Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quality for the Price, January 8, 2007
Let me just say I use these where I work for our entire corporate network. They come with a 3 year warranty last I checked and are good quality for the most part. I see quite a few complains listed here but my thoughts are as follows:
I have purchased about 40 of these access points and have only had to RMA 5 of them because I use them in "client access mode." For some reason they seem to just quit functioning correctly after a while. Most of you will use "access point mode" so nothing to worry about. I have had most in access point mode and they've been running 2.5 years + non stop with no issues.
Also, go to D-Links website and download the latest firmware revision of 2.10 if the router doesn't already have it. You can configure the access point via a web browser or you can download D-Link's Airplus Extreme AP Manager off their site too. For ease of use stick with the web browser since it doesn't require the software although for simple configuration the AP Manager is preferred especially if your doing more than one.
Lastly, these access point used in client mode can (for those not familiar) be used as an "external" wireless card. What's the benefit to this? Instead of having a performance killing PCI card these are better and more stable in my professional opinion. We had issues with D-Link and Orinico PCI cards locking computers up. Some conflicts with certain Southbridge motherboard chipsets. Long story...
Also, I do use these in Point to Point and repeater modes and as long as your running the latest firmware revision you should have no problems. Hope this review helps at least one person.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Supports bridging, just like it says., August 29, 2004
I picked the DWL-2100AP because the documentation read that this unit supports 5 different operating modes. The mode I was interested in was the Point-to-Multipoint bridging mode. I've heard this type of configuration can be very tricky and I was a bit skeptical about getting it to work. Much to my surprise, the first test I ran went very well:
This type of setup requires multiple AP's - one to act as a base, and the others to pick up the signal from remote locations.
First, I setup 2 AP's and configured them each for the bridging mode (the base set to PtMP Bridge - the remote set to PtP Bridge)
Then I set the D-Link on my roof (with the aid of the DWL-P100 - Power over Ethernet Adaptor) and drove to a friend's house about a ¼ mile away. I pulled out a laptop running Netstumbler (www.netstumbler.com) to see if I could pick up the signal. If conditions were absolutely perfect, I picked up on occasional `blip' - not nearly enough to maintain a connection. Then I hooked up a second DWL-2100AP (preset to the same SSID) to bridge the connection. The initial results were awesome. As soon as the remote access point powered on, it bridged the connection to my base station. Netstumbler only picked up the remote AP (since I was right next to it) but I confirmed that the bridge was working by hitting Amazon.com. All this was done using the standard out-of-the-box antennas. I was truly impressed.
I was inspired to try this project by Jeff Duntemann's book, "Jeff Duntemnn's Wi-Fi Guide, Second Edition" (ISBN: 1932111883). Eventually, I will put the AP's in a weather-proof housing and add external antennas.
The only downside I can think of is the fact that D-Link does not have very good documentation - in the box or on the web. I've come to learn that many Wi-Fi vendors lack in this area, so D-Link is no worse than any others. The ease with which I set up the Bridge was astounding. D-Link does a great job of making their equipment easy to use!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good value., March 8, 2007
We purchased two of these AP's to use for a point to point bridge, using 24 db gain antennas over about a quarter mile hop. We mounted the AP's in weathertight 8"x8"x4" boxes along with dLink POE's, all outdoors on a mast just behind the antennas. This eliminated the need to extend the Antenna's wires inside. It also eliminated considerable loss we would have encountered in running longer antenna wires.
The units have worked flawlessly since install. Our daytime high temperatures were 100 degrees max, winter low temperatures have been -20 degrees. We are operating at the minimal power setting for the AP-2100 without suffering throughput, put there is no way of verifying this.
If I could have one more feature, it would be some sort of signal strength indicator, along with some way of testing for data throughput.
Nevertheless, I would recommend a similar installation to anyone needing to bridge two LAN's together. We have just purchased a third DWL-2100 as a backup because we've gotten quite hooked on the system and would now be distressed if it should go out (due to lightning, etc.) So the the third unit is a backup, still sealed in its origional box.
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