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D-Link DWL-G520 AirPlus Xtreme G Wireless PCI Adapter 108Mbps

D-Link DWL-G520 AirPlus Xtreme G Wireless PCI Adapter 108Mbps

List Price: $89.99
Your Price: $49.39
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Signal, in spite of Antenna Behind PC.
Review: Surprising it is when I receive a strong signal from my AP 3 rooms away. Connections are fine and the speeds are fast. I've been hearing that D-Link will release a faster version of drivers so that you can transfer data faster. This is an easy to use PCI adapter with good software that gives you some good info for local APs trasmitting signal. I can even see my next door neighbor's wireless network. It is encrypted.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: manual gives wrong instructions for configuring card
Review: The card by itseld is good and drivers work. However, do not trust D-Link software & manual for configuring the card. I could get it working only with windows XP's network management options. To the contrary, the manual Explicitly asks us to disable options saying "let windows manage my wireless network".
It took customer support 2 hrs to get it all working and had to call 3 times and talk with 4 experts.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stable PCI Wireless Adapter
Review: The card installed within minutes and was not a hassle at all to get working. And since my DI-624 sends a strong signal through out my entire apartment I can have my PCs anywhere and they are still connected at a high speed. The card has been running great on my Windows 2000 Pro machine with no problems. The software is a nice addition and I can even see me neighbors access point. The antenna is removable so that if I do need a better signal I can attach a better antenna on the back.

Answer: If you have a DI-614+ (22Mbps) and you are going to get a wireless PCI adapter you should definitely get the DWL-520+ (22Mbps). Gget the DWL-G520 (54Mbps) if you have a 54Mbps Access Point. The best speeds you can get with the 520+ and the 614+ are about 10-12Mbps real throughput. With the G520 and the 614+ you will only get 4-6Mbps at best because 54Mbps will step down to 11Mbps not down to 22Mbps. So 614+ = 520+ or 650+, but 624 = G520 or G650.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BUY THIS CARD!!!
Review: The guy who wrote the bad review below must work for Microsoft, because as everyone else has said, this card is great. I had TONS of issues with my first card (Linksys WMP54g, see my review for details) and when I popped in the DLink all of my headaches went away. Works great and with the firmware is lightning fast. Dont waste your money on any other product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Yes Download new Firmware TODAY!
Review: The new 108Mbps firmware helps with everything. I get better speeds obviously. In fact file transferring is twice as fast now. Security is still good, connection stability is still great, and signal strength is a little higher now.

Overall the new firmware only improved what was already a good product. This adapter just sits in the back of my PC and I have zero problems with it or my wireless connection.

Installation was quick and easy. The software that comes with it is pretty much invisible and takes little know-how to actually make work. In fact if you plug in your new access point and this card in your PC they practically connect to each other automatically. Very nice feature for newbies.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: ************ Avoid D-Link Products ********************
Review: The product may perform up to your expectations but I only hope you never have to interact with D-Link's support organization. After dealing with conflicting, contradictory and completely erroneous information from their support organization, I have come to the conclusion that I don't care to do business with D-Link again.

I hope that if you do buy a D-Link product it works flawlessly (which mine did not), and you never have to call their tech support organization.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Known (but not advertised) conflict
Review: These DLINK wireless adapters have a known conflict with Sound Blaster cards. I tried to install one in my Gateway with Win XP and it would not work, after the third call to tech support they informed me there was a known conflict with Sound Blaster audio and told me to take out the Sound Blaster. Now I ask you what good is a silent computer???

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Light-Years Better Than Linksys
Review: This card is just super!

I spent some frustrating hours with two -- count 'em, TWO -- Linksys Wireless-G PCI cards, trying to get them to talk to another Linksys product, a Linksys Wireless-G Router. No luck. The second one was a replacement for the first, and the insert that came with it said it had passed Linksys quality control. Maybe, but neither one played nice with my Win2000 machine.

Finally, I gave up on the Linksys PCI card, and probably shouldn't have tried it at all, given the mediocre reviews it received here on Amazon. That's when I sat down and diligently read the reviews for D-Link and figured I had nothing to lose by trying one more PCI card (one that's received rave reviews, BTW).

The D-Link card and driver installed without fuss in the Win2000 machine. It's two rooms away from the router and the wireless signal passes through a bathroom, with the attendant metal pipes and wires, etc., and still gets a 86-90% signal. It's set up to communicate with the router using a WPA-Pre-Shared-Key (WPA-PSK), the router does not broadcast an SSID, and the router only accepts wireless communications from this single wireless client. Browsing the Internet is as fast as, if not faster than, the original wired connection. Now I can get that ugly cat-5 cable off the door-jambs and baseboards.

I'm sold. Don't fool around with the Linksys PCI card. If it works, count yourself lucky, but D-Link seems to have the wireless communication network stuff figured out. Strange, my Linksys Wireless-G Router (WRT54G) is running flawlessly, handling the traffic for both a wired and a wireless connection. But don't waste time on a Linksys PCI card. Get a D-Link card.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Took a bit of TWEAKING to make the DWL-G520 work!!!
Review: Using a D-Link DI-624 as the wireless router/access point for my home network, I got my laptop linked up fairly easily but connecting to the net with a second desktop using this wireless adapter took some trial and error. I followed the manual's instructions (with latest drivers/firmwares) and got WIRELESS CONNECTION on the PC BUT CAN'T ACCESS the INTERNET!

Here's what I finally did to make it work (the wireless linked PC is a Dell 8200 running WinXP):

Removed the wireless adapter from a PCI slot close to the fax/modem.

Uninstalled first software install. Rebooted. Reinstalled DWL-G520 software. Shut off PC.

Reinstalled wireless adapter in an empty PCI slot farther away from the fax/modem.

Turn on PC, hardware detected. Install the NEWEST driver that was downloaded previously via ethernet on my new Dell 8300.

MAKE SURE the ROUTER DI-624 is properly configured!!! I had enabled WEP (write down the KEY!) and used the MAC filter (only the MACs of my router and ethernet/wireless adapters CAN access my network). I also disabled SSID broadcast (I can detect several of my neighbors' SSIDs with WEP disabled).

MOST Importantly the DHCP server was enabled with just enough starting to ending IP addresses for the number of computers in my network.

NOW enter ALL necessary info of the network using the DWL-G520 config. utility. Click the WinXP network icon for wireless networks avail. Check your network, enter the WEP key and........FINALLY, access to the internet!!!

It took some time to dial in my preferences but now my downstairs wireless PC is 1532/243 kbps down/up with a LOW (38%)signal.

Good Luck!


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