D-Link DWL-G710 Wireless Range Extender, 802.11g, 54Mbps

by D-Link

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8 x 2.5 inches ; 1.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006698SS
• Item model number: DWL-G710
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,701 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 20, 2006

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

D-Link, the industry pioneer in wireless networking introduces the latest product in the AirPlus G family designed to increase the range of your wireless network--the DWL-G710 Wireless G Range Extender. For users seeking a simple solution to improve the reach of their wireless signal within their home or office, the DWL-G710 is the answer. This Wireless Range Extender takes an existing 802.11g wireless signal and "repeats" it to enable wireless connectivity in the basement, patio, garage or any "dead spot" areas where your original wireless signal could not reach.

The DWL-G710 Wireless Range Extender is capable of repeating the signal of virtually any 802.11g wireless router or access point out on the market today. At the same time, the DWL-G710 can still communicate with other 802.11b/g wireless client devices.

Setup takes only a couple of minutes and keeps your network free from additional cables. After quick configuration, place the Wireless Range Extender in close proximity of your wireless router or access point and begin offering a reliable connection to the rest of your home.

The DWL-G710 Wireless Range Extender also features 128-bit WEP encryption for secure wireless communication over the network. With this level of security, your data is kept safe from the prying eyes of unauthorized users.

The DWL-G710 Wireless Range Extender is the most cost efficient solution for increasing the range of your wireless network.

Product Description

For users seeking a simple solution to improve the reach of their wireless signal within their home or office, the DWL-G710 is the answer. This Wireless Range Extender takes an existing 802.11g wireless signal and repeats it to enable wireless connectivity in the basement, patio, garage or any dead spot areas where your original wireless signal could not reach. It's capable of repeating the signal of virtually any 802.11g wireless router or access point out on the market today. At the same time, the DWL-G710 can still communicate with other 802.11b/g wireless client devices.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great device. Works as it should., December 30, 2005

By 

Emil (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: D-Link DWL-G710 Wireless Range Extender, 802.11g, 54Mbps (Personal Computers)

It took me about 5 minutes to set this one up. Read below and you should be able to do it too. Don't install anything from the CD onto your computer, all you need is a web browser to log into this device and do everything.

Installation (5/5 stars):

First, connect the D-Link directly to any computer via the cable provided. (This cable might look and plug the same, but it's different from the others you most likely use for networking)

Step 1) Set your IP address to 192.168.0.### (where ### is any number from 10 to 240 EXCEPT 30, 30 is used by this D-Link). Then set the "Subnet mask" to exactly: 255.255.255.0 Leave "Default gateway" and "preferred DNS server" fields blank.

If you know how to do step '1' above then the rest is pretty easy. Follow the instructions in the quick guide (DWL-G710_QIG_100.pdf file located in the "docs" folder on the CD provided)

If you don't know how to do the setup '1' above, then do the following. Open the manual file ("DWL-G710_manual_100.pdf" located in the "docs" folder) it actually provides easy instructions BUT don't read it all or you'll get confused. You just need 3 pages from that manual. Go directly to page 28 to the section called: "Assigning a Static IP Address in Windows XP/2000" and read from the part where it says "Double click on control Panel" and do everything until page 30 where you see IP address fields, then just read my step '1' above to fill these fields.

Step 2) Close that manual file, and open the Quick Guide file from the CD and follow the easy diagrams/instructions. I think manual and quick guide were written by different people because quick guide is very straightforward and easy to follow where as manual is badly structured and confusing. Follow my two steps and you'll be alright though :)

Signal Strength (3/5):
While it was easy to set this thing up I'd like to confirm what another reviewer mentioned namely that the range of this Extender isn't much different from a standard wireless router (I have Westell 327W). So it's a bad idea to put this Extender very close to your wireless router as it will not extend the range farther. So don't be confused, this is not some sort of signal "booster". What I do is, I put this Extender somewhere where the signal strength from my wireless router is about 40% or so. D-Link Extender picks up that weaker signal and transmits it farther full strength (as though you had your wireless router sitting in place of the Extender). In other words, if you have a standard wireless router, expect about 50%-70% increase in range (depending on walls and other sources of interference).

