Customer Reviews

D-Link DI-713P Wireless Broadband Router and Access Point with 3-Port Switch

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(37)

 

 

Pros: reasonable price; three ports for wired connections; reasonably simple administration procedures and usable interface; integrated print server (parallel connector)

Cons: no support for bi-directional communications with my HP LaserJet 1200se (e.g., it no longer tells me I'm out of paper, etc.).

After scouring the Web for insight and equipment reviews (the PracticallyNetworked site was especially helpful) of the myriad of router options, I decided on this one from D-Link. My housemate and I needed to share our newly installed cable Internet service in our three-story house, so wireless seemed like the easiest option. I put the router in my office on the second floor, and he has no trouble accessing the Net by laptop from his office on the first floor, and I can usually get 500+ Kbps (on a PII-333 laptop running a NetGear PC card) in the living room on the third floor. 2Wire's bandwidth meter clocks about a 1.5 Mbps connection for my P4-1.2 wired directly to the router.

I haven't had to call D-Link for tech support, so I can't speak to their abilities/response time. I did use their Web site to download a firmware upgrade. All told, I had our wireless net up and running in less than an hour (which also included a call into RCN to get them to tweak our cable modem on their end).

One thing to bear in mind: pick access clients that are solid performers, whether they're PC card or USB devices. Routers like this are only the access point portion of the wireless equation -- speed and range can be easily hobbled by anemic clients that can't hold up their end of the bargain.

I wanted a DSL/Cable router with wireless access point, 10/100 switch, and built-in print server, and only 2 products fit my budget: D-Link and SMC. I picked D-Link primarily because one of its product had a pretty good rating in PC Magazine wireless testing.

I first attached my desktop through a standard ethernet port, and it worked like a charm. The installation was no more than 10 min - really! Then, I installed D-Link 650 wireless card to my notebook, and to my surprise it too was working in 10 minutes. But, the mystery began once I reboot my notebook. My notebook could see the router, but for some strange reasons, router wasn't giving out the correct IP address. I spent the next 6 hrs trying out all possibilities, and I was ready to call it quit and ship it back. Then, as a last resort, I updated the firmware, and boom ... everything worked all of a sudden. The print server works with my Brother laser printer, but not with Epson ink-jet.

The signal strength is always at Good or Excellent inside my home. The signal gets weak and drop at certain angles from the yard, but I could still surf the net at the speed of well above 1 MB from my hammock. I only wish that the boss would let me work from my hammock everyday :)

Overall, I'm very happy with it. I only wish that I updated the firmware sooner.

I spent several hours online, exploring various wireless network hardware specs and reviews before finally deciding on a D-Link wireless system. This DI-713P Wireless Broadband Router had both hardwire and wireless ports. This allowed me to continue using the wired Ethernet card already installed in my P3-800 Windows-Me PC, yet also install wireless networking for my wife's P2-400 Windows-Me PC (located about 25' away) and for our P2-233 Windows 98 SE laptop, no matter where it was used in our home (up to 60' away). I had originally wanted a wireless network only for sharing our Broadband Cable modem with our 3 computers. A complete and fully operational home network was a secondary consideration at the time. I ordered the DI-713P, a DWL-120 USB wireless adapter for my wife's PC, and a DWL-650 PCMCIA wireless adapter for our laptop, then anxiously awaited their arrival in the mail.

When they arrived, I figured the installation was going to be problematic, since several reviews had warned users of some potential problems and the need to upgrade the DI-713P's firmware right away. I turned off my PC and Cable modem, unboxed the DI-713P and inserted it between the modem and my PC's Ethernet card, then powered everything up. Voila, success! Immediately I had internet access through the DI-713P.

I installed the software, then connected the DWL-120 to my wife's PC via a USB port. Voila again! Her PC had instant wireless broadband internet access, although I had to play around with the DWL-120's and DI-713P's unit and antenna orientations to get an acceptable signal level between them, diagonally (45 degrees) through two walls at 25'.

Next, I plugged the DWL-650 into a PCMCIA slot on our laptop and installed the drivers using the included Quick Installation Guide...and you guessed it. Wireless internet success! I was on a roll and my vision had shifted to include a complete wireless network, which I now sensed was within my grasp.

