This Rant has been over a month in the “waiting” because I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. Pretty stupid of me, I know, but when dealing with a hardware vendor I do have an inexplicable large amount of patience when their products are defective. This is especially true when dealing with a brand new/1.0 product. So I’ve been waiting a month for D-Link to step up their support on their DWL-122 WiFi/USB and they’ve failed miserably – in fact, while I’ve been waiting for a new driver from them, I’ve discovered that their DBT-120 Bluetooth/USB adapter sucks almost as much!
One at a time, I guess: first lets look at the DWL-122. This is a USB based adapter that is supposed to offer 802.11b (WiFi) connectivity to a PC or a Mac. I had purchased a used iBook and this seemed like it would be a low cost way to add a WiFi connection to it without having to pick up a pricy AirPort (and Mac only) card. I installed the driver on my Mac and plugged in the DWL-122: it crashed the iBook. And I mean hard: panic/core dump-o-rama. I took a look at the configuration and saw some other software badness there: problems entering a WEP, some strangeness when it stored the WEP key, and it would never connect using WEP, even if the key was 100% correct.
When I contacted customer service, it took ten minutes for them to collect my information. I don’t mean ten minutes on hold; I mean ten minutes just to get them to spell my name and address correctly. That was sorta silly, but OK – whatever. After talking to them, they tell me that my hardware was defective and I should return it to the store; when I told them I ordered it online, they told me to call back later and get an RMA number. I called back the next day and they told me that it must be my iBook that is causing the problem. When I told the tech that I had just formatted the iBook and put a small amount of software on it – translation: I didn’t have anything that should conflict with it – he suggested that I reinstall Jaguar and try again.
So I did: I wiped the HD and reinstalled OS-X. Same result: core dump. I tried the hardware on the PC: there didn’t seem to be a problem there – it connected OK and seemed to be OK. Doubtful that it’s hardware right? Try the “same yet different” 1.00 driver that they have online – same results. In fact, that version actually crashed quicker than the driver that was on the CD.
I called back a third time before I said “fuck it” and bought an AirPort card on eBay. The iBook is now plenty happy and using WiFi without an issue. So how did I get to this point of blanketing that all of D-Link’s USB products suck? Well, it’s obvious that their Mac support is non-existence. Other people that read this site have commented that they’ve had the same experience with both iBooks and Powerbooks so I know it’s not just me. This story continues though…
A have an old Sony 505VE notebook that I was updating with Windows patches. I usually use a PCMCIA WiFi card with it, but I had loaned that out to my sister a few months ago, so I tried to use the DWL-122. I slapped it into the USB port and it worked for about 30 seconds: it kept losing signal. When I launched a network stumbler I watched the signal strength graph: every other line was black, meaning that it wasn’t holding a signal. I installed the D-Link utilities – as I use Windows XP, it usually manages my WiFi cards for me – and didn’t help a bit. Exit the DWL-122.
In the meantime, I came in contact with a Nokia 3650 which supports Bluetooth. Since I had the D-Link DBT-120, I installed the included software and plugged the USB adapter into my PC. The installation was OK. I turned on the Nokia’s Bluetooth adapter and I was able to set up a paired relationship between the phone and the PC with no issues. However, when I tried to do anything on the PC that would effect the phone, it told me “no”. I wasn’t able to send a file over – I wasn’t even able to view the services on the phone! The Bluetooth software told me that the phone was there but there were no services. I did a search online for people using the DBT-120 and a Nokia 3650 but came up mostly empty. The iBook liked it OK, though, so this was a 1/2 full glass.
Over the weekend I picked up the Belkin Bluetooth adapter. Plugged into the PC and the iBook without an issue. Paired up the 3650? Yep – saw all of the appropriate services, too. The Nokia PC Suite even worked, which I’ve heard that other people have had problems with – it certainly didn’t work with the D-Link adapter! I then pointed a brand new HP iPaq 1945 to the Belkin adapter and that too worked flawlessly.
So what the hell D-Link? You guys need some QA/QC work. Your WiFi adapter didn’t work with either platform it was supposed to: it crashed my iBook and it had massive issues on the PC. Is it because I use an SMC 802.11b Access Point? It shouldn’t be a problem since all of 802.11b is supposed to be interoperable! I use a Centrino notebook, Orinoco and Linksys adapter with the same AP – why is your stuff different? Then your Bluetooth adapter issues… it sorta connects, but when it won’t show services you claim that not everything Bluetooth is compatible. What the hell does that mean? You can connect, but don’t expect to use any phone but this one or two that we actually tested? Hell, if you had done that, I would at least know what worked and what didn’t work! Instead you wait until I buy it and then tell me it’s not compatible. Of course, you also told me that your WiFi adapter would work on the Mac – I didn’t know “Compatible for OS X” meant “Will Crash on Entry” but I guess that’s my fault or something.
Totally unimpressed – been over a month and there’s been not one new driver and while one product worked on the Mac platform, the other three tests with both products failed miserably.
And since Apple supplied the iBook’s Bluetooth driver… well, maybe you guys should have them build your software drivers from now on!
Now I have to sell both things on eBay and explain to people that they aren’t supposed to work as advertised!
I purchased a D-Liink DWL-120+ Wireless USB Adapter. The Driver is causing a problem (memory dump)with my Xp System.I have tried to get support by phone but I can’t get anybody to answer pick up the phone.
I will buy a different Brand
I just returned a DWL-122 which was supposed to run on my eMac. D-Link told me to uninstall the production drivers and run it on a set of BETA DRIVERS. Who ships a “supported OS” with BETA DRIVERS!!! The Beta drivers crashed with regularity requiring a power-down of Mac OS-X 10.2 (a pre-emptive multitasking OS). Someone should investigate D-LINK. They have to be knowingly shipping a system that doesn’t work and charging money for it. Beta Drivers on a supported OS??? Look up their support site under DWL-122.
I just bought a DWL-122 for my G3 powerbook (running 10.2.6) thinking, Oh, this isn’t too expensive, and it’ll work with my PC desktop too! I downloaded the beta drivers, which promised to fix the many kernel panic problems… that probably should’ve been my first clue. Anyway, the connection will just drop for no reason– it says it’s connected and that everything’s fine, but I have no internet connection. It also crashes my computer at least every 1/2 hour, which makes it kind of difficult to work. And if the computer goes to sleep, forget about having a connection when you wake it up– have to reboot.
I haven’t tried it with my PC yet. We’ll see. It probably works fine with it.
Actually, I had pretty shitty luck with the DWL-122 and the PC… watching a graph on signal strength saw a lot of drop offs – much more so than a PCMCIA card! I’ve decided that they pretty well suck.
Same shit hre.. DWL-122 on my brand new iMac G4.. all my pc network works fine, but as soon as i installed the usb wireless adapter into the imac, it crashed.. bad.. i called them the said to reinstall a newer version of the driver , so i did….
Now, at least it doesnt crash but every 2 – 10 minutes i get lost, and i need to restart..
of course i a mgetting a different brand next time!
Am now with the new drivers experiencing fine results w/ the 122. Initially (beta drivers) it was simply unusable. Distance from base is greater than an Apple card, but not as seemless, meaning reposioioning the adaptor or unpluging it can result in odd behavior. On the other hand, w/ a card it’s installed or it isn’t, while machine position affects it too though. I will be keeping the adaptor, but can’t recommend it past a 5 out of 10 rating. Remarks based on a dual USB iBook 600.
I recently purchase a D-Link DWL-120+. It really suck, because when I want to check on Access Point or disconnect my USB port. It will cause my Windows 2000 crashed, rebooting without my knowledge. I even downloaded the latest driver, the problem still occured.
I really want to give up on D-Link product.
DWL-122 on ibooks work just fine, HOWEVER don’t try the iMAC they crash if you just open the DWL-122 box in front of them.
Huge problem D-Link since I’ve just bought 15 adapters for a client thinking that these would be the answer.
How wrong could I be >?
get back to me if think that this is something that you know a work around to.
\
Thanks
Greg
@Greg – Can’t tell ya much about the iMac, as I’ve never owned one – all of my problems were with a 500MHz iBook… of course someone else might have an answer, which is why I leave comments here open :)
You also might want to check with DLink for beta drivers.
