D-link G604t Router

[astral]

Basic setup is very straightforward, and is probably enabled, straight out of the box, which is not very good from a security point of view.

Use your browser to access the router: 192.168.1.1

and logon.

Select page Home/Wireless

Tick Enable AP

Type in an SSID name - any name that you like

(this makes your router a base for several other stations to connect to.

Select a Channel Number

(the default of 6 will do to start with, but can be changed if there are several other users in your area on Ch 6)

Set Security NONE

Press APPLY

You are now up and running and should be able to access the router via wireless.

To check who is using the router:

Select page Advanced/Wireless Management

Tick Associated Stations

You will see a list of who is connected to your router at the moment.

Power setting

Select Page Advanced/Wireless Performance

Alter the Antennae transmit power

I have set mine to 25% at the moment.

This will limit the range of the signal, and minimise outside access.

Depending on how far you plan from the router you can adjust this parameter

to ensure you get a good signal at you laptop.

Security

At the moment there is no security, so anyone close by can use your router,

if it is powered on.

I have tried setting security on the MAC address of the wireless network card,

but this does not appear to work -- even worse setting it, hangs the router.

I have reported it to D-Link today.

I will add more about security once I have worked it out in the next few days.

Happy New Year

[wimpy]

I am using the same unit. On my laptop, I use a D-Link DWL-G650+. I have the antenna power set to full. Even with the laptop sitting right next to the G604T, I can’t get any better than a 97% signal. I have never been able to achieve the advertised transfer rates. With security disabled, it indicates it is connected at 54 mbps, but the actual transfer rate is closer to 11 mbps. Am curious if others are getting better transfer rates, and wonder if there is a problem with the unit. D-Link doesn’t answer my emails on this matter.

Security: I am using WPA security with a PSK string. Had to hunt for the latest drivers for the DWL-G650+ to get the security working.

[astral]

If you are only getting 11Mbps then perhaps that is all your Notebook supports? 11b.

Only the very latest machines have 11g giving 54Mbps.

I am using a pcmcia card and that does support 11g and clearly shows a 54Mpbs connection on both sides.

I also set my G604T to only support 11g.

Advanced/Wireless perfromance page.

I now have the security running on WEP 128 bit,

but it needed a router reboot to get it working, which is not apparent from

the router screen info!

I am on frimware V1.00B02T02.TH.20040907 which was already installed.

The version on the web looks to older, from the date - last part of the number.

[astral]

Setting the security

I used a programme that I found on the web to generate the WEP key that I need.

On the Home/Wireless page.

Click Security WEP

Click Enable WEP......

Select one of the line for the Key and paste in the key,

set the Cypher to 64/128/256 bit

Press APPLY

Select Tools/Misc and save and reboot the router.

You should now be encrypted.

On the remote machines you also need the passphrase and the key to set up there as well.

[wimpy]

If you are only getting 11Mbps then perhaps that is all your Notebook supports? 11b.

Only the very latest machines have 11g giving 54Mbps.

I am using a pcmcia card and that does support 11g and clearly shows a 54Mpbs connection on both sides.

I also set my G604T to only support 11g.

Advanced/Wireless perfromance page.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My laptop is using a D-Link pcmcia card that does support 11g. Both machines indicate they are connected at 54Mbps. When I transfer a a 48mb file from the desktop to the laptop, it takes about 55 seconds. If I'm not mistaken, that is about 11Mbps. Would it be possible for you to do a similar sized file transfer, without security enabled, and let me know the time? Thanks.

[astral]

Wireless network fully working in secured (WPA) mode.

The DSL-G604T router talked to the DWL-G520+ wireless lan card like a dream, first in open mode, then secured.

Getting my LinkSys WPC54G card in the notebook to agree with the router about a secured connection was not so easy. After a reload of the drivers and support s/w

for the LinkSys they eventually agreed to talk.

[autonomous_unit]

[My laptop is using a D-Link pcmcia card that does support 11g.  Both machines indicate they are connected at 54Mbps.  When I transfer a a 48mb file from the desktop to the laptop, it takes about 55 seconds.  If I'm not mistaken, that is about 11Mbps.  Would it be possible for you to do a similar sized file transfer, without security enabled, and let me know the time?  Thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you mean 48 mebibytes, e.g. listing the file says something like "48 MB"? That would be 48 * 1024 * 1024 * 8 bits, or about 7.1 million bits per second.

Regardless, 54 mb/s is the raw signalling rate of the wireless modems at full speed. You will never see that rate due to the overheads of packet framing, inter-frame spacing, and retry due to transmission errors. Additionally, you'd really only expect the 54 mb/s signalling rate under ideal conditions, e.g. strong signal and low noise/interference from other sources.

To make matters worse, you are describing a transfer between two different wireless stations. This is always much slower than using the wireless to transfer to a machine on the wired LAN, because the two stations are sharing the same radio spectrum. Previously, with 11 mb/s 802.11b in a realistic work environment, it was very rare to ever see more than 2-6 mb/s rates at the application level out to the wired world, and lower between wireless stations. So if you are seeing ariound 7 mb/s between two wireless stations, you are definitely benefitting from the 802.11g speeds.

I use the wireless only as a link to the external world over DSL, so the speeds are totally adequate.

If I want speed between local PCs, I plug in the ethernet cable to get 100 mb/s duplex through the D-Link router's built-in LAN switch. If I _really_ want speed for some bulk transfer, I use a crossover cable directly between the machines so they can run at 1000 mb/s without me buying a gigabit switch. (A lot of newer ethernet cards are now 10/100/1000 auto switching)