Author: Spot Posted on: 3/26/2001 Sponsor: D-Link Discuss: In the forums

Introduction With the Internet becoming such an integrated part of our lives, it is creating some major changes in our lifestyle along the way. Home PC's have generally been installed in what always seems to be the smallest room in the house or wherever the phone line was most available. Today, broadband Internet connections are on their way to becoming a "standard" and this scenario is still the same - PCs are generally located where the cable, DSL or any other broadband connection enters the house. This can limit someone's quick and easy access to the information superhighway from other areas of the house where no computers are installed. Let's take a different look at the same idea: How often have you flipped on the "Weather Channel" to see what the temperature was going to be like the next day, only to find yourself watching TV and waiting for the next 20 minutes when you could have had the answer in 30 seconds online? How often have you felt like surfing the web during commercials, but your computer is in another room? Have you ever waited around for the "10 minute ticker" to check football scores from games that are not on TV when the information is readily available "live" on the web? This is where home wireless networking comes into play since the physical location of machines is not as much of a factor as with "hard wired" machines. I mention "as much of a factor", because you still have to be within a certain range of the connection, but you are no longer tied down in the same old room. Imagine setting up a computer anywhere in the house and still having access to other machines or even the Internet - from the living room, the garage, anywhere. With that being said, we are going to look at D-Link's DI-713 which is a Wireless Home DSL/Cable Router + Switch. Features and Specs The DI-713 is designed to provide more than just wireless networking to the home user. It is an IEEE 802.11b compliant wireless broadband gateway with an integrated 3-port 10/100 Ethernet switch. If you're not sure exactly what the IEEE 802.11b standard means, here's some information I ripped right from the white papers at 3Com. In 1997, after seven years of work, the IEEE published 802.11, the first internationally sanctioned standard for wireless LANs. In September 1999 they ratified the 802.11b “High Rate” amendment to the standard, which added two higher speeds (5.5 and 11 Mbps) to 802.11. With 802.11b WLANs, mobile users can get Ethernet levels of performance, throughput, and availability. The standards-based technology allows administrators to build networks that seamlessly combine more than one LAN technology to best fit their business and user needs. Like all IEEE 802 standards, the 802.11 standards focus on the bottom two levels of the ISO model, the physical layer and data link layer (Figure 1 on page 4). Any LAN application, network operating system, or protocol, including TCP/IP and Novell NetWare, will run on an 802.11-compliant WLAN as easily as they run over Ethernet. The basic architecture, features, and services of 802.11b are defined by the original 802.11 standard. The 802.11b specification affects only the physical layer, adding higher data rates and more robust connectivity. The DI-713 also serves as a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server that can address up to 252 computers on the network which could also make it quite useful for small office/home office networks. The 3-port 10/100 switch for machines that are still "hard-wired" to the network allows the flexibility to convert computers to wireless at your convenience if you choose to do so. Personally, I think the wireless access and hardwired Ethernet ports combined on the same device is a very good idea. Not everyone may have the need or desire to go completely wireless at once. We will get into the actual usage of these functions later, but for now here's a look at the official spec sheet that I snagged from D-Link's web site so you can see ALL of the specifications in one spot. Standards IEEE 802.3 10Base-T Ethernet IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN, Wi-Fi Compatible IEEE 802.3u 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet ANSI/IEEE 802.3 NWay auto-negotiation Protocols Supported TCP/IP NAT DHCP Virtual Server VPN Support PPTP Management Web-Based Ports 1 x 10 Base-T WAN 3 x NWay 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet LAN 1 x RS-232 (DB-9) LED’s WAN Activity LAN Activity M1 M2 Link/Act. (Link / Activity) 10/100 Wireless Connection Wireless Link Access Point Frequency Band 2.4 ~ 2.4835 GHz (subject to local regulation) Access Point Number of Channel USA & Canada: 11 Access Point Frequency Range 5 Mbps Access Point Transmit Power Nominal Temp Range: 14dBm TYP Access Point Data Rate 11 Mbps & 5.5 Mbps CCK 2 Mbps & 1Mbps DQPSK Access Point Security 40-bit WEP Encryption