D-Link DWL-810+: Wireless Gaming December 12, 2003 Marcus Yam

I’ve Got No Strings…

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For a long time, computer users who wished to be connected to the internet were restricted to being within close proximity of a telephone line or cable outlet. Through elaborate cabling efforts and various network equipment, users were given a little extra flexibility in where they choose to compute – as long as a LAN drop was nearby.

Computer hardware makers have learned that users like as much flexibility as they can get. Thanks to the recent explosion of wireless networking technology, users are now restricted by one less tether. Network companies now offer all sorts of wireless hardware at a small premium over their wired equivalents. It’s basically a requirement for all new notebooks to come with at least some form of wireless technology. In fact, Intel makes 802.11b wireless networking a requirement for all notebooks wearing the Centrino brand.

So, both our desktop and notebook computers are free from their shackles, but is that enough to satisfy us? No.

We must free our consoles!

With videogame consoles now discovering the wonders of the internet, we have another device that needs to be connected. Consoles are almost always played on televisions, which are usually found in the living room. With the default hardware, those wanting to play console games online will have to find a spot that can accommodate both a television and an internet connection – which might be quite inconvenient.

The answer? Wireless networking.

SIDEBAR: DWL-810+ webpage

Console Networking

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Unlike PCs, consoles are not easy things to upgrade. The expansion ports found on some systems are usually meant to fit only proprietary hardware designed and sold by the original maker – you can’t just walk out to you favorite Fry’s and pick up a wireless network card or USB adapter.

The Xbox comes with an ethernet port built in, and with the Network Adaptor from Sony, the PlayStation 2 becomes similarly equipped. Both are then ready to accept an ethernet cable plugged into the back. That’s all fine and dandy if you don’t mind having network cables running around your television.

D-Link

In our experimentation with wireless online console gaming, D-Link provided us with a selection of hardware aimed at gamers. D-Link recognizes that gamers represent an important segment of the market. Its website has a special section called Gamers Haven, which is dedicated, oddly enough, to gamers and highlights tournament sponsorships.

Unlike certain products from other networking companies, D-Link does not specially package any part of its catalog exclusively for gamers. All the products featured in D-Link’s Gamers Haven are simply its existing line that can be used for (console) gaming applications.

We needed to get our PlayStation 2 and Xbox online without wires, and went about it using D-Link’s DWL-810+. The DWL-810+ is an enhanced 2.4GHz ethernet-to-wireless bridge conforming to the 802.11b standard. Its product features list that it is able to connect your game console to a wireless network (though that’s not all that it is capable of, which we will get to in a couple pages).

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What You Get

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Out of the box, you’ll get an unassuming grey rectangular unit measuring 9.0cm x 8.2cm x 4.0cm with a short ethernet cable and an external power adapter. (It’s worth mentioning that the AC adapter is designed so that it won’t cover other power outlets when plugged in.) As is common these days, the full documentation is on the CD-ROM, though the included printed quick installation guide is covers most of what you’ll need to get up and running.

The front of the little grey box has two LEDs on the lower right hand corner. The green one on the left lights up brightly whenever it is plugged into a power source. The orange one on the right has two states of brightness: a dim blinking glow indicates wireless activity, which brightens up when an ethernet device is connected.

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Two Hundred Fifty Six Bits

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Because the DWL-810+ ships without any wireless security features enabled, installing it on an unsecured wireless network is a plug-n-play experience. If you have an iota of common sense to secure your wireless network, however, you’ll have to go through a few steps in order to get the wireless bridge acquainted with your setup.

The easiest way to do this is to connect the DWL-810+ directly to a port on the wireless router that it will be communicating with and plug in the power adapter. By default, the unit has an IP address of 192.168.0.30, which is entered into an internet browser to bring up the web-based configuration. In there you’ll be able to view the status of the device and configure the security settings so it can access the router wirelessly.

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It Does Other Things Too

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Do not panic if your game console isn’t able to get online. If you have access control enabled on your router, you may have to go back and grant access to the MAC address of your game console. We also ran into a strange problem where the DWL-810+ would occasionally ‘forget’ its wireless connection. It only happened during the initial log-on attempt, and not once it is connected (or during gameplay). A simple unplug and replug of the power would restore the connection.

While the main focus of this article is online console gaming, the DWL-810+ has many other practical applications. The DWL-810+ isn’t a product designed solely for gaming, rather it is part of the D-Link line up that fulfills the needs of console gamers. If you have a computer with an ethernet card in a ‘network inconvenient’ location, all you need is the DWL-810+ and you’re back online.

Because the DWL-810+ operates independent of software drivers, it can be thought of as just another router port.

Ad-hoc

Besides for connecting to a wireless router for internet access (infrastructure mode), the DWL-810+ is able to connect two systems together for head-to-head play (ad-hoc mode). Obviously, you will need two wireless units for ad-hoc mode.

If system linking is all you desire from the DWL-810+, then your installation will be an absolute breeze. The D-Link units come pre-configured with identical settings so that ad-hoc mode will work immediately out of the box.

Those trying to run more than one DWL-810+ in infrastructure mode should remember that both try to obtain an IP address of 192.168.0.30 by default. A trip to the browser-based configuration utility will allow you either to specify a different IP address or to let IPs be assigned dynamically.


SIDEBAR: LOTR: Return of the King will make up for all the nastiness that the Matrix sequels have caused this year.

