D-Link ADSL2+ Ethernet Modem-(DSL-520B)

The item name for this is incorrect, it is not just a modem but a modem/router. This makes it capable of handling many home devices out of the box, though the fact that it only has 1 LAN port means you'll be using an access point and/or a switch if you want to attach more than 1 wired device (typically a computer) to it. Since I have my own infrastructure of access points and switches this device does exactly what I was looking for, i.e. provide ADSL connectivity to my network. (Having no wireless access point and no bank of LAN ports built in has the advantage of making this device small and inexpensive.) It does that job and it does it fast. I compared it to two ADSL routers that my phone company provides in Uruguay (a ZTE zxv10 W300 and a Zyxel amg1202-t10b) using ookla and while the throughput was pegged for all at the limit of my ADSL service the latency was noticeably quicker on this modem vs the others (18ms vs 30+.)Cable modems tend to be a no-brainer for the user to install (at most they require a call to the cable company top active them). ADSL modems are not as lucky as there are some parameters to specify, notably VCP circuit numbers and in some cases user name and password. This modem/router tries to automate the process with a setup CD that knows the most common ISPs in the US, but it offers little help for the rest of the world. I know my ISPs VCP numbers (0 and 35) and I know the ISP uses PPPoE LLC and disregards whatever user/password you specify so I had no trouble setting the modem/router up manually.The web UI of the modem/router is downright spartan (it looks like the developer looked for efficiency, not fancy graphic design.) But all the options are there, including an ADSL statistics page that gives you all the stats you might ever want and more (my favorite is "Super Frame Errors", no idea what those are but they sound mighty.) There is a "Diagnostics" page that stays blank a looong time and then shows a bunch of PASS/FAIL test results. One option that other ADSL modem/routers (e.g. those of TP-Link) offer but is not available here is support for DynDns and NO-IP type IP address reporting, something that is handy for people hosting any kind of server behind an ADSL connection with dynamic IP.It remains to be seen how this modem/router holds up in the long term in the rural medium I am in; I've lost a number of them to electric discharges (lightning etc) and/or poor thermal design that leads the modem to run hot and eventually die. But so far so good.BOTTOM LINE: If your ISP offers plain ADSL (not VDSL) and you want a zippy, low cost modem/router to take advantage of it this unit does the job.

A good basic DSL modem, with no eye-candy features, etc... Yea! All text user interface! No glitchy graphics (eg. GIF/PNG/JPG) within the administration web interface. A little difficult at first to setup, as I always enter the incorrect password using the initial "quick setup" option. However, I further note below the three most important menu items you'll need to know after initially setting up this modem, including changing the ISP login password, and the menus for monitoring for service issues.My modem log states this modem model having a Broadcom BCM96345 chip, for which Broadcom chips are supposedly strongly preferred for DSL modems. This modem states "Made in China", with D-Link's headquarters is in Taiwan. Regardless, this is the most recent DSL modem without wireless features available on the market, aside from the older TP-Link DSL non-wirelessmodem. Also, the manual includes GPL/LGPL disclosures. (eg. Yea! Linux & Open Source!)Purchased this as a replacement for my apparently shorted TP-LINK TD-8816 DSL modem. The TP-Link worked great for 2-3 years, until just after a telephone repair man apparently checked the system. Shrugs, so I just bought another non-WindStream modem!This is a good basic modem without any wireless features or eye-candy user interfaces. Very similar to the TP-LINK TD-8816 DSL modem, except there are no GIF/JPEG images within the web browser administration interface for which created problems when printing. This modem also offers telnet/ssh interfacing.NOTE: The three most important menus within the modem's web administration interface are the following menus;1) "Device Info" > WAN: Tells you if you are connected to your Internet service provider's network. For example, shows your issued IP address.2) "Device Info" > Statistics > WAN: Shows your SNR Margin dB, Attenuation dB, speed rates and errors/corrections. In other words, line integrity problems. Also includes the previous menu's info.3) "Advanced Setup" > WAN > Edit to edit your user name and password, along with augmenting any other DSL settings for logging into your Internet service provider. (eg. UBER, QOS, PPPoA or PPPoE, LLC, login password, redial/retry method, MTU ...)Additionally, you may want to turn on logging within Management > System Log, as by default, logging is turned-off for some odd reason. Logging is very minimal with the default settings, likely providing some very informative information when trouble-shooting.If this is your only router/device between your computer and your telephone line (eg. no router), than this device also provides firewall and NAT features. If you have a more recently dedicated wireless router or other router, than those dedicated routers may function better than this modem's routing/firewall/NAT (etc) functions as the dedicated hardware tends to perform better than hardware with add-on features.The other great thing about these cheap modems, if the telephone repair person gets mad at your and decided to short your telephone wiring with 48V shorting any hardware connected to the line, than this $50 modem will likely short-out first and save the remainder of your network system (eg. telephones, wireless routers, ...) from the excessive voltage. Making this a $50 repair/replace scenario rather than a $150+ for replacing all-in-one DSL modem wireless routers!

I was able to get my Internet up and connected in a matter of minutes using this device. In fact, the "auto" config worked right out of the box. That said, I'm using PPoE and I know the credentials to use for that, so it was just a matter of putting them in and letting it do the rest. There is another review (or a Q and A) on here where someone explains their settings to make theirs work. Mine matched theirs, except for the PPoE part.The device itself is pretty standard. It does have QoS and firewalling which is nice. Not the prettiest interface, but who really cares about that. You probably won't log into it much, once your Internet is up and running.I went with four stars instead of five for one reason only, and maybe I'm being overly critical. I have a wireless router that I use to connect to this. It wasn't easy to figure out how (if it's even possible) to put the modem into "bridge" mode. That is the mode that allows your router to be the Default Gateway instead of the modem. You configure the PPoE credentials on the router and it logs into the ISP through the modem. I was able to put my wireless router into "wireless access point" mode as a workaround, so not a huge deal.Anyway, if CenturyLink in your area uses VDSL instead of ADSL, this probably isn't going to work for you. But, if you have an old school ADSL connection, this should do the trick.