hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-15140-1368-x-x-x
The D-Link DGL-4300 Wireless 108G Gaming Router is the perfect router for gamers who have to share an Internet connection with others. By Tracy Baker Posted Monday, December 20th 2004 You can have the best video card, the biggest monitor, the most sensitive mouse, and the fattest Internet connection, but those advantages won't do you any good in online games if your router isn't up to snuff. If you 're looking to cut ping times to a minimum, and set up a wireless home n etwork, D-Link has the perfect solution in its DGL-4300 Wireless 108G Ga ming Router, but all that technology comes at a high price.
The DGL-4300 supports a slew of cutting-edge features, incorporating a fo ur-port Gigabit Ethernet hub for blazing-fast transfers over a wired net work at up to 1,000Mbps. D-Link's GameFuel technology is what separates this router from the pack, and in testing we discovered that it's much more than just a marketing ploy. GameFuel aims to speed up online game performance by flagging data packets from games as high priority while at the same time flagging pac kets from other programs like FTP utilities as low priority. It also has the ability to divide large data packets into smaller packets that are less apt to clog up the network and cause spotty online gaming performan ce. We tested the unit by uploading and downloading large files to and from a Web server via FTP while playing online shooters, where high ping times and latency issues spell death. We compared its performance with that o f the older D-Link DI-624 AirPlus Xtreme G wireless router, playing only on servers that gave us good ping times and that rarely suffered from s erver lag. As a representative example of the performance differences be tween the two routers, one server consistently delivered ping times betw een 30 and 40 milliseconds when we played through the DI-624 router. Whe n we started transferring files in the background, those ping times skyr ocketed to 144 milliseconds or higher, and intermittent periods of high latency made the game much harder to play. We then hooked up the DGL-4300 and played on the same server without enab ling GameFuel and again experienced ping times in the 30-to-40-milliseco nd range with no latency issues. When we uploaded a file in the backgrou nd without GameFuel enabled, ping times rose into the 120-millisecond ra nge until the upload was complete. Latency wasn't as big an issue under these circumstances as it was with the DI-624, but it was still a proble m Finally, we enabled GameFuel, rebooted the router, and played again w hile still saturating the connection with various file transfers initiat ed from a separate system on the network. Ping times stayed in the 30-to -45-millisecond range, and the latency issue disappeared. For all practi cal purposes, the play experience was the same as it was when files were n't being transferred in the background, so GameFuel seems to work as ad vertised. Although the DGL-4300 has a longer high-gain antenna than previous models , its wireless performance was on par with that of the older DI-624 we t ested it against. The home where the router was test ed has a few spots where wireless signals are particularly weak, and the DGL-4300 was no better than the older router at delivering a solid conn ection to these problem areas. It's a solid wireless router, but don't e xpect miracles compared with older units.
The rear connectors (internal magic router gnomes not pictured). Setup is very easy, thanks to a Web-based configuration interface. Just e nter the router's IP address into a browser and use the various tabs to access the multitude of options. A wizard is available to guide the unin itiated through the basics, while advanced users can set up a virtual se rver, set up special rules for individual games that open up specific po rts each time they're launched, browse access logs, and perform other op erations. WEP, WPA-Personal, and WPA-Enterprise wireless security are su pported, and the firewall settings let users enable stateful packet insp ection for improved overall security. Help documentation is integrated i nto the interface for easy reference, and a complete glossary is include d, allowing beginners quickly look up unfamiliar terms. If you already have a decent wireless router, the real question is whethe r or not you'll actually benefit from GameFuel. While we avoid transferr ing files in the middle of an online gaming session, file-hungry family members might not be as considerate. If you're able to dedicate your ent ire Internet connection to a game when you play, then you'll be just fin e with a less expensive router without specialized technology. However, the D-Link DGL-4300 router is a terrific choice if you're living in a ho usehold full of bandwidth leeches (including, but not limited to, siblin gs, children, parents, grandparents, and roommates). The price is rather steep, but the router is well worth the money if you spend a lot of tim e gaming online and you have to share an Internet connection at home. Overview: D-Link DGL-4300 108G Wireless Gaming Router The Good: Wireless networking, prioritizes game traffic for improved perf ormance on a shared Internet connection. The Bottom Line: If you share an Internet connection at home, pick up thi s router to keep your gaming connection smooth as silk.
|
http://csua.com/feed/