D-Link DWL-G730AP AirPlus G High Speed 2.4GHz 802.11g Wireless Pocket Router/AP
by D-Link
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of D-Link DWL-G730AP AirPlus G High Speed 2.4GHz 802.11g Wireless Pocket Router/AP
Customer Review: I travel 30 weeks a year; this is part of my travel bag
Summary: 4 Stars
I travel some 30 weeks a year and this is a great product in a nice compact travel case.
While most hotels offer wireless, some only offer wired connections. But MORE IMPORTANTLY, a lot of hotels' wireless is throttled-down or significantly slower than the wired connection. (You can check this with various Internet speed checks online)
Some of my travels are last-minute and I don't get to research the hotel with wireless connectivity - now it doesn't matter. As long as I have my D-Link wireless pocket router, I have wireless.
When you travel like myself, you don't want to be sitting in your boxers on a cold desk chair, tethered by the 3 foot wired Ethernet cable. You want to sit on the bed, propped by the 12 pillows they supply and compute on your laptop in comfort. Now I can do that wherever I go, connecting securely to my own wireless network using WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc for security and to keep other travellers from mooching off my connection. ;-)
Another plus is that sometimes the wired connection is faster than the same hotel's wireless connection. Now I can enjoy the speeds of their wired connection, on my own wireless connection. I've tested this at some hotels by connecting to the hotel's wireless connection and doing a speed test and then connecting to their wired connection and doing a speed test and finally, doing a speed test with my D-Link pocket router plugged into their wired connection.
Although I haven't yet done this, I could also use this device to share one laptop's internet connection with others or share files amongst a group of laptops in a conference room securely. This is truly a fantastic, multi-use device.
I gave this 4 stars because at first you forget what Client or AP or what all the switch settings are and if you need client or ap or rtr - I usually just try moving the switch until it is working right. I travel a lot so now I've got it figured out, but on my first trip with this I had to plug into a wired connection and look the manual up online to remember how to use it.
I really like the travel case as it is slimline and fits everything you need - they could've sold this without the travel case and said it is up to you (like Garmin and Kindle does :( ) but they included it and that's one less thing to have to purchase. Good job, D-Link, great, useful device!
Customer Review: A God Send for travelers... Business and Pleasure
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Works like a charm, after setup
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this for an XBOX 360 to get the cables off my floor. The product I got from Amazon is REV B of the hardware and sports firmware 2. This is the latest and greatest. It fixes the reboot problem.
The good: Totally works as advertised. You set it up, you flip the switch on the bottom, you plug in devices.
The bad: The manual is crap. It basically says "use the wizard". Which is OK, the wizard will do what you want and comes with a setup CD, but it's not obvious how some things work.
The ugly: Get too far outside the box and you're going to fight with it.
That being said - once you have it working, you set it and forget it. The trick is knowing your settings before you start. My network is an XBOX 360, a laptop (wifi) and a Netgear router. The netgear router has a Wii as a client and my laptop, it supports WPA and WPA2. WPA2 was a complete wash, the router would throw out the keys. Fortunately the other crap client I have - the Wii - is setup for WPA. I switched it to WPA and the keys worked.
The other problem is that the UI is braindead and doesn't protect you from making stupid choices. Before I figured out the key problems, I tried everything else. You can absolutely set the LAN side to DHCP. Which doesn't make much sense as a wireless bridge. You can also set the gateway on the LAN port. Again, why you can this when the device is a gateway is beyond me. Finally there's nothing to indicate a key failure, or that the device is online. The lights don't even light up consistently. DHCP is also a wash - the device would not act as a DHCP server to my laptop. The XBOX 360 had no problems getting an IP and being a client. I never did understand what the magic was there but I'm happy it working.
Before you start - know your settings. It will make configuration much easier. In terms of bandwidth, it's great. I haven't experienced the disconnects and netflix on the 360 works great. Considering it's about equal to the XBOX 360 wifi setup and certainly easier than the wii setup, I would still say it's a good buy minus the configuration headache.
Customer Review: If buying this router to use as a client - think again
Summary: 1 Stars
If you are buying this router for using in the client mode, there are two things that you need to know:
1) It is hard to make it work in the Client mode. The instructions are not detailed and there is considerable scope for ambiguity. I spent more than an hour and a half on this router to make it work in the client mode (only to realize that it doesn't suite my needs). I have four other routers in my home, none of them took me this long to configure. And I consider myself technical. As others have pointed out, for setting it up in the client mode, you will need to set the ip address of your computer's ethernet connection in the same range as the router's (192.168.0.30). You can choose to change the router's static ip address from the preset value to an ip address that is in the ip address range of your DHCP server. That will help with any future set-ups with this router.
2) I wanted to use this router as a client to my existing wireless connection. I wanted to run ethernet connections from this router to my DVR, my Sony blue-ray player and my X-Box 360. For this purpose I connected an ethernet switch behind this router and ran ethernet cords from the switch to all the devices above. To my surprise, I found that only one of the devices out of the above will get an IP address and will work. It happened to be the first device that was powered on after running the connections.
After wasting my time with this router, I bought a Netgear WNCE2001 Univeral WiFi internet adapter for my needs. Plugged it in my laptop, chose the Wifi connection I wanted to use and it configured itself in less than 2 minutes. I connected it to my devices via the switch (same way as I was doing with D-Link) and everything worked magically. There was no hassle at all. I do agree that Netgear adapter costs 20 dollars more and does not provide the other two modes that D-Link provides. But I don't need the other two modes to work in my set-up. I want the client mode to work well. And I believe my time is worth more than spending to make this router work.
Customer Review: Works just like every other router I've ever seen, but just 1/10 the physical size
Summary: 5 Stars
I travel alot, and quite often I end up in a hotel or meeting room with an ethernet connection, but no WiFi signal available. Sometimes the ethernet jack is not located where I want to set my computer up, other times I'd like to share my connection with other people, but most of the time I just find that whatever public wifi available is just too weak or too slow...
This wireless router always comes through as a little wonder!
It's smaller and lighter than my mouse and it fits easily in my notebook bag. It can be powered via either the included power supply (which is also impressively small and works with either 120V or 220V if you ever find yourself in Europe.) Or, it can be powered by the (included!) USB cable for those times where you can't spare an extra power outlet I love that single outlet they give you at some hotels... You know, the one built into the base of the lamp? Well the USB power cable is perfect for those times!
It instantly blankets the area with a wireless network to anyone in range. It works just as good as any other router I've seen, has the same admin page with a ton of features (firewall, mac filter, wep setup, etc. All the standard stuff) but is just so small and portable.
I always become the most popular person in the room after I plug this thing in. "Wow! I've got a signal now!", "It's so much faster than the hotel's wifi!", "Cool! I can get wifi in my room across the hall!", "Nice router! Will you sleep with me?" (OK so I haven't heard that last one yet, wishful thinking...)
It has a few different modes (router, access point, client) -- I've only ever used "router" mode as I never found the need for the other modes.
I can't imagine how you can possibly go wrong with this little device...!