D-Link 604 Router PC D-Link $49.99 http://www.dlink.com Sean Gibson - email

INTRODUCTION

D-Link is a fantastic company which NextGen Electronics has had a past with, as some of our writers have purchased products over the years from the company based in Irvine, CA (our old stomping grounds ... our old office was off of Von Karmen and Main). Anyway, D-Link announced a new product hitting the retail market and we insisted on taking a look at it, because the specs and the pricepoint look unbelievable!! Thus let us introduce the D-Link DI-604 Firewall router.

D-Link reports to us that the DI-604 offers the latest advancements in chip technology, low cost design, a feature rich firewall to sum up to the most cost effective and powerful affordable router on the open market today. The market niche for the DI-604 is for the home or small office network, or for advanced users looking for specific management features out of their router/hub/switch solution. A very simple and painless installation process allows consumers to quickly and securely connect computers together to share a broadband internet connection.

The DI-604 has an integrated 4 port switch with 10/100 Ethernet ports for directly connecting up to four computers. D-Link is gracious enough to include a very nice ethernet cable with the router - kudos for the nice touch.

INstallation

D-Link included a manual to help jump start users on installing the DI-604 router. Included also to aid installation is a CD-ROM which includes a PDF version of the manual which shows how to set up the router's hardware management system. Plugging the ethernet cables in the back of the router is, literally, a snap. The unobtrusive power supply fits your regular outlets and the power brick isn't something huge, its nice and small.

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Unfortunately, upon "starting up" the web based installation, all was not well in the state of California! Although I had followed the directions word for word, neither computer (I had 2) was able to access the internet. So, I called D-Link's vaunted "24 hour technical support" and after an 11 minute (I timed it exactly) wait I talked to a gentleman named Mike. He was able to run through everything, and turned out I had not configured the MAC Address correctly ... all I had to do is run through the installation wizard again, click the automatic configure MAC address button, and it caught it right away. A quick run through the rest of the wizard and wha-la it worked! A big thanks to the D-Link tech team for taking 3 minutes to help me out (I didn't tell them I was reviewing the product incidentally). So, knowing that D-Link has great technical support, 24-7 is quite a deciding factor in deciding which brand of router to buy, regardless of features!

Technical Specifications

D-Link's DI-604 is feature-rich to say the least. Via the web-based interface you can quickly set filters based on content or IP address, preventing people on the network from accessing specific websites.

performance

Well once we got it up and running, adding computers to the network was a cinch. All you do is plug in the ethernet cabling into the router and BAM-O you are up and running on the net. No need to buy multiple IP address like many broadband internet service providers require. So instead of dropping $8 here and there for multiple IPs so your systems call all access the net via the cable modem or DSL, the DI-604 router does all the dirty work, saving yourself money. If you had to buy 2 extra IPs at $8 a pop, well then with the retail cost of the product being $50, in 3 months the D-Link router will have paid for itself.

value / pricepoint

I was looking for a product similar to the DI-604 about six months ago at every retail location I could find. I needed a product that offered a firewall preventing hackers to get into my system. I needed a product to save me money because I wanted multiple systems sharing a broadband internet connection. Could I find something like that? Yes, I could ... for $150!

For the DI-604 to be price pointed at $49.99 is like buying a brand new Lexus for $3,000. It just doesn't seem real, but it is - making this product one of the best values for this type of technology.

usefulness & longevity

Everyone can benefit from a hardware firewall, preventing random people from breaking into your system and doing who-knows-what. Couple that in mind that you can network your computers together and have them all share the connection to the net ... man how much more useful could this product be?! I mean sure, it could also be a coffee maker or something! Ha!

overall impressions

When D-Link sent out the media alert on this product's release, we were a little dubious at to the reality of it all. We asked to take a look at it ourselves, and we're glad we did - this is one the best products we've ever taken a look at. Any networking professional or broadband newbie should take a look at this fine product. Props go out to D-Link for making such a great product at a price everyone can afford.

10 / 10 OVERALL SCORE 98% 10 / 10 10 / 10 10 / 10 9 / 10 9.8 / 10