These have all been working great for me. It is hard to believe that others are having so much trouble. Everything I've thrown at this thing it can handle.

My wireless connection is great, right now we only have one laptop that can take advantage of the wireless but when a buddy comes over, or when we get more laptops I will be ready. The 22Mbps only works with other D-Link products of course, but you can buy them in a bundle. I have a DWL-650+ in my laptop and it gets constant 6-7Mbps when I am on the same floor as the DI-614+. When I am upstairs I get about 3-4Mbps. This is perfect because our ISP only gives us 1.5Mbps speeds.

Setting everything up was fairly simple since all the features are right there in this one box. We all run Windows XP and which only made setting this up even easier. From within the web based configuration I was able to open specific ports to allow certain PC games and file sharing programs to work properly. There are even preset firewall rules that allow you to play MSN Game Zone and more, all you have to do is enable them.

Another plus is that I can set up "Parental Controls" to disallow certain websites from showing up on my kids' computers. I can do this by entering in keywords I find inappropriate into the parental control area.

This router continues to work flawlessly to this day.
Our family isn't exactly novices when it comes to utilizing a router for all its uses but we sure are taking advantage of what this router can do. I am very impressed and somewhat proud that I can get this one product to do so much for us and at such a low price. This is definitely a great value.

The DI-614+ (rev B and earlier) consistently outperforms more expensive models from netgear and linksys in distance testing (check PCMAG and PCWorld for starters). While I have no hard data of my own to support these tests, I have found this router to outperform my 2.4GHz phone (which otherwise isn't a terrible test for range.)

Of course improving antenna preformance isn't a bad idea either and amoung many options for doing so you might consider http://osiris.urbanna.net/antenna_designs/projects/Ez-10/.

The 614+ gets its fair share of bad consumer reviews, but you have to take these with a grain of salt --- setting up a wireless network is not like hooking up a new keyboard.

The 614+ does not have as many configuration settings as some other routers, but the available settings are adequate for most users. I have set mine up to allow only the MAC's I enter, to NOT broadcast its SSID (under Advanced -- Performance) and to use 128 WEP. (I also run firewalls on all my machines.) Turning off and on each of these settings without losing specific parameters is quick and easy.

It is true that the 614+ does not generally allow you to have different settings for wireless versus hardwired computers or to enter a phrase to generate keys (a very nice feature). It is also true that the interface is a little weak. Still for the price (like $30 after rebate here recently), it is a steal.

If you need a router with better distance performance than the 614+, I suggest that you ignore the standard netgear and linksys offerings and move up to a 200mW unit (like one of the Senao offerings). Of course then you should get comparable adapters (like the SMC High Power PC Card --- which is a good bet in any case).

Here is some last advice: assign a unique SSID and set up the net without any security. Once you have everything working then you can add in security features... oh, and check the channel --- different vendors default to different channels.

I purchased the DI-614+ along with the D-Link DWL-650+ PCMCIA NIC card for my wife's laptop. Setup of the two devices was fairly straight-forward, but the wireless network is unreliable.

Most of the time, my wife's computer is within 10 feet of the access point. Signal strength at this distance varies from "Excellent" to "Low". Also, if her computer is left on overnight, the wireless network is always down in the morning. The only way to resolve this appears to be by rebooting the router/access point. (This is an option in the web interface.) Needless to say, this is pretty annoying. If the computer were half way across the house, I would be a little more forgiving. But since it's within a few feet (with nothing in between them), I'm not so happy with it. At this point, I'm not certain whether the problem is with the access point or the NIC. Given that a reboot of the access point "resolves" the problem, I'm inclined to believe that it's the access point. Unfortunately, I don't have any more equipment to test this theory with.

The rest of the review is somewhat technical. I want to make it clear that the default settings on the device allowed me to connect to the internet and wireless network without changes. However, I tinker with settings quite a bit. What is described below are my findings from these experiments.

One oddity that I've encountered is that the wireless NIC seems to want to look for the access point on Channel 6 all of the time. (This is the default value on the access point.) I changed the channel of the access point to another value, and the network card would only recognize it occasionally. Once I changed the channel of the access point back to 6, though, the network card recognized the network every time the computer rebooted. (Note that even with this setting, the laptop still loses the connection on a regular basis.)

Another problem I've discovered is that generating keys for WEP is not as straight-forward as it should be. With the latest firmware for the DI-614+ (version 2.0f) the access point does not allow the administrator to put in a pass code to generate the encryption keys. So, if you want to use WEP, you'll have to generate the encryption keys yourself and manually enter them into each of the wireless access cards. Of course, not allowing the pass code actually makes the wireless network more secure. But if you need the convenience (such as for a large network), you'll be out of luck.

As a router, the DI-614+ fares well. Out of the box, the router works as advertised. All I did was plug my computer (on a wired network) into one of the ports and the cable modem into the WAN link, and everything worked. The default settings in the firewall are pretty secure, but UPnP was enabled by default and the router answered pings from the outside world. Fortunately, both of these options can be changed. In addition, the other firewall settings are very configurable (as expected).

There are sections that allow the administrator to configure "Applications", "Virtual Servers", and other stuff. Several applications are preconfigured such as Battle.net and MSN gaming zone. These are disabled by default, but are simple to enable. (Note: The Battle.net configuration isn't complete, and won't work with Diablo II. You'll need to make some minor modifications to get this to work.)

The "Virtual Server" section allows you to turn on ports such as 21 for FTP, 23 for telnet, etc. I was a bit surprised to see that port 22 (SSH) wasn't included. As with the applications, these are disabled by default and the administrator can enable them as he/she sees fit.

