Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A God Send for travelers... Business and Pleasure, April 29, 2006
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.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Small device, May 9, 2006
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.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For those with an XBOX 360, looking for Microsoft alternative, June 10, 2008
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.
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