Customer Reviews

D-Link DWL-1000AP 11Mb Wireless LAN Access Point 802.11b

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Products Tested: D-Link DWL-1000AP 11Mb Wireless LAN Access Point 802.11b D-Link DWL-650 11Mb Wireless PCMCIA LAN Network Card 802.11b vs. Linksys WAP11 - Instant Wireless Network Access Point Linksys WPC11 - Instant Wireless Network PC Card

Computer Hardware: Laptop: Dell Inspiron 600mhz, W2k Network: NT 4.0 Server, W2K Server Switches: 3Com and Linksys

Quality: After working with dlink first, linksys blew away dlink on the feel of quality and workmanship. As we all know, these components are so miniaturized that they could put them into any light-weight enclosure. dlink chose the light packaging approach....feels "cheap." linksys chose the mid-weight package...you feel as if it has higher quality...and you got something for your $250-300! linksys chose the dual antenna design over the single on the dlink. Technically, I am not sure if it is better but the actual reception really is... These are subjective and personal factors but for most, it makes a difference.

Ease of Use: From the documentation, to the support, to the software, it is really apparent dlink cut costs everywhere and with things they shouldn't. The setup is extremely confusing, the software is buggy...really, and the docs are horrible. In my manual, every other page did not have printing on it...quality control missed this! Linksys...even though I had to use the USB setup at first (dlink does not have a USB port on their access unit), the configuration was simple. The docs actually explained the parameters on the configuration screens. Once I set the IP address to one recognized on my network (I am not using DHCP), I used the linksys SNMP configuration tool to set and adjust the other parameters. I have a laptop. When using the wireless network card on the dlink, if you eject the card, the next time you re-insert the card, it does not remember your setting. You have to go back and set the parameters in order to get the card to function again. I called dlink tech support on this...on hold forever, hung up, and no call back...even when they asked and I left my mobile number, just in case... On the linksys, when I re-inserted the wireless card, it remembered the setting.

Service and Usability: Both products have a signal and quality meter in their utilities. One important note...the distance specs on both of these products (I think the 802.11b category overall) are NOT accurate. Inside of your home and through walls, etc., expect much less. How much less...you need to try it out to be sure. If you have line of sight to the access unit, these distances will go up. I mounted the access unit in my living room, on top of the entertainment center. I chose this location b/c it had the best reception. With the dlink, in the master bedroom (through one wall!), I was *barely* able to use the network...0-40 on the signal meter. On one occasion, once the dlink card lost the network, I could not get back on?? The total distance to the access unit was 30ish feet. With linksys, my signal was consistent at 40-60...once or twice is dipped to 20-30 but came right back up. I also tried a configuration with the dlink access unit and linksys card. They did work together but I could not improve the signal quality. I concluded that the dlink access unit was one of the problems. When I used the dlink wireless card, several times my computer shut down automatically??

Overall: Save tons of time and money...just buy the linksys system...access point and cards. Linksys is priced well and makes a quality offering. It is very clear to me that dlink is just focused on price and cutting their cost.

I would have said 2.5 stars if given the chance.

First the good news: this (along with a DWL-650 PCMCIA card) was definitely easy to install to my already existing network. I first downloaded the latest drivers for the DWL-650 - their were none for the DWL-1000AP. I scanned the manual for the DWL-1000AP and it said that I had to get the laptop setup first. So as per the instructions in the DWL-650 manual, I first installed the new downloaded drivers. I then plugged in the PCMCIA card into my laptop (HP Omnibook 4150 running WIndows 2000). Win2K properly recognised it and installed the software drivers all automatically. I rebooted my laptop, and while it was booting I then plugged the DWL-1000AP into a free spot in my network hub, plugged in the AC adaptor, and watched the leds do their thing and indicating that it was up and running. When the laptop re-booted it, found the DWL-1000AP and I saw my already existing network shares! Total time spent was about 1.5 hours including the 2.86mb download. Pretty easy, very fast to get going. I started out impressed.

But now for the bad news. I wanted to test how good it worked. I put the access point up on top of a tall bookcase near the entrance of my home office which is on the main floor. I ran the configuration utility to examine signal strenght and link quality. I'm not sure which each measures, but it is an indication of how things are working. In my office, a total of 8 feet away from each other, the measurements varied from excellent to fair (100% to 46%) with it in a stationary position. Jumping all over the place for no reason I could attribute. But as far as I could tell, it worked just dandy fine at 11Mbps (or so that what it says). I walked 20 feet to my chair in the family room. This introduces 1 interior-drywall wall. Signal strength dropped to fair to poor (40% - 6%) to an occasional "no connection". It still seemed to work ok though. I went upstairs to my bedroom which is above the office introducing a floor and perhaps a wall between laptop and acess point. Probably about 25-30 feet total, worked about the same as the family room. I then went to the basement level, directly below the spot in the family room which worked and could not get anything at all. This included about 6 foot of sapce from the top of the book case, a wall or 2, and a floor. I did find some "poor" spots directly beneath the AP, but it seemed very sluggish.