Just bought the DWL-122 and installed it on my G4 Dual 1.25gHz running Jaguar 10.2.8. I used the latest drivers, 1.32 posted on 10/3/03, from D-Link’s web site.
There are two minor problems and one major problem.
1) On startup, it takes an extra 60 seconds or so to initialize the network (presumably because the DWL-122 is not initializing, causing the operation to time out)
2) Once logged in, the DWL-122 does not automatically obtain an IP address (I have to force it to obtain an IP through the Nework control panel)
3) The most offensive problem, and reason I am going to immediately return this adaptor, is that after about 10 minutes of use, it goes into some sort of infinite loop, causing the application you were using to lock-up; trying to force quit the application causes the whole OS to crash. I have never experienced stability problems in OS X until installing the D-Link drivers; and I have not had any further problems since uninstalling the drivers.
In one last-ditch effort to give D-Link another chance, I thought, “Maybe the driver is designed for Panther, so I should just upgrade?” So I went to their tech-support section and read the “Mac OS 10.3.x Panther drivers needed” page. Tech support says the drivers, if developed, will be posted to the site, but in the meantime “Please do not hold onto the DWL-122 in anticipation of drivers.” OK, at least they’re honest – and for me, that is officially the last nail in the coffin for D-Link.
Ibook 600 locks up all the time. Can’t restart, have to force reboot with power button.
I wrote to D-Links support and they told me to dl newer drivers… but I was already using 1.3.2
then they told me to dl the Windows-Drivers… stupid…
This Dongle sucks big time and if the last Posting is true (and i don’t doubt that) then this Adapter is pretty much useless to me. I’ll return it.
I’m unhappy to say that mine does EXACTLY the same thing. I ran a NETSTAT from the console as I was downloading a file (BTW Ibook 10.2.8)and I could watch the buffers start lowering until they got to zero and my system froze.
That 1.32 os x driver STILL has a leak in it.
What GRIEF ! D-LINK has always been fine in the past.
Same problem here : Mac OSX 10.2.6, Brand new DWL-122, latest drivers 1.3.2 :
– high latency at boot time
– failure to connect to wifi network at boot time
– high rate of connection drops (every 2-5 min)
– crash while going on suspend mode
– sometimes the wifi config panel would crash the system
– the first driver provided on the cd-rom with the device made the system crash at startup
Overall, having to reboot every 5 minutes makes this device completely unusable. I have bought this device on the Internet since its not sold in France and Wifi adapters for Mac are quite rare. When I called the D-LINK US support, the guys refused to support me because I was calling from outside of America !
Let’s say it all together :
D-LINK SUCKS BIG TIME !!!
Let’s return that product…
I have the same problems! :-(
On startup, it takes a lot of seconds to initialize the network and after 10 mns I lose the connection!
So I need to reboot or must remove and insert again the adapter…
I tried to install new drivers too and system has been crashed! O_O
Let’s return this KIND of product …
I am running a dual 1.0ghz G4 w/ 10.3 panther.
CMON DLINK. somebody send them a link to these threads. DLINK is selling a bad driver, period.
I am getting the same exact issue with the “newest” 1.32 driver. If anyone knows a workaround please let me know, otherwise I am returning it.
issue: after about 10 minutes of use, it goes into some sort of infinite loop, causing the application you were using to lock-up; trying to force quit the application causes the whole OS crash.
-ish.
I sent the URL to D-Link, i replied to one of their e-mails. No reaction. These !”$”$ ignore my e-Mails.
Cmon, send them some more….
D-Link is not a service-Company…
Actually I think they’ve been aware of my site for a while now – doesn’t mean they’ll do anything about it nor would they contact me with regards to it. (Obviously if they did I would have posted it here)
Anyway, in the past D-Link didn’t have to be a service-Company: their products worked out of the box and they had good products. It’s only recently that their entire product line when to shit… the fact that they’re hardly testing their Mac products before shipping them is hysterical… sad and twisted and criminal, but also hysterical…
Well Dlink finally came out with the non beta 1.32 drivers and they suck too! My connection drops for no reason. The signals shows up fine but no internet. Unplug DWL-122 and replug and then it works. That I can live with for a while but the real problem I am having is that if I use to many apps that utlilize the network, this utilizing the DWL-122, my whole os (10.3.2) locks up hard and I have to reboot. I get no mouse movement, no keyboard, nothing, Just have to hold down the power button and reboot. I am coming to the conclusion that D Link sucks.
Same problem with me as shown above. Any fixes or 3rd-party drivers that work yet? I can use KisMAC to sniff for networks, but that’s about all it can do without making the system unstable, as it does with everybody. I’m running 10.3.2, by the way – let me know if you have fixes!
Running an IMac with 10.3 and the latest drivers for the DWL-122 am having similar problems. When connecting to a US robotics wireless G router with WEP 128 encryption I get “bad WEP key” but it connects anyway. Then I am able to browse the MACs files from win2000 but after 5 minutes the connection is dropped??? If I disconnect the device from the MAC USB port the kernel panics and I must restart.
I called tech support last night–they have no idea what is happening or any answers. Said it probably is due to the new operating system compatibility!
They tried to tell me the same thing when I was back on 10.2.6 – it must be my iBook because they are running without any problems. Mind you at one point I formatted the drive, let the updater download the patches to 10.2.6 and then tried their USB thing to have it crash the same way. Yep. It was *my* iBook that was the problem.
Not.
Simply put they shouldn’t be in the Mac space because their products don’t work there. Of course this same DWL-122 didn’t work in the PC space either, but at least they *have* made working PC products for a while now… it’s worse that no one told their support group over in India that there’s problems.
Wish I had more answers than that, but that’s all I know… (well that and I have long since sold both the DWL-122 and the iBook).
I’ve got a DLINK dwl-122 as well. It installed alright on my PC, on a system with windows me but, It will not connect to a network with encryption enabled. In fact it will only connect with default settings and SSID broadcasting. And after it has connected if I turn off ssid broadcasting it disconnects. I hear that it works if you install an airport wireless card but, why should you have to buy 2 products to get it to work??
Anyway, mine is working okay but, without encryption. Stay out of my front yard!!!! For MAC users….don’t buy this….if you already have return it immediately. It is not mac compatible or friendly no matter what it says on the box.
Been experiencing the same problems as Brandon’s and Jeff’s comments above.
BRANDON:
There are two minor problems and one major problem.
1) On startup, it takes an extra 60 seconds or so to initialize the network (presumably because the DWL-122 is not initializing, causing the operation to time out)
2) Once logged in, the DWL-122 does not automatically obtain an IP address (I have to force it to obtain an IP through the Nework control panel)
3) The most offensive problem, and reason I am going to immediately return this adaptor, is that after about 10 minutes of use, it goes into some sort of infinite loop, causing the application you were using to lock-up; trying to force quit the application causes the whole OS to crash. I have never experienced stability problems in OS X until installing the D-Link drivers…
JEFF:
My connection drops for no reason. The signals shows up fine but no internet. Unplug DWL-122 and replug and then it works. That I can live with for a while but the real problem I am having is that if I use to many apps that utlilize the network, this utilizing the DWL-122, my whole os (10.3.2) locks up hard and I have to reboot. I get no mouse movement, no keyboard, nothing, Just have to hold down the power button and reboot.
COMMON THREAD / RESULT:
I am coming to the conclusion that D Link sucks.
It has been a while now since i first installed this driver…
I checked the D-link Homepage frewuently and they don’t show any progress….
By the way, the Driver and the stability issues made my System corrupt:
I’m running OS 10.3.2.
After i had installed and deinstalled the d-link driver it went awfully slow…
fsck and disk utility found no errors, but when i started diskwarrior in OS 9.22 (Praise the Lord!) it found many corrupted files.
After these were corrected, the system was way faster.
This is the worst piece of hardware i have ever seen.
I’m very sorry to say that mine has the fucking same problems. If I start LimeWire on my 600Mhz iBook, the connection is lost. If I use it for more than 5 minutes, it hangs the computer. I’m from Brazil, bought it on a trip to the US for 50 bucks on CompUSA. So It’s impossible to return it… And it heats more than a coffee machine, making my 3 hour battery lasts only for 1 hour.
