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Network Setup
Being a geek, my network is fairly convoluted.
In my office I have an AMD XP based server, an ancient HP desktop running
Linux, and my main Pentium 4 desktop. All of these units are plugged into a
Netgear GS108 Gigabit switch. In-between this switch and my old Cable Modem
is where my Netgear WPN824 MIMO router is stationed. All four of the
remaining computers in the apartment connect to the WPN824 wirelessly,
including an AMD gaming desktop in my bedroom, Home Theater box in the
living room, my roommate’s laptop, and my Dell M170 laptop. Both of the
desktops use the Netgear W311T PCI adaptors, and my roommate’s laptop uses a
WG511T PCMCIA card. The Dell M170 uses an Intel 2200 wireless card.
So, I changed out the wireless card in the gaming desktop in my bedroom to a
D-Link Xtreme G, added the Gaming Adaptor to my Playstation 2 7000 series,
and replaced the Netgear WPN824 with the D-Link DGL-4300. All other nodes
remained the same.
I took the liberty of putting together the
following diagram of the whole network setup used for testing...
**click to enlarge**
Interface
Both the Gaming Adaptor and the 4300 router use
a Flash driven web based interface to control and configure the device.
D-Link officially only supports Internet Explorer 6+ and Netscape, although
I personally use Firefox. I found Firefox worked acceptably most of the time
but there were occasional instances when I found the menu was not accepting
commands or displaying correctly.
I did find at least one menu item that wouldn’t work even with Internet
Explorer. For some odd reason I could not get the Dynamic DNS page to work,
which made getting to my network from the internet a little interesting.
Hopefully that’s just a bug that will be fixed with the next firmware.
The Sentinel Services are two D-Link run systems that provide an array of
security options for your network. For 80 bucks a year, this system will
provide antivirus, pop up, *Firewall*, and spam blocking at the router for
up to four computers. I question the Firewall somewhat…unless you’ve left
your router totally unconfigured, it will provide the necessary firewall
protection. I imagine that D-Link’s system offers some improved dynamic
performance, but that may be overkill for the average home user. Still, if
you have 3 or 4 computers on your home network, this is a really cheap and
effective way to keep the whole thing protected. This is a similar service
to what you’ll get from D-Link’s “Best of CES”
SecureSpot Internet Security Device. We will certainly be reviewing that
item once it becomes available.
Below are some screenshots of the web
interface...
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Finally, a shot of the GameFuel menu...
**click to enlarge**
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