D-link DI-514 Wireless Router

Pros: Inexpensive, Fast, Stable when Cool, Auto MDI/MDIX, Able to service a large network
Cons: Overheats without Cooling Modifications, Only 802.11b, WPA can be buggy

Well, it's great now that I drilled many, many holes in the casing so it stays cool. This router is works very well for a $5 router, having said that, it's only suited for lots of activity if you drill holes in the top, bottom, and side to allow cooling. With sufficient cooling, this router can route tons of traffic, it functions very, very well now that it has sufficient cooling. Without sufficient cooling, however, it can manage only mild to medium amounts of traffic. It also supports WPA in addition to the standard WEP encryption for Wireless.

Pros: if your computer connects automatically, it works great in those situations where you can't connect
Cons: annoying in some cases

We got this router a couple months ago. It is better than our DI-604 router. There are 8 lights on the router: Power, Status, WAN, WLAN, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Our main computers are computers 1 and 3. Our laptop is computer 2. However, it is a little annoying in some cases. First of all, our computer connects automatically, but sometimes it disconnects on us, and I get fed up with it. Second, when I connect, it restarts on me. But I would have to say this is an overall good router.

Pros: Small, light, discreet and portable.
Cons: D-Link quality control is terrible.

Store was practically selling it for free due to rebates and I needed a simple router that is portable for travel.

I've bought a D-Link DI-624 before and I knew what to expect. D-Link quality control doesn't exist.

Got lucky this time around, the router was brand new, everything worked except for the Ethernet cable. Exchanged the cable and I'm happy.

Pros: Relatively cheap
Cons: Getting wi-fi to work is a royal pain, poor support

I bought the DI-514 because I wanted to have a wi-fi router and it was only $20. What a mistake. First, if WEP (encryption) is turned on, wi-fi simply does not work. I've tested this with three laptops and two Pocket PCs. Wi-fi does work with WEP turned off, but it's painfully slow, and keeps dropping the connection.

Second, the router's firewall cannot be configured, even though the documentation says so and there's an area in the "advanced" configuration that supposedly lets you set specific firewall rules. No luck. I set the rules and tried everything, but the firewall was still blocking my applications. Very frustrating. The website support is just terrible, with lots of errors in their knowledge database.

I'll never buy anything from D-Link again. My previous router (a Microsoft) was easy to set up and worked like a charm. I shouldn't have given it to my dad... should have just bought another one, or a Motorola router which is reportedly very good (see reviews at Amazon.com).

Pros: Usually cutthroat pricing, adequate performance -- so long as you're VERY close.
Cons: Substandard performance, mediocre online support (did not try phone support)

I lived with this router for a year before my family revolted and told me to fix the network or else. After firmware updates and switching "preamble" to long, I finally managed to eke out reasonable performance from the router, but signal drops and slow performance were pretty common.

I replaced it with a Linksys WRT54G and instantly had incredible performance. Range increased, too, with us being able to put wireless clients anywhere in the house with no problem. You get what you pay for...

Pros: Inexpensive.
Cons: Unreliable.

I bought the DL-514 as a cheap wireless router for my room at college. It has sufficed, but it's had its share of problems along the way. If you don't mind restarting your router every few days, then this router is fine and serves its purpose. If you want something that's always going to work without being reset, then get something else. This router is extremely inexpensive(I got mine for $15 after rebate) and it works alright. It has extra network jacks on the back which make adding extra computers a breeze. Wireless USUALLY works, but sometimes, the router needs to be restarted as the wireless network will cut out every few days. Other than that, this router is alright. Internal options are better than I would've expected, but every time the router is reset, these options need to be reconfigured.

Pros: I really can't think of one pro for this unit, its really a bad investment.
Cons: NEVER AND I SAY NEVER buy this router, this was a nightmare, So beware

I bought this router in July /04 for like 90$ before a 40$ rebate and this router has given me alot of troble, it took 1 entire night just to do the setup with the aid of a mechanical engineer and a computer engineer. We got it configured that night and the internet was working on all of the PC's. a few months later out of the blue i get a complaint from the other PC users in the house saying that there internet doesn't work. So i check matters out and phone the tech support ppl (took 32 minutes for someone to speak to me) and then we go through the process and the router works... The biggest fluke happens as soon as i hang up the phone the router stops working AGAIN... So i THROW it against my wall in rage, and that was the end of a router that failed to do what it was told to do, and i bet there's alot of these reburbished units on the market,

Pros: Cheap
Cons: You get what you pay for.