To summarize, nowhere near the advertised 35-100 METERS (approx 100-300 feet)! Walls and floors do get in the way. I called tech support to see if there was anything I could do. After a wait of over 45 minutes (toll call!), I was told that walls and floors (and microwave ovens and 2.4 ghz phones and remote control signal tranmsmitters) cut the distance down dramatically. A direct line of sight was needed to get close to the 35 meters. I believe that this is mis-leading, if not false, advertising.

So in short, if you are using this within a room, this is ok. If you are using this to try and prevent snaking network wires through walls and floors, it may work. If you can snake your access point to give you a better direct line of sight, maybe.

P.S. According to their tech support, other 802.11b PCMCIA cards may work for greater distances. Also, if you live in a "thin-walled" apartment, you should actually install the DWL-1000AP software and change the default SSID, encrpytion codes, etc. so that just in case your neighbor also gets a wireless setup, he can't see your network. Feel free to email me (bqhome@mail.com) if you have any questions about my experience.

Finally, I did keep this since MY goal was to be able to work in the family room while being near the wife. I just had hoped it would allow me more distance and actually let me work from a lounge chair outside when it warms up. Too cold here to try it out now.

This is my second wireless Access Point. I started with a Hawkings access point and was very impressed with how I was up and using the Internet from my patio in 10 minutes. However, the next day I had no connection. After 1 hour on technical support, we concluded it was defective. Therefore, I turned to another manufacturer. After reading the reviews, the D-Link product looked to be the best. I fully expected that I would be up and running within 10 minutes of opening the box based on my previous experiences.

First off, the D-Link product is tiny and convenient. It comes with a wall mount if one decides to mount it that way. I do not know why no vendor includes a network cable, but make sure you have one before you get the product.

I connected the D-Link to my Linksys Broadband router and based on the literature the D-Link was supposed to get an IP address from the DHCP server and I would be up and running. Well that was not the case, I do not know if it was the Linksys or the D-Link but after 20 minutes of messing with the manual, I still could not make a connection.

Here is what I have discovered. If it does not work right away, throw away the manual and call technical support. The manual was useless. I went through the setup step by step and nothing worked. I was convinced that I had another defective product. But with the help of technical support (about a 20 minute wait) we had it up and working in 5 minutes. Here is a procedure that works if the unit seems dead out of the box.

1. Reset the unit and write down the MAC address. This is the same as the units Serial number.

2. Connect the unit to a network hub and your computer to the same hub. You must have a standard network card for this procedure to work. If you only have wireless, I would recommend getting at least 1 wired connection, otherwise you will be in for prolonged frustration.

3. Run the installation software and if the unit is not detected automatically, be prepared to add the unit manually. Try to follow the manual, but in my case, the IP addresses in the manual only confounded the problem.

4. Determine the IP address of your network card. This can be found by running the command ipconfig from the MS DOS command prompt.

5. Once you determine the IP address of your network card (in my case it was 192.168.1.101 for a linksys network), add the device manually. Type in the MAC address (Serial Number) and then pick an IP address in the same network as your network card. Do not use the IP address in the manual (192.168.0.10) unless your network card has the same first three numbers (192.168.1.xxx). In fact, I do not ever recommend using 0 as a network address. I picked 192.168.1.10 and then the software found and added the device flawlessly.

6. Next, pick the same SSID as your wireless network card. Pick something you can remember like HOME for home.

That procedure is what finally got my unit to function. As a side note, this same procedure worked for the Hawkings unit as well. In fact, I think they are the same unit only different packaging. Same power units, same software, and same quirks. So for functionality, get whatever unit is cheaper, the Hawkings or the D-Link. Although the Hawkings has even worse technical support than D-Link.

I would also not recommend the unit for first time network users. Good price and good product overall once you get it working. However, I am disappointed with the claim for DHCP and range. The unit was supposed to grab an IP address from my DHCP sever and I would not have to configure the unit manually, so claimed the literature. Well it does not work that way, and neither did the hawkings. Technical support told me that it happens that way sometimes. In addition, I live in a very simple three-bedroom square shaped southwest stucco home and even with unit in the center of the house my connection quality drops to nearly 10% just on the patio. Nevertheless, I predict the same quality from all the vendors; it is the same with cordless telephones. Take the range they claim; divide by 4 and that is what you will really get.

