D-Link RangeBooster N USB Adapter DWA-140

Yep...got one of these as I was working well away from the router and anyway the spotty salesman...sorry technical 'expert' at PC World told me it was the best one and they had an offer on it - £25 down from about £50, I think - what a bargain (not)

This wireless adapter is an 'N' type, meaning (it says on the box) that it is the one with most receiving ability, over greater distances and higher transfer rates. I won't bore you with rafts of figures...all you want to know is how easy it was to set up and how it performs, right?

Set up - a doddle, actually and I am using it on a Vista Ultimate PC which as you all know is a bit of a 'one' when it comes to 3rd-party drivers, set ups, etc. No..this sailed through. Stick the disc in...follow the instructions, connect the DWA 140 via USB when prompted, enter your net work Id (or let it search for all networks in range and then choose yours), and the DWA-140 works. It even comes with a little cradle to hold it upright and a cable to allow you to move it round for better reception. A small flashing orange LED confirms that it is working

There is also a simple software suite which tells you the various connections, which one you are on, the IP address, etc - mostly the samer as the windows one so take your pick. it gives a % of signal strength which some of you might find useful

Performance - when it works, it works well. Data transfer is good and the range is excellent. In fact I moved the PC much further away than I needed just to see if it would lose the signal - it did not.

The problem was the drop outs. Imoved the PC back well within range of the router, switched on the internet and all was well. Then, between 10 and 50 minutes into the session the adaptor would suddenly lose the network. In fact it could not see any networks (and there are 9 in range normally). it did this repeatedly. It got quite hot at around the time these drop outs were occurring. Initially I switched off and rebooted - not really condusive to continuous workflow, esp. if on the internet looking for that vital piece of information. I came to dread that orange light. It flickered...but for how long? How much longer have I got before the DWA-140 drops the connection? It was like a sort of torture? I later discovered that I did not need to reboot as I could simply pull the DWA-140 out of its cradle, wait a few seconds and plug it back in again. I obviously dint read that section in the instructions. It immediately started flash dementedly, like it was trying to make up for ruining my net experience.

So...that's alright then. I need not have kept rebooting. All I had to do was pull.... what? You mean that's not a design feature? Ok. In that case it is not up to the job - I want reliability…not a lack of ability.

I summarise the D-Link DWA-140 as follows:

D-Links Woeful Adaptor
Dodgy Wireless Ability
Doesn't Work Always
Dis Was Awful
Don't Want Another
Don't Waste Any (money on this adapter)

Recommend it? That will be a 'No', then

ps I researched the drop out problem on the internet - apparently it is well known so I am not alone in this - you have been warned!!