Home > Consumer Reviews > D-Link DSL-2320B ADSL2/2 USB Ethernet Modem

This thing works fine, and this review is less of a review than a cautionary tale. I purchased this fine piece of equipment and got it all hooked up and nothing happened. No internets! omg plz!

Turns out I had to adjust the settings of the modem which is fairly easy if you are a computer geek, but for me it was a bit of a challenge. D-Link support refused to help me on the basis that all they would help me with was knowing how to plug it in and making sure the unit was not defective. They suggested I talk to my ISP.

My ISP would not tell me the VCI/VCP needed but luckily the modem found that on its own using the WAN Wizard setup, however I had to manually adjust a few settings before it would work, settings that neither my ISP or D-Link support knew anything about when I asked them. I did manage to get it to work but I nearly had to send it back and buy a modem of the same brand that my ISP requires.

So in short, this thing works as it should, but I recommend you consult with your ISP prior to purchasing a modem to determine which brands they do support so as not to have to deal with d-link support.

After becoming very frustrated with the provided and for purchase DSL modems from ATT, I selected this item based on compatibility with the rest of my network equipment. The modem was an easy set-up and has worked without a flaw. And best of all has eliminated the 'Network Cable Unplugged' issue that plagued the ATT modem.

I spent about 4 hours trying to install and debug this DSL modem. The initial install went beautifully, more easily than any other DSL modem or cable modem I've used. It was great. The auto-detect process seemed to work perfectly and quickly found exactly the right settings for my ISP (AT&T) without having to make obscure config changes to get it to connect.

So I was up on the internet in just a minute. But I started noticing weird problems with some sites and it was slow in general. Some sites were totally impossible to access, timing out eventually. Other sites had some images or other parts inconsistently corrupted. Some sites seemed to work perfectly. This inconsistent behavior was mysterious to me.

By searching online and reading reviews by other users I eventually discovered the source of the problem. PPPoE, the protocol used for DSL, has a maximum packet size of around 1492 bytes. But most network equipment and PCs default to a 1500 max packet size. A packet that is too large for the connection will be either dropped or fragmented.

In the case of the this dlink DSL modem, it either botches the fragmentation causing packet corruption or simply drops them. So websites that use packets bigger than 1492 bytes fail to function. An example is www.microsoft.com.

Note that some people have partially resolved this problem but the solution is NOT acceptable. It is possible to install software on your PC or modify your windows registry to force smaller packet sizes than the 1500 default. This avoids the bug in this dlink modem. But EVERY computer or device attached to your network will need to be individually modified to function correctly! That isn't the way it is supposed to work.

I tried putting a router in front of the dlink modem and setting its maximum packet size to various sizes below 1492 hoping that it would fragment the packets so the dlink modem wouldn't barf. But that didn't work for some unknown reason.

Anyway, since that time, I've bought and used two other brands of DSL modem (an integrated DSL modem/802.11n router from Netgear and an Actiontec GT701D). Both of these other DSL modems work perfectly with zero problems with large packets. So don't but this dlink until they fix this widely reported bug. Its too bad because otherwise it seemed like a cool modem.

I recommend the Actiontec GT701D. So far it has performed really well. The auto-detect didn't work right (typical) but after manually entering the right settings it worked and is fast. And it also has a lot of status to track its functioning. It even has pretty advanced monitoring and logging to track network use by port, IP address, etc. Cool stuff, especially considering it was the cheapest DSL modem I could find.

Does what it suppose to do. Reliable enough when used with ATT DSL service. the box itself gets a bit warm and do not stack it on top of another router or switch.

Working with my ISP, I got this up and running in no time. The auto connect didn't work with Surewest. Once I manually set up the modem and rebooted we connected but I couldn't get to the GUI any longer. It is configured to Bridge, and D-link said they "believe" you should still be able to manage the modem. I gave up working with D-link after that. I haven't checked with the ISP but I'm thinking that in this mode the modem is transparent. None of this is a real problem as it's plugged into the router and everything is communicating just fine.