The D-Link DWL-G650+ is a PCMCIA wireless (WiFi) card, which plugs into an available PCMCIA slot on a laptop. With this card, it wireless-enables a laptop, assuming it doesn't have built-in wireless already. The card cost me about £25 at the time but you may be able to find the same one cheaper now. Most of these seem to be in this price range if not less, since they are becoming redundant with new laptops already having built-in cards. It's a 802.11G card, which means theoretically, it can transfer 54Mbits/s but they never get to that speed. Most residential broadband connections nowadays only range up to 10Mbit/s.
INSTALLATION
I find the installation of this card has always been very easy. I just install the driver and software off the CD and then plug the card in. This literally takes minutes. Only thing I'm not too keen on is that I think the card sticks out of the PCMCIA slot too much but that's normal for most PCMCIA
cards.
USING
You can use the D-Link software or you can use Windows XP SP2's wireless function.. While using the XP function, I'm usually connected as soon as I've turned on my laptop so no need to choose to connect to a network. It's the same with the D-Link utility. When connected to a wireless network, the card flashes.
The D-Link software lets you scan the area for wireless networks and then lets you choose which one you want to connect to. The software looks very professionally made and has information like Link Quality, Signal Strength as well as Data Rate, which is good to know so you know.
The range is pretty good but it varies depending on the Access Point and the surroundings. WiFi connections don't go through thick walls too well and thin walls may also lower the quality of the connection. Signals are better in wide open areas. Despite the walls in my house, I can manage to connect to the Internet wirelessly in most parts of the house. I can also pick up the neighbour's wireless point, which is probably about 20 metres or more away (not sure who's it belongs to). My WiFi Access Point (a Draytek Vigor 2600G Wireless Router) has WEP security enabled. Once I enter the security key, I can access the network and Internet flawlessly. I know that some wireless cards are picky with accessing certain Access Points that have security turned on so that's a relief.
As well as access the Internet, I am also able to access my network to transfer files, remotely control my PC, etc. I find that the connection to the network and Internet to be very stable and the only times it's been unstable is when the wireless router / Access Point isn't working properly.
Transfer rates, as expected are not as fast as when using a wired connection (using Cat5 network cable). On my 2Mbit ADSL connection (capable of up to 230KB/s), speeds typically start off between 100-200KB/s but seem to start to drop to around 90KB/s. This is while the laptop is about 50cm from my router so it's nothing to do with distance or obstructions. It's not top speed but it's still pretty quick.
It does exactly what it's supposed to and does it well. It's easy to use as once set up, you just connect to your network or Internet as usual, just without wires.
SUPPORT
The drivers, software, and manuals are on the CD included but if you ever lose the CD or want updated drivers and software, then they can be downloaded from the D-Link website. D-Link is quite a big company for networking equipment so I am not worried about it disappearing like some smaller hardware suppliers. The website is quite quick with fairly decent download speeds. Not always top speed downloads but acceptable.
Documentation for the card on their website seems to be for a slightly different model labelled 'Xtreme', but I'm guessing they are identical other than the different label. The manual is very thorough, explaining all the terms you could ever worry about even if you won't ever need to know what most of them mean. There are pictures and diagrams where appropriate to help you understand how to set everything up.
VERDICT
It's a nice and simple card. It is a bit outdated now as there are newer wireless specifications available and most, if not all current laptops have built-in wireless, making such cards redundant. If you have an old laptop that does not already have built-in wireless, then I can happily recommend this card. Otherwise, a similar or newer model would do nicely too. All I can say is that it works and I can't fault it.
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