D-Link 108Mbps 802.11G Gaming Router with Gigabit LAN Ports Push the limits of basic networking technology and experience the evolution in networking. Wirelessly share broadband Internet, boost network performance, stay competitive in your online games with D-Link’s new cutting-edge GamerLounge Wireless 108G Gaming Router, powered by GameFuel Priority Technology.
1 Its a pretty great router, but support is weak!
I'm a computer professional so technology is not much of a mystery to me, but I still want something that's solid, and easy to manage. The internal software to his unit is pretty good, and the performance is top notch. For one its easy to store, and save your configurations. This is important because there may be occasion where you have to reset the router, and your settings would be lost. The firmware was easy to update, and will need to be updated as soon as you connect the device. A word of caution here, if you are using a dial-up connection, (unless its always been very stable), I don't recommend upgrading the firmware with it. One thing you cannot do, because it will likely render the router useless, is lose your connection in the middle of a firmware upgrade.
This is a gamer modem, and the help files and web manual provide good information as to how to set it up. It even has the settings to port replicate many popular game already built in. In addition, it has a special gamer network traffic section to keep your games running on an even keel over your network. I works, but better with some games than others. While I can't speak for any screaming, bleeding edge speed boosters, it seemed fast. I connected my old Windows 98SE machine using a Hawking, USB, wireless receiver, and it just worked! I experienced none of the problems I'd read horror stories about with other wireless routers.
Connection is a snap. Disconnect your cable modem from the back of your comp, connects its ethernet cable to your new D-Link router, run the included cable from the D-link to your ethernet port on your comp. (If your computer was connected with USB, you might need a $10 ethernet PCI card if you don't have an ethernet connection.) Turn everything back on, and (at least in my case, it just worked). If your running it as a network, and not just a single firewall, I'd recommend the most modern computer for the wired connection. The rest can either go wired or wireless. I got excellent signal strength, and have yet to experience a dropout on my wireless machine. For those who don't know, a wireless router is normally wired to the first machine (wired connections are generally faster and more solid than wireless). The wireless part is generally for other computers and network devices (like printers and such) to be connected to the wireless part of the network. In the past all connections to a router were wired. If you have one computer you can use an access point, instead of a firewall, but with the exception of this one, (which is expensive) most access points cost near the same as a four port wireless router.
Ok, now the bad news. It is a complicated piece of tech, and to do some things, people might need help. My advice is to read the FAQ's, and go to the web boards. I needed to get it to host a BattleNet game. I had the correct ports replicated as an exception, but it didn't work. I called the tech serve, and a typical moron told me how to ping the system with Windows command line. I spent a half hour trying to tell him I was connected fine, and could even play the game I wanted (Warcraft III Frozen Throne), but could not host a game. He couldn't answer a few simple questions, and finally admitted he didn't know anything about networking, but was reading from a test script. He agreed to transfer me to level 2 technicians. When I spoke to them they couldn't answer my questions either, and gave some lame excuse that if they told me how to host on BNet it would make my network insecure, and they would be liable to a lawsuit. Give me a break, you create a gamer router, and even include the ports listed for that game, then won't tell your customers how to set it up. I just don't think they held up their end of the bargain (D-Link support that is).
After two days of testing it, I finally figured out, I had to create virtual servers for each port separately, then create a static IP address, and connect it up to the dynamically created one from Comcast. That would allow the virtual servers to be used by the gamers connecting to the host machine, to connect to a defined, unchanging address, which would connect to whatever other address came up dynamically by the service provider, using the DCHP server. It sounds complicated to a non-network guy, and it is. I'd have like to been told how to do that by tech serve, but they were too incompetent so it was just trial and error, plus a lot of reading.
Bottom line is if you've gone though the router trials before, this will probably be a good experience. If not, prepare to educate yourself on the wonderful world of networking. I do recommend routers to be used as firewalls to all computer users who access the web, gamers or not. Hackers are banging on your computers ports all day long on the web, and with a hardware router, they only see a router, not the computers hidden behind it. If your not a gamer, this one is pricey, but if you want the latest greatest, as of today, this is pretty much it.
2 Some ŸBer 1337-ness from D-Link
I just recently went to a LAN party with some friends and this router was powering the Intenret connection. Those blue LEDs were mad bright! The Internet connection at the LAN was flawless and I knew I had to have one of these bad boys. Plus this thing has all gigabit ports! w00t!
I ordered it on the Internet and it came the next day. I've had it running in my room for 3 days now and I have to say that it does make a difference with my ping times in CS. And I've had to face this router towards my wall because the LEDs were so bright.
All my friends are jealous and they want one.
I got gigabit and you don't! HAHA!
3 Do you download while gaming? Buy this.
You pay about a $50 premium over competitors for this highly rated product, which gets you "gamerfuel". That's an odd-sounding marketing buzzword for "packet prioritization". It means the router will prioritize your gaming session packets over ongoing file transfer and other connections, so they don't lag your game session nearly as much. Review sites find it really works and helps lag a great deal, but you'll still experience some (reduced) lag with multiple concurrent downloads. Other manufacturers will eventually be coming out with models that do the same thing, but for now it's just Dlink.
