How To Configure A D-link Router
Catherin Bergan
D-Link Router can be configured in just a few minutes and once you have configured the router and set it up, your Wi-Fi connection will set up and you will be able to connect to the internet through your D-Link Router.
In this article, we are going to setup our D-Link router. Now we are not only focussing on connecting to the internet, but also on some other important settings. Think of securing your WiFi, using the right DNS servers to speed up your internet connection and creating a guest WiFi network.
Before we can connect our D-Link router to the internet we need to figure out how we can connect it. The D-Link router is a router and modem, so it can make the connection to your ISP itself, but we need to know how the internet is provided by your ISP.
The difference between a modem and a modem/router is that a modem only makes the connection to the internet. Where a router connects all the device together so you can print on your network printers, share files between computers and use the internet connection. Most consumer routers also provide WiFi and they have multiple ethernet ports (RJ45). A modem only has one ethernet port that you use to connect a router behind it.
We have done all the prerequisites, so we can now start with actually setting up the D-Link router. I assume your connected the router and put the internet connection in the WAN port and connected your computer with one of the LAN ports.
Our D-Link router is now connected to the internet, but we also want to set up our wireless network. By default, your router will have a wireless network that you can connect to. You will find these details on the bottom of the router.
But leaving things default is never a good idea, so we a going to change our wireless network name, pick a new password, optimize our wifi signal and disable the Wifi protected setup (because these are to easy to hack).
The D-Link router supports a guest wifi network. This way you can give your guests internet access without letting them on your private home network. The guest network is a separate Wifi network with its own wireless network name and password. Enabling it on a D-Link router is pretty easy.
During the internet connection setup, we skipped the DNS part. A DNS server is the dictionary of the internet. Almost everything we do with the internet requires a DNS server to translate a domain like amazon.com to an IP address. And because nearly everything you do requires a DNS server, selecting the fastest one will accelerate pretty much everything you do online. Your ISP also has a DNS server and those are in most of the case, not the fastest servers. So using another one can speed up your internet with more than 30% easily.
To speed up your internet connection we can also prioritize important network traffic. In a household your share your connection with all the members in your household. If somebody is watching Netflix while another is downloading the latest game on Steam you might notice that Netflix will need to buffer or lower the video quality. This happens because the download is consuming almost all the bandwidth that is available.
After you configured your router is it always a good habit to make a backup of the configuration. With a backup, you can easily restore your router if you have to reset the router or when it lost the configuration due to a power outage.
Something you should actually start with, but the most convenient way to update the firmware requires an internet connection. New firmware version contains bug fixes, security updates and may even have performance updates for your router. Before you update the firmware, always make a backup of the configuration.
What is the difference between those 5 holes? if I put the internet cable in the one which says internet, the internet does not work on my lap-top, so I tryed to put the internet cable in no. 4 and now it works. Why?
Kind regards
Jesper
Thanks, mate, this information was very helpful. Thanks for posting the article..keep posting articles. Being a newbie in d-link, I was finding it difficult to change the password. Thanks to you I can finally change the password.
I tried setting my DNS settings to two different adult blocking sites (ex. 208.67.222.222) and none of them work. This is very frustrating. I must be missing something because this works perfectly fine on my netgear router.
Step 7: If this is your first time logging in to the router, the Setup Wizard will start automatically.
This wizard is designed to guide you through a step-by-step process to configure your new D-Link router and connect to the Internet. Click Next to continue.
Please wait while your router detects your Internet connection type. After the router detects your Internet connection, you may need to enter information such as a username and password. To obtain these, you will need to speak to the company that provides your Internet, also known as an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
For both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless frequencies, create a name (SSID) for your Wi-Fi network. Each Wi-Fi network will also need a password of at least 8 characters. Your wireless clients will need to have this passphrase or key entered to be able to connect to your wireless network. Click Next to continue. (Password suggestion: please use a password that is easy for you to remember but obscure for others to guess. Strong passwords include letters and numbers in various positions.)
You can check the Enable Graphical Authentication box to enable CAPTCHA authentication for added security. CAPTCHA is demonstrated by the arrow in the login screen as below and helps protect against automated attacks:
If your router supports getting IP from a DHCP Server, You could configure it to do this. But if it does not support to be in the DHCP-client mode, You can set a static IP on it and then exclude its IP address on your DHCP Server to avoid IP conflict issues in your network.
If you forgot your password, you will need to reset the router back to the factory default settings. Unfortunately this will remove any settings you have and you will need to reconfigure your router.
To reset your router, use a paper clip and press & hold the reset button (usually located on the back of the router) for 10 seconds and release. Allow 1 minute to reboot. The default IP address of the router will be 192.168.0.1 and the password is blank.
If you are connecting wirelessly, you will need to reconnect your device to the default wireless network after the router reboots. The default Wi-Fi network/password may be printed on the label on the bottom of the router or on the included Wi-Fi Configuration Card (newer models).
To reconfigure, refer to the Quick Install Guide included with your router or download the PDF (click Close and then click Downloads).