This company does not deserve any customers. Please buy another WLAN card.

That's with link quality of 100 and only one other computer on the network with no applications running on either computer (aside from the one browser window required for the test). Both computers had brand new DLink DWL-520 Wireless network cards operating into a new DLink DI-514 router.

Following industry standards, DLink apparently mans their first echelon phones with technical illiterates who while capable of following a scripted check list, haven't a clue what's causing your problem or how their sequence of steps might might solve it.

So, after numerous calls, multiple case IDs, and never talking to the same person twice, I decided it was best to cut my losses and give up before they reconfigured my computer to the point where it wouldn't work at all.

If you surf the web a lot or do internet gaming, stay clear of DLink products. Stick with a reputable name and save yourself the aggravation and wasted hours trying to make cheap junk like this work. The money you save isn't worth the headaches.

I bought this NIC at CompUSA for $40 and thought it would make a nice, low cost wireless card. This thing was a nightmare from start to finish. The configuration utility that comes with it is totally counterintuitive. Nothing is where you think it would be. After installation, it detected my wireless network just fine. Steady 80-90% signal strength with NINETY-FIVE PERCENT packet loss. The connection would be stable for two minutes at the most and then die. I tried different PCI slots, I tried different channels, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software... nothing worked. I called D-Link support multiple times and spoke to a totally clueless "technician" each time. They offered such pearls as "try a different router" and "try uninstalling your sound card". Please.

There are plenty of other complaints online about this piece of junk. Don't bother buying this card. It's a complete joke.

For Compaq's they have a workaround to their bug. You may...
may... might be able to workaround their bug by diddling your
system BIOS (always a fun adventure unless you botch up a keystroke). For HP (and possibly others) there is no workaround. You are stuck. Repeated emails to D-Link have yielded nothing, which says something about there customer "service".

Stay away from D-Link unless you like pulling the power
plug in and out on your computer. Poor, buggy software and NO
customer service.

Use and install at your own significant risk.

Lastly, if you are attempting to connect to a Wireless Access Point that has SSID disabled you will not be able to access it with this card. The software forces you to enter something for the SSID. The only WAPs this appears to work out of the box with are, of course, D-Link. The funny part is the support article on their website acknowledges this issue, but provides an "answer" that is directly contradictory to the problem.

Buyer beware. I'm returning mine tonight (minus 15% stocking fee) :(

- it will not connect to a Wireless Access Point that does not use SSID. It forces you to use an SSID of your own and if you don't it uses "default" which works fine with their hardware. This is completely moronic. Most WAPs/Routers offer a feature to turn off SSID and the designers of the software (card?) should know this.

- tech support is especially cheap. The support article on their website that addresses the above HUGE problem completely contradicts itself and proves they don't know what is going on.

- their software is big, cheap and caused my Windows 2000 system to stutter (erratic mouse movements ever few seconds, etc).

Last week I borrowed a friend's Cisco 350 wireless card and had absolutely no problems.

If you want a wireless card backed by quality hardware and software, expect to spend at least US$65. I'm taking mine back and spending twice as much on a Cisco 350.

Problem 1: None of the installation procedures followed the sequence of the printed instructions. I went through a constant questioning process of "where am I now?" and "what is it trying to say?" as I tried to translate their instructions said to what I was seeing. This problem was worse as I had to go through the process in part several times.

Problem 2: There seems to be a problem with any install on a Windows XP system. Great. That's like having gasoline that works in anything but a Chevrolet. This is ultimately what my show-stopper was. Although I found the instructions on the web site and running back and forth between computers, worked my way through them, but, they don't work after you've done everything else in the instructions - you would have to do them DURING the install, meaning you would have to know that there was an XP problem in the first place. For the folks at D-Link: inability to operate with XP is useful information for a BUYING decision, not an installation.

Problem 3: Tech support. Literature gives a 24x7 number which it is not. I made four calls total and had line suddenly go dead in two of them.

Bottom line: I did have the card operating and on the network, but could not ping. I have no doubt tech support could have gotten me going within a few minutes if they were not busy doing the same for every other buyer. I would only buy this card if I were buying in quantity and had the time to figure out how to make the first one work, then could leverage that information.

My one gripe is that it needs a longer antenna. The one I recieved is smaller than the one pictured here and barely sticks out from the back of the case. Had to reorient the PC a bit to keep the signal from being blocked. What would be great is a short cable with an antenna that can clip to any part of the computer. Otherwise, get a RP-SMA antenna extension if your PC's back faces away from your WAP.