Home > Consumer Reviews > Wireless USB Adapter Rangebooster N Draft 802.11N

I have the D-Link DIR-655 router (I upgraded from a Netgear FWG114P), and one by one have been upgrading my wireless adapters (almost all Netgear) to D-Link adapters. While the Netgear WG111v2 worked fine and supported WPA2, it's limited to 54G speeds (forget the WG111v1 and WG511--no WPA there). When I saw the DWA-142 selling for less than some of my older adapters I jumped, even though there are more recent adapters from D-Link made specifically for the DIR-655.

Here's the deal--properly configure your router, and in the case of the DIR-655 set it to use a bandwidth of 20-40MHz. At the client, install the most recent driver for the DWA-142 (version 130). Connect the adapter, then disable the D-Link Wireless Connection Manager from the Startup folder and use XP's Zero Wireless Utility to configure the DWA-142. Reboot as necessary. Make sure you have matching security codes at the router and the adapter and pay attention to whether it's shared or not, and whether you're using WPA-PSK AES or TKIP (same for WPA2). Be sure to check your PC's SERVICES (services.msi) to make sure you haven't disabled the Zero Wireless Utility and/or any other networking services if you can't get things running.

A few notes: the system works MUCH better with WPA encryption than with WEP--signal levels are stronger and speeds are faster. Placement of the adapter is important, so watch your signal on your router's status screen while you move it around. I get a consistent 300Mbps on all machines within a 100' radius through 2 floors and several walls (I do have D-Link's external antenna for the router, but that didn't help all that much). Even at the most distant point--basement to second floor, end to end of the house--I get above 200Mbps since I went to WPA-PSK, even though I have to set the router to N-G mode since some clients still run 54G. Also, some adapters can't see hidden SSIDs (like the WG511), so make your router unhidden until you're finished installing everything.

Lastly, while you can leave DHCP on for visiting laptop users, employ fixed IP addresses for permanent PCs on your LAN (wired and wireless). It simply works better. Keep a log and make sure you don't assign more than one machine the same address.

This is the most stable setup I've used in nearly 10 years of wireless networking, and I've used everything from Intel's Anypoint to Netgear MA101's, WG121's, WG511's, and so forth. For a notebook with a PCMCIA slot, get the DWA-652 PCMCIA adapter and run it in WPA mode--it simply will not run over 54Mbps with WEP encryption.

When I say stable, the router has not locked up ONCE in the months since I installed it, which was not the case when I began overloading the Netgear FWG114P--it caused me to take a trip to the basement once a day (or more).

(Disclaimer--I was a Systems Engineer for Novell, Inc. during the Golden Years, which is to say when we OWNED Microsoft in the PC networking market space.)

Works great with D-Link DIR-655 Router. Typically get 240-270 Mbps. On router, I turned on WPA/WPA2 compatibility. Then I used the Windows Zero Configuration Service rather than D-Link's configuration manager to connect. Previous complaints were that the driver caused stuttering in audio playback of media files. I haven't experience any of that stuttering. Perhaps D-Link's January 2007 driver update corrected this problem.

This is one of several wireless adapters that I have tried. I am extremely pleased with the performance of this adapter. The setup was very easy and I am experiencing great throughput. It is an excellent product and I am very pleased with my purchase.

In order to use this product with Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit), I had to search the net for drivers. I finally found the right driver which was actually the one for a Netgear WN111 USB wireless adapter. When installed, the D-Link adapter worked. The only continuing problem that I and others have had with the adapter is that it quits working if the computer goes into sleep mode. You must then either restart the computer or disable then re-enable the wireless adapter to get the D-Link working again. If you can live with these issues, the adapter is fast and works well.

Setup was a snap. Took it out of the box, downloaded the latest driver from the D-link website and attached it to my wireless network without a problem. In terms of setup/configuration, it has been the easiest wireless adapter I've ever used. Range is excellent too. I may have avoided problems others have experienced by downloading the latest driver from the website, as opposed to using the one included on the CD.