D-Link VoIP router 1402s Review
Introduction
Still searching for that "miracle" box that would allow me to integrate my SIP calls with a regular phone and my computers routing needs, I decided to give the D-Link 1402s a try. Did it hit a home run or should the search still go on? We'll find out soon, but as a reminder, after trying the Zoom 5567 v3, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't uPNP compliant in its 1.0 firmware state, which is a big no-no with my configuration, and also was making my cable connection drop almost 50% of the time.
Package contents
With D-Link's offering, this is what your $99 (SRP) will get you :
- a D-Link 1402s router with 4 ethernet LAN RJ45 ports, 1 ethernet WAN RJ45 port and 2 RJ11 phone ports
- a power supply
- ethernet cable
- a quick start guide
- an installation CD
Installation
Nothing special on the router configuration front, your usual IP settings, NAT and port forwarding setup. Same old news as with almost every other router. Do take note however that most 1402 units you will find at retail are locked for the Lingo VoIP service and therefore won't let you use anything else.
There is a username and password to access the Advanced pages required to change the SIP settings, but, as far as I know, D-Link will not communicate them to you if you bought a Lingo box**. So make sure you order a 1402s and not a 1402s-l (L for Lingo I assume).
I must mention here that the unit I received acted very strangely during the first few hours I was trying to configure it, and it wouldn't let me connect via a web browser. I spent quite a while with D-Link tech support, which I'm pleased to say is not outsourced to some barely english-speaking foreign country, but we couldn't even ping the device. As weird as it may seem, I decided to try one more time two days later, before sending it back, and to my astonishment everything worked like a charm. Very weird but a happy ending for once.
There is no need to install the software that comes with the box, unless you run an outdated OS and need USB drivers and such. I installed the D-Link on a Windows XP network (2 PCs and 1 laptop), and everything has been working flawlessly.
Setup
I'm going to repeat myself here for those that already read my Zoom 5567 v3 review, but here it goes.
I will not describe the router setup as this is something that anybody who ever used a router will be familiar with. Furthermore, what will interest you is probably the VoIP features.
I tried the RJ45 phone ports with two different wireless phones, everything worked great. Sound quality from SIP to SIP or SIP to PSTN or PSTN to SIP was flawless. The VoIP setup pages allow you to change everything in your SIP setup, but it's not as user-friendly as the Zoom unit in my opinion. That said, all the options you should need are there and they work, which is what matters.
I used the router with my SIPphone account and the call quality is great, no problems so far. I also got it to work with my outbound SIP to PSTN voipuser.org account and calls have been crystal clear so far.
I should mention that despite what I was told at the CES, it seems like this router is uPNP compliant as it works with my Play@tv streaming unit very well and without any messing around. I would like to see a way to turn that off in an upcoming firmware for those users that have no need for uPNP and would rather be more secure, but I'm nitpicking here.
Conclusion
So, have I found the perfect router for my setup? In a word, yes! Now if I could only figure out how to use the voipuser.org account, that would definitely be the cherry on top!
One suggestion to D-Link (those guys are definitely nice to deal with): allow the use of the second phone port as a relay for a regular landline so that one phone can be used for every type of call, and make that a simple parameter in the web configuration pages. This way, if the user wants to use two phones or one phone and a fax, or just one phone for everything, this jack-of-all-trades could do it all.
For my use, this router is a keeper and an overall score of 9 out of 10. If D-Link could add that extra feature, it would be a perfect 10.
Thierry
** - The VoIP Wiki yielded the following info about unlocking a Lingo unit:-
Admin logon : PrimusAdmin
password : tu7w3z39op4n
This for the current (winter 2004) Lingo version, firmware L4.0S34 boot rom L4.0B03. CSR didn't ask about my version, so this password should work on all. D-Link will probably change with a firmware update if it becomes too popular.
Added: Thursday, January 13, 2005
Reviewer: Thierry
Score:
hits: 63525
Language: eng
[ VoIP Reviews Main ]
Posted by l2811 on Oct 27, 2009 - 04:20 AM
Your rating: 
We have used this for a while for Business VoIP and never had any issues. |
|
