Review on 📶 D-Link DWL-1000AP 11Mb Wireless LAN Access Point 802.11b: High-Performance Connectivity for Seamless Wireless Networking by Ronnie Segobiano

Took me about 90 minutes to set it up and get it working when it should have taken 10. I think part of the problem could be that my PCMCIA card is Intel and was missing something to set it up properly, but the instructions in the quick start guide (which is thicker than the regular user guide) didn't work. It wasn't automatically detected, and when I entered the MAC address with the IP address as in the manual, it showed that it still wouldn't work. After looking at the full (smaller) user manual I realized that if I have a DHCP server (which I do) I can set it up over a wired LAN. After checking my DHCP server for the device's IP address, I was able to complete the setup in about a minute. Armed with some information from the configuration page (which isn't visible until I can talk to the device), I was able to see the ESSID and set up my pcmcia card correctly, which only took me a minute. Phew, it worked. As for range. Didn't expect to get anywhere near the listed area as I'm pretty sure it's listed as a Site Line - even for an internal number. I live on 1430 sqm. foot, and the access point is in the guest room, which is roughly in the middle of one side of the house. If it's just on my computer desk, I can use it for most things around the house. I put it in a strategic place in the closet so the coffee table in my living room (opposite corner of the house) only had one wall to walk through and I could use it wherever I tried. Unfortunately, the Intel software doesn't have a connection quality indicator, but it seems fine. (Note that even the slowest speed is fast enough for DSL speeds.) The weak link here is the documentation. This might be ok if you have a D-Link PCMCIA card, but totally unsuitable for my Intel card. Luckily, I work as a software engineer and have a degree in hardware, so I had enough money to get this thing up and running fairly quickly (although it could have been a lot faster). I'm sorry for the laypeople who are encountering the problems I've encountered, as they would be *very* disappointed. Again, this can be a breeze with a D-Link card. (I bought Intel because I've always been happy with their nicknames, it was only a few bucks more, and they pride themselves on having a Linux driver.) Oh, don't rely on help installing software . It doesn't work because it's supposedly made for a language that your version of Windows doesn't support. How bad is that? Maybe they have an updated version online. I haven't tested it as it still works for me. That would be my next step. Give a 2 for the documentation, but the product still gets a 4 because it works well in the end. It would be 5 if their documentation was better and the online help actually worked. Although very cool.