Customer Reviews

D-Link DWL-G132 Compact Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter, Cradle Included, 802.11g, 108Mbps

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Note for operating this device under Windows XP Service Pack 2:
Out-of-the-box, this USB device does not play well with other USB devices. Attempting to do an automatic installation of the drivers (having Windows find the drivers on the CD) consistently yields a Windows STOP error, AKA the Blue Screen of Death. So, I was forced to install the companion software from CD. During the installation, the software told me to update to Windows XP Service Pack 1 with a hotfix I already had installed, to correct known USB conflicts. The device would thereafter only connect to a wireless network if it was plugged in at boot-time, and once disconnected, would not reconnect without a reboot. I still had to get updated drivers for the DWL-G132 from Windows Update and install them; now the conflicts seem but a distant memory.

With the correct drivers, this card has actually started working well in a USB 2.0 port. It is notable to mention that when connected to a USB 1.1 port, the device's performance suffers significantly. Otherwise, it connects reliably to wireless networks anywhere I go and rarely drops signals. It is also very easy to disconnect, reconnect, and swap between laptops and desktop computers. My first reaction when opening the box was that it was too big and would physically take up too much space when plugged in near other USB ports, but it comes with a VERY convenient extended USB cradle. The cradle, of course, allows you to connect the DWL-G132 on the desk, but works with other USB devices just as well, such as memory readers readers, flash memory drives, and even my webcam. That itself is probably the most convenient little gadget I've gotten in a while. If you know the process and can get this card installed properly, it will do very well for you. I'm sure that new revisions will be released containing working drivers in the box, and Windows driver packs will probably include them eventually at install time, but without knowing ahead of time the process was painful.

Also, keep in mind: this is a USB card, it is for portable use. If you try to consistently maximize the throughput, depending on the conditions, it may overheat. If you need to statically connect it to a single machine, get the PCI equivalent.

I have bveen using DWL-G132 Xtreme for a week now and it seems to be very solid indeed (and this is something I could not say about other D-Link products I used in the past). It works with my DI-624 just fine, the setup was quick and the data transfers are fast. I also haven't noticed any signal drops, even several other access points in the area. DWL-G132 aquires connection instantly after logging in to my Windows and maintains the strong connection throughout the session.
I think this is one of the strongest wireless products I worked with so far.

This adapter has driver problems. I downloaded all the recommended software. It still does not work right. I went to the Dlink support site, no help.

It will not let my computer shut down correctly in hibernation or standby mode. In hibernation, it just keeps running the computer and will not shut down. In standby, when I bring it back up it says I ejected the hardware incorrectly.

Please, please don't waste your money. Buy something that works. I have used Netgear with great success, never has these kind of problems. I wish I stuck with them.

I first isntalled this to WinXP 2nd ED and all of a sudden I am getting blue screens and the system keeps rebooting over and over. I uninstall and the problem goes away. Coincidence? I will let you decide. I reinstalled the adaptor and it gets very very hot.. reminds me of my notebook that overheats and shuts down. I cant get a connection to my router. I have my notebook im typing on now connected right next to the adaptor desktop and get a signal just fine with my notebook. I will be sending this back.

I'm pleasantly surprised that the DWL-G132 works perfectly. No driver or firmware updates are necessary. Just load the software, plug it in, and it provides a high speed connection without any resets, timeouts, or other glitches. This is on machines running Windows XP with SP2 and talking to a D-Link DI-624 access point with firmware version 2.50.

I orignally got this so that I could have 802.11g, 108Mbps connectivity. On the plus side, the DWL-G132 does do this but I've had two of these and both have failed after a couple of months.

The problem seems to be heat and is evidenced by increasingly frequent loss of connectivity. The first one that failed was plugged into a USB port near the heat vent for my laptop. When I removed it, it was very hot and never worked after that. I thought it was my fault and got another about 3 months ago. It, too, has failed and I was very careful to keep it in the cradle away from any heat sources. When it failed, it was very hot to the touch.

I've contacted D-Link but as yet I haven't gotten too far with them. $35 might be good enough for a throw away but I would have expectd to get more than three months service out of it.

So far its working great on My Apple Extreme Network, I have my other XP machine which works great with DLINK. Dlink accorindg to many blogs online show the best results to work with Apple Airport Extreme. Good Buy

P.S Folks i just wanted to clarify that i did not use this product on a Mac Book or an older G3 or G4. I was able to connect all my PC's to an AppleAirport netwrok.

Worked fine for 86 days. Then it died. While I don't expect these devices to last forever, 86 days seems a little bit too short. While the price is good, it probably is not really worth it.

OK. I take my words back. I found a solution to the connection problem with windows xp. Download a patch ( WindowsXP-KB884020-x86-enu.exe, solving WPA issues) from microsoft, then everything goes as it should be.

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i bought this USB adapter along with DI-624 router for $99. The router works perfectly fine. The USB adapter gave me so much trouble. i used it to connect my desktop pc to wireless network. It works when the network is not encrpted. But it won't find an IP address under WPA security. It searches IP address endlessly. I have winxp sp2 which is supposed to support wireless flawlessly. I think either this so-called 108m bps or the driver causing the trouble. Having seen others having problem with other brands of USB adapter, i think maybe for desktop, a wireless pci card is better.

Have this USB card for some time now. This has crashed 3 of my machines and took me a few weeks to determine it was this card causing the issue. It does not play well with XP Service Pack 2. I don't have time to mess with uninstalling Service Pack 2 and Windows update.

I works for a few weeks and 'POW', your staring at a Blue Screen of Death!

Trashing it and buying something else.

Beware! If you are not a Systems Admin or a computer guru, don't bother.