D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme N Gaming Router

[Rob Williams]

D-Link's DGL-4500 wireless router brings a lot to the table, including dual-band operation, 802.11n support, a killer built-in OLED screen, on top of features perfectly suited for online gamers. Of course, such a feature-packed router doesn't come cheap, so is it worth your hard-earned $180?

You can read Greg's full look at this high-end router here and then discuss it here once done!

[Greg King]

I'd like to add something to this review...

It was mentioned that the OLED screen turns off after a few minutes. I would like to not only see greater control over what this display...err, displays, but I would like to be able to create my own information. We can do this with screens like the Matix Orbital so I surely it's possible to at least add a small section in the UI to allow control over this potentially awesome feature.

Also, I have ordered a dual band adapter and will update the graphs with 5 GHz band speeds. It should be here by the end of the week and testing will happen over the weekend.

Thanks.

Greg

[Merlin]

I have actuall seen too many problems with D-Link products, at leat Linksys is a cisco product.
And the little D-Link silver fin modem has many problems, they usually last about 6 months.
( Results 1 - 10 of about 73,900 for D-Link modem problems.) google results

Merlin

[Greg King]

I own a small switch that I bought about 4 years ago, this router and the DIR-655. I have not had a single problem with any of them. That said, I know there have been a lot of complaints from a lot of different people about their hardware in the past. Hopefully this has been addressed with higher quality gear.

[Syran]

My DIR-655 died a little while ago. I still need to send it in; but, I just got a DGL-4500 in the mail today, so i'll play with that instead.

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by DarkSynergy

Hopefully this has been addressed with higher quality gear.

You'll see most companies, after they offer stock, only cater to the stock holders,..... forget the consumer and quality...it's showing a profit that only matters.
Thats why you see a company with a fantastic product die away into a dim memory. They went stock and refused to continue their progress.

Merlin

[Kougar]

I did not see it mentioned in the review... there is a serious shortcomming of D-Link routers that I rudely discovered when I bought a DIR-655 a week or two ago.

Every single bloody change, regardless of how big or small such as enabling a port, changing the NAT Endpoint Filtering, requires the router to reboot itself. There goes the entire home network and whatever transfers or surfing the other network users were doing for 15 seconds!

I seriously considered returning the stupid thing to Newegg but I didn't want to pay the absurd restocking fee. Linksys routers do NOT need to be rebooted to change ANY setting, except just once when updating the firmware.

Hello guys,

We posted your review, and its great as always from you. Im not here to moan, Im here to say have a look at the new Belkin N1 Vision as that may surprise you.

As for higher end routers, gaming routers and those that offer a great level of control, I settled on an SMC barricade.. Its high £££ and a business end router but really worth it.

Nice to see you guys working so hard.

http://forum.meetthegeeks.org/forum/...=3835#post3835 if you want to talk any further, or email me guys..

Take care folks and keep up the good work.

Axle
MeetTheGeeks.org

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Kougar

Linksys routers do NOT need to be rebooted to change ANY setting, except just once when updating the firmware.

Linksys are great, but rebooting depends on if it is a router or gateway.
If it's a router and is dependent on a modem with a dynamic IP, then when the IP changes, it has to be reset or rebooted
If its a gateway with either a dynamic IP or Static IP, then no, it does not have to rebooted.
Cisco has made many good products for home and business.
( Linksys has Cisco internals )

Merlin

[Greg King]

Originally Posted by Kougar

I did not see it mentioned in the review... there is a serious shortcomming of D-Link routers that I rudely discovered when I bought a DIR-655 a week or two ago.

Every single bloody change, regardless of how big or small such as enabling a port, changing the NAT Endpoint Filtering, requires the router to reboot itself. There goes the entire home network and whatever transfers or surfing the other network users were doing for 15 seconds!

I seriously considered returning the stupid thing to Newegg but I didn't want to pay the absurd restocking fee. Linksys routers do NOT need to be rebooted to change ANY setting, except just once when updating the firmware.

This was noticed but not found to be that disturbing... then again, I am usually the only one on the network at any given time. I haven't used a Linksys router in honestly, 2 years so I suppose I simply forget about that convenience. Perhaps D-Link routers are just running Windows Regardless, thank you for pointing this out as it's certainly something that should be mentioned.


MeetTheGeeks, thanks for the linkage as well as your kind comments. We have tried in the past to review the N1 but have yet to get Belkin to agree to send one out for testing. If the demand is great enough, I will run out and purchase one for the sake of comparison. One thing I will say about the N1 is that I love the fact that the antennas are on th top of the router. This is something that I loved about the TRENDnet TEW-633GR as the antennas aren't in the way of the wired lines when placed vertically in it's stand so three cheers for the Belkin design team on that one.

[Kougar]

When troubleshooting connection problems and changing router settings one at a time, with each setting change requiring you to knock the entire network + everyone offline including yourself for 15 seconds every setting is more than a minor inconvenience, its just aggravating to everyone on the network and can result in data loss if it reboots at an inopportune moment.

My problem was that the NAT Endpoint Filtering setting overrides Port Forwarding, and overrides DMZ settings. Completely! If I hadn't recalled a bit I'd read from an Ars Technica article explaining NAT functionality in regards to IPv4/IPv6, I'd have never known to try adjusting the NAT Endpoint Filtering to get one of my programs to actually work. Which was another + for the old Linksys that didn't need DMZ or port forwarding for the same program.

SMC Barricade... if you ever review one, try putting a P2P load on it. The last Barricade I had would actually crash with a mere hint of a load. Their tech support did have me try a few configurations, but that didn't fix the crashes. They RMA'd it, but even the replacement unit did the same thing.

[Greg King]

Which SMC product did you own? I ask because it seems that TRENDnet and SMC release similar routers, and by similar, I mean identical. If the internals are the same, then both companies just re-badge them and call them their own. D-Link also uses the same internals as TRENDnet in the DIR-655 and the TRENDnet TEW-633GR so perhaps this is the same for all D-Link routers.

Perhaps we will try to get many routers from many different companies and compare hardware used and wireless performance. As always Kougar, thanks for the input.

[Merlin]

From your G to N cheaply

http://blogs.zdnet.com/soho-networking/?p=136

Merlin

[Greg King]

http://techgage.com/article/trendnet..._access_point/

At that price though, unless your REALLY love your current setup, why wouldn't you just get another router? Still, it's a great little AP.

[Kougar]

I had to go dig it up from a pile in the back room: SMC7004ABR Barricade. Was advertised as a broadband router and supposed to have been one of the best, unless the tech store guy was lying through his teeth. This was back around the start of 2003, before I got heavily into tech stuff and started doing my own research.