Those who play games at the same time as downloading, should buy this product without hesitation.
To get the product working well, connect to router via your web browser at http://192.168.0.1, under basic/dhcp menu give your computers a static ip like 192.168.0.xxx (2-255). Then go to advanced/gaming menu, and easily select the games and downloading applications you run from a pulldown menu. A huge number of games and applications are already predefined for you, like starcraft, edonkey, etc.. Well that's it!
You can help the router out by defining your upload speed under advanced/gamefuel, but the latest 1.2+ firmware does this automatically for you if you click "automatic uplink speed".
This product is also designed to easily work with XBOX live, but I don't use that personally. If you want to connect an xbox or any device without built-in wireless ability, and don't want to use an ethernet cable that stretches for miles, you can buy Dlink's matching bridge, model 3420. You could also hook up a computer with a 3420 if you want to avoid any possible driver or wireless hardware headaches. Microsoft has a very similar bridge product, but Dlink's has superior wireless encryption protocols (WEP).
If you are not using XBOX Live, you can turn on "dynamic fragmentation" to speed things up a bit via router menu at Advanced, Gamerfuel. It is off by default, because it'll stop XBOX Live from working.
Upgrading the firmware was very easy -- grab the file from dlink's website, connect to your router via your web browser, and the under tools/firmware menu, click upgrade. I use this product with my cable modem. It's really quite easy to setup, but Dlink has excellent free phone support if you get confused at any point.
4 Adding to the others...
I won't waste too much space. I also own this router and agree the other reviews are accurate.
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Bottom line: This router will *help* you if you have multiple users doing different types of tasks (say 1 person games, 1 downloads legitimately purchased music, 1 uploads vacation pictures to a friend), but it won't solve all of your problems if you are an avid P2P file-sharer. I would recommend reading the help guide (very useful online help) to assist in tweaking the router to maximise performance. Also, I've had to call D-Link tech support for my business, they are friendly, knowledgable, and were responsive in getting my problem solved.
Be warned: I've read reports of problems with a feature of this router with X-Box Live (but also note: the feature is DISABLED by default!).
5 An excellent router
This DGL-4300 is the nicest router I have owned, in looks, features and reliability. My previous routers were an SMC, Microsoft MN-100, Microsoft MN-500, Linksys WRT54G. I've owned this router for over a month now.
This router basically is everything I want in a router, minus a few bugs. Such as if I uncheck one of the logging options, and then it will email me a blank log file instead. The log file btw is detailed, and holds many log entries (350 or more).... unlike many other brands which only store a few lines which tell you nothing. It also does not support UPnP yet, but may in the future, although it does have support for Port Triggering which is a variation of UPnP.
The BLUE LED lights on this are also super bright. So much so that it lights up your room at night time. I suppose that could be a drawback to some people who don't like any lights when they sleep. Its a very nice looking router, with a chrome front plate around the LED's (remove the thin plastic to see the shiny chrome, there is also a thin plastic covering the logo on top of the router), and the matt black color all adds up to a nice looking router.
The chipset inside this router is made by Ubicomm, the chipset and cpu are specifically designed for QOS. Unlike any other routers which claims to have QOS. Just remember to turn on the Gamefuel option and you don't need to really do anything else. Except set your maximum upload speed so it knows how to adjust the QOS. The QOS works great for games and when I was uploading at full speed, it had little to no affect on the game.
I have not tried VOIP, I don't plan on getting that any time soon. One thing I have learned over the years is that every brand of router has its own problems. This one has been the best for me so far.
6 Very well engineered router!
I bought this router to replace my Linksys WRT54G 4-port router. The previous router would seemingly lose internet connectivity after a period of time, and require a reboot to reset itself and its settings internally. Updated firmware would help to alleviate the problems, but my network was complex enough (having two dedicated computers, a Replay unit, and Vonage's VoIP service) that I needed to get something that would be more flexible in allocating bandwidth on a needed basis.
The DGL-4300 fit the bill quite nicely. Starting from the beginning, the router takes you through two wizards; one to set up your basic router configuration and then another to set up the wireless portion. After this is complete, you have four main sections (basic, advanced, tools & status), each with some ten subsections, to tailor your network settings to maximize efficiency. Most routers have all these options in one form or another; this one, however, has a couple bonuses. The first, Gamefuel, allows the router to automatically prioritize packet information; I can assign a priority to my Vonage system so when a call comes through, it'll drop the priority of my Shoutcast to maximize bandwidth to the phone. When I hang up, the other internet programs are reprioritized. When playing an internet game, the router will automatically allocate the bandwidth to the game, dropping everything else proportionally (all these settings can be done manually by the user as well). In addition, setting up your internal network is extremely easy as well, as the router basis everything off internal MAC addresses, so I was able to set up the static IP intranet in about ten minutes.
There are really too many nice things to describe, but to sum it up, even though the router is a bit on the expensive side, the engineers at D-Link really put together a very powerful and elegant solution in a very small box.
