The D-Link DI-701 Residential Gateway protects your computers from hackers or unwanted users. It is the easiest and safest way to share your high-speed Internet connection with a DSL Modem or Cable Modem. Sitting in between your computer and your broadband modem, the DI-701 will act as a firewall for your PC to protect your computer from unwanted intruders. If someone tries to access your PC without your knowledge the DI-701 will stop them in their tracks. The DI-701 is vastly superior to software solutions because a computer running Firewall or other protection software is still visible on the Internet. The DI-701 looks like your computer on the Internet to hackers and it hides your real computer. Like a decoy, it stays visible so any attacks will be directed at it. This may help prevent damage to your expensive computer as well as protect valuable personal information. By blocking ports that unscrupulous hackers use to penetrate a computer, the DI-701 will discourage a hacker from even attempting to break into your computer. Like a car or house alarm, the DI-701 will give you that added sense of security that petty thieves won't even try to break in. Plus, the DI-701 will allow up to 32 simultaneous computers to connect to the Internet through the same ISP account. It also employs Dynamic Host Configuration protocol (DHCP) to provide dynamic allocation of IP addresses for up to 128 clients on your network.
The D-Link Ishare cable/DSL Internet-sharing router protects your computers from hackers or unauthorized users. Used with DSL or cable modems, the D-Link 701 acts as both a firewall and decoy computer. Any hacking is directed to the gateway, not to your real network or computer. Up to 32 users can share files and connect to the Internet with a single Internet account. Use of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol provides up to 128 user addresses.
The D-Link Ishare has one local 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port and a single 10 Mbps Ethernet global port. The local port can be connected to a single computer for added protection from hackers. It can also be linked to a hub or switch for LAN sharing and Internet access.
After you connect the cables and transfer your Internet settings into the D-Link Ishare's Windows interface, installation is complete. The D-Link Ishare is compatible with Macintosh, Windows, Linux, and other platforms. It is backed by a lifetime warranty.
1 Dont bother if you need IPSec, security or Netflix 0-star
I have had this unit (DI-701) for a year or so and recently found a problem in addition to the security hole thats posted here.
I upgraded to the newest firmware 4.10 because I needed the IPSec protocol that the 4.06 didnt have and it seems to work fine until I tried to access Netflix.com. The unit totally halts. All lights stay on and the unit cannot be found through its configurator. I have to recycle the power to the unit to get it back up and running again.
I called tech support and they told me to call Netflix and ask them what ports they are using to send back http requests. I told him that Netflix didnt have a tech support since they do not provide hardware. And it shouldn't be the case since I was able to access Netflix with the 4.06 firmware. Who knows what other site it cannot access. So to the recycling bin it goes!
2 not really a sharing router
this does not directly enable sharing, unless you have an additional piece of hardware called a hub. i also experienced the loss of connectivity described by others, and am returning the item to amazon.(com)
3 Price is great...when it works.
I've been using my router for a few months now, sharing our cable connection through out the house.
Though the price is GREAT, it doesn't work consistenly. It often loses the connection, and only regains it when you unplug the unit, and wait a minute before plugging it back in.
This happens at least once an hour with heavy traffic. A true impossibility for those of us staying connected to a gnutella network, downloading large files, or connecting to an outside server.
I'm very disappointed with this product and am leaving this review as I sift through routers looking for a NEW ONE!
4 Zero Stars -- Buy Linksys Instead
I had one of these (D-Link DI-701) and had endless intermittent problems with it... the connection was just flakey, is the best way to describe it.
Also, there was a big security hole (perhaps fixed by now) in that its admin telnet port was fixed (at 333), visible from outside the firewall, and vulnerable to a brute-force attack (as there was no delay in password guess attempts, no login username required, and the password was limited to 6 characters). These are "rookie mistakes" and disqualify D-Link from serious consideration as a network vendor. The stuff is just too complicated to trust someone who doesn't really know what they're doing.
I ended up sending the thing back (not to Amazon, another vendor) and buying the Linksys Etherfast unit, which costs a bit more but is rock solid (and includes a couple of switched Ethernet ports, to boot). Several of my friends use that with success. Save yourself some time, and buy the right thing in the first place.
5 Pretty Simple, but.....
Easy to setup. Not the best user interface in the world, so, if you're looking to get one of these, spend the extra $$ and get the DI-704. The DI-704 has a better interface to enable/disable ports for gaming, sharing files, etc...
