D Link DGL 4500 Xtreme N Dualband Draft 802 11n Gaming Router
D Link DGL 4500 Xtreme N Dualband Draft 802 11n Gaming Router
The D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme N Gaming Router is one of those few devices built especially for gamers. Experience the power of Gigabit LAN and WAN ports to get your game on faster than ever before. Also added is an updated version of the award-winning GameFuel technology to get your game going smoother. To top it off, Xtreme N Duo wireless technology, a high-performance CPU, and a Network Activity Display give you a serious gaming router. GameFuel allows you to customize your network settings to prioritize game traffic so your roommate doesn’t hog all the bandwidth while downloading tracks from his favorite 80’s hair band. An included Network Activity Display shows you what’s going on with your router. Check your Internet, LAN, WAN, and other various settings all from one screen. With Xtreme N Duo technology your router also has the power of dual band (2.4 or 5GHz) wireless signals to get your game on in the wireless band of your choice. WPA & WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access) Network Address Translation (NAT) Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) VPN Pass-through / Multi-sessions, PPTP / L2TP / IPSec System Requirements - Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, or Mac OS X (v10.4), Internet Explorer v6 or Mozilla Firefox v1.5, CD-ROM Drive, Network Interface Card, Cable or DSL Modem, and Subscription with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) Dimensions - Width 4.6 x Depth 7.6 x Height 1.2 Weight - 0.7 pounds
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star Stay away x2
All I can say is look at when it came out and go the the support page and look how long it has been since dstink released a update. I also had issues with Vista to Vista copies failing and this fixed it. MS blames the router.
“netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled”
Some say try restricted first.
“netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=restricted”
I suspect SPI is corrupting DL’s also.
I realize many ppl like this router but based on the lack of firmware support you might want to watch it for updates or move on.
1 Star Stay Away
They released this as an upgrade to the previous gaming router, but as soon as it was released it was obsolete. DLINK decided to focus on other routers, and since has not updated the firmware to fix bugs. I would strongly discourage buy this item, since DLINK doesn’t bother with it.
5 Stars Superb!
I am shocked at all the negative reviews about this product. Either some of you got duds, or you don’t know what you’re doing.
This is a fabulous router. I recently upgraded from a Linksys WRT310N (which is a good router) to this for the dual-band and range/throughput improvement. It does all of that and more…I have never had better wireless coverage through my house, which is 3,500sq ft. It also streams HD video with ease, as well as having great performance transferring large files wirelessly across my network. I have this paired with a Hawking dish-style high-gain 802.11n adapter and I get 4-5 bars @ 270-300Mbps throughout the house, amazing!
The only thing “negative” I would say about the router is the web-based setup screen. Unless you really know what you’re doing, you will probably be overwhelmed at the complexity and depth of all the options on this router. The Linksys equivalent is like a Cliff’s Notes version of this. I also think this is a tad overpriced…When you have new routers like the Linksys WRT610N priced at almost $40 less than a router almost a year old, that’s a little high.
4 Stars 1st defective, 2nd okay so far.
The first one I purchased worked fine.. for one weekend. After that, it would reboot itself every 2 minutes or so unless I had ALL network cables unplugged. Wireless was disabled, so there shouldnt have been any sort of ‘interference’ issue. Amazon was GREAT about sending a new unit and a link to print out a return shipping label, so it didn’t cost anything to get a replacement, and the new one arrived very quick. The second one has been working flawlessly so far. I don’t use the GAMEFUEL or Wireless features on it, I really only purchased it for the gig LAN/WAN features as I’d like to speed up my LAN for file copying, and speed up the WAN as the old 10 meg wasn’t cutting it anymore since my connection is now 15 meg. I also purchased it so I’d have the opportunity to expand if I found a reason to actually use wireless. I give a thumbs down to D-Links technical support though — 5 days to respond?! They basically ignored the information I had provided in my emails and were giving me basic “dummy” suggestions on what to try.
4 Stars Works for my Slingbox and 360!!!
I bought this at a “big box” retailer that had a sale on it along with a $20 store credit. I don’t have as many computers running on my network as some other reviewers do here. But, I do put my routers through a lot, I run a Slingbox Pro, ATT Tilt, Xbox 360, TiVo, network webcam, 2 computers (vista/xp), and I also run Hamachi VPN. The set up was easy, I just had to change the IP address to match up with my previous Linksys router. I copied all my pervious settings (WEP and SSID) so all my wireless clients would connect w/out re-setting them. My 360 connects fine and shows that NAT is open, I set the QoS for my Sling and 360 to always get priority. Both my Sligbox and 360 connect via AirLink powerline ethernet adapters, the router didn’t have a problem recognizing them immediately and assigning an IP address to the 360. I use the WISH features to make sure my laptop is always getting the best upload it can. I love being able to go to the webpage of the router, see what is connected wirelessly and also see what the signal strength is. Another great feature I found was I could assign an IP address in the router to a specific client w/out having to do a static IP. This was great for my 360 because it ALWAYS gets the same IP address and makes it easy to use items like QoS.
My only complaint would be that the signal isn’t as strong to my laptop as my previous Linksys router (2nd floor). I still get good upload/download speeds though. I don’t have any “N” cards or gigabit NIC’s in my network so I can’t tell you how those work, but overall it’s a great product.
