D-Link Wireless G USB 2.0 Adapter 802.11g, 54Mbps

This is the third wireless USB Adapter I've tried on a computer that is located in a low signal strength portion of the house. The first was an uber-cheapie TrendNet adapter that routinely lost connectivity with the wireless access point and seemed to have a driver problem that caused my computer to get flakey after it went through a sleep-wake cycle.The second was a Linksys WUSB54C that performed well after I got it set up, but I did run into some problems with the setup. To be fair, I did not have the setup disk and had to download the driver/utility from the Linksys site, so that may have contributed to the problems I encountered. Not a big deal. I considered purchasing the Linksys, but decided not to after finding out the price was at the high end for adapters of this type. Additionally, some users reported a lot of set up problems.I finally settled on this D-Link on the basis of a significant number of positive reviews, i.e. lowest apparent incidence of set-up problems, and a middle-of-the-road price. It turned out to be a good decision. Set-up was duck soup - as fast and easy as it gets. Performance was similar to the Linksys. Both of them are like RF-pit bulls - they readily lock on to my wireless access point signal and regardless of how low the signal strength gets, this adapter maintains connectivity. The data rate frequently drops down to a fraction of the 54 MB/Sec that 802.11g is capable of, but since my DSL connection is only good for 1.3 MB/Sec, the wireless part of the path never limits performance.The one (small) beef I do have is that the wireless manager utility is pretty clunky compared to several others I've used. Specifically, it presents a relative signal strength as a percentage and rather than continuously updating, you have to hit a "refresh" button to get a updated reading. This is in sharp contrast to the wireless manager I've got on my Dell laptop that continuously presents both noise and signal strength in actual engineering units (dBm) in real-time. This is useful if you're experimenting to locate the best positioning and orientation for the adapter. Inside a house, a 2.4 GHz wireless signal varies dramatically from moment to moment and is sensitive to positioning of the adapter. The clunky wireless manager on the D-Link makes it unnecessarily difficult to find the optimum location.I found a couple of things that helped increase the relative signal strength from 10 - 12% up to 25 - 35%. First, the internal antenna in the adapter is somewhat directional. It receives (and transmits) best off the broad front and back as opposed to the sides or end. Secondly, you can improve performance by taking a piece of cardboard about 8" x 8", wrapping it in aluminum foil and bending it into a v-shaped "tent". Stand the tent on end and position the adapter as close to the inside bend of the "V" as the base allows. Orient this kluge (technically it's a "corner reflector") so that the inner part of the "V" is aimed towards the wireless access point. Voila - double the signal strength. My kid who is a no-nothing (at least with respect to antennas) mechanical engineer gives me crap about my performance enhancement, but it really does work and the price is right.

I like this little gem. I had a PCI wireless card for my desktop that was several years old and no longer supported by the manufacturer. I needed to upgrade, but I wanted a USB wireless adapter this time around. I wanted to get it out from the bottom of my desk so I could a better signal. I had certain requirements for my new purchase. It couldn't cost any more than $45. It had to be USB. And it had to have some sort of USB extention cable or cradle. It had to be reviewed by Windows Vista users. It also had to have excellent reception. I don't have a big house, but there were a lot of walls and electronics near and in between the Access Point and my computer.After searching I found the DLink Wireless G adapater fit the bill. I picked it up for $30 (at least $10 less than local stores). All of the reviews talked about great reception, even indepent review sites. And it had the USB craddle I was looking for. I bought it and got free shipping along with it! What a Deal!I've had this little gem installed for about one month now, I coudn't be happier. It gets great reception. This adapter runs absolutely great with Vista. I am also using the included connection software and it plays very well with Vista.The only downside is the optional craddle. It requires either a direct computer USB port, or a powered USB hub with an external power supply. It draws more mA than a non-powered hub can handle (at least it did on mine). I had to use the power supply on my USB hub to get the craddle to work. This is the only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5.I highly recommend this product. You will not be disappointed.

I am using this USB wireless adapter with a Dell Studio XPS desktop system running Windows Vista Ultimate x64. It was easy to install the hardware and software, and get connected to my WPA protected Linksys router. I like the fact that this wireless adapter comes with a cradle that can be placed away from the computer (in case it is under a desk) so that you can still get a good signal from the router. A couple of rough spots I noticed (and which caused me to give it four out of five stars) is that it sometimes seems to "pause" and not let data go through for a couple of seconds. This has caused some hiccups in multiplayer games. The second problem is that a couple of times the adapter just quit working altogether (the light also went out) and I had to unplug it and plug it back in to restore the connection. There was a software update that came through for it recently, and it has worked better since that time. Hopefully those two problems were fixed by the update. Overall, I am satisfied with the product, and would probably buy it again because of the good performance and low cost.

I got this wireless adapter for my desktop running xp sp2 and havn't had any real problems with it to far. I connect to a linksys wrt54g router upstairs in my house through two walls. The software you use to set this up was a little problematic if you don't go through each step they way it tells you to and I don't think there's an easy way to update drivers without installing the software first. The software froze my dvd drive up, but it worked fine after a reboot. The reception seems to go a little haywire at times, going from full reception to "poor" reception and back over and over, but it's never dropped the connection nor have I noticed a drop in bandwidth. I've run bandwidth tests during this phenomenon at it seems fine. I'm guessing this may be attributed to some kind of interference.It's had pretty solid performance, but the setup software is a little buggy. I like the extension dock thing it came with a lot. I wasn't expecting any other things packaged with it.