Xbox System Link

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With Xbox Live really starting to take off, developers may choose to spend their time working on online play instead of LAN play. Still, there are a good number of newly released games that could justify operating in ad-hoc mode. (Halo 2, anyone?) Here is a list of Xbox games currently supporting the System Link feature:

Amped 2
Brute Force
Crimson Skies
Deathrow
Halo
Inside Pitch 2003
MechAssault
Midnight Club 2
Midtown Madness 3
Moto GP
Moto GP 2
NASCAR Heat 2002
NFL Fever 2003
NFL Fever 2004
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War
Serious Sam
Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix
Time Splitters 2
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Tony Hawk's Underground
Top Spin
Unreal Championship
Whacked!
World Racing

For more complete information on System Link games, check out this FAQ. For a complete list of Xbox Live enabled games for online play, click here.


SIDEBAR: I am absolutely hooked on Microsoft’s XSN Sports games on Xbox Live.

Best. Online. Gaming. Ever.

Out of the FireWire, into the CAT5/6

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The PlayStation 2, on the other hand, has a slightly more complicated history with linking systems together. Instead of using ethernet technology, Sony decided to use iLink (IEEE-1394 or FireWire) to link systems. Few games supported the iLink (though Armored Core 2, Unreal Tournament, Gran Turismo come to mind), making the IEEE-1934 option a little impractical. With the release of the Network Adaptor for PlayStation 2, the iLink’s purpose of being for linking systems together had suddenly vanished, as users could just use an ethernet cable to get the job done. Sony realized this and removed the iLink ports from the latest PlayStation 2 hardware revision (v9).

Identifying all the PlayStation 2 games with LAN support is a difficult task. We’re currently working with Sony to get an official list of LAN support, but here’s a list of Network Adaptor games from the PlayStation site:

All-Star Baseball 2004
Amplitude
ATV Offroad Fury 2
Auto Modellista
EverQuest Online Adventures
Frequency
Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm
Madden NFL 2003
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
Midnight Club 2
My Street
NBA 2K3
NBA Live 2003
NBA Live 2004
NCAA Basketball 2K3
Need for Speed Underground
NFL GameDay 2003
The Sims Bustin Out
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs
SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2004
TimeSplitters 2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Tribes: Aerial Assault
Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged
Twisted Metal Black Online

If online gaming is your bag, you can find an exhaustive list here.


SIDEBAR: EA’s Online Service for PlayStation 2 games just can’t compare to Microsoft’s efforts.

Cue PA.

We Get Signal?

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After the DWL-810+ is properly configured and connected, it’s mostly transparent. Provided that you have a strong signal, playing online wirelessly is just like being plugged right into the router. There was no noticeable increase in latency. Obviously, some stability is sacrificed when giving up the hard line, but you won’t notice it unless you use the Xbox Communicator or PS2 USB Headset. Speech will sometimes cut-off or break-up for a brief moment, whereas a similar test with a physical connection to the router exhibited no such behavior.

Mind you, it’s possible that the hiccups in the wireless connection are due to interference and are to no fault of the DWL-810+. Tweaking wireless settings or even the environment for a better connection to the DWL-810+ is near impossible because of the unit’s lack of a signal strength meter. On the other hand, adding such capability to the unit would drive up costs, robbing the DWL-810+ of one of its most attractive features – price.

We did the next best thing and sat a notebook PC with a wireless PCMCIA card next to the DWL-810+ and did our playtesting while constantly monitoring the notebook for signal quality. Even with an excellent signal to the PCMCIA card, there was still the odd hiccup with voice over IP. Gameplay, however, seemed to be unaffected by these hitches.

Sup, G?

One last thing: why not 802.11g? If one were planning to transfer large files over the network, then we’d definitely recommend going with a wireless-G device. For gaming though, the 3-4 Mbps offered by the wireless-B standard is sufficient.

Interestingly, it’s advertised that if the DWL-810+ is operated in a D-Link AirPlus environment, speeds of up to 22 Mbps can be achieved.

If you’re really insane about ultimate bandwidth, D-Link has its AirPlus Xtreme G line – which in addition to supporting the 802.11g standard – boasts speeds of up to 108 Mbps.


SIDEBAR: It’s the Texas Instruments DSP chip that’s able to drive D-Link AirPlus products to 22 Mbps.

Ballistics Report

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Pros:

Price: The DWL-810+ carries an MSRP of $69, but it can be found for around $10 less if you shop around. And for a limited time, D-Link is offering a $10 rebate for all DWL-810+’s purchased between November 16, 2003 and January 5, 2004 (restrictions do apply, so check out the PDF before buying).

For the sake of comparison, the Xbox Wireless Adaptor from Microsoft is a costly $139, (though it has additional features such as support for the 802.11g standard and signal strength indication).

Ease of use: The initial set up is the hardest part of getting the DWL-810+ integrated into your network; but once that is complete, everything just works without further hassle.

Versatility: Even though our main objective was to get our consoles online wireless, it’s impossible to ignore that the DWL-810+ is an extremely useful product. As long as it utilizes an ethernet patch cable, printers, set-top boxes, and PCs can obtain connectivity with the DWL-810+.

Cons:

Lack of signal strength indicator: We’re accustomed to USB adaptors and add-in cards with signal meters built-in to the drivers, and signal strength is like a constant itching mystery to us. If we could have one wish to change the DWL-810+, it would be to have some sort of signal strength indicator for tweaking purposes.



SIDEBAR: Does anyone have any recommendations for a good freeride snowboard for someone (me) who likes to ride fakie a lot?

Final Verdict

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The Bottom Line

For around $50 after rebate, the DWL-810+ is an excellent value. If you’re looking for a way to free your console or any other online device from wires, then D-Link has a wireless bridge to sell to you.

SIDEBAR: News comments