Strengths: Gigabit ports, built in firewall, and easy set up
Weakness: Not cheap
I purchased this router to have the built in gigabit ports provide continuity across my network. Gigabit LAN on my computers and D-Link giga switches on the network, I wanted to keep them all at the same speed to maximize efficiency. I do not game, but I do have many different connections and Tivo processes running on the network at one time, and this router works without a hitch.
Security functions are very good, the firewall alone passed all security tests from Symantec and Shields Up.
Setup was essentially plug it in, connect my modem and switches, and GO! What more could you want?
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Strengths: Low ping for online gaming! Easy setup.
Weakness: Price
After weeks of research for a dedicated "gaming" router, I finally bought the D-link 4100 with the latest Gamefuel technology. I was skeptical at first, but no other company offered anything ground-breaking for online gamers!
After playing online games such as Counter-Strike and BF, I am convinced that this is the best router for anyone serious about Low Pings! And this is the key to staying alive. The set-up was pain-less and I was up and running in 5 minutes. The case itself looks very cool with the blue LEDs. I did not go for the wireless version, because I wanted to use a Belkin Pre-N wireless as an access point.
At first, I thought the 4100 was too expensive, but now I think it's the best investment for playing online with multiple computers. Now I can host a LAN party and not worry about large packets slowing down the router! You can even download and not affect others playing online. I've also noticed that downloading huge multiple files seemed faster and at a constantly high speeds.
To sum it up...this piece of hardware delivers what it(and all the reviews) claims! The only thing I regret is not getting it when it first came out...
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Strengths: Inexpensive for a gigabit router, improved performance for gaming (and other UPnP applications), easy setup, good firewall, parental controls and automatic firmware updates.
Weakness: Expensive compared to 100 megabit routers; most people don't need a gigabit router. Wired connections only, search for DGL-4300 if you want the wireless version of this router.
The biggest feature of the DGL-4100 is D-Link's "GameFuel" which automatically detects many online and network games and gives their packets higher priority. This helps prevent "lag" that may occur if your bandwidth is being used heavily. It also supports UPnP (in the latest firmware, which the device will update automatically) so non-gaming things like Internet telephones will work better too. It also includes a gigabit switch so, if your computers and wiring supports gigabit, you will get truly blazing networking performance. Moreover, if you want to hold a huge LAN party it delivers there, too. You can easily connect other hubs or switches to this router (it will automatically support them whether or not they have uplink ports) and connect many, many computers - this little black brick can support up to 6000 users! If you want the very best wired, consumer priced router you need look no further.
Now to the problems. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this router I can find, but that being said it is almost definitely overkill for a large percentage of home networks. You can buy any number 100 megabit routers for about $20 but this one costs over $100. Understand, that is an excellent price for a gigabit router, but you will only benefit from a gigabit connection if you have 1) two or more very fast computers, 2) gigabit network cards and 3) Cat 6 or Cat 5e cabling (or if you intend to use this router as a backbone to a large network). Also it should be noted that this router will not affect the speed of your Internet connection. Downloads won't be faster and if your connection is "laggy" it won't help with that either. It will really only help high-end users become even more high-end. If you're one of those lucky people then you really can't go wrong with this great little router. If you just have, say, two computers and only use your network for browsing the internet and sharing a printer then you would do much better with a low-cost option such as the D-Link DI-604.
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Do you think that the DI-604 is any good for heavy P2P and gaming use, or should I shell out the extra cash for this router? We have 3 PC's and a X-Box 360. The 3 computers do a lot of P2P and gaming, and the X-Box of course will be using it's connection a lot as well.
Weakness: Costs more than most consumer (home) routers but you get more than what you pay for here!
I bought this router to replace an aging Netgear Cable/DSL router I've had for a few years which gave me nothing but trouble the entire time I had it. I had thought some of this was my Cable provider's fault but quickly found out it was the Netgear's fault once I hooked up this D-Link router. I leave my PC on 24/7 and am always connected to IRC among other things, with this D-Link I rarely see any disconnects and when they occur they're always caused by external problems (a server drops, the cable goes off, etc.) Everything's rock solid stable now, and I even get much, much better performance from bittorrent downloads than I used to. Getting more technical I can leave SSH sessions open to remote machines for literally days without them locking up. With my old Netgear they'd lock up within 15 minutes of inactivity. (They're not supposed to lock up like that.)
