I have now owned this product for 2 weeks after purchasing from ebuyer for £12.66. It has been working to my satisfaction for just one of those weeks.
Installation and Problems ------------------------------------ The instructions insist that you install the software and then install the card itself, however I did not wish to use the software that came with the card so I opted to install the card first and then manually guide windows XP service pack 3 towards the drivers. This worked fine at first however I shortly ran into reliability issues. The card would lose the connection frequently and the only way to get it back would be to disable and re enable the card via device manager. So I went right back to square one and followed the instructions to the letter. Turns out the suggested installation method is painless and unlike many other products and brands it does not force you to use its own software and even in this case gave me a choice to opt to use the built in windows configuration tool. A nice touch. Sadly after the re insall the relability issues quickly resurfaced. I figured now that the problem my be down to Service Pack 3 as no one in the ebuyer reviews seemed to be having issues with SP2. The particular card I bought was a revision C with the chipset by Ralink. Ralink offered their own drivers which are v1.2.3.0 rather than D-links rather outdated 1.1.1.0 variant. Ralink also offer their own configuration utility. Sadly XP decided that the D-Link drivers were infact more up to date and therefore refused to let me use the Ralink drivers.
The Solution ------------------ Well I have a feeling that this shouldn't work and will lead to issues in the future however so far the card has now been stable for over 4 days. In order to fool windows into using the Ralink driver I created a folder containing NetRt61G.INF from the 1.1.1.0 D-link driver folder and rt61.sys from the Ralink driver folder. BINGO windows accepted the driver and all my problems have gone.
Whats in the box ----------------------- The device comes in a sturdy shrink wrapped box containing an installation booklet in 15 languages and all the usual warranty paperwork. The car is initially fitted with a full length mounting bracket for use in a standard pc case however it also comes with a half length bracket for use in smaller and slimmer media center style cases. There is also an aerial that screws to the card and sits outside the pc case.
Performance ----------------- The card performs to my satisfaction. The BT homehub resides in the opposite corner of the house and I get a signal between 40% and 70% which translates to 54Mbps occasioanlly dropping to the high 20's. I have not used another wireless device in a comparable situation so sadly can't compare this to anything
Linux ------- This card is said to function very well with linux however I have not yet had a chance to try it.
Conclusion ---------------- Now that my card is working I am satisfied with it however I still feel let down with the Service pack 3 compatability issues. Searching the internet reveals that there are also other issues with the card and service pack 3 that I didn't seem to suffer from. There was also mention of initial issues with vista. In my opinion the blame for this rests firmly with D-link who in late 2008 were still offering 2006 drivers as the latest on their website. To add insult to injury the chipset manufacturer had made available updated drivers so really I can't see why D-link was not offering these.
My Ratings --------------- I feel that I can only give this card 3 stars as it does work well but I feel like it should have worked like this out of the box.
I also personally cannot reccomend someone with Service Pack 3 buys this product however anyone else using sp2 or vista and linux go ahead I guess
Once it was working speed and stability are good
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Nov 15th, 2008
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