The Airport Card is the way to go… A little more expensive, but it works very well, and stays inside the computer.
C’mon, foeward this url to support@d-link.de, they speak english, so don’t hesitate to write them a comment on the dwl-122.
Dunno, maybe support@d-link.com works too.
I wrote them already!
Oh they know about it – I warned them when I first posted my two comments here and other people have set it to them… either they don’t care or they have nothing to say b/c I’ve heard nothing from them!
I herad nothing too.
I think they don’t care.
OK, we are only 5 % of all Computer-Users, but when they make a product and claim it to be mac-compatible, it should be…
“$%”%$&%
Same shit, different day. Nothing but a dog on my eMac & Panther. Intermittent connection, lock ups or no connection at all.
Equally poor performance on my Thinkpad and Tecra laptops.
I believe the only good thing about this little Rube’s Device is that it’s lining Dlinks pockets.
I too have fallen victim to this insidious false advertisement of the DWL-122 wireless usb devices. The product description ‘seemed’ perfect for the Macs: low-cost way to add wireless. Supports Mac OSX 10.2x and above.
Ordered 10 of these devices. Our Macs are crashing and locking up left and right. Never in my 16 years of using Macs have a product caused so much havoc. D-Link should be ashamed of themselves for releasing AND advertising such a defective and potentially dangerous device to the Mac community. I’ve contacted my account rep to inform them of this defective/dangerous product in hopes that they will disuade future customers from buying this hideous product.
Well, I am quite sick of all this and I see that I’m not alone. I have written a petition to D-Link about all this at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/dwl122/petition.html
and as said befor, the crashes harm your filesystem, so there is the possibility of a file loss.
With disk warrior you can fix this, but d-link should be ashamed.
Man, I wish I would have found this forum before I bought my DWL-122. I had zero luck with these crap drivers (even the newest ones from d-links site). All they seem to do is crash my iMac every 5 minutes. I tried it out on a windows xp box and it seemed to work OK, so it’s certainly not defective hardware. Taking it back to compusa tommorow. Is there another USB wifi adapter for the mac that preferably doesn’t have drivers written by an idiot and have been quality controled by somebody with a brain?
Heh, apt description of the D-Link product line, lately. When I realized how bad the USB WiFi adapter was, I just ponied up the extra cash for the AirCard seeing as I KNEW that would work. If I remember correctly, I don’t think that any of the other major players (SMC, LinkSys, or Belkin) say they support Mac with their USB/WiFi adapters, but it’s been a while since I was looking for one.
Had the same problem as the rest of you (running os 10.3 – on imac 17″ and emac)… will be returning to store immediately.
Found this via Google – don’t know if it helps as I’ve been out of the Mac world for a while now:
http://julian.coccia.com/article-53.html
just found this forum, all i have to say is.. i’ve had the same EXACT problems as everybody here! unbelievable. i’m looking for an inexpensive, easy solution. i just wanna get on the internet for christs sake (os 10.2.8 powermac G4 867Mhz)
Crazy…I’m so glad I found you guys because I thought I was either crazy or an idiot. I’m having the exact same problems…so frustrating. And I also had the same thing where they took about 5 minutes just to spell my name. Idiots.
Does anyone know of a good replacement other than the aircard?
Not me – after this debacle I went straight to the AirCard and eBay’d the D-Link one… seemed more cost effective after all.
Same problems – shakiness on an eMac running 10.2 and usably-crashiness on a G4/400 running panther. Very disappointed in d-link. Too bad the odds of Apple working support into its airport drivers are pretty much nil. good luck with the petition, but we might be better off posting reviews to various tech shopping sites.
God I agree! I have a iBook and the Dlink 122 USB adapter and it dont work, the drivers that came with it crash my ibook but the ones on the dlink website that are only for 10.2 work for osx 10.3 better. Still it connects to the internet then drops it exacly 5 mins after connecting. Ive been on tech support for 1 1/2 hours, had a replacement router and usb adapter still no lucnk. And its not the seettings that are wrong. :S
ok im glad liek everyone else i found this page.. i just bought my imac and this piece of shit dlink was the first thing i installed.. so yea it started doing all the freezing every 30 minutes or so .. so im sitting here wondering if this imac is fucked or if its this damn usb adapter.. well now i know! thanks guys! this thing doest even deserve me getting in my car and taking it back.. im throwing it away.. anyways what are my other options.. is ther any usb or firewire options?
Same problems here when using an iBook. System crashes immediately when plugging in the D-Link POS. Signed petition from the URL in this forum and hopefully it will help. I still hope a fix can be posted for this adapter since I’m stuck with it.
DBT-120 Installation Software (both the cd version that came with the adapter and the latest software from the D-Link web site) hang during installation on my up-2-date W2K system. Pathetic. No more D-Link for me.
All I can say regarding D-Link’s DWL-122 wireless USB adapter is “Me too.” I tried it with a year-old eMac running the final version of Jaguar and after about two minutes of proper operation the computer locked up hard-same thing happened every time I tried it. The only way to restart was by holding the power button in for 10 seconds. Tried the updated driver, no luck. Searched the D-Link support site and the Internet, no luck. I wrote to Best Buy, where I bought it, and told them I was returning it. I also told them that they were doing their customers and themselves a disservice to continue selling this item until D-Link fixes it. I also sent the url for this page so they could see it was not just me. It’s a shame for D-Link, because I have used other products of theirs without any problems. Now I don’t think I’ll buy any more D-Link products unless there is no competing product, and even then only after I have checked out the experience of other users with the particular product.
My experience with an ibook 800 OS X 10.2.6 and the DWL-122 is the same as all the above.
Its unanimous: the DWL-122 is a piece of shit.
Why do I only do this type of search after I’ve bought the product?
Its going back to the shop next week and I hope I get my money back.
Just bought a DWL 122 at Fry’s and it seems to work a little bit better for me than for most of you, but not much.
It takes like 3 or 4 minutes more for the iMac (Indigo) to boot up and then you have to wait anywhere from 5-10 minutes in order to get on the internet. the “wireless adaptor” status window says you’re connected, but you can’t do anything on the internet for the 5-10 minutes you need to wait after boot up.
The wireless status menu bar icon/menu does not allow you to turn the card off, so you can’t disconnect from the network unless you shutdown, remove the card and restart. I have to do this because I blew all my money and got the wireless stuff instead of a USB hub, so I need a free USB prot for the floppy drive once in a while (no, I can’t use it through the keyboard).
For some insane reason, the computer locks up hard – only if I’m surfing the web using Netscape (Safari won’t load unfiction.com) or reading my Netscape.com mail in the Netscape browser. Safari and MSIE work fine on the sites that they can load and work with.
I always get the “incorrect WEP” warning, but I’m connected now aren’t I?
The connection is fine, linked to a Netgear DSL router 30 feet away. So I can’t complain about that. I’ve left the computer on for 20 hours straight and the connection never dropped, so that’s good. I’ve downloaded lots of stuff with no dropped signal.
With the rebate it was $29, so it was kind of worth it, but what a pain in the a$$, now I have to worry about file corruption and all the other stuff you guys mention. I guess I can always get a 30+ foot etherlink cable and run it straight to the router if worse comes to worse…
Yeah, D-link sucks.
If i use Safari, the Ibook locks up. if i use Mozilla, it works fine for about 20 Minutes, but then the connection drops. But at least it doesn’t freeze.
It still is a piece of crap.
I rate this device coupled with its drivers as a 1.5 on a scale of 10 – pretty low.
I tried 3 (yes, three!) DWL-122’s back in September and October. I had bad luck with all of the Macs (new MDD, new Powerbook, older G3 and G4 – all with fresh installs of 10.2.6 or 10.2.8) that I tried them on. I used the driver 1.3.2 in each case. (also tried older driver, but problems were worse with it).
On all of them, the device initially worked. Sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for 8-12 hours, but invariably the connected spontaneously dropped). Sometimes I could reestablish the link if I unplugged/replugged, but eventually after a few of these the machines would alway freeze/display a kernel panic. Always. Always. 100% of the time.
