Customer Reviews
Great Product 
2008-07-07
I travel all over the world and have been looking for a small wireless router to free me from the hotel room desk. The product is smaller than I expected and works as promised. Set up is quick and easy and security is good (I turned off the SSID broadcast and used built in WEP security so my computer is the only one that even sees the signal). Added bonus, the power supply can even plug into 220 volt systems and function perfectly meaning no need for a power converter.
Overall a great product.
Great Device 
2008-06-18
I've only used this at home as an Access Point but it works great there. The Documentation needs alot of work though, if you enable encryption the screenshots in the QIG don't match what you see on you screen.
Neither the box it comes in or the QIG mention anything about OS campatability but the installation wizard does, Vista (I have Vista Home Basic) isn't listed but since I already had the wizard up I gave it a try and it works.
It also doesn't mention that the keys have to be of a certain length.
It may be obvious to others but it wasn't to me, when you first enter the IP address to start set up hit "enter" like it says and not "go" on the address bar.
In any case once it was set up I've had no proplems.
For those with an XBOX 360, looking for Microsoft alternative 2008-06-11
Why we bought it...
I specifically bought this item to be used with an XBOX 360 from my son that we wanted to move out of the family room. His bedroom did not have a wired connection like the family area so we opted for, rather than pulling more cables through the wall, for a wireless connection. Since my son(s) are extremely active on XBOX Live we needed the connection.
Since the XBOX will not be used by him to stream large HD video over the home network we did not need anything wired and the DSL connection at 1.5MBPS is BY FAR less that the available bandwidth of this router. Conclusion: a basic 11 mbps OR BETTER ethernet bridge / client would be more than sufficient for Live play.
We also frequently travel, either with the family and for business, and want to share 1 wired internet connection in most hotel rooms with everyone that has their laptop with them (my kids drag their Compaq bricks around everywhere to play Runescape).
After looking at the MS wireless adapter that is 'made' for the XBOX 360 we decided that that was a rubbish solution at 90$. We looked for alternatives by simply specifying:
- wireless gaming adapter
- wireless ethernet bridge
- game adapter
Using those searches you will find a range of products that satisfy the requirements of the XBOX and provide superbly stable connections to XBOX Live.
I ended ordering several of the options (reviewed elsewhere) over a series of months but ended up giving them away to needy fellow XBOX friends of my son who did not have the $ to buy their own.
Alternatives...
The alternatives we used were:
- Netgear WGA11B (bought on auction site for <30usd) , wireless B @ 11mbps
- D-Link DWL-810+ (bought used for <40usd), wireless B @ 11 mbps
- D-Link DGL-3420, wireless G @ 108mbps if used with matching router
- D-Link DWL-G730AP, wireless G @ 54mbps if used with matching router specs
I will not go into individual reviews of these items here but the key is:
- They all worked 100% flawless with the XBOPX 360 and the XBOX Live
- There is NO performance difference in online play, regardless of the touted speeds of these bridges as the lowest 11mbps already far exceeds the internet bandwidth you have via your routers WAN port
Why I kept the DWL-G730AP... and bought another...
This hardware is capable of running as a full fledged router (router mode), a gaming adapter (client mode) and Access Point (AP mode).
Router mode: functions as a full featured router, e.g. you can connect it to a DSL model or Cable Modem and it will function as a wireless router.
AP mode: if you connect it to a router that does not have wireless ability then this will functions as an access points for multiple wireless devices to connect to.
Client Mode aka Gaming Adapter aka ethernet bridge: you can use it to connect ANY device with a ethernet port (wired) to this product and it will then in turn connect to your wireless router or AP.
Given the wide usage of this item I decided to buy it. Nothing, I mean NOTHING, in the market comes close to the capabilities described above at the price it goes for new (roughly half of the MS product).
What's in the box...
It comes in a fake leather purse, size of a paperback, with DLink pressed into it. When you open it it has the router/ap/client-unit, a small AC Adapter, 1 ethernet flat-cable (a thin and flat ethernet cable of about 2 feet), a CD with manual etc and a Quick Install booklet.
Installing it...
If you haven't done this before it might take a few minutes but the concept is simple:
1. The unit is preset at 192.168.0.30 (common for clients) for the client (that is the mode I set up).
2. Ensure that the PC you do the setup with is in the same subnet (255.255.255.0) and has a athernet address in the same subnet as the unit, i.e. 192.168.0.31
3. If the PC does not have that then go into the TCP/IP properties of the network connection and use these settings (I'll stop now because this is not intended as a setup manual, the booklet is more than adequate)!!!
4. Put in the needed settings to connect to your router. Then save and reboot the unit.
The rest is easy: you connect it to the XBOX 360 and boot it up and watch the connection take place. The Quick setup is quite excellent and it took me a whole 5 minutes to configure the whole unit with wireless encryption and all.
Other considerations...
Consider that wireless B in a wireless network setup can reduce the overall performance of your wireless network.
