Hello everybody!
In today’s video, I’m going to tell you about basic settings of D-Link routers, with
the example of D-Link DIR-615, and how to configure it.
However, you can use this tutorial to work with many other D-Link routers, as they all
share similar settings.
For starters, plug the power cable into the router and turn it on.
If the lights on the front panel do not come alive, make sure you pressed the power button
on the back panel of the router.
If you are going to configure the router with a cable connection, get the network cable
that comes supplied with the router, and use it to connect the router and the computer.
Plug one end of the cable into the LAN/Ethernet port of the router (you can use any of the
four ports available), and the other - into the network adapter port of your computer
or laptop.
Plug the cable from your Internet service provider into the yellow WAN/Internet port.
If your computer doesn’t have a network adapter, or there is no network cable, you
can still configure all settings by Wi-Fi, Using your smartphone or tablet PC.
After that, go to the router settings.
To configure a router, open an Internet browser and type the IP address of your router into
the address bar: 192.168.0.1.
Then fill in the login and password: admin and admin.
The IP address as well as the default login and password used to access the settings are
usually printed on a special sticker you can find on the bottom side of the router.
I’d like to draw your attention to the firmware interface of this D-Link router.
In my case, this is how it looks like.
However, its appearance could be different.
Nevertheless, the structure of the settings menu and names of menu items are very similar.
When you find your way around the router settings with the example of this D-Link device, you
will be able to configure another D-Link router - even with a different firmware interface.
I will show you all the settings with the emulator of the router (D-Link DIR-615) firmware
and its configurations.
For starters, you can change the language of the menu.
To do it, click “Language” and select the one you prefer.
You can configure a D-Link router manually by opening the advanced settings, but it could
be too difficult if you are a novice user.
That’s why I recommend using D-Link’s featured quick setup menu, known as “Click`n`Connect.”
You can find it in the section “Net.”
• Click on “Click`n`Connect.”
• Plug the cable from your Internet provider into the WAN/Internet port of the router and
click “Next.”
• IN the next window, choose the connection type, static or dynamic IP.
You can find out which one you have by contacting your Internet service provider.
Further steps in configuring your router will differ depending on the connection type.
First, I will describe settings for a static connection, and then for a dynamic one.
If your Internet service provider assigns you a static IP address:
• Choose it and click “Next.”
• Then click “Expert” button below.
• In the window that opens, enter the data you have received from your provider.
If the Internet is connected directly to this computer, click on the button “Clone MAC
Address.”
If the Internet is connected to another computer, enter its address into the MAC field and click
“Next.”
If the Internet connection was never provided by this cable before, you need to give the
MAC address of the router to your Internet provider.
How can you learn the MAC address for your router?
It’s very easy.
Take the router and have a look at the sticker on its bottom side.
You will see the MAC address there.
• Check its settings and click “Next.”
If your provider assigns you a Dynamic IP address:
• Select it.
• Check the box next to the item “Obtain DNS server address automatically.”
• Click “Next.”
• Apply the changes.
In this case, things are way easier.
Then go back to the main settings menu and select “System” to save and reboot it.
After the restart, check the network information.
If there is a green light on, it means the WAN (Internet) is working properly.
Now let’s move on to configuring Wi-Fi on the router DIR-615.
To do it: • Go to the Wi-Fi menu.
• Select the “Access point” mode for the wireless network.
• Enter the access point name.
• Set the security mode as “Protected” or “Open.”
• When the network is open, setting a password is not required.
• If you choose “Protected,” you will be asked to set a network key, that is, the
password to access the Wi-Fi network broadcast by this router.
• Make sure the settings are correct and apply them.
• Then go back to the main settings menu and select “System” to save and reboot
it.
When the router restarts, your network is ready to use.
This was the quick setup menu for the router D-Link DIR-615.
It will come in handy for novice users, or when a new router has to be configured.
But if you need to check, correct or fine-tune your router settings, you should open the
Expert menu.
I will not cover every menu item in detail, because There’s so much information that
it might be a good topic for a special video.
Let’s have a closer look at basic router settings: connection, Wi-Fi, and DHCP.
That is, we will focus on the “Net” and “Wi-Fi” sections.
So, to configure the router’s connection to the Internet, go to Net / WAN.
To create a new connection, click the “Add” button.
If you need to check settings of an existing connection, just click on it.
This menu is very similar to the one you saw when using the quick setup feature.
If your Internet service provider assigns you a static IP address:
• Select it and give it a name, • Then enter the data you have received
from your provider.
• In the filed ‘MAC,” enter the MAC address assigned to the access point by your
provider.
If the Internet is connected directly to this computer, click on the button “Clone MAC
Address.”
• Enter the IP address, net mask, gateway IP address, and primary DNS server -
all this information you can receive from your provider.
• Check the settings and click “Next.”
If your provider assigns you a Dynamic IP address:
• Select it.