This was not a signal strength problem or an access point problem, because I tested the access point with Airport Cards, Belkin USB Wireless Adapter, etc. and had no problems at all with them. I also tested the DWL-122 with DLink, Netgear, Belkin and Airport Base Station access points. The same results each time.
I noticed a few users here and there gave it a positive rating, and I have a theory about there experiences. It is my guess that they, like me were initially pleased (for the first 2 hours or so) when the device worked. I also believe, though, that they all eventually suffered the same fate as the rest of us, and that they too had crashes and kernel panics. They just didn’t bother to updated their ratings (! – WTF!!).
Recently, I bought a Syntax USB-400 (also Prism2-based, like the DWL-122) from eCost for free, and used this information for a Mac OS X driver. Guess what! It worked great! (for the first 12 hours, and then a crash).
Therefore, I believe that there is a problem with the driver, not just the physical device.
D-Link, you _cannot_ call these drivers “Drivers”. They are something…almost-drivers… beta-drivers… alpha-drivers… but not bona fide “Drivers”.
Somewhere in the hallowed hall of D-Link Tech Support a simian-looking tech-support primate plugs in a DWL-122 to a Mac and sees the light come on. He sees the indicator read “Status-Connected”. He watches it for 10 seconds, howls with delight at his success. Seconds after brachiates away to get a banana, the link drops…
…oops meant to add that the address for my info about the patched Mac OS X driver for the Syntax USB-400 (bought it for free…similar to DWL-122) was at this address
http://astro.temple.edu/~moshe/intersil/ .
I found it by searching Google for “usb-400 syntax os x”.
So using the theory above, is there another USB device for the Mac that uses the Prism2 chipset which we can use in place of the DLINK Drivers?
According to Kismac .10a on my TiBook 800/DVI running 10.3.3, the Syntax USB-400 comes up as a Prism3 (PrismTHREE) chipset…not sure if the d-link uses the same chipset. On paper the drivers should be compatible ie. prism3 should be able to step down to Prism2 instructions (I mean…communism works on paper…right?) Could this be why you all are having so many problems with the D-Link drivers and the .diff if the d-link is in fact based on prism2…
~owen
According to the Syntax, and its specs for the USB-400 at http://www.syntaxusa.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=38&products_id=58 , it is indeed a Prism3 chipset device.
The Netgear MA111 (a rebadged ZComax Xi-735? – see http://www.zcomax.co.uk/products.php?product_type=4 ) is also Prism 3 based.
I’ve read different opinions/accounts about whether the D-Link DWL-122 is Prism2 or Prism3… the one account of direct reference to D-Link Tech Support said that he had been told by D-Link that it was Prism3. Perhaps some of the Prism2’s listed at http://www.binaervarianz.de/projekte/programmieren/kismac/hardwarelist.php are actually Prism3. Hmm. Shouldn’t make a big difference… but…
In any case, a hacked DWL-122 driver with the correct VendorID and ProductID will run the Netgear & Syntax units…no better or no worse than the driver runs the DWL-122 itself. In any case, an eventual crash.
I wonder how Reza’s efforts on the new DWL-122 driver ( https://www.randyrants.com/2003/07/espn_screws_the/ search page for Reza )are coming?
I called the help line here in Australia and they emailed me an updated driver.
Since then (a week)the imac with 10.3.3 has been working fine.
It does appear that you have to replug the adapter out/in when you reboot – but at least no kernel fault.
Hi Monroe,
Wow. :^/ He _emailed_ it to you? Must be different from the 1.3.2 version listed at tech support/downloads.
I’m curious. You mentioned in your last post that the DWL-122 has been working fine (for a week?).
do you mean that it maintained an active, loaded (with some non-trivial traffic/receives/transmits) link for a week solid?
Did you have to disconnect/reconnect it physically during that time because of a dropped link or some other problem?
Still no crashes/hangs/faults after 10 days?
Could you please email me a copy of the driver? I must have only the old ones.
Thanks in advance,
davygravy
Yes, ditto that! If there really is a fix, why is D-Link still sitting on it? Even if it is a “beta-fix” it can’t possibly be any worse than previous version. I’d love a copy of it as well!
Hi everybody. Yes, I’m having the same problems as everybody else with my DWL-122 and G3 Powerbook Lombard running 10.2. I just called dlink tech support and, while they were incredible polite, were unable to offer any real help. The two guys I spoke to denied any knowledge of OSX driver issues, and when I asked them directly about an upgraded “beta” driver like the mystery one that helped munroe, they were baffled and said that anything of the sort would be posted publicly on their ftp site (ftp.dlink.com) right away. Sorry, guys.
Hi Slick, Monroe, Meepo, etal…
I tried Monroe’s driver that he received from Australia’s D-Link Tech Support. It did not work any better for me. Monroe, nevertheless, many thanks for your efforts.
I found it strange that it was label/named 1.3.1[1] , a sort of version designation that I had never seen before. I also wrote to Australia’s D-Link tech support and received my own copy of the version 1.3.1[1] driver. The address is support@dlink.com.au , if you are interest in writing for your own copy to try.
Both packages, when viewed with Pacifist, seem to be identical to the version 1.3.1 listed on the Taiwan D-Link TechSupport many months back. It doesn’t appear to be a new driver to me, at all, unfortunately.
Well, back to the drawing (erh.. I mean crashing/freezing) board.
davygravy
PS. Of _course_ they deny any knowledge of OSX driver issues. Plausible Deniability. (is that last word really a word?)
Similar problems here (argh!). On iMac G3/350 (no FW port), it will work fine for about 5 minutes, then drop the connection, freezing whatever program is open. It doesn’t seem like this would be that hard an issue to fix! I have to use a USB adaptor for WiFi, as the Ethernet port on the iMac is dead… maybe I’ll go the Belkin route?
Same problem on a Imac 400, it dropps after 10-20 minutes…
Jeff, try to use Mozilla (Firefox)
At least your Computer won’t freeze. Try the extension cable. The dwl 122 has a problem with overheating when used without extension cable…
But only on macs. On PCs, the dwl 122 stays cool.
*XFiles-Theme*
Worked for me,
still hope there will be a better driver soon.
i have the usb monster, lucky on my G3 pc once upgrading to the newer drivers it works fine, btw use it off the usb key board if you have one or use the ext. cable like philipp said, with most mac’s the usb power output (mA) is higher than ibm and so on, hope it works for ya.
DLink Sucks!!
DWL-122
iMac G3 500mhz 256mb Ram, System 10.3.4
Locks after 5-10 minutes.
I can verify all the nastiness mentioned above.
I have spent 10+ hours today on a Graphite 600MHz G3 iMac DV and on a 600MHz G3 iBook.
Firstly, I downloaded the latest drivers from D-Link.
Under 10.2.8, the adapter kernel faults or causes random lock-ups.
After an upgrade to 10.3 things were a little more stable; it took about 5 minutes to lock-up!
Upgrading to 10.3.4 got us to 10 minutes. Maybe by OS 11 I’d be able to run the Mac for a whole hour! ;)
The main issues are that the driver cannot start at boot, you have to login and then remove/reinsert the adapter before the network comes up. (And because it ‘fakes’ an Ethernet connection, DHCP won’t work, you have to use a static address.)
The other killer is that the driver leaks badly. The buffer drops from startup, almost randomly, until running to zero bytes. Then one of two things happens:
1) The Mac locks up and you need to hard reset.
2) The network connections dies and needs a reboot to resume.
Also using an Rendevous-enabled service seems to kill the driver.
In short, these things blow!
Don’t bother touching them with someone else’s!
Go out and buy something less s**t instead.
Bought and am appalled. When I restart, I have to plug it in again. Internet connection is lost now and then, and I’ve had quite alot of kernel panics today (the first day of using this poor device).
DON’T BUY THIS!!!!
Okay, maybe this helps a bit: If the D-Link is the only USB stick plugged into my iBook it’s actually very stable. Haven’t had a crash since. Even after sleep or a restart (although it doesn’t find it’s DHCP adress). However, since I have a bunch of USB devices I’d rather like to use this thing’s gone on ebay, and an order for an Apple Airport is on its way.
hi All!
Well I also bought this adapter. I didn’t use it that much with the os x drivers, and after reading this I won’t ever use it again.
But everything works fine when you use the linux-wlan-ng drivers, as mentioned in a link in this forum.
