Customer Reviews

D-Link DWL-5000AP 802.11a Wireless Air Pro Access Point

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This product was one of the easiest networking devices I've ever worked with. Additionally, it absolutely blows 802.11b away in performance and in function. No more dropped links when someone picks up the 2.4Ghz wireless phone. I was so impressed I literally pulled all of the .11b cards out of our network and replaced every last one with .11a connected to this AP -- the network is operating flawlessly. Do yourself a favor and ditch the .11b for one of these babies. Outstanding.

I will start off by saying this was fairly easy to setup and configure. I am also impressed with the range I am able to get. I was a little worried because people were saying they weren't getting "good" range with their AP, but I know I didn't need it to go far, just in my home. My home is a 2 bedroom 1 story but I do have a backyard. Surprisingly enough the signal is broadcasted well through out my house and even my backyard. When I am on my laptop I can roam every square inch of my property and even some outside of my neighbors house. But I know I am secure because I get to choose the security settings. I can see who is connected to the AP and use WEP encryption to ensure nobody can gain access to my network even if they are within range.

Happily Surprised.

I mainly wanted to get some 802.11a hardware because I've heard and read great things about the speed. I went with D-Link because I have had only good experiences with their products and this time was no different. I bought a laptop card to go with this router and shortly after bought a PCI card for my desktop. I don't want to run cables through the walls, which is also a major consideration for this purchase.

My experience with installing Access Points is fairly non-existent but after setting up this one I felt like a pro. The instructions are fairly short and straight to the point.

The range I am getting with this AP is good and I don't think I could ask for more. It provides my house with constant coverage everywhere I go. I am in a one-story home but the length of the place is bigger than most homes. I even get good coverage outside in some places, but that's not what I bought it for.

I am impressed with this 802.11a wireless access point and would recommend this to anyone looking for some faster wireless solutions.

Up and running in 10 minutes, this is completely compatible with my Linksys WPC11v3 and WCP51AB cards with and without WEP, MAC ACL, etc. It is next to my Netgear ME102 WAP and neither one affects the other. The DWL-5000AP works as advertised with excellent range and throughput. 152 bit WEP and 72 Mbps Turbo are cool.

Important considerations before you decide to purchase it:

The Atheros AR5000 chipset supports DHCP, bridging, DFS/TPC, 802.1x and QoS, but none of these are implemented. (This WAP will not lease its own IP address from a DHCP server on the network. IP addressing is strictly static.) And D-Link won't be doing anything about any of that.

Firmware upgrades require it be connected via CAT5 crossover and RS-232 cables to a computer running an FTP server. You pay strict attention to a meticulous 32 step process involving connecting via a terminal program, creating and logging in to an FTP account, configuring the Web browser utility for FTP, entering console commands and assuring the upgrade file is in the root of the FTP server, and multiple reboots.

The v1.3 firmware works well for most users. The v1.4 on D-Link's FTP site adds 256 WEP and fixes a reset problem - each and every time you make a change to this WAP, it needs to be reset (rebooted). And depending on your computer, sometimes it fails to "come back" unless you stop and start the setup utility.

Password setup requires extreme caution. There is only one field for entry and you can't see what you type. So, a typo (i.e. "mypasswird" instead of "mypassword") locks you out until YOU SEND THE WAP BACK TO D-LINK FOR A FACTORY RESET!

Otherwise, if you're interested in the "clean air" and slightly better security of 5 GHZ, this is an excellent 802.11a WAP at a great price, which is sure to continue to plummet with the increasing popularity of 802.11g.

Finally, even though this is a "current" product, D-Link has completely abandoned any support or upgrades. When you buy this, what you get is what you get; there will never be any enhancements - no SSID supression, no ANY block, no WPA.

I have used a friend of mine's 802.11b wireless network and noticed the speeds were close to wired networks as far as internet browsing was concerned. This 5ghz band is blowing all of that out of the water. I am wondering if the only reason this hasn't caught on as much as 802.11b is because of the price difference.

As far as the signal strength/range goes I haven't had any problems. Maybe there is some kind of interference in other peoples homes, but I get a solid connection anywhere in my home. Even in the bathroom. I am just looking forward to getting more computers in my home to better utilize this bandwidth.

Peformance of this unit is great. It's just as fast as being on my wired network. I've been 300 ft away in the backyard and got great throughput. Setup out of the box is fairly easy and the unit worked without a hitch. But if you use automatically assigned addresses (DHCP) you will need to reset the address of the unit to match your range. If you're a novice at networking you may need some help. Encryption and security were fairly easy to set up, but again, if you're a novice you'll need help. There is only a printed quick start guide included which will cover the basics for most people the full Manual is on the CD and is pretty well written with lots of examples and pictures of screens, Overall, a great 802.11a performer at Amazon's $[money] price. 802.11b is dead.

This is a fairly simple device. I was impressed with the number of settings (security, blocking, etc.) and how quickly I could get it set up. It took about 5 mins to setup and another 5 to get the network cards to communicate. After that I just made sure all the settings I changed on this AP were changed on the network cards as well. The range is all through out my home, and once setup it doesn't need to be touched later down the line.

Just set it up and leave alone.
Works great for me.

I bought my DWL-5000AP after reading nothing but positive reviews. Boy was I in surprise! The problems were endless and after 4 short days, I sent it and the DWL-A650 PC-card back for a refund.

The access point has no ethernet ports on the back but I knew that before I bought it. That still [stinks] though.

Their is no printed documentation and the PDF documentation skims over all topics- there are no tutorials or examples. I tried but couldn't get WEP to work. In fact, I hosed myself bad enough that I had to use the included serial cable and hyperterminal to go in through the command-line on the access point and clear out the WEP settings.

The device had problem with the DHCP on my linksys BEFSR411. Basically, the PC-card only successfully got a DHCP address 1 out of 10 tries so I ended up using a static address.

The access point runs very hot.

But the kicker- the reason I had to return it...the range. I live in small apartment and was unable to maintain a connection across rooms. Worse yet- if I did lose my connection, it never was able to regain a connection without me rebooting my laptop. Even if I set the laptop right next to the AP, it could never reestablish a connection.

Anyways, I know 802.11b is rated for longer range but I had no idea that 802.11a would be this bad.

I have read the other reviews about the 5000AP. For those who say the range is poor they are doing something wrong. I have tried two other Access Points from other manufacturers and could not get the range the 5000AP gives me (one was a 802.11a and one a 802.11b). I have a 3500 Square Foot 25 year old Ranch that was built with thick walls. It reaches end to end with a 36% to 50% signal strength using a Proxim Harmony PCcard. The Bios is lacking some major features (DHCP is missing what were they thinking...) but for me range was most important and this is the best I found.

Great product. I set this up for a customer in his house. He had a downstairs den that was like half a story lower than the rest of the house. Where is computers were, the signal wouldn't even go twenty feet. Moved the AP to the next room on top of the frig. and suddenly access was available inside the whole house. I could walk around listening to radio on the web without disturbance. (This is using the pcmia .11a card in turbo mode). The problem was in his computer room he had some aluminum file folders that were blocking the signal.
Pros: Great web interface and distance.
Cons: Passphrase in WEP not as easy as linksys. I've heard D-link only works with D-link. No uplink ports on the switch. Not for networking amateur.