M and L Adventures

My family recently purchased a D-Link DWL-G710 (AirPlus G) Wireless Range Extender. Now that we’ve had the product for close to a month, I thought it was time for a review. I feel obligated to write this review because I read so many reviews while searching for a way to extend the reach of my 802.11G wireless network. It is only proper to show my appreciation for everyone who writes product reviews by writing one myself. So here it goes.

The D-Link DWL-G710 does what it says it will do, but with one caveat. It claims to work with Virtually All 802.11g Wireless Devices, which it does as long as their not using WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK for wireless security. How can this be when the product claims to supports WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK for Enhanced Wireless Security? The best I can tell the product will support WPA and WPA2 when it is acting like the primary device, not like a repeater which is it’s main selling point!

So, if you are planning on using this device as a repeater for a WPA network then look else where. If an open network doesn’t bother you (and it should) then this thing works like a charm. This device also supports the older and much less secure WEP protocol without any real problems, that is once you get it set-up correctly. Before I go any farther, I want to clarify what a repeater is for any readers that may not know. A wireless repeater is a device that takes an existing wireless signal and repeats it. The beauty of a repeater is that it doesn’t have to be physically wired into the network like a Wireless Access Point does.

Now that you know what the device supports, let me start the real review. The D-Link AirPlus G really does extend the range of your wireless network. I haven’t taken the time to see exactly how much further my network reaches since I set it up, but it does reach the entire house now with a strong signal. My main wireless access point (a AirPort Extreme Base Station) is in the basement (dumb set-up I know, but that is the only place wired for DSL). The Airport would reach up-stairs with a decent enough signal on the same side of the house. The problems occurred on the other end of the house…no signal what so ever a little after half-way. FYI: the house is fairly long and has lots of walls between each end. I placed the AirPlus G close to the point where my original wireless signal dies and now my network reaches the entire house. So, the D-Link DWL-G710 does what it says it will do and deserves some points for that.

That was the good, now is the time for the bad. The D-link is a royal pain to set-up. Just about every review I read said that it was extremely difficult and that you needed a tech degree to get the thing to work, but that once it was set-up (for those people who were successful before giving up and returning it) it did what it was supposed to do. I thought to myself, I have a college degree in Computer Information Systems, how hard can it really be? Considering my other options and the price of the D-link, I purchased it thinking that I wouldn’t have any trouble getting it up and running. Think again!

To start off with I couldn’t even get connected to the admin interface to configure the options. I broke down and called tech support. They got me to the set-up screen (in case you are wondering what the trick is, you have to turn off DHCP and use a static IP while configuring the device–once configured, you can resume to use DHCP. The directions very vaguely mentioned something about a static IP address) and left me to figure the rest out myself. That was okay, but I still thought that it shouldn’t be too difficult to set-up the options. Wrong again! The options weren’t hard to set up. You follow each screen and type in your network configuration. Once done, you restart the device, unplug the network cable, and move to the desired location. However, this never worked. I tried this several times thinking I missed something simple.

Deciding that doing the same steps over and over was wrong, I decided to try setting up the device without any security. To do this, I logged into my Airport Extreme and turned off WPA2-PSK encryption. Then I reconfigured the AirPlus G to use no security–an open network. It worked! So, I was on to something. I did a little research and learned that the AirPlus G doesn’t support WPA in repeater mode. You must understand that the directions didn’t mention that WPA isn’t supported in repeater mode, nor did tech support. Plus, the product description leads you to believe that it does. Additionally, the admin interface has a button for WPA and WPA2, along with a place to input your password. Lucky for me, some kind reviewer mentioned the novel idea that WPA doesn’t work when the AirPlus G is in repeater mode.

[ad#Google Adsense]

Taking this new found information, I decide to use 128-bit WEP (password must be exactly 13 characters) instead. I wasn’t about to leave my network completely unencrypted, not that WEP is much better. So, the next adventure begins. I get WEP to work for my mom’s Mac. Lauren tried her new MacBook and it also worked. So, did my work issued laptop. However, my Dell Desktop did not. It would connect temporarily, and then disconnect. This was a real pain and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I mean, my dell laptop was working (both were running Windows XP Professional SP2.

For a moment I thought my wireless card on my desktop didn’t support WEP, but that didn’t make sense because it supported the newer WPA2 without any trouble, so the older WEP should work. Nonetheless, I checked to make sure I had the newest driver and I did. Out of ideas, I decided to do some research on connecting a Windows computer to an AirPort Extreme using the WEP protocol. I learned that Windows requires the WEP password to be in hexadecimal format most of the time and that Apple allows you to type it in ASCII (normal text). The repeater would accept either format, so when I set it up I used ASCII (not knowing that it would matter). But wait a minute, my laptop worked? Who knows, must been the specific driver on my specific wireless card.

So, I had to reconfigure the D-Link DWL-G710 yet another time. This time, I converted the AirPort ASCII password to hexadecimal format on the repeater. Next, I typed in the new hexadecimal password on to my PC. Now, everything works as it should (most of the time. Sometimes, I have to reboot my machine or repair the wireless network on my PC to keep the connection working).

The D-Link could have been a great product if the directions were better, if tech support was more helpful, and if it was clearer on its inability to repeat a WPA encrypted signal. However, the product doesn’t do these things. I can’t deduct any points for having trouble getting WEP set-up because that was my fault. I didn’t know that WEP on windows typically required a hexadecimal format because Apple and the AirPlus G accepted ASCII. So, for ease of use and give it 1 star. For functionality I give it 3 stars (it did extend my network range a good bit once configured properly).

I hope this review is helpful to you when are searching for a way to extend your wireless network without setting up another wireless access point. Don’t forget, an antenna is also an option. The Airport just didn’t have any antennas with good reviews. Plus, the antenna’s costs more than this repeater. In conclusion, the D-link works and wouldn’t have been that difficult to set-up if I had all of the information I just provided you with. One more thing, you must connect the repeater to a computer that is wired into the router, not the router itself (again, the directions leads you to believe that plugging into the router would work).

[ad#Google Adsense]