I use gentoo linux and start mol (mac on linux) from there which is really fast and stable. So linux is the solution again ;-).
hang loose, chris
I’ve used it for ibook. there are few problems occurred so far. crash, freeze, stop when I use safari. also it’s crashed with itune music store when I download music. it suddenly stop to work. then, I have to restart. so I downloaded recent driver from the site. it didn’t make any difference. almost the same. one day, I used microsoft explorer. well, it’s really strange. it never crashed with DWL-122. but very slow. you know that. but still it doesn’t work with itunes.
Welp, I have a DWL-122 also with my Mac. OS X 10.3.5, and yes, it suffers from all of the symptoms, mainly, just dropping connection to my router (which is a D-Link 614+), causing me to reinsert the cable.
I’m returning the product today, and hopefully can find a Belkin adapter. I hear they work well with Mac OS X, so we’ll see. I wrote DLink, but to no avail, no message back, nothing.
I have a DLink router, and love it, it’s the best router out of the 3 I tried before I settled on that one. My PC laptop has a DLink wireless card, which runs perfectly, no issues at all. I’m surprised they didn’t take a little more time on QA before releasing this out to the public.
Oh well, they’ve lost my business on this one.
Same story.
I finally got excited a USB solution for only 10 bucks, I should have known it was too good to be true.
I installed it and while it DID connect fine to the internet I got the random freezes experienced by other users.
This has been the ONLY think which has crashed OS X since I made the switch and it is disgraceful that they don’t even acknowledge the problem let alone warn Mac users to stay away.
I ordered the Belkin, I hope it works better.
Are there any users from the UK here?
It would be an idea for us all to get together, as many as we can find and speak to our local trading standards department, referencing each other.
They would have to investigate because these goods are certainly NOT fit for the purpose they were intended for.
We are due recompense DIRECT from D-Link.
Are we ready to pursue this?
email me directly if you can or reply on here and lets get this ball rolling, time to knock down some D-Link pins!
Steve
I have just sent the following email to D-Link to see their reaction!:
Firstly let me point out that the red and blue roundel (round circle with blue bar) is copyrighted by London Underground/Transport for London and I hope you have their permission to use it! You are using this logo on your UK website as a link to your FTP site. I suggest you change this logo as I am about to inform TfL that you are using their logo potentially illegally, expect a letter from their lawyers if you do not have their written consent to use this graphic!
Secondly and more importantly, I must ask that D-Link cease sales of the DWL-122 USB Networking adaptor with immediate effect. I also ask that all current stocks are recalled.
D-Link has sold this product as working with Apple Macs, yet it is very common knowledge that it does not function with OS X, despite being marketed as a compatible product. Try a google search for instance on the internet to find an immense number of people that have been unable to make this device work reliably.
I am about to rally everyone I can find who has purchased one of these adaptors to bring a case against D-Link. If it is found that the adaptor does not function with Apple Mac OS X machines D-Link will be required to refund EVERYONE that has purchased one of these adaptors. One would imagine this would cost D-Link a considerable sum of money.
Now it is not our chosen path to cause D-Link such distress but we have all purchased goods in good faith expecting them to work with our computers to find that the drivers for this product do not work. In fact we know that D-Link is aware of this problem and for some unknown reason has chosen not only to ignore this fact but to continue to market the product as a working solution.
I would urge you to take note, this may be one small email but it is the first drip as the floodgates open! If you the receiver of this email are unable to offer a solution to the problem or cease sales of this device then I suggest you pass this information upstream to your supervisor, etc, etc until it reaches the person that is able to act and direct an appropriate part of your company to either cease sales and issue refunds or fix the problem.
I await your response.
hehe, good job!
maybe they listen now ;-)
This #*^$ing piece of shit has given me more problems with my mac than I have every had with any of the last 3 I’ve own and this one is fresh out of the box. Lets find the mothers of the assholes who made this crap and make them pay for the ways of their sons over at dlink. Works with OSX my ass. I bought 10.3 and this usb nightmare as alternative to the overpriced discontinued airport cards….yeah right…i want my hours on the phone with tech support (worthless) and my sanity back. Glad to know you guys have had the problem too.
Some good news for all you DWL-122 owners! Contact their tech support (I did it by e-mail) and ask for their newest driver (it’s a beta driver, v 1.4.5). So far it looks like 1.4.5 is a winner! Since early this morning, I’ve had both my 500 MHz Snow iBook and my 400 MHz G4 Tower on the internet — as well as connected
to each other — and haven’t had a crash or hiccup. However, it does take 30 – 45 secs. for it to re-aquire the signal when the computer wakes up. Other than that small wait, I’m a happy camper.
This product has been a nightmare. I’m not prepared to subject my ibook through anymore hell. Not only have I had to do a clean install of MAcOsX because the frequent crashes screwing up my machine, I’ve also had to cough up $200 for an airport card that wasn’t discontinued until after I purchased this piece of shit.
Down with D-Link!!!
Ok, call me crazy. I was about to return this thing but now I’m going to keep it because its working great. I stumbled into a higher tier of DLink support and here is what I learned. You need the 1.4.5 driver to work with OS 10.3.5. I had a panic using the driver that came in the box.
Then I couldn’t connect with WEP. The secret seems to be to put a $ in front of your 10 digit passwork on your wireless router. That’s what tech support told me to do and it works. At least on my Airport Graphite. I had this connected for hours tonight and from what I’m seeing is a stable connection. Using an old iMac too, 333 mhz. Well be trying on a Linksys router next.
I talked to several tech support people during this experience. All were helpful to a degree, but I got the notion that there isn’t enough information supplied to the support people regarding the Mac issues. And every time I called they had no record that I had called before.
Hi,
Could you guys host the 1.4.5 driver somewhere? Or make it into a BitTorrent file for download?
Thanks.
Hi,
I’ve got some good news(I think). Did some poking around the various other D-Link websites from around the globe and found the D-Link Singapore(www.dlink.com.sg) support page. Lo and behold, found the only OS X DWL-122 driver on its support page, and it was updated on AUGUST 24, 2004:
http://www.dlink.com.sg/products/support.asp?pid=175#drivers
This, by the way is V. 1.4.7 a newer version of the beta one that mentioned here before, except I don’t think this is beta. So I bit the bullet and de-installed 1.3.1 running on Jaguar 10.2 on my 500 mHz G3 dual USB ibook, which is somewhat a bit more stable than 10.3.5 Panther I was running. With Jaguar, I get fewer hard crashes but a LOT of dropped connections, nonetheless.
Well, with the new 1.4.7 drivers, I get NO hard crashes at all and only 2 short outages when using Itunes. Using Itunes before the new drivers would cause a total freeze – no keyboard, mouse, nothing. Other than yanking out the adapter during a restart, I haven’t been able to cause a kernel panic at all. Also, the adapter seems to be running a bit cooler now where it was, on a scale of 1 to 10, a seven, it’s now more a three to five at its hottest. A lot of the bugs from the previous North American driver has been fixed, such as the problems with encryption keys showing up incorrectly, the elimination of the useless radio key and a few other essential improvements.
I’ve only been using the new software for a couple of hours tonight, but everything’s looking very promising. I’m hoping to get back onto OS X 10.3.5, but I don’t want to jinx everything.
Hopefully, this will help some of you and I really do hope D-Link will acknowledge this update somehow. And I would love to hear how everyone else made out with this update.
Just about to try the driver as downloaded from Singapore site.
I don’t hold out much hope but we’ll soon see.
Running 10.3.5 with all current available patches so fingers crossed.
I’ve had this piece of s**t kit for nearly one month now with virtually no luck with any of the drivers that I’ve managed to download.
Whether this latest one works or not I think I’d be joined by many other users (at least the 346 current total on the petition page) in agreeing that D-Link suck s**t and really need to sort this abysmal situation out like yesterday, f***ers!!!!
Sorry about the multiple posts – the page was hanging.
Anyway, back to the D-Stink, well, it works, but only if no encryption is selected!!! – which isn’t much good but it’s enough to do s/ware update for now. Still gonna get a refund I think.
As a Mac user it’s incredibly frustrating having to fart around with mindless configs a la Windoze users (ie, going nowhere fast, not intuitive etc).
