D-Link DSL-504 ADSL Router 4 Port

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Fast
Ease of Installation	Good - quick to install
Ease of use	Easy
Reliability	Good
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Pick up a bargain ?
Disadvantages:	Only 4 ethernet ports ?

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Another review from me for a discontinued item, but may be useful if you're loking to pick up a bargain item on ebay...

The D-Link DSL-504 ADSL Router has a built-in ADSL modem - plugs directly into your ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)-enabled phone line, and with its 4 port 10/100Mbps ethernet switch, allows connections to lots of things (check out my other reviews for what it's connected to...). The DCHP server allows automatic allocation of IP addresses to all your network gubbins too - although I've set the IP's for my wireless accesspoint & print server to allow easier access to their brower based interfaces.

The DSL-504 has a browser admin interface too for easy installation and setup, just type in the IP address (the default 192.168.0.1, as with most routers, but if it's changed you can always use the command line command IPCONFIG to tell you what it's been changed to! ) and your password and you're off ! You'll need to enter provide two numbers, a Virtual Path Identifier (VPI) and a Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI) during the configuration of the router so it knows how to connect to your broadband supplier, but these are easy to obtain. Everything else you need to know is in the manual, supplied in PDF also dowloadable on-line), although you could print it off if you're a paper-phile.

The admin interface has the following features

- DHCP: Configuration options including Start/End IP address, subnet mask, gateway, one DNS server and lease time.
- NAT - Options to enable or disable and default (DMZ) host support for redirection of all packets to an internal system.
- Port Redirection - Standard feature with routers performing Network Address Translation (NAT) is to allow an external port to be redirected internally.
- IP Filtering - The DSL-504 will act as a firewall in addition to IP filtering. The IP filter is disabled by default but can be enabled and configured using a standard group/rule based system.

Saving changes on the web interface is a bit slow and the router makes you restart it for most even minor changes such as a port mapping or DHCP configuration change., but this is a fairly minor issue.

Setup was a doddle, switch on the router, connect the RJ-11 cable to your ADSL filter and the ethernet cable to your computer and you're all set.

At the back, there's a power connector, console port (RS-232 - 9 pin D-Sub), 4 x Ethernet ports (10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45), and the ADSL RJ-11 socket to plug into your broadband enabled telephone socket. I've bought an additional switch to expand beyond these four ports, but it's certainly enough to start with !

On the front, there are LEDs for power, status and ADSL connection (link & activity), plus two lights for each of the 4 ports and these light up/flash depending on the speed of teh connection (10/100).

Just a note for Apple folks, the DSL-504 is OS independent and will allegedly support both PC and MAC users, although I have only used it with PC's.

Dimensions : Width 18 cm, Height 3 cm, Depth 14.1 cm, Weight 0.3 kg

I hope this helps...