Customer Reviews

D-Link DIR-330 NetDefend 802.11G Wireless VPN Firewall 8 4-Port 10/100Mbps Switch

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the absolute worst product I ever bought. I bought it explicitly for the VPN accessibility. I never got that to work. If you have to forward a port..make sure you know what you're doing cause once you choose the port, you can't go back and change it.

Also, which was rather nice (sarcastic)....the people in support were able to establish a vpn connection to my router but I couldn't. I used 3 different machines with the trial software they recommend. Their solution was that instead of using the trial software..BUY their product and then try it.

I never write reviews but I don't want anyone getting screwed with this thing.

April 2009:
I'm updating my review because this simply doesn't work.

The VPN from Windows to it ONLY works if you're not behind a NAT. With the NAT-Traversal turned on it get's to the second phase of authentication but never gets all the way. ie The encrypted packets start but it doesn't authenticate after that. I have many Wireshark pcap packet files showing the problem from multiple NAT locations. The only thing that works is my WWAN 3G PCcard directly hooked into Verizon - and that's because it's not NAT'ed.

Interop VPN Certified - yeah right. NOT.


There is also another problem. Dlink is using Dynamic DNS.org's service for it's dlink-ddns.com BUT DDNS's policy is to only allow same IP address update at minimum every 2 weeks. BUT the router's max is 100hours. After a few "violations" of their policy they disable the account. SO... DDNS tracking doesn't work either.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dec 2008
Despite all the negative talk on the web about this router I took a chance - primarily for one reason - It seems to be the ONLY router out there that supports Windows XP VPN client. (I had to return the Netgear vpn prosafe router because of this). - I already have a D-link router and it has been solid for years.

DIR-330:
The web interface seems solid to me.
Here are the features/info I'm using.

Firmware 1.12 (came on the router in the box)

LAN 172.17.x.x with DHCP from 172.17.0.100..200

WiFi: WPA2-PSK/AES

WAN fully automatic DHCP connection to AT&T DSL modem.

Note:- I have had other D-link routers crash after a day until I found this out.... The AT&T DSL Modem hijacks 192.168.0.1 and screws up the routing tables if you have 192.168.0.x on the LAN side. SO - Don't use 192.168.0.x on the LAN side! (I was using 10.x.x.x until I installed this new router. The reason I changed from 10.x.x.x to 172.17.x.x was that when I VPN in there is a good chance that it'll be on a 192.168.0.x or 10.x.x.x network since these are so common. To make it so that I don't have the potential for any IP conflicts I chose a lesser used private network mask (from the 172.16.x.x...172.31.255.255 range). This allows me to keep static ip assignments in my \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file without worrying about DNS working etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network

The VPN was configured so that the VPN server is 172.18.0.1 and the VPN DHCP range 172.18.0.100..200

The VPN is set up as L2TP/IPsec for the most security.

I'm using the free Dynamic DNS from dlinkddns.com (built into the router) to track my DSL's real IP address and so far it's FANTASTIC!. I have a CNAME alias to it from my domain name serving at the (also free) everyDNS.net so that I can have "vpn.mydomain.com" instead of "blahblah.dlinkddns.com"

I have not noticed any bandwidth drop from the older D-link router to this one. I can still watch streaming HD from Netflix on my TiVo-HD connected via WiFi.

I'd give it 5 out of 5 but it's lacking a VPN wizard and it took me a little while to work out how to configure it. The docs on the right column of the web interface could be more featured too (in particular the ddns page).

So.. I'd say give it a go.

The D-Link DIR-330, like the Cisco VPN products it competes against, is definitely NOT for "beginners"! But if you know TCP/IP networking well, and understand encryption reasonably well, then you'll be happy with this alternative to the Cisco small business VPN alternatives.

As an IT Consultant NOT affiliated with Cisco or D-Link, I could really care less about which brand names my clients purchase. What I DO care about is how often I get calls from them (my clients) when the devices FAIL (or need to be reset). And this is the area that D-Link wins.

A home-health-care company client wanted to bridge together 3 offices. We began with the Cisco SA520 devices -- but purchased them without bothering to read the online reviews. Sadly, we had the same connection-dropping and endless device resetting others have complained of, and eventually the client instructed me to sell them (the SA520s) on Ebay and to get a better solution.

Fortunately, another client had already purchased a pair of DIR-110 routers (the younger brother -- non wireless -- to the DIR-330), so I was familiar with the D-Link products (although we did have some issues making the DIR routers connect to the older D-Link 804-HV routers). Long story short, I now have 4 clients using IPSec point-to-point VPNs on these devices, and all are happy with the stability and performance of them.

I "ding" my ratings 1-star for ease of configuration -- the efforts to keep all of the configuration options on one page (and thus, having multi-layer configuration pages) makes things confusing when they don't need to be. I also "ding" my ratings for compatibility because the device was so hard to make work with the older DI-804-HV (which admittedly was more the older router's issues than this one's)... still, they connect to themselves and to larger Cisco equipment without a problem.

On a last note, I just want to re-iterate that this is a high-level router/security device. Novice users will find it VERY HARD to configure, whereas experts should find it simple, if not straight-forward.

This router would disconnect all connections when you SAVE the changes to the router. Usually, that happens on router only when you reboot the router.

'NAT Loopback' feature is missing. If you are a small business firm, please stay away from this router. You can not access 'Port forwarding feature on port 80' from LAN.... You can use it only from WAN.


Support from DLINK is so poor. You ask some questions, they come back with answers for totally different questions. For example, I asked questions regarding why connections get disconnected when the router changes are saved. Dlink support comes back with a follow-up question as how do I reconnect the connection ? So support from dlink gets ZERO mark....

I do have other DLINK routers (dir-625,...) that works much better. But, this one is meant to spoil their brand ....

The router is easy to configure but the VPN client will not connect through windows 7 from what I can tell. The documentation is poor and the web site support is out dated.

I have never taken the time before to wright a review but felt I should on this product.
I own 6 of these routers and have had very good results with all but 1. I use them for their VPN capabilities. The vpn server is easy to set up and works well with win xp, Vista and Win7 clients. I read some of the other posts and was a little afraid to buy one but after two years of using them I'm glad I did. The one that I did have problems with needed a firmware upgrade to 1.1
I highly recommend these routers along with the dir 130 which does not have wireless capabilities but has VPN the server.
Ken Kellum

Most people looking at this router is probably looking for a router with VPN capabilities. IT JUST NEVER WORKED FOR ME.

I bought this a year ago, and tried all I could to configure VPN. It never worked. I emailed them, and they would usually reply back to me after 2 or 3 days. And their answer is not even relevant to my problems, or I have already done what they wanted me to do. Or would ask questions, that the answers could be found in my email. I wouldnt mind waiting for 2,3 days for a reply, but I was hoping they would at least give me some clue as to what my problem was.

I also called their customer support, I talked to them for about 40 minutes or so. (I dont think she did understand what VPN is) Then she finally gave up, and gave me another number to call. I havent called the other number yet, but I might give it a try. After all at this point there is really nothing to lose now.

It is a wireless router and it is working on my small home network just fine.