D-Link Wireless Network DI-714P+ Install
(Wireless Networking Menu)

NOTE: I am finding that this product does not talk well with other devices and have started using my Belkin WAP/Router again. It took a while to negotiate an IP address on my PCs and it would drop my connection to the router periodically. Another periodic issue I ran into was horridly bad connection speeds. It would take forever to load pages. I switched back to the Belkin within a few minutes of the D-link's inept performance and went from 150kbps to 3200kbps. Linksys had the same performance problem and it seemed to be a problem with inability to talk with ATT's routers/switches properly. During a tracert, the D-Link and Linksys either timed out on ATT's routers or had a 2000ms response time (20-40ms is average).

I had an email from someone who had read my Linksys install and Linksys vs Insightbb pages asking for some help on extending his newly installed Microsoft wireless WAP. There were a few things I suggested such as changing the channel used to 11, turning off 2.4ghz phones, using USB cards for desktop/tower units, and X-jack antenna PCMCIA cards for laptops. While looking for hardware to extend it, I found D-Links new Airplus devices (802.11b+ 22kbps) which have a wireless repeater to extend range for D-Link Airplus devices only. D-Link and Linksys products also can have their ranges extended through antenna kits (www.fab-corp.com). The more I looked at the D-Link Airplus, the more curious I became, I bought it the next day. 

 Installing this product was extremely easy.

I bought the D-Link DI-714P+ :

I already had wireless cards from my Linksys install.

This install merely required unplugging the RJ-45 (Cat 5/Ethernet Cable) from my Belkin router that leads to my cable modem and plugging it into the D-Link's WAN port. Plug the power in and wait a few minutes for the router to cycle up. Once it cycled either connect up via wireless or RJ-45. Your wireless card may need to be manually set to use channel 6 and ssid "default" with no WEP (encryption). Go to the D-Link setup page (http://192.168.0.1/)

Click on the "Run Wizard" button.

Press "Next".

Put in a password you will remember. Press "Next".

Choose your time zone. Press "Next".

Select the type of connection you have. Most will use Dynamic. Some may use a Static, PPoE, or PPTP/BigPond Cable address and you should have some information from your ISP on settings to input in non-shown screens that would follow those selections. Press "Next"

Depending on your ISP, you may have to add a network name (look in ISP documentation). I odd situations you my have to clone a network card MAC address. If needed, run  winipcfg in win9x or ipconfig in NT based systems to find the MAC address on a network card in your computer. Press "Next".

You can leave the network name as "default" but you should change the channel to something else if you get limited range. I've have good luck with channel 11. For security reasons you might want to turn on WEP encryption. If you turn on WEP encryption, you need to set a WEP key and will need to remember the key to put on your computer wireless cards. The higher the encryption, the slower the network will become (not a drastic reduction). Press "Next".

Press "Restart", wait a minute or two, then restart your computer.

If you use Insghtbb go to http://12.223.2.9/ and register the new MAC address.

DONE!!!

I will be adding a repeater to this network and possibly a kit from www.fab-corp.com to really extend my network! I will add more to this article when I do.

Any questions, comments, or suggestions feel free to email me jpdurbin@jpdurbin.net

Johnathan P. Durbin
http://jpdurbin.net/
A Member of the 84Online team