D-Link Wireless Dual Band N600 USB Adapter DWA-160

Don’t listen to the negative reviews, this item took me all of 10 mins to setup and connect to my network. Keep in mind that this 10 minute time frame included the time that it took to open the box and unpack the item. This item was easy to install and once it was installed it quickly found my network. If you are worried about speed, worry no longer, I have a 20Mbps wireless network in my home and my computer is all the way on the other side of my house, in the basement no less and I still was able to get 19.8Mbps internet speed after running a speed-test. Don’t listen to the doubters, this item is a home run, and if you are having trouble installing it or getting it to connect to your network, call someone for help since you must not know what you are doing.
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but that is just the truth.

Pros:
I get 300mbps on my old laptop with windows xp on it. Setup is absolutely easy (you plug it in, run cd or browse for wireless networks and enter your SSID) and running a speed test gives me 3MPBS. If you have the setting in device manager (advanced tab) set to g/b you will only get 1MBPS speed. You may have to alter the setup.

Cons:
If my laptop has been idle there will be a second or two delay before gaining access to the router. Once connected though, I notice very little lag. Does not work at all on my windows 7 laptop.

Bottom line:
If you have an old laptop that only has WEP (b/g) connection, has a 32bit OS, and you want to make things faster this does the job. If you have a newer laptop or pc that you are trying to use this for, I’d suggest you look for another alternative.

Other thoughts:
I would really have given this 3 1/2 stars if half stars were allowed like on newegg. D-Link really needs to come up with a driver download that makes this work on windows7.

I was unhappy with by Linksys adapter, I just purchase a extended warrenty on the adapter and I call tech support. They wouldn’t help me; stating my router is out of warrenty. I decided to purchase all D-link products; Dir-825 router with the D-Link DWA-160 Xtreme N Duo Dual Band. Tech support was easy to reach and the tech directed me to the manual setting of the router, once there I had a idea from my research what to do and mention it to him. We followed the direction I got from […] to the letter. I was only getting 130 Mbps with my adapter. I’m using Rev. A from Amazon.com with XP Professional. The only thing I did differently from the instruction I’m going to provide was to rename my network name by putting a “1” on the previous name so I would be sure to connected too the changed network. I’m running a total of three computer at the same time on the network and getting a very strong signal; the wireless connections are on the second floor of my house. You also would be safe to retype your password while in your manual setup. The instructions are as follows:

300Mbps Connection Requirements! Please Read!
« on: April 28, 2008, 11:21:08 AM »

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To have your Draft N wireless network connect at 300Mbps as it should, ensure that the following requirements are met.

1) The router and adapter are both D-Link 802.11N products and are using the latest firmeware/drivers. Ensure that the 802.11 Mode of the router has a 802.11N mode selected. Also if you have issues with mixed mode, try locking the 802.11Mode to either 802.11N Only or 802.11G/N.

2) If you are using encryption the router must be configured to use AES cipher. In some firmware versions/models, the only way to get the AES cipher is to run WPA2. If you can not select the Cipher, selecting WPA2 only will force this cipher type.

3) The channel width needs to be set to 20/40Auto, if it is not, the adapter will report a connection speed of 130Mbps. This is a feature that was added for compatibility with Intel 802.11N adapters, as they only operate on a channel width of 20.

D-Link reccomends that you use the D-Link Wireless utility, however the Windows Zero Config will also work.

Assuming you have met all of these conditions, you should see a 300Mbps connection speed with either the D-Link Utility or WZC.

Note: Not all Intel adapters are the same as D-Link’s N line. Some Intel adapters do not support the broader 40 Channel Width option. This (by design) limits their connection speed to 130. Check the specifications of your Intel adapter to ensure that it is capable of bonding on the 40Mhz range to achieve the full 300Mbps.

Habe den Stick nun seit einigen Jahren und muss sagen alles bestens. Ein sehr guter Preis für ein Dual Band Stick. Vieleicht sollte man den Stick aber nicht unbedingt in Sichtweite haben, denn auf Dauer nervt es das er in einer Tour blinkt beim Senden.

First, let me say that normally, I LOVE D-Link equipment. I have a DIR 855 Dual Band Wireless router that is EXCELLENT. It outperforms my previous Linksys WRVS4400N and Watchguard XTM-23W. It is more stable, requires fewer reboots, and provides better overall throughput.

So, when my newest (home built – Quad Core, ASUS Rampage III Extreme Motherboard, Windows 7 Ultimate – all my computers are home built except laptops) computer started dropping connections using an older Linksys Wireless G adapter, I figured that pairing a Wireless N D-Link adapter (a dual band one, just like the router) would provide the best/most compatible combination and hence the best performance. So, I installed the software, got connected to the wireless connection, and bam, it drops the connection. It will connect, then almost immediately disconnect. WHAT KIND OF JUNK are they selling? After several attempts at this, I got the dreaded BSOD… This is the FIRST BSOD I have ever had with this computer – THANK YOU DLINK…

I called DLINK and got someone on tech support that was reading from some type of script. This person clearly didn’t have a technical thought in their brain. I’m surprised that people like this get hired for tech-support jobs at all. Then, I was transferred to their second level support.

This IDIOT who CLAIMED to be a technical person was trying to tell me that anti-virus software would SHUT DOWN MY SYSTEM if it detected driver software being installed !!! I couldn’t believe it – this was a SECOND LEVEL person!

So, bottom line, this POS is getting shipped back to Amazon and my relationship with D-Link has terminated. I will never buy another piece of D-Link hardware, period.

This product got 1 star only because that was a low as it can go…
The only way to make manufacturers ship quality product is to boycott them until they do.