I recently picked up the DI-524 from Fry’s Outpost.com for about $40 after a $20 mail-in rebate. Considering 11b equipment with similar functionality is going for basement prices of $20, on the surface it seems to be a reasonable deal. I was only interested in the 11g functionality, and do not intend to use the router functionality at all. (It’s a shame no one is interested in APs. I would have bought a regular AP had they been available this cheap.)
In any event, the product arrived via DHL, which has a habit of delivering stuff early in the morning. By the time I had awoken, the driver had already left. I signed the standard just-leave-it notice and was happy to find my DI-524 on my doorstep this morning.
The packaging was sufficient, without much waste space. Points for reasonable environmental friendliness. Upon opening the box, I found the DI-524 nicely protected in an anti-static bag. The dimensions were surprisingly small. I have not been keeping up with consumer broadband routers, as my Linux router handles that task. The static bag was gently taped shut. Removing the tape, I opened the bag to expose the DI-524.
It’s extremely light weight. Unexpectedly, the material is cheap plastic with D-Link’s huge logo impressed into the center on the top of the device. Additionally, I was greeted by a 5V power adapter, an ethernet cable, and, surprisingly, mounting equipment. You can stand the device upright with the included legs, or go all out a stick it in the wall of your choice. Of greatest interest to me, though, is the externally detachable reverse SMA connector.
Now, the fun begins: application of utility power. The included power adapter is, to my great disappointment, D-Link’s classic four inch long wallplug obscenity. It easily blows six inches of wallspace perpendicular to the wall. Such wasted space. I have a Xterasys 802.11g card with me, for testing. (Amusing aside: Xterasys’ latest driver for their card is compressed with a copy of WinZIP they did not license, and it says as much when you uncompress the driver. Nice job Xterasys!)
Too lazy to bother plugging in an ethernet cable, I hit up the Web administration for the DI-524 with my Xterasys card. I get DHCP immediately in the boring and overused 192.168.0.0/24 subnet. I hit 192.168.0.1 in my browser of choice, login as user admin with an empty password, and I’m up. Much of the Web based administration system uses JavaScript, so browsers like links need not apply. As appears to be standard these days, you can do port forwarding via Virtual Servers, upgrade the firmware from within the interface, download current settings, upload backed up settings. The firewall configuration section is actually rather advanced and lets you specify source and destination addresses and port ranges. The device keeps reasonable logs by default. It looks like it can adequately handle PPPoE, Cable modems, and static address assignments. In any event, I won’t be using the WAN port so little of this matters to me.
While it would probably make a nice firewall appliance, I get the impression Linksys’ WRT54G, which already runs Linux, would be a better choice. With various updates you can stick a reason kernel on it complete with IPTables and all sorts of other whacky stuff.
Whilest setting it up as a regular switch with AP capabilities, I discovered the DI-524 seriously wigs out if there is an IP conflict. It lights up like a Christmas tree and you need to resolve the issue and unplug it. Sadly, in my tests I found I had to reset it in this fashion no less than a dozen times for all sorts of supposedly minor configuration changes.
I stuck on the little feet so the 524 stands vertically. It has the tendency to fallover easily, however, with so many ethernet cables plugged into it.
I gave it a field test with my Xterasys 802.11g card with mixed results. Through a wall, a possible airconditioning duct, and another wall corner, I am able to sustain a connection reported as 48Mbps, which pushes no more actual data than about 10Mbps. It reminds me greatly of when I used to run a 10Mbps coaxial network setup, although the latter was more reliable and did not succumb to RF interference. I even attached my slightly larger reverse SMA omni that came with my Linksys WMP11, but it did not help any. Perhaps I’ll just get a much larger omni.
The 524 supports standard 64 and 128 bit (actually 40- and 104-bit, but I digress) WEP and a WPA variant, but my Xterasys does not, so I was not able to test anything except WEP. Copying a file over to my laptop with 128-bit WEP enabled did not seem to tax the 524, but I imagine your milage will vary. WEP is insecure and generally easily cracked, once you send enough packets it is mathematically guaranteed that you will be owned. It does, however, raise the barrier to open access somewhat.
During my tests I did come across something rather odd. It appears you can only access the 524 when you’re are using a device connected directly to it. I was unable to ping the 524 from any device on my internal network. I have the 524 connected to a different network card in my Linux router, and thus all packets pass through the router on their way to the 524. Nothing passing through the router could speak to the 524, except the Linux router itself. I am uncertain if this is a feature or a bug. Upgrading to the latest firmware did not resolve the issue, which is 1.03 as of this writing.
In the end, you get what you pay for in this instance. The DI-524 is an inexpensive 802.11g wireless broadband router with a built in four port switch with a small foot print. If you are searching purely for a quality 11g AP, this device is not what you’re looking for. If you need a broadband router, too, it may be suitable. In either case, you can pry my Linux router from my hands, if you dare.