Last Friday when I got home, my brother told me that the router doesn’t have any power! WHAT?!?! I quickly rush to try different power plug hoping that it hasn’t died just like that. After several tries running up and down the house, I hereby confirm its dead, may my DLink 524UP rest in peace after serving me since Feb 2007.
Luckily my home network is well setup if things like this happens. Which is always have a separate modem router + router switch setup. I enable my router in the modem which I kinda hate the features in it since it doesn’t have QoS (Quality of Service) and the performance of a modem router issn’t on par with a standalone router.
So I did some research and found DLink DIR300. It is an entry level router which comes with QoS, supports wireless G and it looks very cool in black.
It was easy to setup out of the box, just use the wizard and key in your broadband details, username, password and you’re connected to the Internet without complex settings.
Okay, maybe till now you’ll be wondering what good is QoS gonna do at all. In this DIR300, just enable QoS and it’ll do the performance optimization. You’ll notice the difference while surfing the net when someone else is doing BT download on another computer using the same network. The QoS engine will reserve bandwidth for every computer that is connected to the router and this gives everyone fair share of the line. I had to set it manually on my old 524UP router. This makes DIR300 a even better worthwhile router to get if anyone wants to get one.
After about 3 days of usage, I am very satisfied with this new router. I get to set my firewall to block ports easily, QoS is auto-pilot, enable/disable wireless is just a click away too. Only thing I must complain is I can’t set static IP for each computer from the router which my old 524UP can! Oh well, I can’t have everything, I get some and lose some.
Anyway, its better to change your network devices about 1-2 years once for best performance. IC chips are not meant to last long and the more you use the shorter the life span it will have. The older the device goes the less sensitive to the noise from the line and you’ll start cursing why the line is sooooo slowwwwww!!! But even with new device, the line is still SUPER SLOW!!! So its still alright to curse you ISP!
Tmnut already been very slow since few months back…when the night time, your network packet will lost few percents even though we are pinging to TMNut DNS server…..
I thought you can set the IP of your comp to be static..