DESKTOP USERS ARE left out of the wireless world since it's very rare that a desktop system comes with Wi-Fi built in. The D-Link DWA 547 Rangebooster Wireless Adapter is a prod¬uct that aims to fill this gap. It's a simple PCI wireless adapter that you install inside your computer. The card supports 802.11 draft-N as well as the more common Band G protocols.



DWA - 5471 D-Link Good range, but lacks compatibility with other brands.
Price: Rs.4,500 Installation is quite easy. After plugging the card into the motherboard and screw¬ing on the antennae, a driver install is all that's required. Once this is done, Windows recognizes the card and starts to look for any wireless networks. Configuring the wire¬less network can be done through D-Link's software, but most people would just use Windows' own wireless configuration tool.

We tested the card with the winner of last month's router roundup, the Netgear Wireless-N 300. Despite being a draft-N compatible device, the DWA 547 stubbornly refused to connect at any speed above 54 Mbps. Other network cards con-

THIS STRANGE CRITTER will give your desktop wireless capabilities. It works best with D-Link products nected to the same router at higher speeds. Performance was quite good though, even though it was at 54 Mbps speeds. We kept the desktop in one place and moved the router further away, and discovered that the card managed to main¬tain good speeds at distanc¬es up to 40 feet. At 20 feet from the router, it gave an average throughput of16.5 Mbps in our real world test and 14 Mbps in the software test. This is quite good.

The card works reasonably well, but it's disappointing that it wasn't able to connect at a higher speed. If you really want to set up your desktop with wireless capabilities, it's a decent buy.