Access Point Antenna External 0dbi dipole Access Point Media Access Control CSMA/CA with ACK Access Point Operating Range Nominal Temp Range: 14dBm TYP Access Point Transmit Power Open Space: 100 – 300m Indoor: 50 – 100m Power DC 5V 1A Operating Temperature 5°C ~ 55°C Storing Temperature -20°C ~ 70°C Humidity 10% ~ 90% Non-condensing Contents and the DI-713 The DI-713 comes with two 10' standard 568a Category 5 network cables, one power adapter, a quick installation guide and a user's manual (both in hard copy and soft copy) - basically everything needed to get two hard-wired machines up and running. To be wireless right from the start, you will have to purchase one of the satellite wireless adapters separately. I'm sure they didn't include any wireless adapters with the DI-713 because there are too many combinations of adapters at this time. This will allow people to pick and choose whether they want a PCMCIA, USB, or PCI adapters for their networks. Now that we know what the specs are and what you're going to get in the package, let's take a look at the actual unit itself. The front of the DI-713 contains the three 10/100 Ethernet ports, the 10Mbit uplink WAN port, 12 LED indicators and a reset button. The back of the DI-713 has the power switch, the DC power inlet, a serial port, and two adjustable antennas for the wireless connection. The serial port (COM port) can be used to connect an analog modem or a console cable. We're not going to get into the COM port in this article because we're going to be using a broadband connection. We don't need no stinkin' modems. Front Back I found the LED indicators on the front of the unit to be quite useful once I worked with it for a few days so they are definitely worth a mention. They are well laid out and clearly marked so you don't have to break out the manual to figure out which LED corresponds to which connection. With a quick glance, I could see the status of the cable modem and all other machines attached to the network. Without going into too much detail here about the LED's, the M1 and M2 LED's are used to show the working status of the DI-713; the WAN and LAN LED's are used to show link and activity through the respective ports; W-Link and W-Act for the wireless connections, and LED's marked 1-3 are for link/activity as well as data rate for the 10/100 Ethernet ports. The manual covers each of the LED's in greater depth regarding function, color, status and description of each, but you can pretty much figure it out on your own. NOTE: I encourage you to read the manual on ALL products because it will save you (and IT support personel) major headaches down the road. Installation Installation of the DI-713 is really a snap as long as you follow the quick installation guide provided. The instructions are step-by-step and obviously are written for someone who does not have any experience with networking. If you happen to fall into this category, do not be afraid. After looking it over, I truly believe anyone who can read directions can install the DI-713 and get it to function properly - the first time. The guide walks you through the hardware installation and also setting up the NICs to use DHCP. There are screen caps of each step along the way and a place in the guide to write down your TCP/IP settings if you have a static IP. The guide even covers PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) if your connection requires it. If you have never setup a home network before, I recommend you read the installation guide. For those of you that have experience in networking, here's what the hardware setup entails in tech savvy mode: Plug in the DC adapter. Plug the broadband Ethernet cable into the WAN port. Set your NIC's to DHCP (wireless or wired) Fire it all up. One thing that I noticed was not mentioned in the guide was calling your ISP. You should note you may have to call your ISP when setting up the DI-713 and have them clear your connection before you will be able to access the Internet. If someone is not familiar with networking, they may think they have done something wrong when they haven't. ISP's should be familiar with these types of problems, so it should not be a long phone conversation with them. Just tell them you purchased a router and you need to have your connection cleared and they should know exactly what to do. Configuration Once the DI-713 and all hardware is installed, all you need to do is open a web browser on any of the connected machines to access the built-in web interface. Simply, type in the default IP address of the DI-713 and enter the password provided in the quick installation guide and you are ready to customize your connection. I found the interface to be well laid out and not cluttered, which helps make finding things a little easier the first couple times. The first screen that will appear after typing in the password is the "device information" screen. Here, you will