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D-Link AirPlus DWL-900AP+ Access Point

Bruce Brown
 & Bruce Brown

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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- D-Link AirPlus DWL-900AP+ Access Point

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Pros & Cons

D-Link AirPlus DWL-900AP+ Access Point Specs

Device Type: Access Point
Networking Options: 802.11b
All Specs

The D-Link AirPlus DWL-650+ CardBus Adapter and the D-Link AirPlus DWL-900AP+ Access Point have a definite price edge. The DWL-900AP+ can act as an access point or be configured as a DHCP server. D-Link's convenient SiteSurvey utility discovers in-range access points and saves network adapter profiles to use with various APs. Configuration is a snap because the utility identifies the access point's SSID and automatically assigns it to the adapter. You configure the access point via a Web browser-based utility.

On our 50MB file-transfer test, the D-Link components took 2 minutes 49 seconds in 11-Mbps mode. That time was cut to 2:08 when we reset them to run at 22 Mbps. While that's still no match for the 802.11a system (which we clocked at 47 seconds for the 50MB file transfer), it's a welcome boost for a nominal incremental cost over other 802.11b entries. We also found that the operational range of the D-Link components was about 40 feet greater than in previously tested 802.11b configurations.

Final Thoughts

- D-Link AirPlus DWL-900AP+ Access Point

D-Link AirPlus DWL-900AP+ Access Point

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About Our Expert

Bruce Brown

Bruce Brown

Bruce Brown, a PC Magazine Contributing Editor, is a former truck driver, aerobics instructor, high school English teacher, therapist, and adjunct professor (gypsy) in three different fields (Computing, Counseling, and Education) in the graduate departments of three different colleges and universities (Wesleyan University , St. Joseph College, and the University of Hartford). In the fall of 1981 he was bitten by the potentials of personal computing and conspired to leave the legitimacy of academia for a life absorbed in computer stuff. In the fall of 1982 he founded the Connecticut Computer Society and began publishing a newsletter that eventually had a (largely unpaid) circulation of 28,000.

Bruce has been a freelance writer covering personal computing hardware since 1983, the year he co-founded Soft Industries Corp., a computer consulting company, with Alfred Poor (also an ExtremeTech contributor) and Dick Ridington (a Fortune 500 consultant with Creative Realities, Inc., a Boston consulting firm). In 1988 Bruce left Soft Industries to be a full-time freelance writer. He has written for several now defunct publications including Lotus Magazine, PC Computing, PC Sources, and Computer Life as well as Computer Shopper and PC Magazine. In 1990 he and Craig Stinson co-wrote Getting the Most Out of IBM Current, an immediately remaindered work published by Brady Books.

Married to PC Magazine Contributing Editor Marge Brown, Bruce is the father of former PC Magazine Staff Editor Richard Brown (a former and currently thriving freelance writer), Liz Brown (a recent graduate of Colgate University who aspires a career in marketing and public relations), and Peter Brown (who evaluates console gaming systems and games for PC Magazine and various Websites).

Bruce can be contacted at bruce_brown@ziffdavis.com.

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