Customer Reviews

D-Link DWL-G730AP AirPlus G High Speed 2.4GHz 802.11g Wireless Pocket Router/AP

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

We travel a lot: international, domestic, business, vacation, moving (hotel living for a month every two years) and an annual month of Leave- jumping from house to house all over the US. So our computer gear has to be small, tough and ultra compatible... which the D-Link Pocket Router is- in Spades! (We got the Netgear first... <shudder> horrible.) The other (positive) reviews have been right on about the technical aspects, so I only want to add a few other notes:

1. The D-Link is compatible will every modem we've hooked it to... from dial-up (scary) to DSL and Cable. From the big name modems in the US to the strange things you find in people's homes in Asia... it synced with each one and worked great... just plug it in and you're wireless!
I would also suggest picking up a cheap usb wifi adaptor. If someone doesn't have a wireless router already, they will likely only have a desktop and since you will be connecting their modem to your router, you will need to make the desktop 'wireless'.

2. The D-Link really shines in hotels. There have been no problems hooking it to the Ethernet connections in the myriad of hotel rooms we stayed in: from Alabama to Bangkok (even Abu Dhabi). The plug is not only 110-240 but is not grounded so can be fitted to any overseas power adaptors. The reach overseas does vary wildly and where it's mostly concrete construction (Asia, Middle East, etc...) you are better 'sharing' the connection through windows and floors/ceilings, than walls. Good to keep in mind when you are watching the children at the pool or sharing an expensive connection with co-workers.

3. Even if you do have wi-fi on your lap top, if you're at a hotel with wireless "in public areas" or even in a house where the bubble is small (hand me down wireless routers that only reach to the gifter's guest room for example) try using it as an access point... you'd be surprised.

All in all, the slick design and very small size (compare it to the other travel routers and you'll understand) coupled with ease of use and overwhelming compatibility make this a necessity for any traveler... or expat.

Why we bought it...
I specifically bought this item to be used with an XBOX 360 from my son that we wanted to move out of the family room. His bedroom did not have a wired connection like the family area so we opted for, rather than pulling more cables through the wall, for a wireless connection. Since my son(s) are extremely active on XBOX Live we needed the connection.

Since the XBOX will not be used by him to stream large HD video over the home network we did not need anything wired and the DSL connection at 1.5MBPS is BY FAR less that the available bandwidth of this router. Conclusion: a basic 11 mbps OR BETTER ethernet bridge / client would be more than sufficient for Live play.

We also frequently travel, either with the family and for business, and want to share 1 wired internet connection in most hotel rooms with everyone that has their laptop with them (my kids drag their Compaq bricks around everywhere to play Runescape).

After looking at the MS wireless adapter that is 'made' for the XBOX 360 we decided that that was a rubbish solution at 90$. We looked for alternatives by simply specifying:
- wireless gaming adapter
- wireless ethernet bridge
- game adapter

Using those searches you will find a range of products that satisfy the requirements of the XBOX and provide superbly stable connections to XBOX Live.
I ended ordering several of the options (reviewed elsewhere) over a series of months but ended up giving them away to needy fellow XBOX friends of my son who did not have the $ to buy their own.

Alternatives...
The alternatives we used were:
- Netgear WGA11B (bought on auction site for <30usd) , wireless B @ 11mbps
- D-Link DWL-810+ (bought used for <40usd), wireless B @ 11 mbps
- D-Link DGL-3420, wireless G @ 108mbps if used with matching router
- D-Link DWL-G730AP, wireless G @ 54mbps if used with matching router specs

I will not go into individual reviews of these items here but the key is:
- They all worked 100% flawless with the XBOPX 360 and the XBOX Live
- There is NO performance difference in online play, regardless of the touted speeds of these bridges as the lowest 11mbps already far exceeds the internet bandwidth you have via your routers WAN port

Why I kept the DWL-G730AP... and bought another...
This hardware is capable of running as a full fledged router (router mode), a gaming adapter (client mode) and Access Point (AP mode).

Router mode: functions as a full featured router, e.g. you can connect it to a DSL model or Cable Modem and it will function as a wireless router.

