D-Link box capable of 24Mbps downloads

HERE'S ONE TO SET the men apart from the boys. The DSL-524T is a router with four ports which is ADSL2/2+ compliant, and will pipe the Internet to you at up to 24Mbps, ISP willing.

The ISP we're using, BT, might be willing, but it's still not ready to supply us with an 8Mbps connection. The spuggies on the telegraph wire that connects us to our local exchange would have burnt feet if 24Mbps was fed over the line, we'd expect.

Nevertheless, this router is ready for high speeds to be thrown at it, even though we reckon it will be quite a while before we can have screaming video at high speeds over our local line.

What we like about it, while we wait for ADSL2/2+ is the ease of setup. When you open the box, there's a mighty yellow sticker at the back of the router which tells you to run the CD in the package before doing anything else.

We did as we were told. The setup disk is simplicity itself and walks you through the different stages such as plugging in the power, inserting the Ethernet cable to your computer, connecting the ADSL line and finally entering your ISP details. A drop down menu lets you pick your ISP of choice - you just then enter your user name and password and here we are, connected. Once you go IP to 192.168.1.1, you get to the screen on your browser that lets you choose the settings you want.

The box supports SNMP, UPnP, DDNS and IP QoS, has four fast Ethernet ports, and works with Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems. It comes with a built in SPI firewall to make your life less stressed than it already is.

Also enclosed is a CAT 5 UTP Ethernet cable, an ADSL cable, a microfilter so you can use your phone and fax machine too, and a great big lumping 12V, 1.2A power supply, once you find a place to plug it into. Nice printed manual too - rather than the now almost compulsory PDF one somewhere on the CD.

So what is there to say about this little box so far? It's a trim bit of kit that walks you through setup in a neat way. It would be nice to have been able to have tried for that 24Mbps download, but then we're still waiting to get beyond 2Mbps. Nicely packaged, neatly put together and might do everything it says on the box. We'll let you know as soon as BT ups the speed. It might be a very long wait. ?