Think I’ll try and track down an Apple airport 802.11b card just for piece of mind/sanity etc
I found the Singapore site and am going to try the drivers from there. See if that works, otherwise I’ll just keep hunting until I find a decent USB adapter for my iBook.
Dave,
you made my day!
I bought the DWL-122 this evening and had nothing but trouble (kernel panics, WEP not working) with the drivers supplied in the box (1.3.1). Now I just downloaded the 1.4.7 drivers from Singapore and can happyly post this comment wirelessly from my iBook G3 700 MHz (dual USB) running OS X 10.3.5 using my now working WLAN complete with 128 bit encryption.
Thanks so much!
Guys you just rock!
After almost one year, this device works, and it works great with the new driver!
Now it is what it should have been almost a year ago…
Thank you very much!
An interesting thing about D-Link’s latest, version
1.4.7,
, it seems to recognize __many__ different
Prism-based devices, and not just D-Link’s. If you
look at the extension ‘Intersil Prism2.kext”,
specifically at the Info.plist, you will see not just
the DWL-122 listed in the IOKitPersonalities, but also
at least 5 other USB Prism units – the Netgear MA111,
and a MicroSloth USB Wireless device, to name a few.
I am currently using the Netgear MA111 with the 1.4.7
driver. It behaves very well now, with no freezes,
panics, or dropped connections – after 2 days of heavy
use. The driver seems stable (___finally___!!!) and
now suddenly it doesn’t need to be altered to work
with USB wireless devices other than the DWL-122. I
find it strange, even ironic, that someone has added
support in their driver for other firms’ cards, but
I’m not complaining.
As I got the Netgear for free, it is a nice little
backup/portable wireless unit. I originally bought the
DWL-122 last fall for $30 at BestBuy, but returned it
after so many freezes and problems. I am confident
that it would now work fine with the actual D-Link
unit.
It also drives the Syntax USB-400 unit equally now,
though a hack to edit the product and vendor ID’s in
the Info.plist is necessary for this to work.
Though all of these devices are rated at just 11mbps,
they typically can be bought for less than $10 now.
Their small pen-drive size makes them very nice to
take along for quick wireless connectivity on the go.
Hope this helps some poor soul out there that still
has the 1.3.2 driver.
Dave P
Wisconsin
I just installed the lastest version 1.4.7 and still have problems with it with the DWL-122 USB wireless adapter on my iMac. Its basically the same piece of junk as the version 1.3.2. And yes, I unsinstalled the previous version with the terminal before installing the new 1.4.7.
martinh1
The only problem i discovered is that it doesnt go to sleep…
have to completely power down each time, otherwise it caan freeze the system…
I have just been on the phone to DLINK UK who tell me after about 2 minutes that there are no know issues with my DWL-122 and my iBook 500 running OS X 10.3.5!
I think they might be wrong, but i have discovered that if i turn WEP off, my connection stays up (for longer… waiting to see) But that is not a good thing – no encryption.
They did say that whilst there were no known issues, that “it sounds like a driver problem”, I am confused but not as pissed-off as you lot sound..yet.
Well some good news i thought –
http://support.dlink.de after emailing a rant direct to Dlink.
I registered a new case and low and behold they replied with a one-liner: “Phone apple support” who of course say it is a third party product and don’t care.
thanks Dlink.
I hate to bring this topic back around… but the driver download link from D-link’s website doesn’t appear to be working. Does anyone have another link to download from, or would someone be interested in temporarily storing it on the web? Or maybe just e-mailing me the driver… growl. thanks
Seems good news:
Iit seems 1.4.7 driver works great if you configure power save settings. Do not use full power, reduse it to Maximum Power Save or to Power Save.
I got no kernel panics with the new driver, but I had freeze on data transfer. Then I configured Power Save as described, I worked 3 (!!) hours doing huge traffic and everything was GREAT!
Cheers!
I bought a D-Link DWL-122 and I am using it in lieu of a high priced, obsolete Airport card in one of our school’s G3 iMacs. It worked well enough to buy 2 more. Only now am I reading all these anti-DLink rants. I hope I won’t be writing one also.
Steve
Well, I’ve got the same story as basically everybody else here (just read above and ditto for me). I had actually packed the DWL-122 up and was preparing to return it when I finally scrolled to the bottom of this page to find the following link, which I hereby post again:
http://www.dlink.com.sg/products/support.asp?pid=175#drivers
That’s the Singapore D-Link site, which for some reason has a much newer OSX driver than the US site did (?!). Since installing 1.4.7, I’ve had no problems (other than having to look at the ugliest control panel icon ever!).
Thanks all!
– Karl
D-Link — I am very disappointed in you.
Randy — Thank you.
D-Link Singapore — Thank you very much. The driver from Singapore works perfectly.
D-Link Support: I am very disappointed in you. Even today, November 19, 2004, the very polite and well mannered technical support rep at D-Link in the US didn’t know about that driver. Even after I told him about it, he said that he couldn’t recommend it for use in the US since it doesn’t come from D-Link USA. He STILL recommended version 1.3.2 for Panther 1.3.2 and above. I won’t name the tech support rep; I don’t need to.
Vital Besson — Your advice about the power settings may be helpful; I have started to use them and hope they work; thank you in advance.
D-Link — I am very disappointed in you.
The product manager for the D-Link DWL-122 should be embarrassed and ashamed. No dessert for you, my friend. Stand in the corner.
And for the search engines:
D-Link DWL-122 problem
D-Link DWL-122 problems
D-Link DWL-122 bad
D-Link DWL-122 sucks
D-Link DWL-122 poor
D-Link DWL-122 disappointed
D-Link DWL-122 doesn’t work
D-Link DWL-122 driver
D-Link DWL-122 crashes
D-Link DWL-122 kernel crash
D-Link DWL-122 fails
D-Link DWL-122 support
D-Link DWL-122 help
D-Link DWL-122 mac
D-Link DWL-122 panther
Please excuse me. In the above comment, I meant to say Panther 10.3.2 and above.
Thanks for posting the link to the Singapore driver. My iBook G4 would constintly loose the connection and every once in awhile it would have a kernel panic when I tried pulling out the adapter to reseat it. Now with the new drivers, I have not lost the connection and no panics yet.
Thanks again.
Just bought the DWL-122. Does still come with the old driver that crashes (Kernel panic) my Powerbook G3 running 10.2.8 as soon as I plug the USB DWL.
I did download driver 1.4.7 from http://support.dlink.ca .
That driver comes with an improved quick installation guide. The installation is not that trivial (I had to plug and unplug many times the DWL-122 before the system recognizes a new ethernet ‘card’ inside the Network preferences System).
Still too many buggs and I am not shure if I can trust the encryption and the software and the documentation (Quick Installation Guide refers only to Educational Macs, that is: the EMac model, running 10.3).
Thanks for this great resource but I solved my problem…I’m using a netgeat MA111 with the DWL-122 drivers and had a problem in the beginning but I seriously think what it is that the adaptor just gets hot when attached directly to the usb on your computer. Use the dongle that it came with and everything works fine. I have been connected for an hour with no problems. Using the new 1.4.7. drivers and 10.3.7. works fine for me. Just keep the adaptor cool and you’re good to go.
Thank god I found this site. I was about to give up on the DWL-122 and pay the inflated eBay prices for an Airport card. My iBook G3 500 running 10.3.7 would lose the network connection every time it went to sleep and would eventually get a kernel panic using the 1.3.1 driver.
I downloaded and installed the 1.4.7 Singapore driver and all my problems now seemed to be solved. I’ve even left it on for over 3 hours playing streamed iTunes over my network and it hasn’t missed a beat. This would previously have lasted about 5 minutes before losing the stream.
It’s a pity the UK and USA D-link web sites don’t recognise these problems we have all suffered and update their downloadable drivers to the latest available version. It would certainly have saved me a lot of anguish over the last couple of weeks.