AP mode: if you connect it to a router that does not have wireless ability then this will functions as an access points for multiple wireless devices to connect to.

Client Mode aka Gaming Adapter aka ethernet bridge: you can use it to connect ANY device with a ethernet port (wired) to this product and it will then in turn connect to your wireless router or AP.

Given the wide usage of this item I decided to buy it. Nothing, I mean NOTHING, in the market comes close to the capabilities described above at the price it goes for new (roughly half of the MS product).

What's in the box...
It comes in a fake leather purse, size of a paperback, with DLink pressed into it. When you open it it has the router/ap/client-unit, a small AC Adapter, 1 ethernet flat-cable (a thin and flat ethernet cable of about 2 feet), a CD with manual etc and a Quick Install booklet.

Installing it...
If you haven't done this before it might take a few minutes but the concept is simple:
1. The unit is preset at 192.168.0.30 (common for clients) for the client (that is the mode I set up).
2. Ensure that the PC you do the setup with is in the same subnet (255.255.255.0) and has a athernet address in the same subnet as the unit, i.e. 192.168.0.31
3. If the PC does not have that then go into the TCP/IP properties of the network connection and use these settings (I'll stop now because this is not intended as a setup manual, the booklet is more than adequate)!!!
4. Put in the needed settings to connect to your router. Then save and reboot the unit.

The rest is easy: you connect it to the XBOX 360 and boot it up and watch the connection take place. The Quick setup is quite excellent and it took me a whole 5 minutes to configure the whole unit with wireless encryption and all.


Other considerations...
Consider that wireless B in a wireless network setup can reduce the overall performance of your wireless network.

The antenna is strong: my sons wireless laptop has a 47% connection in his bedroom and when this unit is connected he gets a 87% with his laptop. There are 2 floors and MANY walls between router and unit.

Do not use this if using the XBOX 360 as a media player as wireless in general is not good enough for good performance. This is excellent for XBOX Live.

I put in some photos to complete the review. I have used many D-Link products over time and realize that D-Links can be quirky but they tend to be loaded with capability. This is one of the better executed units they have ever done but they failed to properly advertise what it can do (and anyone not looking for this will get lost in the forest of D-Link product type codes).

As you can see in the photos: this unit is small. It looks amazingly tiny to pack so much power and has some conversation value once people understand what this little giant can do.

Even though I cannot always agree with D-Link quality and support and there are people rating it 1 because they cannot get it to work / connect I say that this is a 5 if you have a working unit and a bit of understanding of networking.

Most of the time, hate to say it, the problem with the low raters is PICNIC: Problem In Chair Not In Product.

I travel a lot on business and needed a device to free me from working in one place. The AirPlus works great on all continents.

Another plus, is around my office when I get visitors who need to check their Emails. Again the AirPlus works great and I manage to share my connection.

SET UP note: I use the AirPlus as an access point. The initial setting is tricky especially if the default on your PC is to aquire an IP address automatically (Dynamic IP). You need to set a fixed IP for your PC in the range 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.254 EXCEPT 192.168.0.30 which is that of the AirPlus. Once you finish the configuration with a fixed IP and with a wired connection to the AirPlus, you can switch back to dynamic IP and wireless.

I am very happy with this device. It does exactly what it's supposed to do and it works. I've been a happy traveler using this for about 3 months now.

I struggled with Netgear's version of a travel router for several months before this and it was one painful experience after another. I swear, that Netgear travel router took years off my life. But then... D-Link saves the day!

What a difference!! This is a dream to use compared to the Netgear (which by the way is almost excactly the same as the 3Com - they both stink). This router is configurable with the kind of more advanced settings that you find on regular home routers. It's very stable, supports WPA very well, and doesn't flinch with multiple devices/users connected at once so, I love it.

One thing I noticed is that turning off UPnP really helped. Just go into the config and you'll find the setting to turn it off. I think UPnP doesn't always play well with Windows (ironic, huh?) so I always opt to turn it off. Again, the other routers in this class don't even allow you to configure things like UPnP. Can you tell I'm bitter about the Netgear? Just a little.

