D-Link High Speed Home Network

Making Networking Experts of Us All

by Josh Walrath

            The wireless portion of this router is probably the greatest selling point for D-Link.  This 802.11 G compliant wireless AP also features their Xtreme-G functionality, which boosts wireless throughput to 108 mbps (which is supposedly slightly faster than a wired 100 mbps Ethernet connection- supposedly that is…).  D-Link makes no beef that the actual throughput of a wireless network is lower than a wired network, but any boost in efficiency and overall speed is greatly appreciated by users.  More information on this will be shown under the Testing section.

If you look closely you can see that even D-Link doesn't say that Actual Throughput matches Data Rate.

            The signal output of this product is very good.  I was able to take an eMachines M6807 laptop to over 100 feet away, outside the house, and the signal registered as “Very Good”.  Needless to say, I was very impressed.

The integrated help files are remarkably complete and clear, and all of this is saved on the actual DI-624 itself.  The explanations for much of the functionality is included here.

            One of the niftier features that the DI-624 has is the cable testing tool integrated into the administrator control panel.  This tool allows the user to test out any Ethernet cable connected to this particular router.  The wire has to be physically plugged into it, and it will not work through another intervening switch.  This tool will tell the overall speed of the cable, as well as where any possible breaks may be.  A very handy tool to have! 

DGS-1005D

            This is D-Link’s mainstream Gig-E switch, and it does its job very well.  It is quite small (significantly smaller than the 8 port version), but it is the same size as the DI-624, so they can be stacked with the included hardware.  This gives a very appealing look to the network stack, and anyone looking at it will be suitably impressed.  This is a true Gig-E switching solution, so its internal bandwidth is actually quite high.  It has a grand total of 10 Gbps internal bandwidth (1 Gbps, bi-directional/duplex, 5 ports).  It also is fully auto when it comes to MDI/MDI-X, so no crossover cables or uplink ports are needed.  It also auto detects what kind of connection is hooked, so it will go from 10/100/1000 mbps without the user doing anything.

Here is the cable test page, where a user can test cables connected to their DI-624 to their heart's delight!

Next:  DWL-G810

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