6 Does exactly what its advertised to do.
Total install time was about 5 minutes. Performed exactly as I expected and has never let me down - been running 7x24 since last November. Not real fancy, but then for less than $100 what do you expect? Simply put, it does the job and it does it well.
7 Good while it works... but warranty is honored.
D-Link honors their warranty if you keep after them. The first one of these I purchased worked for about 5 months and then just stopped working. Sent back for repair under warranty and it eventually was returned after several phone calls and about 6 weeks. In the meantime I bought a second DI-701 (my wife kept pestering me about getting back on the Internet via our network) and installed it. Sure enough after about 5 months the 2nd unit just stopped working. Put the 1st unit back in place and was up again immediately. Sent 2nd unit back for repair under warranty with same eventual replacement after several phone calls to follow up. With my "hot" spare available the DI-701 seems to work just fine for me - set up is easy and it just works; as for real security this probably isn't it but then do you really know how to change the settings to make it really secure and still be able to surf the net? Average user - probably not. Better than no firewall certainly and makes it easy to share your connection - at half the price of most other gateways. You could do worse!
8 Good basic security, support average buy no IPSec support
I can only agree with those that say the DI-701 does what is advertises. If you are a simple SOHO user then this is a good product. Where D-Link does fall short is in thier e:mail online support and being responsive. I wait sometimes 2 weeks to get an answer and then it usually does not solve my issue. When calling in they are at least a little better, but no 800 and being on hold on my nickel is hard to bear. And last but least, when I purchased this product last summer, they told me IPSec would be supported in a firmware upgrade in Spetember. When that did not happen, they said by Christmas. I called and and they said the latest firmwars supports IPSec, sorry it does not and after 2 weeks of fighting it, they confirmed they were wrong, and still no date for the support.
In summary, if you do not need IPSec or use the advanced functionas and want the firwall, it is a good unit.
9 Review update
On a wild chance I tried the latest firmware upgrade from Dlink. It does indeed work with the 3com shark fin modem now. Furthermore they have made telnet management of the device optional (the default is off) thus plugging up a vulnerability on the device.
I still would not recommend this product to anyone who might need technical support from Dlink however, but the device itself has run for several days without choking. My strictly empirical tests seem to indicate a faster connection now that I removed WIN 98 SE's ICS. However this could be due to the variability of the bandwidth inherent in a cable connection.
10 Warning! Does not work with all cable modems.
I attempted to get this working with the 3COM "sharkfin" cable modem and Optimum Online's cable service. No connection was possible. D-Link suggested that the problem was the ISP and not the router. I found that most unhelpful as a direct connection worked perfectly well. The router is now gathering dust and I am using Win 98SE's Internet Connection Sharing. Don't waste your money on this product.
11 Getting what you pay for...
The DI-701 is an inexpensive router that delivers most everything it claims to...at least for me. I use it in my home for IC sharing. That's it..that's what I bought it for. Seems to me if others out there have files that are that secret and sensitive, quit being so cheap by purchasing the least expensive product on the market. What did you expect? If your information MUST be protected, ever hear of "removable media"? Hey, if someone is so desparate to break into my puny little "network" and steal Aunt Martha's letter I'm sending to her, they're more desparate than I am.
12 "Firewall" Feature Crippled by Bad Design
I owned a DI-701 briefly. The DHCP function worked fine, and it seemed relatively reliable.
But my primary need was for the firewall function. I wanted to protect an HTTP server, so I set up the DI-701 to pass port 80 requests to my web server.
That worked fine, too, until I realized that the DI-701's settings are easily hacked from outside the firewall. That's because the DI-701 may be configured via telnet from outside the firewall, and its password is inherently insecure. Get this: The password is limited to six characters, it's transmitted in the clear, and the DI-701 allows unlimited attempts with the wrong password, without even a delay between attempts.
That means the most simple-minded script kiddie can just run through hundreds of thousands of passwords until he gets in, and then he can give himself (and the rest of the world) unlimited access to your LAN.
A secondary concern is that computers inside the firewall can't connect to computers outside the firewall via Microsoft's "VPN" (PPTP) protocol. I need that, too. Purportedly the competing Linksys device works with PPTP, and it's only a bit more expensive.
The DI-701 is cheap. If you don't need its firewall features or PPTP, go for it.