I just recently bought another one of these Access Points from D-Link. I did this to extend the signal strength in my home, and it works great. The first one I installed took a little more time than I expected, but I also didn't expect very many features. The second install was very quick since I already knew what the settings needed to be. The speed to convenience trade-off was and easy decision for myself because I don't transfer huge files (100+MB) across my network often, and I sure do love being able to sit on the couch with my laptop (and no wires) instead of being confined in the computer room alone. I also see barely any difference in Internet download times.

I can now connect to my network here at home from everywhere in my house (2 story home) and some areas outside. Overall I am very impressed with this wireless technology and I feel that D-Link has a demanding grasp of it.

After fiddling with the unit for a couple of nights I finally got it to work. It would not auto detect and I had to enter the MAC address and IP address manually. I tried to call technical support and gave up after 30+ minutes on hold. They had NO help on their web site for that model and my e-mails were left unanswered. When I tried the built in help I was told my computer does not have the proper language installed. So we will wait for the Cisco unit due out in a few weeks. I know they have support available.

I bought this shortly after my work purchased the Wireless PC card for my laptop (DWL-650 I believe) and I have had no troubles since the day I set it up.

The Access Point detected my PC card rather quickly and I was suprised how quick I was able to add a wireless connection to my existing home LAN.

Recommended to all.

D-Link have a good product. It worked flawlessly with my 4-port Linksys router and one D-link wireless LAN card in my notebook. The documentation is poor. It's a good looking product and I plan to use it in my company. The price is also good, compared to other manufacturers like Compaq and 3COM. I can't also wait for the USB adapter.

It took me about 90 minutes to get it up and running and it should have taken 10. I suppose part of the problem may have been that my pcmcia card is an Intel and something wasn't configured right with it but the directions in the QuickStart manual (which is thicker than the regular User manual) didn't work. It would not auto detect and I when I entered the MAC with the IP like the manual showed it still wouldn't work. Glancing at the full (smaller) User manual it looked like I could configure it throught the wired LAN side if I had a DHCP server (which I do). Once I looked at my DHCP server to find out the IP of the unit I was able to complete the configuration in about a minute. Armed with a little information from the config page (which isn't visible until to are able to talk to the unit) I could see the ESSID and properly configure my pcmcia card which took all of a minute. Poof it worked.

As for range. I didn't expect to get anywhere near the specified range since I'm sure that's quoted as line of site -- even for the indoor number. I live in a 1430 sq ft house and the WAP is in a spare bedroom which is about in the middle of one side of the house. With it just sitting on the computer desk I can use it in most of the house. I moved it to a strategic location in the closet so that the coffee table in my living room (opposite corner of the house) has only one wall to pass through and I can use it everywhere I've tried. Unfortunately the Intel software doesn't seem to have a connection quality indicator but it seems to be fine. (Keep in mind that even the slowest speed is plenty fast for DSL rates.)

The documentation is the weak link here. It might be fine if you have a D-Link pcmcia card but woefully inadequate for my Intel card. Luckily I work as a software engineer and my degree is a hardware background so I had the wherewithall to get this thing up and running fairly quickly (though it could have been much quicker). I pity the non-techie who runs into the problems I did as they would be *very* frustrated. Again, it might be easy as pie with a D-Link card. (I bought an Intel one because I've always been happy with their nics, it was only a few dolars more, and they are proud to state they have a linux driver.)

Oh, don't count on the help within the installation software. It doesn't work as it says it was created for a language that your version of windows doesn't support. How bad is that? Maybe they have an updated version online. I haven't checked as I got it working anyway. That would have been my next step.

Rank a 2 on documentation but the product still gets a 4 because it works just fine in the end. Would have been a 5 if their documention was better and the online help actually worked. Very cool though.

I got the Wireless Kit...I was able to setup a wireless network in about an hour.

The Access Point (AP) was recognized by the wireless adapters very quickly and easily. I have had no problems in my home with this product except for the initial configuration. It took some extra time I wasn't counting on but I was able to resolve my problem with the fine documentation provided.

I recommend this product to anyone who is like me and doesn't want to run wires.

I had DWL-1000AP Access Point hardwired to a Linksys Broadband Gateway + Switch and wirelessly connected to a DWL-120 USB adapter in another room (3 walls in-between) in about 25 minutes. And most of that time was spent getting the harware out of the boxes... Could not be happier with the setup. The ease of setting up and managing the wired and wireless network with this access point was just as advertised in PC Magazine, giving it the "Editor's Choice". And the fact that it is one of the lowest priced 802.11b package out there also greatly help. I know lot of people are frustrated with trying to reach tech support, even I noticed much longer wait than my previous contact with D-Link. But when you have one of the hottest selling units in the market, you are bound to be overwhelmed with support calls. No excuse, but we should cut them some slack. I would wholeheartedly recommend this access point and USB adapter to anyone looking to setup wireless network in home or office.