One of the things I love best about this router is that I can add/delete/change port forwarding rules without causing any disconnects of active sessions. This is more in line with what you expect when you get to the commercial level of routers (brands like Cisco that cost a LOT more than this D-Link) and is quite handy. Once you start looking through the advanced configuration you'll see that this router can do pretty much anything you could ever want and then some. It's logging is even far better than most consumer level routers. Also mine wouldn't actually pull an IP from my Cable modem to connect me to the Internet until I ran through the setup and changed the default password. This impressed me greatly as it's the first consumer level router I've seen do this and it definitely adds to the security.
Bottom line: while you pay more upfront for this router you get more than you pay for. This router simply works better than most of the Cable/DSL routers out there on the market and should last for many years of use. Spend the extra now and you'll be glad you did!
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Weakness: A tad pricey, but in the end it's worth every dollar.
The GameFuel technology is killer. I have 3 pc's constantly moving, dl-ing and playing as much as possible and this black brick takes it all and begs for more. Easy setup and best of all it's a D-LINK. My 2 year old DI-604 is still going strong on my best-friends system. Don't forget to use the D-LINK DGE-530T gigabit nic card in your systems. Happy gaming - I'm all in !!
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Strengths: Very Stable. Have gigabit ports, has DHCP IP reserve option and Dyndns support.
Weakness: The firmware update resets everything to defaults
We are not really using this router as a gaming router but because we needed a fast and more importantly: RELIABLE router as it was going to be installed in a remote location with verizon adsl and we did not want to go every few days to power cycle it. So far it has been working great with no issues. The features we needed for that office: stability, dyndns support and dhcp IP reserving were offered by this router so we are very happy with it.
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Strengths: All I did was plug it in - everything works.
Weakness: none yet
This was a purchase based on the reviews I read here and at other sites. I have had 3 Linksys router/switches prior to this and was very unhappy with them - they were difficult to set up with my network and were pretty inadequate.
Since I was used to having to do "port forwarding", .ini file editing, and generally jumping thru hoops with the Linksys, I installed the D-LINK step by step following the instructions to the letter. Happily I only got to THREE!
Plug everthing together, plug in modem, plug in router. Everything worked immediately, even the games that I had tremendous problems with before worked perfectly and the thing is very very fast.
I strongly endorse this router, it is simply the best.
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I followed the quick installation guide and was off & running in 5 mins.
I'm playing WOW while the kid is surfing or downloading away, my game constantly runs smooth.
Also like all the options you get
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For those that want an all-in-one solution to routing and LAN gaming, this router is the one for you. With so many interface options to fine tweak the settings for your network, along with an innovative QoS (Gamefuel), and such robust hardware for P2P, this product really is the be-all end-all for wired router solutions.
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Weakness: Died after 18 months.
Warranty is only 12 months.
Dlink support is worthless. Blue status lights are really bright to the point of distraction. This is not an inexpensive piece of equipment. For the price, it fell far short of my expectations.
Worked great until the lightening caused power outage. Then zip. D-Link support is $33 a call for out of warranty help. When you call tech support you get the same know-nothing offshore yahoos that used to work for Linksys (the biggest scam routers ever made). Box says tech support is 24/7. Support closes at 5 pm Pacific time.
Oh well, fun while it lasted.
Bestcovery experts have rated the D-Link GamerLounge Broadband Router DGL-4100 as the Best Wired Router. Bestcovery's experts recommend the best products and services for a particular need based on extensive research and evaluations. Click below to see Bestcovery's full review of this product.
The D-Link DGL-4100 is a 5-port, Broadband Gigabit Gaming Router powered by GameFuel Priority Technology. Its unique technology is designed to deliver an uninterrupted and latency-free gaming experience by intelligently managing and automatically prioritizing network traffic to better executive bandwidth-sensitive applications including VoIP and Internet games. Plus, the DGL-4100 boasts a...
Expensive but works well.
Strengths: Gigabit ports, built in firewall, and easy set up
Weakness: Not cheap
I purchased this router to have the built in gigabit ports provide continuity across my network. Gigabit LAN on my computers and D-Link giga switches on the network, I wanted to keep them all at the same speed to maximize efficiency. I do not game, but I do have many different connections and Tivo processes running on the network at one time, and this router works without a hitch.
Security functions are very good, the firewall alone passed all security tests from Symantec and Shields Up.
Setup was essentially plug it in, connect my modem and switches, and GO! What more could you want?
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?