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D-Link DI-701D-Link DI-701 DSL/Cable Residential Gateway - a router with built-in firewall, DHCP, NAT and a 10/100 Local Port
Quick Index:
Before we delve into this Router let me give you a Brief run down of D-Link. D-Link as you may or may not know makes things! Shocking and descriptive news there, huh? Well basically it's like this- D-Link was incorporated way back in 1986 as a manufacturer of Networking/Data Communications Equipment. D-Link ranks as the second largest Ethernet Network Interface Card manufacturer worldwide today. They deliver complete Ethernet solutions for the Small Office/Home Office (SOHO), Workgroup, and Enterprise environments. (no not the Starship Enterprise :) D-Link has it all, too, from Hubs to Switches to NIC's to Print Servers to Accessories and Now a Home xDSL/Cable Router. One point that D-Link is marketing and pushing with this router is it's price. You will notice this router is only $99! A quote from D-Link's Vice President: "It was extremely important to get the price below that $100 barrier, so we can make it available to real home users." "Combined with the lower price, Free PPPoE support should open up the market and make the DI-701 available to everyone with a DSL or Cable Modem connection." And I think they might have something there with that price, it's a very compelling feature of this router, a feature that a lot of times determines weather people will buy it or not. There seem to be many routers out now claiming and clamoring for the Home/SOHO user as THE xDSL/Cable router of choice. More so then there was only 4 months ago! Can the D-Link DI-701 live up and compete with other routers out there now? You will just have to read on to find out ;-)
Specifications Well the first thing I noticed, and you will too, is that this router is Clear. It's a clear type of plastic that gives it that cool geeky techno look. It's just a tad blurred so that it's not completely clear, but clear enough to see everything inside if you pay attention to it. It's neat to see all the nice black chips on green PCB, though that's nothing special really it's just an appealing hardware look. It's actually pretty neat when you see it in person. On the back there are 4 connection ports for different types of connections. Going from left to right there are: DC IN - to connect the provided power cord to give the router power There are 6 green lights and 1 red light on the front of the router. The one red light is an "Error" light, if it ever comes on during normal use of the router then there is an error with the function of the router and it may need to be serviced or replaced. The other 6 green lights are indicator lights to show certain functions that the router is performing. The router is actually very, very bright in a dark room with the lights all lit up, the light travels inside the router and radiates out of the clear shell for a nice light show :P
One other thing I noticed this router is All solid state. There are no mechanical or moving parts in this router. That means it's completely quite, no noise and that means it will last longer without moving parts. That also means there is no cooling fan inside the router. Also there are no heat sinks on any of the chips. The plastic shell has two vents on the top left and ride sides, and on the bottom left and right sides, that's it for cooling. Now in it's normal use it does get a little warm, not hot but just warm. In a well ventilated room it should do just fine. But if you were to stick it in a closet with no ventilation it might get a little too warm and shorten the life of it. The rest of the specs are: Protocols
Management/Setup Options
Local Port
Global Port
Console Port
LED Indicators
Input Power
Physical Dimension
Agency and Regulatory
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