find the current information of the DI-713 like the IP address, subnet mask, gateway, MAC address, lease time, etc. This is also the screen where you are able to release and renew the IP address of the unit which will come in handy when your ISP doesn't want to co-operate. Logon Page Device Info Under the "Tools" section, you will find the location where the administrative password can be changed. This should be the first item on your list of "things to do" when you are poking around in there. For obvious security reasons, you should get into the habit of changing default passwords whenever possible. You can also reboot the DI-713 from this page along with upgrading the firmware. The "setup" screen is where you can tell the DI-713 to either use a static IP address or to use DHCP (default) by pressing the "change" button. Tools Setup DHCP can be enabled or disabled along with setting up a range of available IP addresses that can be leased to the clients under - you guessed it - the DHCP screen. If you are using the wireless feature of the unit, you can set which channel to be used along with enabling 40 bit encryption. It defaults to "enable insecure access" so if you transmit confidential or sensitive data across the network, then you will probably want to turn on the security. Although 40bit encryption is NOT considered "high-security" by any means, it should give you some peace of mind. You should also be aware if you are not using any security and you happen to have close neighbors, they could get one wireless adapter and obtain their IP address from your DI-713. Not only could they suck up your free bandwidth, they would be able to get on your network and therefore get access to your files. DHCP Wireless Advanced Configuration There are also four screens under the advanced menu that allow more detailed configuration of the DI-713. Virtual server allows requests to certain ports from the Internet to be redirected to a specific IP on your internal network. For example: If you have a Web server (port 80) behind the firewall with an IP address of 192.168.0.32, then all requests from the Internet that access port 80 on the DI-713 will get redirected to the Web server (192.168.0.32). The Special Applications page is used because certain applications (Dialpad, Battle.net, etc.) will not function properly behind a NAT router. D-Link has several known applications and the ports they require built into the DI-713, so all you have to do is pick the app and whether or not you want to enable the ports. They are all disabled by default. So that the hardcore gamers know, I played Quake3 and Team Fortress Classic without setting up anything special on the router and had no problems playing the games. With Access Control, you can assign rights to different users or sets of users based on an IP address or a group of IP addresses. For example, if you have children and you do not want them accessing the web, then you can block port 80 for their machine. The last item in the advanced configuration is the Miscellaneous Items where you can set the IP address of the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) and you can also limit who has access to the administration menu of the DI-713 based on IP address. NOTE: You shouldn't use the DMZ Host option unless it is needed. If you specify an IP address in this field, data will be allowed to bypass the firewall - thus allowing unrestricted access to the computer with the specified IP address. Virtual Server Special Apps Access Control Misc. Testing The Wireless The Wireless capabilities of the DI-713 were tested using D-Link's DWL 650 and the DWL-120. I will cover these satellite devices in detail in a future article, but for now I will concentrate on the DI-713 end of the wireless access. Setting up the satelite workstations is as simple as installing a NIC as long as you follow the included instructions. The specifications show the wireless range of the DI-713 indoors is 50-100m and outdoors at 100 - 300m. I installed the DWL-650 into a laptop and did a ping of the DI-713 (ping 192.168.0.1 -t) and started walking. I started receiving timeouts when the distance was about 30 yards and while I thought this to be a little shy of the claimed 50-100m, the 30 yards wasn't in a straight line in complete open space. Basically, it wasn't perfect conditions which I'm sure the specs are geared towards. It went around 2 corners so therefore it had quite a few walls to travel through. The documentation of the DWL-650 states that walls will decrease distance by anywhere from 1m to 30m per wall. Within those 30 yards, I was able to wander from desk to desk in the office and never lose network connection at all. At home I was able to surf the Internet with no problems while sitting on the couch watching TV about 50 feet away from the DI-713. It was at that moment when I realized just how much I was starting to love it. Now onto the more