The DI-701 also acts as a DHCP automatically assigning IP addresses to your internally networked computers to which it is connected. This saves time by not requiring the user to manually assign an IP to each computer.

The DI-701 supports both manual configuration, as well as automatic configuration, of your ISP's settings such as IP, DNS Servers, Subnet Mask, etc. This feature is very handy, especially if your ISP provides you with an IP each time your computer is booted up.

For an example, I will show you how the setup I have works with my Road Runner Setup

Upon installation of the DI-701 it receives the necessary connection information such as IP, Gateway, DNS, etc., from Road Runner. That information is assigned to the actual DI-701. The DI-701 then in turn assigns manually configurable IP's to each internal computer to which it is connected. When a computer then requests Internet access, the gateway portion translates the internal IP to the IP, which Road Runner assigned to me. It then translates incoming and outgoing traffic to and from internal and external IP's. This allows the internal computer to be hidden from users on the Internet. If, for example, someone were to try and hack into the network, the only thing they would be hacking into would be the gateway.

The DI-701 can also route incoming packets. For example, if you have a game server installed on your internal network, you can configure the DI-701 to route incoming packets on that certain port to the game server.

The DI-701 is also great if you do not want to have to pay Road Runner an additional $10 or so a month to allow you to hook up another computer. The DI-701 masks all internal computers, however many they may be, and makes it look to Road Runner as though you only have one computer connected to their network.