The antenna is strong: my sons wireless laptop has a 47% connection in his bedroom and when this unit is connected he gets a 87% with his laptop. There are 2 floors and MANY walls between router and unit.
Do not use this if using the XBOX 360 as a media player as wireless in general is not good enough for good performance. This is excellent for XBOX Live.
I put in some photos to complete the review. I have used many D-Link products over time and realize that D-Links can be quirky but they tend to be loaded with capability. This is one of the better executed units they have ever done but they failed to properly advertise what it can do (and anyone not looking for this will get lost in the forest of D-Link product type codes).
As you can see in the photos: this unit is small. It looks amazingly tiny to pack so much power and has some conversation value once people understand what this little giant can do.
Even though I cannot always agree with D-Link quality and support and there are people rating it 1 because they cannot get it to work / connect I say that this is a 5 if you have a working unit and a bit of understanding of networking.
Most of the time, hate to say it, the problem with the low raters is PICNIC: Problem In Chair Not In Product.
It works as advertised; documentation needs work 2008-05-27
i've had the D-Link DWL G730AP for about 6 weeks and I'm very satisfied. Either as a portable wireless gateway or fixed, it works as advertised. My only complaint is that the documentation while simple is incomplete and missing some details (specifically regarding the need password for each mode of operation and more specifically for "client mode").
Quick notes:
The range is surprising for so small a device.
I've not been able to make the USB power work, so that's somewhat useless (at least for me).
The internal "help" should be more in sync with the supplied documentation. Once you get past the documentation the device works.
If not for the documentation and the USB power I'd give it 5 stars. Except in client mode, once you get it configured, it's basically set and forget.
Bottom line: it works, I highly recommend the device.
Great for hotel rooms with paid wired Internet connections 2008-05-09
I bought this travel router to solve one problem: sharing a wired Internet connection in hotel rooms that charge per day for access per connected computer. Everyone in our family brings a notebook PC along on trips. Many hotels charge daily rates for each PC connected for Internet access.
I just bought this router and it worked perfectly right out of the box! All I had to do was set the 3-way switch on the bottom of the unit to the ROUTER setting, plug it into the hotel's wired Ethernet port, hook up the power cord, log onto the router using my notebook PC through the default IP address, and then follow the simple wizard to enable security, etc. After the router rebooted, we were able to connect all three of our notebook PCs to our newly-created, secure wireless network and use the hotel's Internet connection, paying just one daily fee to the hotel.
The unit is very small and highly portable. The signal is certainly strong enough to easily reach anywhere in our hotel room. We haven't had any problems with a dropped connection, etc.
My only wish is that the router supported 802.11n, as that is the newer wireless standard that provides faster and more robust wireless network connections, but that really isn't important for what we are using it for: sharing a hotel room wired Internet connection on multiple PCs wirelessly.
Excellent product that could use better instructions 2008-07-22
Most importantly, this product does what it says it does and it works perfectly once it's setup. I've used it while traveling across Asia Pacific and it did just what I wanted: It gave me an quick and easy to establish portable wireless presence with all of the convenience and freedom that comes with that.
My only complaint with the device -- and the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars -- was that the setup documentation is lacking. I'm an IT professional and quite knowledgeable in this space. But I unnecessarily spent time trying to deal with setup because the documentation was not clear as to some options. To make matters worse, the D-Link support line was completely useless and, if anything, tried to lead me into choices that clearly would have made for more problems.
But, again, once setup this router is a winner.
Poor performance and connectability 
2008-07-21
I had high hopes for this little thing to hook up to my (original) Xbox since it's in a room with no other connections. Unfortunately it barely worked at the best of times. First off, the setup instructions were useless, and I had to find better ones online that actually worked. Once setup, however, the device would refused to stay connected to the wireless signal for more than a few minuets, even though the router is only one room away and other wireless devices have never had any trouble with it. It also seems to randomly forget it's settings when turned off, requiring it to be setup again. Save your money and look elsewhere.
Great Product 2008-07-21
This is a spectacular product in every aspect. It works just like it should with no complicated instructions or cumbersome programming. The storage of components is perfect...everything is available in one place...small...compact. In a time when most things don't work like they should or are purported, it is a pleasure to find something that does.
Resets itself - not recommended 2008-07-10
Like other people here, I have found that the unit repeatedly resets itself every 5 minutes or so.
Even though the setup can be quite confusing (read the manual carefully), it is a very versatile device.
Pity it is flawed.
Not recommended.
Not compatible with PocketPC 
2008-07-10
I bought this because my PocketPC has only wireless access to the Internet and I wanted to try using it on a trip rather than lugging my ancient laptop that's on its last legs. I had read the reviews that said the router was somewhat difficult to set up, so I set aside some time to do it and followed the instructions step by step. After several unsuccessful tries, I called the support personnel. It took at least an hour on the phone for us to make it work with my laptop, but we were never able to make it work with my PocketPC. It's too bad, because it is a compact little item and would have made it easier in the hotel where there was only wired access above the ground floor, but I survived without the laptop.