I am still having problems running the 1.4.7 drivers on my 10.2.8 G4 imac. My computer will not wake up from sleep and I have to restart. I just signed the petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/dwl122/petition.html
I was 563, that doesn’t seem like a lot of people…
@harry63,
What a coincidence…I was just going to post a way to get around the problem that you are describing. I was wondering the same thing as you when I would put my computer to sleep after logging out but would not see the familiar blinking green light on my powerbook. I would have to restart 90% of the time I also had to unplug and plug in the adaptor to be recognized again after restarting. Then I tried something. I clicked on the wireless icon on the menu bar and quit wireless status before putting my computer to sleep after logging out. The familiar green light would be active. I would wake my computer from sleep and log in and I do not have to unplug the usb adaptor and plug it back in anymore. I do however have to go back to the wireless menu on the menu bar and make sure that my power settings are turned from always on to max power save or power save. The MA111 has heating up issues that when the adaptor gets to hot it is unresponsive. Hope this helps everyone.
Update…sorry to post so much. Apparently quitting wireless status also keeps the usb adaptor’s power settings to what it was last set on. I logged out and logged back in twice already and the settings are saved. I’ll restart and post my findings.
When restarting the computer I have to unplug and plug in the usb adaptor for it to get recongnized again and when logging off and logging back in I don’t have to ??? Weird. But its okay since I log off and log back in and only restart when I install software that requires it. So I’m happy for now. Quit wireless status, log off, sleep, log in, setting are how they were before. Hope this helps…
Again another update. Quitting wireless status does not save power preferences even though it looks like they are set it’s not. Reset it to Max Power Save and it’s fine.
I have installed the 1.4.7 driver on a G3 iMAC, vintage 2001. The installation appears to be OK, I can access the Prsim SW in the System Preferences folder. I am using the Netgear MA111 USB adapter and no matter what I do, the iMac does not see the driver. Anybody got any great ideas??
Thanks
@esteyp,
Remove the software using the install tool instead of easy install use remove. Questions…what operating system are you using? Also how much memory do you have? If you have the latest version of panther you’re fine…If you have 256mb or more of memory you’re fine…I don’t know why your mac can’t see the MA111. You need to follow these steps. Install the software. Restart your mac. Insert the MA111 and it should be recognized.
For anyone who cares…another update. In order to further stop your mac from hanging when logging off and putting your mac to sleep follow the following steps:
Quit all of your applications manually except the finder.
Quit wireless status.
Log off.
Click on sleep.
Take Care everyone.
I am running 10.3.7 with 384 Mb of RAM, so sounds like I should be OK. I removed the previous version using the uninstall.command and subsequent terminal window that it brings up. Then I reinstalled using the UsbDriver.1.4.7.All.pkg following the Quick Installation Guide and things work OK. I noticed the it spends a lot of time “Optimizing the System” during the install. I plug in the adapter and check the Systems Preferences folder. I get the PRISM 802.11B USB Adaptor icon in the Systems Preference folder per the instructions. Then things fall apart. I do not see any ethernet adaptor as they have in the QIG, I only get the Built-in Ethernet (and Internal Modem). Also, I do not get the wireless icon in the toolbar. I am a little lost at this point. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.
Is this enough of a problem for a class action suit? How does one get something like that started?
I just called D-Link. They told me this was not a known issue and that I should try a differnt USB port. He also told me that he did not have enough experience to help me with the Mac operating system (why he on tech support then).
I’m using the DWL122 on an iBook G3 800Mhz. It works quite fine with the 1.4.7 driver I downloaded off of an german site.
However, if the iBook drops to standby I can’t get it out of the sleep mode no more. So then I have to reboot the darn machine.
Still looking for a better driver….
I purchased a D-Link card for the first time and tried to set up wireless networking. After a week I thought I must be totally stupid or something cuz I just couldn’t get anything working, I mean I do know what I’m doing but this thing just ain’t speaking to anything! Tried all different drivers, frimware etc blah blah I’m using Windows and still nothing.
I eventually said stuff it! and turfed the D-link, got an ASUS card and BINGO! not even 30 seconds later everythings working just fine…..
I hope you’re reading this D-link guys because I own a major computer retail business and I think your cards SUCK. Maybe you should just go into making toys or something because I think it’s all your stuff is good for….playing with………
Ugh. I only wish I had found this site before I bought this p.o.s. Same typical problems with my Mac Mini. Either a hard reboot required; drops wep key after about 3 minutes; locks up mouse and keyboard after about 3 minutes. I signed the petition, and I’m going to download the new drivers to try it out.
There is something to be said for paying the price for the Airport Card….my many hours of trying to resolve this problem have already far surpassed the slightly inflated cost of the mac card.
Dlink …what a joke.
I recently bought generic no-brand 802.11g USB adapter for testing (it was under £20) which was was identified as a ralink device on the USB bus, and from initial testing I can confirm that it works with the ralink MacOS X driver available from: . Too early to comment on stability, but it’s possibly an alternative to the Dlink crapola.
Mine works great. Maybe you just have to know how to set it up right.
Yeah. What are the rest of the 113 comments about??? You all must have set it up wrong!
That was helpful, Dan, thanks.
@Dan – don’t be a d1ck
Hi all together,
good to read that I`m not the only one having a DLink problem …
Funny is that I`ve different So here`s my story :
I wanted to install the DWL-122 on an customers iMac G3/400 with new and clean 10.2.8 installation. It should have be connected to an wireless router (Draytec Vigor). By the way : a G4-tower beside the iMac already has been connected through an Airport card without any problem. So I installed the 1.3.2 driver (worked fine) and plugged in the DWL-122 and restarted the system. The drivers icon in the menu appeared – but the preference software didn`t appear in the preference window of OS X – very misterious. The menu software showed status “connected” – but I couldn`t get any connection from within Safari.
I tried to install it again – but still no preference software. I also couldn`t enter the software through the entry in the menu software – no chance.
May be some kind of authentication problem during installation ? So I activated the root user on the computer and tried a new installation under the root user. Very curious – now the installation worked and the preference software appeared as it should. Okay I started the software and it showed a 60-70% quality, it also showed the correct wireless network as it should and a status “connected”. Whow – now it works ? I tried again to get connected with Safari – but no luck.
Okay – then I`ve tried several times to enter the WEP key used on the router (128Bit,13 digits, ASCII) but had no luck. Still the software showed “connected”, quality “good”, but nothing happened – no error was shown. Okay, so I checked the OS X network preferences. There has been a new entry “ethernet network (en1)” so I chose it (assuming that this would be the correct one for the wireless network – it wasn`t mentioned anywhere in the manual …). Tried it again – still no connection. After two hours of trying out different settings and restarting the computer (my customer won`t pay for this …) I gave up.
Back at home I searched the internet for infos and found accidently the 1.4.7 driver mentioned above. So I drove back to the customer, de-installed the old software under the root user and the admin user and installed the new one. But after restarting the iMac the problems remained the same – no connection to network. I played a little bit with the “power saving” settings, tried out different WEP keys (for some a “WEP key” error message appeared in the software) – but without any effect. After wasting again 2 hours with no result (and no one who`s paying for it …:-((( …) I gave up.
By the way : knowing about the bad DLINK support I tried to contact them through their homepage several times – but no luck up to now – no one contacted me, no response, nothing.
I didn`t had any “freece”-problem or hard crash on the iMac as other users. Also the DWL-122 showed both lights green when “connected” and didn`t heated up noticeable. It should have worked – but it didn`t – and I`ve no clue why. I don`t have the time to do “product research” or “driver testing” for DLINK – so I`ll return this damned thing to the dealer a.s.a.p.
I`ve already seen a lot of poor hardware showing “supports OS X” that didn`t do it (e.g. all-in-one printer/scanner from HP not supporting all features, a cheap digital camera with crappy software, a Microtek 4850 scanner whose software is damned slow and doesn`t support all features, too), but this thing really sucks because there`s no support out there from DLINK.
So my conclusion is : DON`T buy it – it`s a big waste of time.
My bitch is not with the products but with there rebate policies. Turns out, if you buy too many of there products, you can’t get the rebates. Guess how many of there products I will buy again? NONE
http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/ape
I’ll bite… what’s that going to do for’m? (I don’t even mind the plug for Unsanity – they’re good times – but I’m curious about what it would do for the issues).
