• Up to 108 Mbps with AirPlus Xtreme G products

• Backwards compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g

• Great for video streaming

• Enhanced security from 802.1x and WPA for better encrypted key management and authentication

• 3 Year warranty

Compatibility of this card with other access points was good in my testing. It connected just fine to all the WAPs I normally use (all of which are B protocol), and offered the expected performance.

The only complaint I have is that I attempted to install the card using the latest drivers from D-Link, downloaded from their web site. Despite carefully matching the hardware revision of my card with the offered download, my attempts to use the card failed. The drivers installed fine, but it would not "sniff" any wireless networks (there were two within range), including one a few feet away.

After uninstalling the downloaded drivers, and using the earlier version supplied on CD with the card, it fired-up just fine, and operated perfectly.

Unfortunately, this is something I've encountered before with D-Link products, both with device drivers (as for this card) and with firmware updates for various D-Link products I've owned. It's not always the best advice to stay fully current on updates, as they occasionally introduce anomalies. If you're technically inclined, this is a minor annoyance that can be dealt with using a combination of patience and judicious back-ups. Average users may not have as much tolerance for this as I do.

With the installation stabilized, I find myself quite satisfied with the DWL-G650, and definitely recommend it -- though less technical users should stick to the drivers on the packaged CD.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:


Make sure u have the latest revision - read for more info...  Apr 14, 2004 By Ali Mohamad
First, you must know that D-Link has the annoying and unprofessional habit of releasing unfinished, not so ready hardware to market. It seems that their engineering team is under pressure from marketing (typical) to deliver products before they are completely tested and ready. There are several revisions (internal designs) of this and other D-Link products. As of this writing (April 2004), the DWL-G650 has 7 of them, A1, B1, B2, B3, B4, C1, and C2 each representing a correction to a "Oops" of some sort! The DWL-G520 has 2, A and B, while the DI-624 router has 3, A, B, and C. The latest revision is what you should look for, it is usually on the sticker on the back of the box - just below the serial number.

OK, so I had the DI-614+ router, DWL-650+ PC Card, and DWL-520+ PCI card, and they worked great. I just needed the higher speed to stream music and video from my server upstairs, and wanted to use the more secure WPA protocol (not yet supported on the DWL-520+ *stupid D-Link*), so I upgraded to the DI-624 router (rev. C), DWL-G650 PC Card (rev. B4), and DWL-G520 PCI Card (rev. B). I upgraded the firmware on the router right away to 2.42 and the driver for the G650 to 2.48. The router seemed to work fine, but the card was not seeing it. My older 802.11B card (DWL-650+) was able to see and connect to the new router, but not the new card. I tried many things to no avail. I then installed the older driver 2.42 and the card started seeing the router but had trouble keeping the connection..I played with many settings and nothing helped. I tried two other laptops (different brands) and experienced the same symptoms.
Finally, I went to the a store and purchased another DWL-G650 and made sure it was the newer rev. C2 (the latest). Guess what, it worked right away and kept the connection solid. I tried FTP between the server (wired to the router) and the wireless laptop and got a transfer throughput of about 2400KBytes/sec... This is while using WPA-PSK with Super G enabled and using a short preamble. The same results were obtained with the PCI version of the card (DWL-G520).
I returned the bad PC Card (rev. B4) back to the store and kept the new one! So, just make sure that you have the latest version of the hardware.

One more thing, if you compare the signal quality/strength between DWL-650+ and DWL-G650 or between DWL-520+ and DWL-G520 you'll find that the new cards have a much lower number (worst). For example, my old 650+ used to get around 70% quality compared to 36% for the G650 at the same exact spot/direction. The difference is identical when comparing the 520+ to the G520. I have not experienced any performance issues though, the TxRate is typically at 72Mbps (not 108Mbps)! I think the new AirPlus XtremeG utility calculates the quality number differently and hence the difference, and future driver updates may further enhance the signal measurement.

D-Link's release of faulty hardware is wrong and must be stopped. The problem is that their competition are not much better. So go for what works, and buy from a place that has a good return policy. Someday another vendor will make better products and offer better support, and I will abandon D-Link :)

9 of 9 found the following review helpful:


Very Easy to Install and Plays well with Ubuntu!  Mar 19, 2006 By Marcus A. Sasiadek
I decided to dust off a 5-year old laptop (Winbook Z1) the other day and install Ubuntu on it. I selected this card because of the Atheros chipset. I can't believe how easy it was to get it working. I plugged it in, installed Ubuntu and the new OS recognized the card. With in minutes I was on the internet, thanks to my neighbor's open WiFi. After a few hours of reading some wiki's and messages, I had WPA running and my "new" Linux laptop was on my network. Piece of cake! Great card and great chipset!

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:


Wires, who needs them!  Dec 09, 2003 By mister_t42
Thanks to my research on the Internet, I selected this DLink wireless PC Card. And what a great decision it was. It took 20 minutes to install this card in each laptop, and that included the time to download an updated firmware from support.dlink.com that doubled my connection speed!

I get great performance, and even maintain acceptable performance on the floor below where the signal must find it was way through several walls and doors. In the same room as my router I get lightening fast performance that appears to be as fast as my wired connections.

DLink provides a nice status and config tool as part of installtion, and that really eased the way into verifiying that all was operating properly. You can see signal strength and check on which wireless mode you are operating in.

One suggestion, you should enable WEP to add security and encrpytion to your wireless network. It requires changes to both your router and the wireless card(s), but its pretty simple and I did not notice a big performance impact.

If you are thinking about going wireless, this is a great card to select.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:


Don't use this card with a Dell Inspiron 4000!  Nov 27, 2003
After three frustrating months owning this wireless card and trying to get it to work with my Inspiron 4000, I am giving up. It has never worked properly, even siting right next to the base station. A lot of the time the card isn't even recognized by the computer as being in the slot. This is documented by D-Link as a problem with Texas Instrument-made slots, which the Inspiron has. Unfortunately D-Link's customer service is so poor that you get a different answer each time you call. And then the solutions are something like "reinstall your operating system," even though there is a documented problem with the hardware. Don't buy this for use on an Inspiron 4000!!

See all 165 customer reviews on Amazon.com