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Back in August I bought a D-link router and, since then, it has been working well,
linking my two PCs together on my home network.
I always planned to buy a D-link ethernet modem to go with the router at a later
date, so both PCs could share my ADSL internet connection. Up to now I've been
using some free proxy server software from Analogx.
This does the job and lets me use quite a bit of Internet-related software on
the second PC, but not everything.
So, back home after my trip away, and ready to buy, I searched on the 'net to
find a store in Manchester that stocked the D-link modem.
I found a company called Expansys in Rutherford Street. Open until 9pm it said
on their site. I called them on Friday morning to double check. Sure, they said,
they would be open until 9pm that evening.
My friend Damien gave me a lift round there. We arrived at 8.30pm to find the
shop closed! The area was completely deserted and, to add insult to injury, a
security guard came over to check we weren't ram-raiding the place! I don't think
I'll be returning and, anyway, Damien's car isn't really up to a ram-raid ;-)
Back home, I decided to buy the modem from Amazon. I placed my order and got an
e-mail back telling me to expect delivery on Wednesday or Thursday. On Monday
afternoon I arrived home, just in time to catch a delivery man with a box for
me from Amazon. Great, it had arrived early! Uh, except inside the box was a bright
pink Playstation step mat... Amazon had sent the wrong item. Curiously enough
Damien has one of these...
I called Amazon and they said they would send out my modem just as soon as they
received the step mat back. Quite annoying, as I had only just got home. Oh well...
I wrote a covering letter, put it in the box and headed off to the local Post
Office.
I arrived to find that the local Post Office had closed down permanently. You
know when you have one of 'those' days and it starts to feel as if someone 'up
there' must hate you? Quite a long walk to the next Post Office, and a £6.50
Special Delivery postal fee later (which Amazon say they will refund) and the
step mat was on its way back.
This Special Delivery service is guaranteed to get there next day. Except it didn't.
The Post Office didn't deliver the box to Amazon until Wednesday. Luckily, after
a couple of e-mails, Amazon moved swiftly and, on Friday, the D-link modem arrived.
It worked great when plugged stright into the network port of one of the PCs,
but wouldn't work when plugged into the router. A CD came with the router with
an instruction manual on it. My anti-virus software popped up warning me there
was a trojan virus in the autorun.exe file on the CD! Could be a false alarm I
suppose...
After a day of non-stop fiddling with the modem and three or four calls to the
D-link helpline (which luckily is a free number) I still couldn't access the Internet
with the modem plugged into the router. I even installed Windows 2000 on a spare
harddrive to check that it wasn't my 98 setup that was the problem. Still no luck.
I was tired and very fed up.
D-link tech support advised me to upgrade the firmware in the modem and router,
as they thought it might be corrupted. The link on the front page of D-link's
UK website, to the FTP server with the upgrade files, was 404 not found. When
I got there eventually I found there was no upgrade for my three month old router,
just one for a more recent model. The USA site has much more firmware, but those
files can't be used with UK/European models.
The firmware upgrade for the modem wouldn't install. It kept failing halfway through.
The modem continued to work when connected directly to the PC, but not through
the router. Grrrr! Then, on Sunday evening, the modem stopped working completely
except for the power light.
This morning I called Amazon and arranged to send back the modem. They say they
will refund the postage again. I went out to a nearby computer shop and bought
the cheapest modem/router for £50. Within five minutes of arriving home
I was sharing my ADSL connection on my network. Very comprehensive software with
it too which, again, is stored in a flash memory in the unit itself.
All of which leaves me with the D-link router now surplus to requirements... Buying
it was a mistake.
In the past I've tended to buy the 'generic' cheap products, which usually seem
to work well for me. But, this time I was seduced by the blue and grey good looks
of the D-link products. However, that style comes at quite a price... This cheap
modem/router is available for as little as £35 on the 'net, compared to
more than £100 for the D-link router and modem combination.
Click here to visit the Badpuppy website
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