I just bought this for my iBook G3 Dual USB (which does’nt take the new Airport Extreme Card) running OS 10.2.8. It works great for getting on the Internet so far, but I’m unable share files over my network I cannot connect or even see my other computer a Beige G3 Tower running OS 9.2 or my Laser Printer. Everything is connected to a 2Wire HomePortal 1700HG DSL modem. Everything works fine if I connect the iBook through one of the Ethernet ports on the 2Wire Modem, but when I connect with the DWL 122 wireless Adapter, I can only connect to the Internet.
Does anyone notice that certain programs cause the kernel panics. I have found that if I am connected and I start MakeMusic’s Finale 2005, the system will ALWAYS give me the kernel panic screen.
Are there any other repeatable problems.
It turned out to be a good and solid performing buy for me
I bought it to connect to a Belkin Wireless Access point connected to my Linksys router with two PC’s already working as a wired network. I wanted to connect my new Apple Macmini by wireless to the Belkin Access point. The D-link is one of only one or two usb adapters compatible with Macintosh computers
I thought the D-link was a problem at first and was worried when I looked at many negative reviews. However the problems others have identified was easily solved for me. The bundled CD with the adapter driver is poor, inpossible and outdated.
I brought up Google and typed ‘DWL-122 problem’ and found the answer for me at http://www.macupdate.com/ which highlighted a driver update for Mac OS 10.2+ as follows DWL-122 Driver 1.4.7 – MacUpdate at the following website; http://www.macupdate.com/. What I thought was crap has proved to be a good buy. Pity D-Link couldn’t have enclosed better drivers.
Brian
I bought a Dlink DWl-122 for my iBook because I could not find any original Airport cards for sale. The original drivers are unusable but version 1.4.7 seem stable for the time being. I still have problems with sleep mode and have to shut my Mac down completely before unplugging the device. Does anyone know how to unplug the device safely without causing a kernel panic or freeze? I do rely on the sleep / resume mode for quick startup on trains etc as opposed to having to boot may machine every time.
the d-link dwl-122
external wireless ‘aerial/card’ connected to an imac upgraded to osX
after booting the i mac the connection only comes up if i physically disconnect the usb ‘key’ and then plug back together.
i know its up when the ‘bow tie’ icon appears on the main menu bar.
if the signal drops I have to do the same
If you do experience connection problems try doing this and this may solve your problem
however it is a pain having to unplug and replug the dwl-122 any solutions welcomed
j
i’ve read most of the posts on this thread, and i seem to be having the same problems as most people. i got my dwl-122 about 8 months ago, am using it on an ibook g4 running panther 10.3.9 and using the 1.3.1 driver supplied on the cd.
i’ve seen all the great comments about the 1.4.7 driver, and for a moment thought my problems had been solved. i downloaded the .zip file, but the .pkg file won’t run. i get the message:
“The Installer package “UsbDriver.1.4.7.All” cannot be opened. The postinstall script was either not executable or not readable.”
i’ve tried installing with the old driver still there, i’ve tried uninstalling the old driver first, but nothing seems to work. i can’t figure out what the problem is. i tried downloading the driver from different places online, but always the same problem.
anyone else had similar problems and/or know what to do?
thanks :)
Question, recently on a trip, used a travel power cord on my IPAQ PDA 3800. Used it earlier in the day, battery check showed 92% left. Plugged it in, check the next morning, nothing. Not even force restart, nothing, nothing. Any thoughts, could I have gotten a power surge, is there a fuse in these things? Thanks
I use the DWL-122 with my ibook G3 700, with mac os 10.3.9, and first used the driver provided with D-link 1.3.2, and I have never seen so much bugs in a mac driver (I switched completely to mac 7 months ago). D-link should remove “compatible with mac os x” from the packaging of this product …
After looking on the web I saw a lot of users do have the same problems (no wep key was working, strange behavours, works without encryption but crash sometimes…)
Alos WEP encryption is a poor protection!
And finally I found the 1.4.7 driver thnaks to this forum!
Now it works with encryption, but I cannot use the sleep mode too or the ibook doesn’t wake up…
Thanks for sharing your experience :-)
this piece of shit only works when it wants to and fuckin wastes time and money and crashes the 911 motherfuckin fuck outta our computers, ive tried everything for this fuckin shit to work, they should stop making this wireless joke and d-link should get sued the fuck up -the end
This sight has a bit on alternate drivers to use, including a new June release specifically for Tiger.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050201091946184
Uh-huh. Riiiiight. Meanwhile this post is almost three years old. Good find!
It is. The date doesn’t change a thing. 3 years ago, you were still using a dated technology. Don’t cry because you’re inept.
wow – I’m getting sick of rebooting my D-Link router everyday and thought I’d do a Google search on “d-link routers suck” – I see this is a lively conversation out here! glad I didn’t buy my DBT-120 way back when for my mini based on the experiences I’m reading here.
So it’s been over 3 years since you wrote this post and was really surprised when tech support asked me to find a windows-based machine to upgrade my router firmware – what happened all us linux and macosx users?!? what ever happened to upgrades via your web interface? it’s a bit ironic considering the router is based on busybox!
so does anyone know if D-Link actually uses a case support system – one that actually tracks the state of issues they receive? I also found it a bit ironic to get “oh – we lost your email” as if they are monitoring a regular ole inbox or something!
well – hope they get their act together – enough ranting from me!
Not only D-link is an inferior product, the support SUCKS! Here you can hear this HORROR STORY. I called them 4 days in a row. Every time the wait is at least 3/4 hour. Then the junior tech comes on line and tries to walk you through the configuration of a router. An hour later without success they try to blame on the B/N network adapter, of course of different brand (a stupid dog, barking on a wrong tree). Next day the story repeats. After a few calls a rookie tech gives up and promises to connect you with “senior” level 3 tech. You wait another 1/2 hour and tel. goes dead (disconnected). You redial, again another stupid rookie, tries to put their 2 cents, even though you want senior, junior sucker thinks that he(she) is smarter than the other fool. Finally when they read the case, they promise to connect you to the senior in only a few minutes. Ya, right, after 15 min. their stupid tel. system switches you back to another junior moron. By now, folks, you got the feeling what the customer’s level of frustration is. Then, I want to speak to a supervisor, and they tell you, that they all gone to the meeting. Do you, guys, get the level of their arrogancy?
Want to know what else these canine seducers do? When the case becomes too lengthy to read and too embarrassing for them to comprehend, they conveniently change the number.
After all these troubles I gave up and figured out myself, that the router was cooked. A week later a trouble maker from the company (although he calls himself a troubleshooter) calls me and offers his help. What an idiot, I already ditched that DI-514 router.
My final diagnosis of D-link: Idiotic, inferior company.
D-link should be really called F-Link (fucking lick)
My conclusion: D-link doesn�t have support, so WHY DO WE AS CONSUMERS SHOULD SUPPORT IT? Let�s boycott these idiots and see them go BELLY-UP! There are a lot of no-name companies who manufacture better and cheaper routers with more user-friendly, intuitive software. I changed for BLANC, both the router and adaptor work great!
DWL-G122 on PC:
* once in a while it works (wow) – but usually after replugging or rebooting (it may take a few attempts)
* about half of the time – BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH !!! (caused probably by this “ANIO service” used by the software)
* windows doesn’t recognize the device (either windows doesn’t send anything to the device or it claims that an unknown USB device has been found – yes the drivers are installed)
reboot-replug-reboot-CTRLALTDEL-smash keyboard-throw this piece of shit out of the window
what on earth are the programmers at d-link thinking??
reminds me of the old days when plug-and-play was still plug-and-pray…
I hate D-stupid Link. I couldn’t even get a question asked because I refused to give up my private phone number. Mark the French guy in Oakville sounded like a broken fucking record. I need a valid phone number sir, ok, Im at a pay phone, I need a valid phone number sir. I don’t have a phone Mark. I need a valid phone number sir. Where the fuck does it say that I need to give you a fucking phone number in order to receive customer support on your package? I bought, I called, I lost. Well needless to say, no more D-Fucking Link for me. Mark the Frenchman. LoL Broken fucking record, I couldn’t believe it.
I had connection problems with my DWL-G122 with WPA2 encryption and hidden SSID.
With the new driver ist working correctly.
But on USB 1.1 port I need the Anio service and the D-Link software to connect.
greets
bENedZ