Setup and Installation

Like all D-Link routers, setup and installation is a simple, wizard-guided experience. The wizard includes animation to help you with connecting your cables correctly, or, if you’re replacing an existing router, how to reconnect all of the cables. After your router has been configured and you have access to the Internet, you can register for the 30-day trial period of Securespot 2.0.

By default, the computer you use to register with Bsecure is the first computer to appear on your network map. A couple of things to note:

• The administrator password (i.e., the login for Bsecure) is not the same as the administrator’s password. In fact, you could set up Bsecure to manage your network, and if you don’t change the router’s password, someone could completely disable Bsecure.
• When you log in to Bsecure with your credentials, you’ll see your entire managed network. You can manage it from anywhere, as you are logging into Bsecure’s site using HTTPS.
• When you activate Securespot 2.0, additional computers on your network will not have Internet access until you register them.

Management Console

Figure 1: D-Link Securespot 2.0 Management Console

Figure 1, above, shows the Securespot 2.0 management console. In the upper left corner, you can see that the DIR-625 icon is selected. When the router icon is selected, changes you make impact all computers on your network unless you choose to manage specific computers individually.

In this image, you can see the fully populated test network including two PCs—one running XP Home, the other XP Pro—and a Macintosh running Mac OS 10.5.2. I returned the only Vista system that I briefly owned, so I couldn’t verify whether Securespot 2.0 properly supports it.

The first icons with the green "ON" LEDs in the lower left corner of the screen are global controls. The identity protection, popup blocker, and AV/spyware controls apply to individual computers, and are grayed-out until the thin client has been installed.

Once enabled, Securespot blocks Internet access for new devices until they have been registered—sort of… Initially, I registered "Testbed" as the first computer on my network. I then plugged in "Craig’s Toshiba." It acquired an IP address from the DIR-625, and I found that I could connect to secure web sites (HTTPS), ping names and addresses on the Internet, Telnet, and FTP without registering. What was blocked was web traffic on port 80.

Figure 2: Securespot 2.0 intercepts the first port 80 web request for new computers on your network.

Figure 2 contains the screen I got when making my first web page (HTTP) request on a previously unmanaged "new" computer. To register, I named the computer and typed in the administrator password I used to register with Bsecure (Figure 3). Alternatively, I could have registered as "Guest," which would have provided limited Internet access for 24 hours. To keep your neighbors from poaching your bandwidth, you can password protect the Guest account. (You did, of course, set up wireless security, didn’t you?)

Figure 3: Registering a new computer with Bsecure

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