Money Saving Guide For Computer Experts

DI-524 Wireless Router - Wolf In Sheep's Clothing:

One of the dirty secrets in electronics manufacturing is in order to save manufacturing costs, different products often share the same underlying hardware, but have various features turned on or off using software. This is the case with the Dlink DI-524. Not only is it a great router, it's actually a firmware-crippled DI-624, the faster, more expensive brother of the 524.

One guy at the DSLforum discovered both routers shared the same Atheros chipset and brilliantly figured out how to fool the 524 into thinking it's a 624. Specifically, this only works with revision 'C' of the DI-524. To change it to a 624, you need to flash with the hacked firmware. After the flash, your DI-524 will behave identically to a 624. It will even accept non-hacked official DI-624 firmware. DI-624 firmwares are also more regularly updated than DI-524's.

Your router will now have the following upgrades:

• double the speed with Super-G 108Mbps
• more features such as Turbo and Extended modes
• cable testing feature
• more configurable properties

The greatest thing with the 524 is you can often find them on sale at Futureshop and other computer hardware retailers. I got mine for $35 at Compusmart after mail-in-rebates.