important points of interest - the speed, the games, and ping times. Your current network setup (if you have one) and your specific needs will determine your thoughts on the DI-713 speeds. Let me explain - before the DI-713, I had a hardwired network with all 100Base-TX network cards. File copying between computers was quite fast and I noticed a significant slowdown when switching to all wireless. However, I did not notice any slowdown in web surfing, nor in my latency during multiplayer gaming after converting to wireless. Obviously, the cable modem connection is the bottleneck in either situation. If you do a lot of file copying between computers, then you may want to use the built in RJ-45 ports, but if websurfing is going to be the primary function of the computer, then wireless will do the job. Testing The Firewall I know many people shudder when they hear the word "firewall" because they are not familiar with it and don't know why anyone would need one. I will try to explain in very simple terms what a firewall is, and what it does to protect a machine from intruders. This topic alone could be a completely separate article, so I will try to keep it relatively brief. When using a broadband Internet connection such as a cable modem, your computers' Network Interface Card (NIC) is assigned an IP address from your Internet Service Provider. This IP address is generally visible to anyone on the Internet that happens to be looking for it. Granted most people aren't looking, but if they were - then they might be able to see the address of your machine. A firewall has several different purposes, although we will only cover the "big picture" here. Think of your house or small business as being "inside the firewall" and everyone else on the Internet "outside the firewall". In simple terms, a firewall will 'hide' the IP addresses "inside the firewall" from anything "outside the firewall". It will still allow your machine to function normally on the Internet, but without the world being able to see the address of your machine. With the DI-713 being used as a firewall and DHCP server, it receives the IP address from the ISP and then assigns different IP addresses to machines inside the firewall. That way, people and machines on the Internet only "see" the DI-713 and not your actual machine. Now let's test this theory: The IP address of the machine I am currently testing is 192.168.0.147. The address of the DI-713 is 63.127.58.149 which is the address seen by machines outside of the firewall. This is called NAT (Network Address Translation). To demonstrate the function of a firewall and NAT, there's a site called Shields Up that will probe your machine to see if any commonly accessed ports are visible and available across the Internet. I let Sheilds Up probe my network to see if it could see my machine, so let's take a look at the results.      You will see that Shields Up thought my machine's IP address was 63.127.58.149, which is actually the address of the DI-713. Hence, the firewall portion of the DI-713 did its job of hiding my machine from the "outside". You should note this is quite a simple test and someone really trying to get access may still be able to do so if they knew what they were doing. Unless you have something on your machine that hackers are after, the type of firewall the DI-713 offers will solve 99.9% of your needs. Conclusion I feel D-Link has done an excellent job with the DI-713. I'm very impressed with the ease of installation, the administration and configuration interface, and the functionality of the unit as a whole. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, so the non-tech savvy shouldn't be scared away from setting up a network for the first time. The fact that you can utilize the wireless aspect alone or in conjunction with wired computers is an extra plus. Although we are still on the forefront of wireless technology, the D-Link DI-713 has made a strong impression in my book. The lowest price I found on Pricewatch was around $320 USD which I think is a little steep, and if you decide to add a wireless adapter for another machine, you can expect to pay another $120+. I'm sure the price of wireless products will drop in the future as availability becomes greater. D-Link already cut the price across the board on their 802.11b wireless networking products at the end of February, so I would expect them to keep dropping as time moves on. I have no problems recommending the DI-713 to anyone who is looking to switch their home or office network to wireless. Even if you are just looking for a router with a solid firewall, the DI-713 could easily be the solution. I believe as prices drop on wireless products, it will soon be the norm when it comes to home networking. Not only is it useful, it's great to be able to wander around the house and still be on the web.

Copyright © by LWD All Rights Reserved.

Published on: 2004-02-20 (14677 reads)