Other:
Supports 64Bit and 128Bit WEP encryption (firmware update adds WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK)
Can't hide SSID on this Extender - I didn't know about this when I bought it, I thought this is a standard feature on all devices of this type. But it's probably not that important with 128bit encryption.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't forget to set the Gateway IP Address for non D-link routers, January 3, 2006

By 

Uri Teitler - See all my reviews

This review is from: D-Link DWL-G710 Wireless Range Extender, 802.11g, 54Mbps (Personal Computers)

I bought the Extender for exactly it's purpose and it works brilliantly.

I have a full brick house and my Netgear WRG614 Wireless Router got me as far a one foot inside the kitchen and then dropped to a signal of about 14%. We wanted to work at the kitchen table and alass my internet connection kepted dropping out. Unfortunately the WRG614 has a fixed anneta which meant that I could add a bigger one and Netgear couldn't provide another solution other than an Access Point which needed a cable connected from the Router to the Access Point. Not much of a 'wireless' solution.

My only advice is that if you are not connecting to a D-link router make sure that you configure the Extender appropriately to your existing network.

For example the Extender comes with an IP Address of 192.168.0.30, which means that to talk to it (or at least to initially configure it) you need to configure your computer to something in the same range (as mentioned by other reviewers) eg 192.168.0.10. Plug in the ethernet cable supplied to the Extender and then follow the basic instructions (including doing a 'site survey' that will pick up your existing wireless networks).

The trick I found here was this. My Netgear Router was running with an IP Address of 192.168.1.1 this meant that I had to change the Extender IP address to be something like 192.168.1.30 so that I could talk to the extender via the router.

I unplugged the ethernet cable and wandered down in to the kitchen and the signal boost was brilliant. The laptop now had a signal of 94% up from 14%. The only problem was that I couldn't connect to the Internet. It wasn't allocating an IP address.

After much searching, I read somewhere about allocating the Gateway IP address (unlike another review mentioned here). Anyway I gave the router ip address as the gateway and 'bing' fixed !

Just for clarification the configuration I now have on the Extender is something like this:

IP 192.168.1.30
SubNet 255.255.255.0
Gateway 192.168.1.1

4/5 only because the instructions could have been better !

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent value, March 21, 2006

By 

Ken "Just another computer user" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: D-Link DWL-G710 Wireless Range Extender, 802.11g, 54Mbps (Personal Computers)

I bought this product to extend my range over to an outbuilding on my property. I think this is the kind of application that most people buy them for, to fill in weak spots and such. I use two of them together one in the garage and another upstairs in the house. The primary router (a D-Link 624) is somewhat buried in the basement.

Item one: This repeater works very well. If yours doesn't, then it's either defective or you don't have it configured correctly.

Item two: The instructions are confusing. Read some of the reviews below. Many of them are excellent, and you will become familiar with basic networking if you read them slowly and use the manual.

Advise 1: Find out your network address numbers. Most likely 192.168.0.1 it's a default setting with most cable modems, and wireless routers. If you've got your wireless router correctly configured, then you will use it's address as the gateway.

Advise 2: Connect to the repeater with the supplied cable and set your computer to a "Manual" IP address of 192.168.0.29 and use your favorite browser to "talk" to the repeater by typing in 192.168.0.30 (the repeater's address).

Advise 3: There is a "bug" in the software that puts a bunch of spaces in front of your network SSID. Remove them. Make sure the channel and rest of the information like security settings are the same.

Advise 4: Upgrade the firmware (good instructions on the repeater itself including links!). You will need to do this to use security.

That's all the "issues" I found using mine.

In my special situation where I used more than one repeater, I simply set the second repeater to connect with the first repeater (using the site survey the strongest signal is at the top of the list). This works great and is an undocumented feature of the repeater.

Downsides: The repeater has minimal features. The documentation is good, but confusing to the newbie, and those are the people most likely to purchase one of these. The quick start is good, but doesn't indicate the wizard bug with the SSID.

Upsides: The little thing works really well. Good signal strength and actually easy to set up once you figure it out. Very inexpensive and so far works like a champ!

Five stars for the product, three stars for the docs.