I bought this router along with a DWL-520 wireless card in August and it set up easily and worked fine for about a month. I don't know if it quit working b/c of a power surge, or b/c it sux... but the router stopped interfacing with the card. Though the wired router did continue working.

Despite the many negative reviews i read on this router i bought it anyway... that was a mistake. I have since replaced it with a Netgear MR 814 and the setup was a study in simplicity. It is working... for now. The DWL-520 card continues to function.

Pros: Easy installation. Just plugged into cable modem, and it worked.
Cons: WebAdmin interface flaky through wireless card. Router reboots disconnect wireless connection.

The DI-514 is a perfect low cost solution to enable wireless in an apartment or small office space.
Works great! Very easy, right out of the box; just make sure to enable MAC filtering and/or WEP.
Preferred configuration through connected port, instead of wireless card. Router reboots will disconnect wireless connection momentarily.

Pros: Cheap, relatively fast, PC and Mac compatible.
Cons: Sometimes can't open certain pages (not often), loses connection every so often.

Hooked into PC, but operate Mac off wireless and still configures even though the techs say it shouldn't be working on 10.3 It does disconnect from time to time or isn't able to properly open very few types of web sites, but all and all, it works well. The connection is very quick for 11mbps. Tech support does take a while by phone, but they are helpful. Never have problems with signal strength.

Pros: Great Product, Good Quality, Good Dollar Value, Small Footprint.
Cons: Maybe D-link could use numbers instead of words to reflect signal strength.

If you are interested in a good quality wireless network at an economical price, then this is the router for you. It was easy to setup and the instructions were very clear and easy to follow. I just bought this router from buy.com for $44 (Free S&H)and will be receiving a $20 rebate from D-Link. The unit worked flawlessly and signal strength was either Excellent or Very Good at all times. So, if you are thinking about going wireless, this would be a great addition to your wireless network.

Pros: D-Link is compact and cheap. Customer service good on weekdays
Cons: Weak transmission.customer service was bad on weekends.

I purchased a D-Link 514 router from Best Buy about a month ago. I bought it because the price was right. Upstairs, I noticed the signal strength varied which wasnt of concern to me at first. After repeated signal loss and no improvement I was back to the store. Too bad I had invested so much time trying to get help in trying to fix the problem. (Being on hold for ten minutes at a time is no fun!) Well to make a long story short, I returned the D-Link 514 and got the linksys router. Guess what? Its been heaven! No "cant find page" messages. Yahoo. My advice: go the extra couple of bucks, it may be worth it.

Pros: Cheap, worked within 50 feet
Cons: Did not work at about 80 feet (from upstairs to downstairs). Poor quality driver software.

I bought the DI-514 at Best Buy 2 weeks ago, and installed it without much problem. We also got a DWL-G650 Extreme G notebook card, and the Dlink wireless-B card. At first all was well, but then my wife noticed that her Dell Win98SE laptop could not connect in the kitchen. I found my much newer Toshiba could, but was suffering from low power level. I tried giving her the Extreme-G card, but not only did it not help, but it prevented her PC from going into Standby mode when you close the lid. This is one example of poor software quality by Dlink. The second example is that back when originally doing the driver installation, something got stuck, and the Dlink Install/Uninstall program did not work. Their tech support told me to get Uninstall Plus (shareware) off the web, to fix it. Which it did, but geez!

I switched to a Linksys Wireless-G router, which has two antennas and have had no problems with low power level, or software quality, although the user interface is not perfectly obvious.

Pros: Ease of installation, and flawless performance.
Cons: Problem with weak signal strength

I purchased this type of router at Best-Buy because my wife and I have separate computers in different parts of the house. The set-up on this router was very easy, which surprised me as I'm a novice with this kind of thing. Hooking up the other end of it to my wife's computer, the slave, proved effortless, also. The only drawbacks were with their customer service--seemed a little unknowledgeable, and a bit unconcerned--and the signal strength which my wife received. That was not quite up to par, and was the reason for my call to customer service. However, I solved the problem of the weak signal strength by buying a 35' cable and hooking this up to my wife's computer via US Bus and an ethernet card. So far, the system works flawlessly.