Customer Reviews

D Link AirPlus DWL-520+ Wireless 22MBPS PCI Adapter

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I'd like to contribute a positive review here, since the previous reviewers seemed to have problems with this card. I bought this card to go with my D-Link Wireless Router, and everything has worked fine since I bought this. I haven't had one issue since I've installed this card.

My signal strength has always been above 75%, but I don't expect it to change much since it is installed in a desktop PC. I am running Windows 2000 and I don't notice much of a difference if at all in my internet access speeds.

I used to have a wired network but wanted to expand to more than 2 computers and my hub was old and slow. So with this wireless upgrade to my network I was able to install everything in about 1 hour. I bought the D-Link router with 4 wired ports still use one wired PC connection, and another PC has this PCI card in it, my laptop has the PCMCIA version and they all network together quite nicely. I was impressed with the short time it took me to implement this change.

Thats my experience with D-Link and their wireless networking products. I hope your experience is as easy as mine.

When I first installed this product, I had my doubts about the whether it could work in an area with numberous APs. I live in an apartment building and there are three wireless networks operating next to mine. One of them doesn't use an encryption. (I have tried to explain to the guy how to use WEP and he doesn't want to listen.)

Anyway, when I first installed the DWL-520+ in my Windows XP Pro desktop. It kept trying to jump over to the other networks. I turned on WEP and tried to use the default Wireless manager that comes with XP. Using XP to manage the connection turned out to be the problem. I would connect to my own network and then five minutes later it would drop the connection try to link to my neighbor's wireless network.

Finally, I visited the DWL-520+ support section on D-Link's website and discovered that D-Link recommends disabling the Windows XP Wireless Manager (it goes on by default) and turn on D-Link's own wireless manager software. It took me less than five minutes to follow the screen shots which showed me how to turn off the Microsoft's XP Wireless Manager by using the "Properties" section in "My Computer". Since I started using D-Link's wireless manager, I haven't had any problems with the connection. In fact, because I have a D-Link DI-614+ wireless router, I am able to connect as fast as the advertised 22 Mbps. If I needed second desktop, I would buy another DWL-520+.

I recently purchased a D-Link Airplus DI-614+ and a D-Link DWL-520+ Wireless PCI adapter card. If you want to avoid many frustrating hours of e-mails and calling the D-Link support team (on-hold times were usually 25 minutes), it may be wise NOT to purchase the DWL-520+ card if you have a "SoundBlaster Live! Value" sound card.

In my case, most of the time when I had both cards installed, the computer froze during the boot process. This was in a Pentium3 500MHz computer. Only after placing the wireless card in PCI Slot 3 and the SBLive card in PCI Slot 5 was I able to get the computer to finish booting to the desktop. Even then, the SBLive card still did not function well, sometimes causing echoing sound effects, or spontaneous re-booting of the computer. The D-Link support team insisted that they got good results with the SBLive card in Slot 5 and the wireless card in Slot 4 -- which in my system was one of the freeze-on-booting situations.

When installed by itself without the SBLive card installed, the D-Link DWL-520+ worked flawlessly with the D-Link DI-614+ Access Point Router. But I did not wish to run that computer without a sound card.

After spending way too many hours trying to get this system to work, I returned the D-Link devices and purchased the LinkSys BEFW11S4 Access Point Router for use near my new computer, and the WUSB11 Wireless USB Adapter for my older computer. I am now effortlessly using the internet on both of my computers.

One additional point -- the people at D-Link will not provide you with support help for File Sharing problems between computers on a wireless network. I'm not sure if this is true for other wireless manufacturers.

I have had the D-Link 614 and 3 pc's networked. 2 are running the PCI 520+ models and my base pc is direct wired to the router.

The speed is amazing for the wired networks. I have one system 2 stories above the router, I get around a 90% signal strength and always 100% link quality. The antenna being flexible allows me to tweak the angle of the antenna and get a stronger signal. It is a very good card.

I had a wired network before that ran 10mb system. The airplus has been killer, I've seen 500kb/sec xfer speed on the wireless pc's. My wife and kids are amazed at how stable it is and I haven't had to reboot my pc or theirs for weeks to get the ip address back.

I'd recommend this unit for anyone that has a recently made pc that has windows xp. I can't recommend older pc's as I haven't tested it there.

The tech support when I called was very nice to deal with. They spoke good english and actually worked with me in setting up opening ports. I didn't wait very long and the were actually intelligent in how to work with setting up the router. They gave me pointers and also walked me through some options to get programs to work.

The price/stability/connection speed in my opionion is the best deal on the market. I'd give it 5/5 stars.

The hardware design of this card is very good. In most systems, (besides those running Windows XP), it will also install very easily.
As packaged, it will not work with Windows 98 first edition, but D-link has recently posted a Win98 first edition driver on its support site, and with that patch in place, it does work very well.
This product advertises that it is compatable with Windows XP, but Microsoft has NOT certified it and with good reason. The woefully inadequate installation documentation and software do not address many of the known XP quirks. Fortunately, the D-Link tech support staff are well versed in these common problems and are very helpful if you have an hour or so to wait on the phone. The website also has more patches than Grandpa's old dungerees, so D-Link is aware of the problem and, with some effort, you can overcome most XP related glitches. It's just too bad D-Link hasn't spent as much time updating their packaged software/documentation as they have designing their robust and speedy hardware.
The encryption schemes work exceptionally well, (up to 256 bits), and do not degrade speed nearly as much as some competitors products sometimes do.

I am pleased with the configuration options that are bundled with this product. One feature I like most is the site survey feature. Before I connect to an access point I can see which access points are broadcasting and if they have WEP, what channel, what SSID, and more. Then I can choose which one I want to connect to. Of course there is an auto detect feature that connects to the fastest/strongest signal access point in range.

The installation went without a hitch and I was very pleased with the ease of use.

D-Link has a major problem with it's products (including the 520+) crashing systems on power down with a blue screen and a message stating that there has been an NMI parity error in hardware. You system will be locked up. Pulling the power cord is the only way out.

What is REALLY bad is that I have 3 "Case I.D's" requesting a fix. If... if you own certain Compaq models you may... may be able to fix the problem with manual modifications to your system BIOS. However, unless you "get lucky", you are stuck. There is, apparently, no real customer support at D-Link, only an automated response system that patronizes you with the issuance of a case I.D.

Be very, very careful about purchasing D-Link products. Buggy software and NO technical support nor issue resolution.

I like that fact that this wireless PCI card by D-Link has a removable antenna because it will allow me to get better range if I wished to purchase a better antenna later on.
This is just one of the things I like about the card.

There isn't much to say about a wireless PCI based NIC except for the fact that it is easy to install. But aren't all PCI cards? I personally haven't had much trouble with them in the past. This card also comes with some good software give you more control over your network card. I can do a "site survey" to see what access points are in the area and choose which one I'd like to connect to. I can choose my encryption, it goes as high as 256-bit, and I can change almost anything I want about this card.

Bottom line is the low price, the 22Mbps speeds, regular 802.11b compatibility, extensive software package, and removable antenna for future upgrades. I like it all.

Initially I could not get this card to reliably work in my desktop. It would cause numerous boot errors or lock up the system for no appearant reason. Tried a clean OS install and then when that didn't work, a different OS. Finally received the following from D-Link tech support, "It has been recently brought to the attention of D-LInk and Creative Labs that the 2 products do not work together. No fix at this point. Both companies are working on the issue and as soon as there is a fix it will be released to the website." I had a Sound Blaster Live Gamer PCI card. When I removed it and used the AC97 sound from my motherboard the problems went away. Would like to have my SB back! Other than those problems the DWL-520+ works very well with the DI-614+. 100% link quality and 85% signal strength in a traditional two-story. Would give a five if the compatability problem gets solved.

As a previous reviewer wrote, incompatible with Sounblaster Live cards due to a conflict with the Memory IO C000-C01F being used used by both cards. Disable one or the other and your fine, both will cause a BSOD(Blue Screen of Death).