It was now time for real "wireless" networking. To give myself an edge, I downloaded and installed the latest firmware for the DI-713P and drivers for the other two wireless units. By now I was wondering why I had waited so long to set up a wireless home network. I read the User's manuals, took a deep breath, and started setting up my PC and the laptop to "talk". But...for some reason I could not get the two computers to communicate, except for internet access. The User's manuals are fairly descriptive, but I would have killed to know what Windows software options needed to be installed in each computer and a step-by-step procedure on how to set up Network configurations for Windows 98 SE and Me OS's correctly. Fortunately, I was able to get my PC and our laptop communicating after about an hour of trial and error semi-educated guesswork. When it finally started working, it was a thing of beauty to behold.

Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky with my wife's PC. Apparently, two Windows Me machines are harder to set up to network together then are an Me and a 98 SE . I spent several hours trying to get it to work "properly" and finally shut everything down in disgust, thinking that I would call Customer Service the next day for help. When I powered the system up the next day, it worked PERFECTLY. My guess is that I needed to reboot the DI-713P before it would recognize and allocate an IP address to a second computer. What a kick!

So now I am a happy camper, smiling and chuckling to myself every time I use our ... wireless networked system with its two shared printers and 80 GB's of shared hard drives. I LOVE IT!

My only problem is that I think the advertised communication distances are overstated. Indoors, our laptop can only get about 25 meters (not 100) away from the DI-713P before useful internet/network communications are lost. Even then, the laptop/DWL-650, the PC/DWL-120, and the DI-713P orientation and antennas must be carefully aligned to transceive adequate signal strengths and achieve acceptable signal qualities. This is borderline performance in my book and cries out for product improvement.

We bought a new laptop and wanted to share our DSL, but didn't want to string wire all over the place. The DI-713p and a DW-650 PC card did the trick. The hardest part of set-up was plugging it in. (The AC converter is a little boxy and I had to move some other plugs to make room) The manual looks intimidating, but the quick-start guide is all most people will need. It failed to tell me to re-start my computer after connecting the hardware. (I should have known that) Software is web-based and step-by-step. I haven't set up the print server yet, but I expect it to be as simple. "signal strength" and "link quality" have little, if any, effect on throughput rate, which consistantly faster than straight through the modem.

Worked fine for me out of the box (firmware was already most recent version). Easy to configure and has worked flawlessly for me for three weeks now. Print server is a wonderful feature. Although d-link doesn't document it, linux machines can use the print server by simply using an lpd queue named 'lp' at the switch's ip address (192.168.0.1). I haven't tried any of the more advanced firewalling / port forwarding features aside from X port forwarding via ssh (which I don't think the switch is responsible for, but it certainly hasn't gotten in the way...). Wonderfully small unit, not quite as cute looking as the linksys models, but the print server is what makes this switch stand out from the rest.

Hi All, I wanted to share my cable internet connection with my laptop I use downstairs and bought the DI-713p Broadband router and DWL-650 PC card. I got the router hooked up and working right away and then loaded the software and PC card into my laptop...it worked for 4 minutes and then quit.....I then reinstalled it all and the same thing happened. I upgraded the firmware for the laptop and nothing.....I tried all the fixes in the manual with no luck.....then after hours of this I read something on the net again about firmware again and upgraded the routers firmware.....then boom! It worked.....until I rebooted...I upgraded the firmware a second time and boom! it worked again and then kept working. When I reboot my desktop with the router I sometimes have to go to the setup page and renew the IP setting to get it to work again with the wireless pc card....this will happen if I turn the power off to the router and modem too at shutdown but it seems to be a reliable connection otherwise. I love having my cable speed on my laptop. I don't like the way D-Link ignores the common firmware problem and still sells it's products with old firmware and no notification. When you go to the homepage for help you don't see anything about upgrading firmware as a fix and I learned of the firmware fix here! When you go to D-Link's page it should be written in large fonts.."...You must upgrade the firmware!" .....I believe that products should work right out of the box......I'm not sure if I'm keeping it yet but so far so good......

