Dlink Router WBR-1310: The “Free Router” is Almost Worth the Price
It became clear last summer that we needed a new computer, so naturally, I looked around for the best deal. I was leaning heavily towards a laptop, so when I saw a good price on one that included a “free” router, I went ahead and bought it. The router was a Dlink WBR-1310, and although you had to pay $59.99 for it upfront, there were $60 in mail-in rebates, making it “free” in the end.
As an aside, I’d like to say a few words about the mail-in rebate offers from Circuit City. I’ve used them on several occasions, the first time being $700 of mail-in rebates on an $800 item. (Can’t find those deals anymore!) I received my rebates (in full) in a timely and hassle-free fashion that first time, and have never had a problem since. So the “free after rebate” offer didn’t put me off in the least. (I had no problems getting the rebates on the router.)
We had dial-up prior to getting the laptop, so I was pretty excited at the thought of high-speed wireless. I had developed some scenes in my mind that were nearly poetic- how I would lounge in the shade, just me and my laptop. So with Sunday flyer in one hand, credit card in the other, I gleefully headed to Circuit City.
Imagine my confusion when the clerk at Circuit City told me that the Dlink WBR-1310 Router wouldn’t go through walls.
“What?” I responded. “Isn’t that what wireless is?”
“Um, yeah, well, it can go across a room.”
“Can it go from downstairs to upstairs?
“Not in a big house.”
“My house isn’t that big.”
“Well, um, then maybe. But not if you have brick walls.”
“Interior brick walls? No, we don’t have any.”
Getting nowhere, he tried a different approach: “You can’t really go outside with it.”
“Why not? My back deck is actually closer than the upstairs bedrooms.”
“Um, it like, works across an average room.”
“Yeah, you said that. How big is an average room?”
“Um, like around, sorta, 20 feet, or so.”
“Perfect! My deck is 20 feet long!”
At this point, I figured the Circuit City kid didn’t know any more about routers than I did, so I stuck firm to my decisions of getting the freebie. Turns out, it worked great! I could use it everywhere- house, garage, front porch, and back deck. No problems. Until that fateful day…
I had planned on spending a quiet evening on-line only to find out that I wasn’t on-line! I called the cable company, but it wasn’t them. Come to find out (after three and a half hours on technical support with Dlink)- my router had stopped working! They finally determined that it was a defective Dlink WBR-1310. Ironically, I had to go on-line to print out a return form.
Long story short, I filled out the return form and mailed it back along with the whole router set-up and a copy of the receipt. (One point for me for saving the receipt!) It cost $7 and change to mail it- no big deal, considering they were sending me a replacement router for free.
The replacement router arrived at my house via UPS about a week later, exactly on the day it was promised to arrive. I was told by technical support that when I got it, I needed only to plug it in and it would be functioning. Not so. I called technical support (again) and had the router working within 10 minutes. However, some funky stuff has been happening since I got the new router.
First, every time I tried to connect with the Internet it took three tries before it actually connected. Not good. After about four days, that mysteriously resolved itself. Second, I kept getting a message that Adobe Flash was interfering with my wireless connection, and then the wireless would disconnect. I un-installed Adobe Flash and that seems to have solved that problem, but I haven’t tried to watch any videos since I un-installed it. (I don’t have the patience for anymore computer problems right now!) Third, sometimes it takes up to five seconds to turn a page, and that used to be instantaneous.
If I would have had to rate the Dlink WBR-1310 Router two months ago, I would have given it a 10 out of 10. After dealing with their customer service, I’d give the customer service a 9 out of 10. (They were polite and helpful, but due to the nature of the problem I had to talk to six different people. The problem was rectified to my satisfaction, but three and a half hours was an awfully long time to spend on the phone.) Since I’ve been using the replacement Dlink WBR-1310 Router, it hasn’t been working all that well, so now I would down-rate the router to a 4 out of 10. Given the fact that it was free (twice), I’ll put the overall rating at a 6 out of 10, although if this one stops working I would not replace it with the same product.