So, bottom line, this router works like a router should and the fact that it's smaller and much cooler looking than the others is just icing on the cake.

Great buy - highly recommended.

The router works as I hoped, but it took a long time to figure out why I couldn't get to the web based configuration screen after I changed the configuration the first time. The incomplete instructions failed to mention the following important points.

To configure it the first time, you set the switch on the bottom to "client", and you can leave the IP address assignment as "Obtain an IP address automatically" (Control panel > network and internet connections > network connections > internet protocol (TCP/IP) > properties). Type in 192.168.0.30 in your web browser, login, and configure the router according to the instruction sheet. On an old computer with IE 5, the wizard interface didn't work so I just entered in the SSID, etc. into their respective tabs on the config. screen.

After the router resets itself, it works well and allows you to access the web via your primary wireless router.

But, after you configure it and the "client" router resets, you can no longer get to the configuration screen via your web browser at 192.168.0.30 until you assign a static IP address within the same address range as the client Dlink router using "Use the following IP address" (e.g., IP address: 192.168.0.99 and Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0), instead of using "Obtain an IP address automatically". Once you do that, no problem getting to the Dlink config screen (although you now have no access to your main router or web.)

To get reconnected back to your "main" router, you then you have to reselect "Obtain an IP address automatically" (or assign a static one within the same address range as your "main" wireless router). You'll again be able to connect to the web.

The tech support was useless. All they did was tell me to do a firmware update, which didn't help.

Other comments: The USB power cord is a unique idea, esp. since it means the power to the DLink will turn off when your computer is powered off. However, the cord is very short (it's way shorter than the Cat 5 cable that's included) and will limit where you can place the DLink. I also wonder how the power draw will affect the USB adapter and the rest of the computer since the DLink gets fairly warm.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that if you use MAC address filtering on your main router, you have to enter the MAC address of the NIC card on your PC, rather than the MAC address of the Dlink, since that's what your router will see.

I bought this router a while back thinking that I would use it during my business trips. Now I am using it everyday. :) This router is compact and has everything you need. It comes with a nice pouch that houses a power adapter, an ethernet cable, a USB power cable, and the router/AP/client. I am not going to go through the functionality of this device because you can read it from this device's advertised specification. I am just going to comment on its usability and my general experience using this device.

1. Setup - I would say it is rather difficult to setup this device. As lazy as I am, I skipped the manual and went straight to configuration. As a network engineer myself, I thought it would take me only a few minutes to setup this little thing. I was wrong. I later found out the router had to be in AP mode before I could access its configuration page. Once I got there, it took no time to configure the rest. Remember, turn on DHCP and let it serve IP addresses. By default, the device's IP is 192.168.0.30/24, and you have to configure your NIC to have a static IP in that subnet before your PC can communicate with it.

2. Usage - I have nothing to complain. It has everything a normal person needs.

3. Tech support - This is the area where I can complain about, and it is exactly why I took one star off this wonderful device. My experience with D-link tech support cannot be worse. Not only they were not able to help, but I happened to talk to a drunk tech-support person when I called in one night for help. Maybe if I paid more attention to the router's configuration earlier, I could have avoided calling D-Link's tech-support. But there is still no excuse. I talked to several Indian engineers and they were no help. It was difficult to understand their english and it could have taken less time to communicate if they didn't have an accent. Maybe I am just too picky. :( The drunk engineer made it worse. The problem I had was poor download performance. The default DTIM configuration for this router is 3, which allowed the laptop's NIC to stay too long in power-save mode. You can change it to 1 so that the router doesn't buffer the data destined to clients for too long and you will have perfect connectivity. D-Link's tech support people knew nothing about this!!!! :(

The product is "almost" perfect; post-sale support is far from perfect!!!

Update: This router tends to overheat easily when used in a non-air-conditioned environment. When it overheats, it resets. Now I just want to give it 2 stars.

I played around with this device for 4 hours, called tech support - waited 30 minutes, was then put on hold for another 10 minutes before I gave up.

