D-Link DWL-G730AP Wireless Pocket Router/AP w/ Client Mode, 802.11g, 54Mbps

Cool little router/AP/bridge (2008-12-12) Rating: 4/5
I bought this purely as a travel accessory. My parents have broadband, but no wireless, so the access point seemed very nifty. So I crack it out and realize is also a router and a bridge ( which they call client mode ). Oddly enough this may be the least expensive wireless bridge on the market right now.

It does WPA encryption and all the web front end is easy to figure out.

The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that it should really have two wired ports for router functionality. If it did you could plug it into a switch and get all the capability of a full size router.

The size is amazing. It is smaller than my cell phone. It runs on 1.5 volts and comes with a USB power cable, a flat 3' network cable, and a regular power converter. The case is small, holds everything, and fits nicely even in small laptop bags.
Works just like every other router I've ever seen, but just 1/10 the physical size (2008-12-01) Rating: 5/5
I travel alot, and quite often I end up in a hotel or meeting room with an ethernet connection, but no WiFi signal available. Sometimes the ethernet jack is not located where I want to set my computer up, other times I'd like to share my connection with other people, but most of the time I just find that whatever public wifi available is just too weak or too slow...

This wireless router always comes through as a little wonder!

It's smaller and lighter than my mouse and it fits easily in my notebook bag. It can be powered via either the included power supply (which is also impressively small and works with either 120V or 220V if you ever find yourself in Europe.) Or, it can be powered by the (included!) USB cable for those times where you can't spare an extra power outlet I love that single outlet they give you at some hotels... You know, the one built into the base of the lamp? Well the USB power cable is perfect for those times!

It instantly blankets the area with a wireless network to anyone in range. It works just as good as any other router I've seen, has the same admin page with a ton of features (firewall, mac filter, wep setup, etc. All the standard stuff) but is just so small and portable.

I always become the most popular person in the room after I plug this thing in. "Wow! I've got a signal now!", "It's so much faster than the hotel's wifi!", "Cool! I can get wifi in my room across the hall!", "Nice router! Will you sleep with me?" (OK so I haven't heard that last one yet, wishful thinking...)

It has a few different modes (router, access point, client) -- I've only ever used "router" mode as I never found the need for the other modes.

I can't imagine how you can possibly go wrong with this little device...!
Nearly useless for Client Mode (2008-11-10) Rating: 1/5
I bought this primarily for Client Mode use. It turns out it's nearly useless for that:

- The documentation offers no real help in configuring it. Turns out the trick is, after setting it to Client Mode with the hardware switch, you need to fiddle it in the web interface using the default IP address, with the machine you are configuring it from configured to have a static address in the same subnet; and then change the machine to use DNS through the DWL-G730AP to your real router. Confusing matters is that once you've configured it, you can never access it again to change the configuration. Instead, you have to reset it (paper clip in a little hole). And then power cycle it--until you've power cycled it the reset doesn't really reset it, it puts it into "upload firmware if you dare" mode. And like I say, NONE of this is described in the documentation: not the paper quick start that comes with it, nor the so-called manual that is on the CD or downloadable from their web site. D-Link gets an F for the documentation.

- But after spending hours figuring out the above it does "work" in Client Mode. In that there's connectivity, for a while. But it's horribly slow. Using a direct wireless network adapter to talk wireless to my main router, or using a cable to it, I'm getting >10Mb/sec. Using the DWL-G730AP I'm getting < 0.2Mb/sec.

- And that was after freshly power cycling the DWL-G730AP. If you leave it running for a few hours it gets slower, and slower, dropping more and more packets. After a few hours it doesn't see the network any more at all. Sounds like maybe some kind of resource leak in the firmware? Dunno.

Anyway, in my experience it's useless in Client Mode. I'm returning it.

Cheaper Alternative to the Xbox 360 Adapter (2008-10-24) Rating: 5/5
I use this device to connect my 360 to my wireless network. I didn't read the directions very carefully in the first place, but once I did set up was simple. This device even allows me to stream TV shows from my server which is a great bonus for me.
in client mode, cannot connect to WPA2-secured router (2008-10-08) Rating: 1/5
we have 2 wireless routers, each serving multiple clients. one is an open, insecure router; the other is secured with WPA2.

in client mode, the DWL-G730AP can connect successfully with the open router, but not with the secure one. it shows up in the DHCP client list of the secure router, but cannot pass any data thru it.

i'm an experienced network administrator, and i couldn't make it work after several hours of trying.