Up and running in less than 10 minutes without reading any manuals.

First, I am replacing my Linksys BEFSR41 in order to go wireless. I have had nothing but a great experience with my Linksys. I had a hard time deciding between the D-Link product and the Linksys product. But I choose the D-Link because of the Print Server Feature and Price.

My home network
AT&T Cable Modem
Dell P3/1000 w/ 100 mbps ethernet card (Windows ME)
IBM T21 (laptop) w/ D-link DWL650 802.11b card (Windows 2000)
HP Deskjet 820Cse

Notable Applications: Web surfing, occasional on-line gamer (Gamespy), IPSEC VPN tunneling for teleworking (heavy user), webconferencing, streaming media (audio/video).

I telecomute about 2-3 full days a week plus I usually log in every night to do some quick e-mail using my laptop. The main motivation for upgrading from my wired Linksys to the D-link set up was so I would not be tied to my home office. I wanted to be able to check my e-mail at work from my back patio.

EXPERIENCE WITH D-LINK

First, I unplug my linksys and plugged in the D-link. Then I inserted the PC Card in my laptop. I booted up my laptop. Windows detected the hardware. I inserted the CD and selected the Windows 2000 driver. Rebooted my laptop. And like magic, when I booted up I was connected. 10 minutes from start to finish. From this point, I did log into the router/access point and did some configuring (i.e. change admin password, etc.)

Highlights: Easy setup, lots of features, good price.
Lowlights: Not much of a manual, you have to look at the PDF on the CD. The case for the router is not "cool" looking like some others (sounds stupid but coolness is a factor)
TBD: Have not played much with the range yet. I have not tried to set up the print server yet.

Amazon.com Experience: Great. Nothing to complain about. The products arrived before they promised.

NOTE: I am a network engineer for a major telecommunications provider. I have my CCNA. All to say that, I have a pretty good understanding of TCP/IP and WAN/LANs. Although I am not an expert, my experience I am sure made this process a lot less painful.

Good price (especially with recent price fall and rebates) with excellent features. Easy to setup, I was up and running in less than 10 minutes out of the box. No problems with interworking with 802.11b Wireless lan cards from other manaufacturers (Addtron, 3COM and Buffalo), but I simply cannot get WEP (64 bit or 128 bit) to work with this product despite many hours and numerous exchange of emails with D-Link technical support and numerous firmware update.

I found the printer server feature was extremely easy to setup and has been working very reliably and faultless even though I have a really ancient Kodak laser printer.

If WEP is important to you when interworking with wireless cards from other manufacturers then this may not be for you.

I've revised my rating down to 3 stars after experiencing
problem with its wireless link that started to surface
less than a month in use. My laptop kept showing that
the signal strength to the D-link wireless gateway
fluctuates between good and poor, and drops network
connection from time to time. The frequency of this
happening varies from every few seconds to a couple of
hours. Actually, the first spate of the trouble happened
a month ago and there was no noticeable problem in the

interim until recently. The trouble doesn't appear to
be environmental. I'm putting the box in the middle of
the room away from any other electronic devices at the
moment, but the problem is still occuring. Plus, power
cycling both my DSL modem and the wireless gateway seems
to fix the problem temporarily, which suggests this doesn't
appear environmental. Now, the product is out of the 30-day return period of Amazon, and I'm having great pain in dealing
with D-link techical support which keeps having me reset
various settings on the wireless routers just to get the
box to work temporarily in order to get me off the phone.
I wish I had returned the product the first time I
experienced the problem rather than hoping for the best.

I found the router of my dreams - wireless, 3 ports, plus a print server, plus a $50 rebate. This was one of those things that sounded too good to be true - unfortunately, it was. When I first fired it up, everything ran great - wired and wireless (D-link DWL 120 and Orinoco Gold PC card). I was very excited and dismantled my existing Linksys router and add-on hub. My mistake b/c 30 minutes later, the router lost its wireless signal. The wired signal was solid though. I thought maybe it was a fluke so I unplugged it and replugged it and everything came back up.... this time only for 5 minutes!! ... I fought with it for several hours until giving up...