13 Okay -- but buggy?
I've had the DI-701 for about six months and when it works, it's great. It took forever to get PPPoE support, and all the bios updates have been "beta" -- read "unsupported." I have a lot of trouble with ftp and e-mail -- can't send long e-mails or ftp send file (yes, even in PASV mode, d-link). It also seems that every time I flash the bios (had to do it about 10 times so far), it takes an inordinate amount of restarting my dsl modem and the di-701 to get them to talk. The telnet configuration does not match the gui configuration (if you do a "renew" from telnet, it tells you you're not set up to get your dhcp configuration from your ISP. Sweet!) In short, I'm dumping this and getting the Linksys 1-port DSL router; I'll post a comparative review in a few months over there. Should that fail, I'm going to turn an old P-75 into a Coyote Linux box and do it myself.
14 OK... Gamers stay away product not for you as well as others
Ok this product seemed easy to setup and worked fine for about 2 days untill i noticed problems with it. Rocket Area 3 won't work, no more than 3 out of the 4 people on my network could use AIM, FTP eventually died. If you have verizon DSL or any other provider supplying VPN/DSL using PPPOE serivce not a good choice of router. Its now to the point that the router won't even ping out when i know the DSL connection is running. I only had 4 machines running off it (with a hub) all configured properly. Also, the password protection i didn't like. Too short of letters to use. The firewall on this is the biggest joke i've ever seen. The same game saw 2 different list of servers (neither computer had even the same server not even 1) that eventually had a ping of 99999?. Good grief... and when i tried to contact d-link hmmmm d who?? tech support wasn't very helpful. My DSL provider (verizon which is a joke in its self) couldn't help me either (which is no surprise to me). Anyway not good product period.
15 Economic, Practical, and Easy
I have been using my D-Link DI-701 for about 5 months now and absolutely love it. I work for an ISP doing technical support for our DSL customers, and am quite familiar with much more expensive and advanced routers that provide the same basic services as the D-Link. I choose the D-Link because of the price mostly but also because of the simplistic nature and the dependability of D-Link products.
My primary use consists of sharing my cable modem with 4 other computers, and running a web/email/ftp/dns server on it. The interface is simple, even using telnet! Port mapping is easy and NAT (Network Address Translation) works like a champ. Sure there are some more advanced things the D-Link can't do, but the average end user will never need that.
Simply put, the D-Link DI-701 is simple, safe, fast, and reliable. And for the price, you can't go wrong.
16 A great product for a simple home network!
After reading some of the reviews here, I thought I should get my own 2 cents in here. It seems that some people have forgotten that this product is marketed toward the owner of a simple peer-to-peer network. If you want to get complicated, you should never expect this thing to work perfectly. Simply put, it was marketed for simple applications so that the unit itself would be simple and easy-to-use. I installed it in my home network with absolutely no problems at all. It took me about 30 minutes to configure 2 computers and both now work perfectly. This thing really beats using ICS to proxy my connection. I found that my ICS client computer went much faster with the D-LINK ICSHARE than with ICS. Plus, now I don't have to leave the computer on all the time to keep my internet access alive. I highly recommend this to anyone running a simple home network. If you want to complicate things with your own DHCP server, etc., this might not be the right product for you.
17 If It Works For You It's A Great Product
This is my first disappointment from D-Link. I've come to rely on their switches, hubs and NICs for my home network. I decided to add the DI-701 after I got a cable modem installed.
Physical setup of the unit is a snap, earning D-link one star. All parts attach as advertised in the manuals with one caution: check the cable from your your cable modem to the computer: despite what the manual said, my cable turned out to be a regular patch cable, not a crossover cable. Installing the software was also very simple and setting the configualtions on unit was trouble free, therby earning the DI-701 its second star.
The only problem encountered was a major one: my system never saw the connection to the Internet through the DI-701. All indications were the unit was functioning perfectly: I had flashing lights indicating traffic between the Internet Modem and the DI-701 and the DI-701 and my hub. I could ping the unit by IP address, but not by name, even after adding appropriate entries to the hosts file. No amount of fiddling with the PCs routing table helped either.
After spending four days and trying to connect it to my usual computer on the network and three other computers in various configurations, I gave up and requested a refund from Amazon. I've read other successful reviews, so obviouly it works for some configurations, but not others. The one major difference I noticed between my setup and the suggested directions is I have my own domain and am using my own DHCP server and not allowing the DI-701 to be the DHCP server. It may be that if you are using a peer network, the DI-701 will integrate just fine. If you have a domain setup, the DI-701 does not appear to be the correct solution.