The last section of the firewall configuration is a more "traditional" firewall configuration. In this section, two rules are pre-defined and enabled. The rules prevent all access from the outside-in and enable all access from the inside-out. These rules cannot be changed. However, rules that are added by the administrator override the pre-defined ones.

One downside to the router, though, is that port 113 (identd) is visible to the outside world. I see no way to prevent the router from answering queries to this port. The response to these queries is that its unavailable, but I wish I could get it to just drop the packets instead.

A quick recap of the review: the router works well and is very configurable (except for the identd port). The wireless access point, though, does not appear to be reliable.

Lots of features and the 22Mbps speeds on this router is what initially drew me to it. And what do you know, high speeds and a wide range of features is exactly what it gives me. I am more than pleased with this wireless router. I was able to keep my existing 3 PC wired network and have plenty of room to expand my network wirelessly without having to run wires every where. The range on this router alone covers my entire home and then some. I get good to great signal whether I am upstairs or downstairs with the router being downstairs. The features are great because I can shut off my kids' access to the Internet after 10pm on school nights without having to manually unplug them or tell them anything. So even when I am away or out for the night my kids wont be staying up late or getting into any trouble on the Internet. Very useful. I also have this currently working with my XBox to allow game play over the Internet, which is very entertaining.

I purchased this wireless router hoping to replace my 3 years old LinkSys router. However, after playing with it for several hours, I decided to return it because of the following (using firmware 2.18):

1. MAC filtering: Can't make it for wireless only. Once it is enable, it is for both wireless and wired network. This is the MOST annoying part. I mean, why do I want to enable MAC filtering for my wired network???

2. Router configuration: Very primitive comparing to my old LinkSys.

3. Enable/Disable Wireless: It didn't really disable the wireless network(physically). It shoulded be called "allow/deny all" access instead. Once the wireless is "disabled", it does still broadcast the SSID.

4. No way of disabling SSID broadcast for security reasons.

Finally, I have to give DLink credit for making upgrade firmware so easy (Web base), which is a big improvement comparing to my old linksys router.

I was amazed at all the features this thing came with. Parental controls, MAC filtering, IP filtering, URL filtering, the usual NAT port forwarding, 256-bit WEP, blazing wireless speeds at about 8Mbps anywhere in my home, and more.

I am definitely pleased with my D-Link DI-614+ and it's capabilities and over all performance. It has also been reliable enough to have made it through a couple small LAN parties I've held with a couple friends. We played all sorts of games online for hours on end and found no problems setting up the router to keep our computers safe and in working order for all games.

I am also happy to report that the DWL-650+ and DI-614+ works good for online gaming on my laptop as well. I was able to play some counter strike with no increase in ping when compared to my wired PCs. I was very suprised and glad this didn't give me any problems in all of my situtations.

I'd recommend this for gaming as you can see, and of course it has handled all of my normal actions like web surfing, playing java/shockwave based games, file sharing programs, and more. Another plus is that this router has great security and was rated stealth all on ports when I tested it online.

I first impressed with the number of features this router was capable of doing. For this price I honestly didn't expect so much from it. I just wanted a router to expand my wired network to wireless. After finding out what it can do I just had to have one.

I brought this baby home, plugged in the power, plugged in my WAN connection, filled in the neccessary settings, upgraded the firmware, and the next thing I knew I was able to access the Internet with the greatest of ease. There are so many controls that come standard with this router I don't think I will ever use them all, but I am happy they are there. Well when my kids get older and start using the computers I can use the parental controls to restrict what they can access on the Internet. There is even a feature to only allow certain MAC addresses to have access the Internet so if my neighbor has an 802.11b card they can't use my Internet access without me knowing.

Everything about this was fairly simple to set up thanks to the manual, and I would definitly recommend this to others.

I got the Dlink as a replacement for my Linksys BEFSR4 (non-wireless) which died during a lightening storm. At first look the User interface is confusing but I soon realized it was better organized for the new user. The routers DHCP didnt pick up my DSL ip so I had to hard code my ip and then flashed the 2.0 firmware. I would recommend everyone to upgrade their firmware to atleast 2.0. I set up WEP 256 right from the start
The Bad:
1. It worked well with my Dlink 614+ card on one of my laptops, but I could not get the configuration utility to work on my main laptop. I finally got it working by hacking the windows registry, but Dlink Support are still clueless.
2. I was in for more problems when I bought a US robotics wireless card, you would think that 802.11b would ensure smooth compatibility. I got the card all setup (had to reduce the wep to 128 bit as WEP 256 is not supported on this card.) The router seemed to detect the card as I could see the MAC address in the wireless status screen, but there was no ip and no link. I havent tried using any other cards but looks like there could be a compatibility issue.
3. When setting my Virtual servers (port forwarding) I only set one custom port forwarding and when I tried to add one more it reported that it had "run out of space". But infact it allows me to add more settings on other pages.
4. D-Link claims this device to be a router, but there is no way to statically route my connections along a particular path. I think thats essential because then I could share my wireless internet connection with anyone and not compromise my LAN. My LinkSys had this feature I dont know if the LinkSys Wireless router has this feature.
5. Their support stinks
6. No SNMP Support. My LinkSys router used to support SNMP (Simple network Management Protocol allows you to save logs on your computer) and SPI (stateful packet inspection rejects any packets whose connections dont originate from your LAN)

The Good: 1. D-Link has the best warranty in the industry 3 years (My Linksys died in 1.5 years with a warranty of 1 year)
2. The Dlink is fast I can get up to 22 MBPS
3. The range is great.
4. Has a feature by which you can save all your configuration changes on to a file great if you want to reset your router or change setting and experiment.
5. Good buy for a novice user.
6. Great price