D-Link DAP1522 Xtreme 4-Port GigaBit Selectable Dual Band Draft 802.11n N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point

Comment: I'm fairly experienced with Home Networking so my experience may not hold true for all.

I set it to Auto, plugged it into a Cat5e network jack linked to my existing router and had another wireless network setup. The signal strength is 5 bars through a drywall ceiling and a wood floor.

I had to tweak a few settings and setup the WPA2 security but total time of setup was less than 30 minutes.

I have had to power cycle it like I did my old one (a Belkin) and it has been going for a month.

Comment: I am a D-Link fan, but this little box stopped working within 3 months. It started getting hot (like burning) to the touch and I am dissappointed with D-Link.

NetGear boxes are easier to setup and usually a little cheaper, so I am going to switch brands.

Comment: I am using the DAP-1522 as a bridge for my LD BD390 Blu-Ray player that I use to stream Netflix, VUDU, and stuff from my media Server over wifi. Prior to using DAP-1522, the BD390 used to get like 40-50% signal strength. After I hooked it up with the DAP-1522, the BD390's signal reception has gone up to 90-100%. Totally thrilled with the performance. But let me warn you that configuring the DAP-1522 prior to usage is a pain and unless you get the right trouble shooter from D-Link, you will be pulling your hair out trying to get it configured.

Comment: Works fine. Got it a few months ago. I got it set up and left it alone. Works fine for me.

The only complaint is that it's got this stupid light that flashes on and off at the rate of 1/2 seconds to indicate that the Access Point is on. The flashing is completely pointless and annoying. So I took a pair of snips and removed it.

Otherwise the activity light is very useful. It flickers with data transfer so that you can guess whats going on by the light show.

It's in Access Point mode. I'm getting 55Mbits/sec downloads.

I never used the easy connect button feature so I can't comment on that.

I got it manually configured with WPA2 only mode. And n mode only.

I like the low voltage.

The parts inside remain cool to the touch. Yes, inside, I took it out of its case.

I'm afraid to know why other people are having trouble with their network piece.
I understand it can be confusing to configure all the features. I have no trouble at all. 15mins.

Comment: I ordered this to bridge my wireless internet (coming from a D-Link DIR-655) to my entertainment center. I needed ethernet for a blu-ray player, media player and a Wii. I thought this would work well since it was the same brand and had gigabit ethernet.

I got it and installed it. Install was easy, just hit the WPS button on the router and then the bridge and boom. Turn the switch on the back to bridge mode and plug in the items that need an internet connection. This item has good features, including QOS which I used to set priority for the items that would be streaming data rather than just needing a connection. The main thing I needed this for was the media player, I needed access to the 1TB Western Digital My Book World Edition (which I highly recommend BTW). I have all my movies, music and photos on that drive and want to use the network to access them on my media player and watch movies on my tv. Should have been pretty simple.

Well, it worked at first. The media player tested the network speed and found it to be ok and started playing movies!! It was great!! I watched about 10 mins of a movie and went off to do other things. Later that night I sat down with my wife to watch a movie and it hung at the network testing screen. I gave up after 10 minutes of trying and put the movie on a USB stick just so I could watch it.

The next day I sat down to trouble shoot it. I made sure all the settings were correct (they were) and I plugged in my laptop to the bridge and turned off the wifi on my laptop, using only the bridge for access. Running a speed test showed the problem, 0.10 mb/sec download speed with an upload speed of 1.33mb/sec. Normally I get 8-10 mb/sec download with my wireless connection. Pages loaded as if I was on dial up. It was horrid.

So I did what anyone would do, I called d-link. Short wait time and helpful people but we never could get it to work. They confirmed that my firmware was correct and that all my settings were correct. I even tried connecting the bridge to two different wireless routers, thinking maybe that was the problem but that didnt help. I also tried different Cat-5 cables to no avail.

We were never able to get it to work OR to determine why it didnt work. According to their level 3 tech, it should just work. Especially with the same brand router!!

It's going back to Amazon. I printed the RA today. I will use the refund to buy a 50ft run of Cat-5 and a Cat-5 wall plate and I will just hard wire the whole thing from the router.

I really wanted this to work...I truly did. Great reviews everywhere I read before I bought it but it just didnt work for me. Honestly, I think it was just a bad unit. Still, it left a bad enough taste in my mouth that I wont try it again, with this bridge or any other.