D-Link DWL-520 Wireless PCI Adapter, 802.11b, 11Mbps

by D-Link

Product Details

Product Manual [5.35mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000063XJ7
• Item model number: DWL-520
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 16, 2002

Product Description

The DWL-520 from D-Link is a 802.11b PCI adaptor with data transfer rate up to 11 Mbps. It can operate in either Ad-Hoc mode (Peer-to-Peer networking without an Access Point) or Infrastructure mode (Peer-to-Peer networking using an Access Point), which brings high flexibility to your wireless network. The DWL-520 also supports high 128-bit WEP encryption to give you a secure wireless network. The adaptor has an effective range of up to 230 feet indoor and 984 feet outdoor, along with the 2.4 GHz Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) technology to ensure the robustness and efficiency of your data transmission.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Is not compatible with many computers, May 4, 2002

By 

James Sandomierski (Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: D-Link DWL-520 Wireless PCI Adapter, 802.11b, 11Mbps (Personal Computers)

The following answer on the D-Link tech support site says it all: "The DWL-520 requires a PCI 2.2 compliant motherboard (3.3v) in order to function. If your PCI slot is 2.1 compliant, or if the PCI slot is using 5v, then the card won't be detected by Windows and unfortunately will not work." And how will you know if you have a PCI 2.2 compliant board? Essentially, you won't, until you try the card or dig deep into the specs on your computer's motherboard. I have a very reputable ASUS Pentium III motherboard, that won't recognize this card. Very frustrating...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No problems with Linux., September 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: D-Link DWL-520 Wireless PCI Adapter, 802.11b, 11Mbps (Personal Computers)

I installed a DWL-520 in my wife's Linux workstation to connect to my homebrew access point with no real issues besides having to download and install the wlan-ng drivers, which is probably not for the novice. The only two notes would be:

- Must be a recent (post Pentium II?/Athlon) motherboard that supports PCI v2.2 The IWILL Athlon motherboard that is in my wife's computer worked just fine. If the green LED on the back of the card comes on when you turn on your system, your motherboard should be okay. If not, you may be out of luck.

- MUST have it's own system interrupt (IRQ). Some PCI slots share interrupts with other slots or built in devices. If the card doesn't work, try moving it to another slot.

Other than that, it's been rock solid under Linux. Unfortunately, I believe this card has been discontinued in favor of the DWL-520+ card, which uses a different chipset and is incompatible with Linux.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars BAD - no unix/linux support, March 10, 2005

By 

Ghit Petrica Dinu "UNIX guy" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: D-Link DWL-520 Wireless PCI Adapter, 802.11b, 11Mbps (Personal Computers)

D-Link created a confusion out there in the market area, selling the wirelss adapters with diffrent chipset using the same name for them.
The first models (version A and B) used to have Prism chipset from Intersil (which are supported by POSIX sistems) but now they changed thei chipset with other vendors like Realtek without changing the name of the product - that's how I bought this thinking it is spported - unfortunaltelly it is not !