• Check the box next to the item “Obtain DNS server address automatically.”
• And apply the changes.
Then go back to the main settings menu and select “System” to save the changes and
reboot the router.
If you’ve done everything right and you have an active Internet connection, you can
go on to set up your Wi-Fi network.
To create and configure a wireless access point:
• go to Wi-Fi main settings and tick “Enable Wireless.”
• Select “Hide Access Point” if you don’t want others to see it.
• Set the wireless network name in the line “SSID.”
• Specify the country.
• In this case, leave the channel option as “Auto.”
• I recommend choosing the most compatible wireless mode.
If you choose only a specific one, there may be conflicts with devices working in other
modes.
• You can restrict the maximal number of connected clients.
0 – means there are no restrictions.
• Apply the changes.
The next step is to configure wireless security and set a password for your Wi-Fi network.
To do it, go to the tab “Security settings.”
You can choose one of the following security options or disable it.
If it’s disabled, wireless devices can connect to the router without encryption and password.
It is strongly recommended to select one of the variants below to protect your wireless
network.
You can choose any option you prefer, But the best choice would be the fullest and most
compatible type of protection.
In the field “Encryption Key” set the password you want to use for connecting to
your Wi-Fi network.
Save the settings and reboot the router.
If you connected any devices to the wireless network before you have configured Wi-Fi settings,
you will have to reconnect them after changing the password and restarting the router, and
log in again after entering the new password.
MAC Filter In this menu, you can allow or restrict devices
with certain MAC addresses to connect to your wireless network.
I’ll be brief.
To block a certain device from your Wi-Fi network:
• Go to the MAC Filter menu.
• Set the MAC Filter restrict mode to “Deny.”
• In the tab “MAC Addresses”, specify the MAC addresses of the devices which should
be denied access to the network.
• After the changes are applied, such devices will not be able to connect to your Wi-Fi
router even if they have the password.
• If you set the filter to “Allow” then only the devices with the specified MAC addresses
will be able to connect to your wireless network.
In this video, I also would like to describe one of the router functions which is not an
essential one - it’s DHCP.
Although it is enabled and running by default, I’ll try to explain the principle it’s
based on and the settings you can modify.
As a rule, this option is usually enabled for network devices, though some users may
have it disabled, for a variety of reasons.
To enable or configure it, open the router settings and go to the menu Net / LAN.
In this page, you can enable or disable the DHCP server mode, and set the start IP and
end IP for the local network in the corresponding fields.
Start IP should be given with consideration of the router’s net point, so give the IP
address following it.
For example, if the main gateway is set as 192.168.0.1, the start IP address can be 192.168.0.2;
192.168.0.3 and so on.
By setting a certain end IP address, you set the number of addresses the router can assign
to connected devices.
For example, by setting it like 192.168.0.100 I allow the router to assign addresses to
98 devices.
And all these addresses will fall within the range from 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.100.
All other settings are not obligatory, but if necessary, you can reduce the address lease
time - the amount of time a network user will be allowed connection to the router with their
current dynamic DHCP address.
When the lease time expires, the device that has been assigned the IP address will ask
to prolong it.
This dialogue takes place in the background so you don’t see it, and if there are many
clients in this network, such option is very useful because it prevents the table from
being overflown.
You can see the address lease time, MAC and IP addresses on the DHCP Clients List.
With DHCP, the router assigns IP addresses to devices which are connected to its network.
Every time, it will assign the addresses one by one.
In our case, the first connected device will be assigned the address 192.168.0.2, and the
following devices will get 3, 4 and so on.
However, there is a way to reserve a static IP address for a client.
If you do it, the router will give the connected device the same IP address every time such
device connects to the network.
To do it: • In the Static DHCP section, click on “Select
IP/MAC address” and choose one of the devices currently connected to the router.
• Otherwise, click “Add” if the device you need is not connected to the router yet.
• Enter the MAC address for the device and give an IP address which is not used for other
devices from the available range.
• Click “Apply” and this device will always connect to the network with this IP
address only.
How can you learn the MAC address of a certain device to reserve an IP address for it, or
to restrict its access to your Wi-Fi network?
• For example, with an Android smartphone you need to go to Settings / About phone / Status.
The address you are looking for is given in the line “MAC Address.”
• In Windows, go to “Network & Internet settings” / “Change adapter options.”
Right-click on the wireless adapter which is used for the Internet connection and select
“Status” / “Details.”
Physical address is the actual MAC address of the computer's network adapter.
Other router settings are rather overspecialized and hardly necessary for average users.
We will show them in another video.
By the way, we have already covered all these functions in a series of videos about TP-Link
routers.
You will find the links in the description.
The settings we have just configured are enough to use the router at some basic level.
If you have any questions while you are configuring your router, you can leave a comment to ask
one.
Hit the Like button below and subscribe to Hetman Software channel if you find this video
useful.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck.