Customer Reviews

D Link AirPlus DWL-900AP+ Wireless 22MBPS Access Point

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought another one of these to repeat my existing 900AP+'s signal to extend the range of my wireless network. It works great since I set it all up 2 weeks ago. I am not able to go all the way out to my backyard by the pool and still have Internet access on my laptop. This is very convenient when swimming or just laying and you get the urge to look something up on the Internet, but usually you don't because the PC is so far away. Not anymore. I am now able to bring my laptop out with me and maybe watch a DVD outside while I BBQ or just drink with my friends.

The repeater function looks like it only repeats other D-Link products. It also brings the speeds down to 11Mbps when you are connected to the network via the repeater. If you can get a signal with the main AP, then you are able to maintain your 22Mbps speeds.

Everything else about this AP has worked great for me as well and I'd highly recommend it.

I have to admit I got a little flustered when I saw all the settings that can be changed and manipulated. Fortunately I was able to figure out a basic rule (by reading the manual and common sense) that since everything works "out of the box" (default settings will ensure connection) if I modified any settings on this access point I would need to modify them on my wireless network card also (where applicable).
I know this might seem like a novice thing to think of, but after I realized this it was all smooth sailing from then on.

I hope this is helpful to anyone who is having trouble or has any worries about buying something of this nature. As a general rule I'd say just read the manual and you should be fine. Make it work with default settings, then mess around with everything else.

As far as performance goes I get a solid link quality in every room in my house (2 stories). I like the security features, because I don't want my neighbors hording in on my Internet connection.

Recommended to all those who think they can and even those who don't.

I bought one of these and so did my neighbor and we set them up in our attics facing each other's homes and now we have one big network to where we can share files, printers, play games and everything. We both have 3 PCs so that when we invite some friends over we can have up to 6 people playing Quake, CS, BF1942, or whatever on our little LAN. His house is directly across the street and we can get everyone playing below a 15 ping at high traffic times. We haven't done any formal testing, but so far everything we throw at it these little boxes can handle.

I haven't tried the other modes, but I can verify that the point-to-point bridging works like a charm.
And yes we did notice a speed difference when upgrading the firmware to the latest 4x speeds.

This D-Link product works great as an access point, fairly well in bridging mode, and OK as a (fixed) client.

I bought two of these for the bridging feature. I am linking two small LANs in different houses about 300 yards apart. It works quite well! I do get some lost packets over the bridge probably because it can't quite keep up with the full speed of the Ethernet or maybe I'm getting occasional interference from somewhere.

However, unlike almost all other wireless clients (which this claims to be in "client" mode) there is no way to measure signal strength or even get any feedback on what speed you are getting, it either works or it doesn't. Of course you wouldn't need this feature at all in an access point, but as a bridge, or as a client (the other modes it supports) It would be fairly useful.

It also does not have any network discovery features (as a client), indeed you must provide the MAC address of the inteded Access point to use this as a client, I guess this fits the design as the product is made to be fixed, but the whole idea of wireless is flexibility, which this design isn't. It never claimed to have these discovery or signal strength features, but these are almost standard for other devices that claim to be clients.

I think they designed a great access point, and then threw on the client feature as an afterthougt.

As an access point it performs very well... up to twice as fast as most other wireless gear. The set-up really isn't as hard as the other reviews state. If you have windows 2000 or XP you don't need to reboot after setting your computer to to be on the same subnet to configure the device, which is pretty trivial and clearly explained... at least for someone who would be trying to do *any* sort of networking.

This is a good product to buy if you already have a broadband internet connection and router in place. I have a Linksys and did not want to risk breaking something that was working.

Some people have complained that you need to change the TCP/IP settings of a computer especially to enable access to the settings of the access point. I found it much easier to change the LAN IP address of the router to 192.168.0.1 (from the Linksys default of 192.168.1.1). That way the fixed IP address of the Dlink Access Point is compatible with DHCP addresses served up by the Linksys router.

I did this before the Dlink Access Point arrived in the mail and was thus able simply plug in the DWL900AP+ and have it work right away without setting anything up.

Later on I wanted to enable WEP encryption, so that took a few more minutes. But overall, with a little planning this was a very smooth install.

For some reason these boxes are hard to find in the distribution channel as of 9/26/2002. I don't know why this would be since they seem to be good products.

Range seems as good as I need for a 3000 sq ft house and I always get an "excellent" signal strength indication from the client task bar icon.

The only reason for dropping one star from the review was that I had to upgrade the firmware from version 1.0 to 2.1 due to reliability problems loading particular web pages. Hopefully this will improve as older units clear out of the distribution channel.

--crazzell

For a product to be priced the same as other 802.11b Wireless Access Points (WAP) and have 5 different modes of operation, which is like 3 more than others is pretty impressive in its self. To have 5 different options for one product to be is showing that it is ready for the future.
The 5 Modes are:
1) Wireless Access Point - we all know what this is.
2) Wireless Repeater - Will "repeat" another D-Link 802.11b Access Point signal to expand the range of the initial signal without having to buy an external booster antenna.
3) Wireless Client - Will turn your Ethernet card into a Wireless card, basically an Ethernet to Wireless Bridge.
4) Wireless Bridge - You can bridge two LANs with two of these in this mode.
5) Multi-Point Wireless Bridge - You can bridge 3 or more LANs with 3 or more of these in this mode.

With all those options you will be covered when it comes to the future, because, as an example, if you ever upgrade your Access Point to a newer product you can still use this to either repeat that signal for a further range, or connet this to an Ethernet port and make this a wireless client.

As for the security features, this has everything necessary to make it so no outsiders connect to your WLAN. Disabling broadcasting of the SSID, MAC address filtering, up to 256-bit WEP, and more.

I'd recommend this in conjuction with the DI-604 because they are they are the same size and stackable. This is the setup I have and everything works great. I can now be mobile with my laptop and not worry about security, slow speeds, or the future outdating my equipment too quickly.

I did a lot of research on a number of wireless access points and routers but I finally decided that the D-Link DWL-900AP+ would be the right one for me. One of the deciding factors is the 256-bit encryption option, the highest I could find available. From the time that I got the box home to the time that I was walking around my entire house surfing the internet on my laptop took a whole 15 minutes. And I didn't have a single glitch along the way.

Granted, I've been running a wired network in my home for a few years and most of the concepts were not new to me. However, I believe that the installation manual is good enough to get even a networking newbie on the wireless net in no time. The trick is to fully read all of the directions before doing ANYTHING and then read them again as you start the setup process. The one area where the instructions were somewhat lacking was in the advanced setup area such as the MAC address filtering and the encrytion key. I think a newbie might have a little bit of trouble getting these setup. I reccommend the excellent articles and tutorials on 80211-planet.com to help you understand the terminology and concepts before you start changing settings.

I used the DWL-650+ wireless network adapter from D-Link in my laptop and after inputting the encryption key it worked immediately.

I've never had any problems with any networking hardware from D-Link. The quality of their products continue to impress me, especially given their relatively low price. I've also used Netgear, 3Com and Intel and had minor to major problems with all three.

When I recieved this access point in the mail I had to start playing with it right away. I didn't know much about wireless and how it all works, and I still don't know much more, but I was able to get this working within the hour. Some of that hour was installing the wireless NIC in my PC.

I am not sure of the maximum range but I can tell you it works fine in my 2 story home with the AP downstairs and the PC with wireless NIC upstairs. I didn't notice much speed difference when browsing the internet. All my pages and downloads seem to be about the same speed as my wired computer with DSL access.

I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to go wireless with faster than 11mbps or doesn't want to put holes in their home to install some cabling to share your DSL line.

The newest firmware enabled this to run at the already fast 22Mbps throughput with 4X enabled. I have gotten speeds in the 9 to 10 Mbps range at about 50feet away and the signal is going through one wall. If I get much further than that I can still get 6 to 7 Mbps and thats for another 50feet or so. My home is fairly large and I am able to get 2 to 3 Mbps in the furthest depths of my home. This is all when coupled with the D-Link DWL-650+ because it needs the latest firmware as well to take advantage of the 4X speeds.

The setup was very easy. I pretty much just followed the quick install guides that came with the products and I was up and running in minutes. They also come with setup wizards that basically guide you through the product setup.

The bottom line is that it is fast, easy to use/setup and I am pleased with my purchase decision.

I have this plugged into my DI-604 (DSL router/firewall with 4-ports) to enable wireless capabilities on my network. I have a wireless card in my laptop and I get great range from this AP. I can roam all around my apartment and even one room in my neighbors place. Fortunately though I can filter out all other MAC addresses besides the ones on my LAN so that no body else can join my LAN without my permission. Not to mention 256-bit WEP encryption.

I get an average of 5Mbps speeds when transferring files, which obviously doesn't affect my Internet browsing at all.

I am very pleased with the performance, security features, and price. I'd recommend this to everyone who is looking for a fast, secure, and reliable access point.