If it works for you, it is a great solution. If you have a single computer, you should try it. I am now going in search of other hardware firewall solutions to the Internet security problem.
18 May be good for basic users
While I had better luck with the support department than Henry, It was determined that I could not use Nortel's extranet VPN client. Other problems I saw was a limitation to how many ports you could open up (16 max). So if you need 2 ports open on 9 PC's, you're "doomed" even though it will support 32 pc's. I ended up returning mine and ordering a Linksys which my IT department states will work with my VPN.
19 Why Bother
I wrote a very uncomplementary review about this box revealing a MAJOR defect which renders the box useless (if not worse - because users think they are protected).
Your not publishing same and not contacting me re verification of statements made ( which you can REDILY verify for yuorself with simple test) not only impunes the veracity of ALL your reviewers but worse, leads me to question your basic honesty. An honest merchant might delay printing such a review for a while to verify the staements made but you have failed!
hank
20 DI-701 is Excellent For Sharing the Internet!
I have 4 computers in my network and they all share the internet through D-Link's DI-701. This product is great because not only can I share one IP address, this unit also serves as a firewall protector all at once. The D-Link DI-701 is an excellent product with a low price.
21 Firewall Fraud
The D-Link DI-701 firewall is a joke. Anyone can easily enter and gain control of the system behind. Full access to the device's control is available through port 333 which is default always open on both sides and no method is furnished to close. The port is protected by 2 passwords, one default set to nothing, limited to 6 or less chracters; the other default set to "year2000" limited to 8 or less characters. If defaults are not reset by user, not even a password is required! If you insist on using one, the other password default was just given here. The external, 8 character password has slightly stronger control than other control access methods; with it one can restrict the number of users on the inside (to as few as 1). Scripts can solve the 6 character faster than some of us type. There is no warning of attack.
When notified of these problems by email and voice, the manufactuter refuses to reply. Phone calls always end up directing you to a recording machine after the usual BS message about "all our... busy..others..." and lots of push this for that and hold music (5 min to machine my best time in 3 tries, one included very short conversation with two human beings who "transfer" elsewhere.) I have recieved no replies after a week.
Unlike other reviewers I claim no special computer credentials other than not being an idiot; evidenced by my being a registerred professional engineer.
22 Does the job for me....
Perhaps I have not yet put this product through its paces, but I am very satisfied with it so far.
I wanted a firewall of some sort since I have several computers networked at my home sharing cable internet access via Windows 2000's very slick internet connection sharing utility. What brought home this need for me was navigating to my computer's fixed IP address from a friend's browser and perusing my own files from this foreign computer!
I had considered the software solutions available (eg BlackIce Defender) but none seemed really to fit the bill, or were incompatible with Windows 2000.
The I Share was easy to set up and configure and it is quite fast. I notice very little if any change in speed compared to before I installed.
I have not really delved into any port issues as mentioned by another reviewer here because I simply don't use them. For the average home user this device should serve its purpose quite well.
23 Works great for me...
I'm running it for 3 computers on a DSL router, works great! I really pounded it, and it keeps coming back for more. I'm not sure what difficulties the first guy ran into, but it is very secure out of the box, sets up quick, and can be configured for anything... You can re- direct incoming port requests to a specific IP and port inside your LAN, block specific traffic, or allow others. Very easy. I understand that the first reviewer had a difficult time with blocked traffic, but if you want security, you HAVE to block certain types of traffic (I.E. ICMP packets). Most users will NEVER notice the difference.
24 Great peice of gear
I bought the first DI 701 for testing on my office LAN, and had it up and running in 10 minutes. I was so impressed with it, that I bought one for home, then three more for remote sites.
It works very well with all applications, is very fast, and is extremely secure vs. a basic software firewall. I have done extensive testing, and I was unable to gain access to a LAN secured with this product, using multiple security auditing tools (Network security is my speciality).
Troy Harnish, MCSE, CNA, A+
25 ADSL Routing from D-Link
This product was to replace our older software sharing product, but alas it has some SERIOUS flaws. There seems to be no way to allow IRC file transfers to pass, the hardware firewall blocks even the good traffic which you WANT to pass. Despite repeated appeals for help from MIRC, from D-Link, and from other sources, it looks like it may have to be returned. Too bad, cause I like the look, the increase in performance over the software sharing, and in the easy configuration.
