D Link AirPlus DWL-520+ Wireless 22MBPS PCI Adapter

Never worked...what a waste !!!

I recently purchased a D-Link Airplus DI-614+ and a D-Link DWL-520+ Wireless PCI adapter card. If you want to avoid many frustrating hours of e-mails and calling the D-Link support team (on-hold times were usually 25 minutes), it may be wise NOT to purchase the DWL-520+ card if you have a "SoundBlaster Live! Value" sound card.In my case, most of the time when I had both cards installed, the computer froze during the boot process. This was in a Pentium3 500MHz computer. Only after placing the wireless card in PCI Slot 3 and the SBLive card in PCI Slot 5 was I able to get the computer to finish booting to the desktop. Even then, the SBLive card still did not function well, sometimes causing echoing sound effects, or spontaneous re-booting of the computer. The D-Link support team insisted that they got good results with the SBLive card in Slot 5 and the wireless card in Slot 4 -- which in my system was one of the freeze-on-booting situations.When installed by itself without the SBLive card installed, the D-Link DWL-520+ worked flawlessly with the D-Link DI-614+ Access Point Router. But I did not wish to run that computer without a sound card.After spending way too many hours trying to get this system to work, I returned the D-Link devices and purchased the LinkSys BEFW11S4 Access Point Router for use near my new computer, and the WUSB11 Wireless USB Adapter for my older computer. I am now effortlessly using the internet on both of my computers.One additional point -- the people at D-Link will not provide you with support help for File Sharing problems between computers on a wireless network. I'm not sure if this is true for other wireless manufacturers.

In my home I am fortunate to have both a wired and wireless network installation. I recently completed the upgrade of the wired portion from 10 Megabyte per second (Mps) to 100Mps; a total of two servers and one workstation. The cost of PCI 10/100 Network Interface Cards (NIC) have come down in price to such a degree that not switching would have been in my opinion silly.But converting my wireless network to 100Mps was impossible since such high throughput is as yet unrealized in the wireless arena, however it is coming. D-Link and several other manufactures now offer 54Mps (the 802.11g standard), but at a cost I am not willing to pay, yet. However, D-Link also offers a 22Mps solution, in both Wireless Access Point (WAP), PC Card, and NIC.Moving my wireless network segment to 22Mps meant an investment in an all new WAP since the current WAP was capable of only 11Mps. D-Link has been on the forefront of home wireless technology for the last few years and offers a suite of products to suit my modest needs. So, I watched and waited for a good sale, and when one happened my way late last year, I purchased the 22Mps D-Link DWL 900 AP Wireless Access Point.And the complement the DWL 900 I purchased two "D-Link DWL 520+ Wireless PCI NIC" Adapter cards. The DWL 520+ operates at a frequency of 2.4 GHz, and supports the following wireless standards: IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11b, and can transmit and receive traffic at the following data rates: 22Mbps 11Mbps, 5.5Mbps, 2Mbps, and 1Mbps.Not Ready for Windows XPDespite D-Link's claim these cards will not work with Windows XP out of the box. Both my primary workstation and that of my spouse run Windows XP Home. Both PC's also have Linksys WPC11 Wireless NIC's installed, and running flawlessly, but the cards are limited to 11Mbs throughput.Hoping the installation of the "D-Link DWL 520+" would be painless (who was I kidding?); I installed the first card in my workstation. True to form, Windows XP detected the new card and then prompted me for the software which I eagerly fed it. But then a funny thing happened on the way to 22Mps wireless heaven: nothing. The card didn't work. Not only did it not detect the WAP scant 20 feet away, but it also locked up my computer. So I rebooted: same result lock up. Puzzled, I restarted Windows XP in Safe Mode, same result: lock up. I then removed the card, and booted into the "Last Known Good Hardware Configuration," but Windows XP refused to play. End result: Operating System (OS) reload! Needless to say I was not amused.Thinking this might be an aberration (or that I might have a defective card), because after all I experiment with my workstation constantly, I attempted to install the second card in my spouse's computer: same result, sans OS reload, thank God. I called D-Link technical support; not luck. In fact I knew more about the cards then they did!On a whim, I installed the first card in a spare Windows 2000 Server box, result: the card worked! I then installed it into a Windows 98 computer, result: the card worked again. Needless to say, in frustration I shipped the cards back to Amazon.com and got a full refund. And now I am back to where I started; 11Mps.ConclusionThe "D-Link DWL 520+" while the perfect mate for Windows 9x and Windows 2000 computers, does not work with Windows XP, so you are now forewarned. Since Windows XP was able to detect the physical card, I have come to the conclusion that the drivers are to blame. Since my experience with the "D-Link DWL 520+" the company to my knowledge has not updated the drivers, but certainly cannot be ignorant of the problem. Bottom line, if you run Windows XP, this is not the card for you.

Works great for older computers with no wifi built in. Recommended purchase

When I first installed this product, I had my doubts about the whether it could work in an area with numberous APs. I live in an apartment building and there are three wireless networks operating next to mine. One of them doesn't use an encryption. (I have tried to explain to the guy how to use WEP and he doesn't want to listen.)Anyway, when I first installed the DWL-520+ in my Windows XP Pro desktop. It kept trying to jump over to the other networks. I turned on WEP and tried to use the default Wireless manager that comes with XP. Using XP to manage the connection turned out to be the problem. I would connect to my own network and then five minutes later it would drop the connection try to link to my neighbor's wireless network.Finally, I visited the DWL-520+ support section on D-Link's website and discovered that D-Link recommends disabling the Windows XP Wireless Manager (it goes on by default) and turn on D-Link's own wireless manager software. It took me less than five minutes to follow the screen shots which showed me how to turn off the Microsoft's XP Wireless Manager by using the "Properties" section in "My Computer". Since I started using D-Link's wireless manager, I haven't had any problems with the connection. In fact, because I have a D-Link DI-614+ wireless router, I am able to connect as fast as the advertised 22 Mbps. If I needed second desktop, I would buy another DWL-520+.

I did not recieve an antenna for this product to work so it is oblete