I've finally figured out how to get it to work in AP mode - Win XP.

One of the things I figured out was that every time you moved the switch on the bottom of the dlink, you lose all your settings.

1. Set the dlink to AP mode on the bottom of the unit.
2. Connect the dlink to your laptop via ethernet cable.
3. On your laptop - Ctrl Panel - Double click Local connections.
Scroll down to Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
4. Click on properties and change from "Obtain an IP address automatically" to "Use the following IP address - type in
192.168.0.99 and Subnet mask of 255.255.255.0
then click OK-OK.
5. Open up your browser and type in 192.168.0.30
type in "admin" for the name and since it doesn't have a defualt password, just click ok.
6. Run the setup wizard and follow the prompts and then have the router save and restart.
7. Disconnect the ethernet cable from the laptop and connect it to your regular router.
8. On your laptop "view your wireless connections" and choose the one you just setup withe the dlink. Enter your security password.
9 You should now be able to securely get to the internet.

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Client Mode is very complicated, but with the help of other Amazon reviews I figured out. Here's the process as best I can describe.

CLIENT Mode - This is where you are connecting the 730AP Router wirelessly to the network and attaching it via Ethernet cable to your laptop. This is probably what I'll use most of the time when I travel.

You first need to know the name of the wireless network you are going to connect to, what sort of encryption it uses, (if possible) and the password to get into the wireless network. The router setup will ask you these questions.

You then need to setup the router to use those settings.(XP is what I use.)

Control Panel - Network Settings - Lan Settings - Scroll down to TCP-IP - Properties
Change it to read -
192.168.0.99
255.255.255.

DNS Servers
24.217.0.5
24.217.0.5

(Note the DNS servers I use are Open DNS.)

If you haven't already setup a password, use admin and no password.
If you have already setup a new password, entire that at the prompt.

When you go through the router setup, you need to know what type of encryption and the password for the wireless you are using.

You will also have to "Search" for the wireless network - there may be more than one around and choose the correct one.

When you haves setup the router, and it is rebooting, go back to Network Connections and change the Properties to:

- Obtain and IP address automatically
- Use the DNS Server addresses - 24.217.0.5
That's THE Open DNS servers I use.

Turn off the computer and reboot.

It finally works !

I have used this router at various hotels, and it worked flawlessly. It's small, and easy to pack. I highly recommend it.

I bought this unit to allow machines access to WiFi networks without changing their configuration.

Using this device in client mode is a mind bender and not very well presented in the documentation. The process is this: first, you set your host computer to a static IP address on the 192.168.0.x network. Then, using your browser you go to 192.168.0.30 and log into the DWL-G730AP. After that, you configure the wireless side with the SSID, channel, and security mode. After updating the wireless configuration, save the configuration and the DWL-G730AP reboots. While the DWL-G730AP reboots, you change the IP configuration on the host machine to DHCP for its IP address and DNS. Then, you wait about two minutes for all the devices to sort themselves out. Eventually the host computer receives an IP address from the WiFi network and you are on the air.

As others have noted, if you are going to use this device on a network that uses WPA, you will need to flash the firmware to the latest revision. If the DWL-G730AP were sold with the latest firmware and the documentation included a better description of how to set up a host computer for client mode, I would give this unit 5 stars.

I call this a Do-Hicky because it can do more than just be a wireless client. I was given this as a prize in the office pool of gambling on TV shows. Don't ask. :) But I can't get over how cool this thing really is.

I use it on my business trips and it does a good job with creating a hot spot out of a standard ethernet port. I actually have wi-fi built into my laptop so I don't need this to be a wireless client device, but it comes in handy at hotels and other places that don't offer wi-fi, but do offer ethernet based access. I keep it configured as a wi-fi access point so all I have to do is plug it into the wall (ehternet) and into a power outlet and suddenly that wired port is now wireless. This is also useful in the night classes I take. In my night class there are a couple ethernet (cat5) ports in the wall, but I can't see well when I am in the back corner of the room. So by plugging this into the wall in the back and sitting at the front of the room, I get the best of both worlds. Very Awesome!