ZyXEL WAP3205 Wireless N Access Point / Ethernet Bridge

10 Review to this product

• 

  D. Cohen
  October 27th, 2010 on 4:08 pm

  Rating

  Looked at the manual, tried to open and configure with a browser, then realized Windows 7 has an option to setup an access point. Sixty seconds later, it was done. Works flawlessly and reaches every place in the house. What’s not to like?
• 

  Joseph T. Lillevig
  October 28th, 2010 on 12:02 pm

  Rating

  I bought this so that I could connect my new Samsung TV and BluRay player to the internet. They have built in functions I wanted to use but a wired solution was messy and the USB wireless dongle is Samsung specific. The Samsung wireless solution is both hard to obtain and expensive (with two dongles required for my setup). This unit was perfect because it picks up the signal from my wireless router and then allows me to connect both the TV and the player via standard ethernet cables. Yes, the initial setup is non-intuitive but previous reviews had the necessary steps documented.
• 

  Andrew Kappes
  October 28th, 2010 on 5:24 pm

  Rating

  My wireless router is in one room, and I needed internet in my living room for my XBOX. I didn’t really want to spend $80 on a wireless adapter specific to the XBOX, so I looked around for what turned out to be a “bridge.” I chose this one on for two reasons:
  
  1. Cheap – $31 after $10 rebate
  
  2. Functional – Unlike most, this has 2 LAN out ports, so I could not only hook up my XBOX, but also have an extra to connect to my DVR when I want to order PPV, or hook up to my Blu-Ray or TV for firmware updates.

  My experience with connection wireless networks is that it is usually a bigger pain than it should be, and this fell right into that category. I don’t blame this bridge itself, just wireless network creation in general. I read the previous posts with the warning of setting a static IP. The manual also tells you to do this, just not how. After some googling around, I found out how:

  For Vista:
  
  Click on the “Start” sphere
  
  Click “Network”
  
  Click “Network and Sharing Center” at the top
  
  Click “Manage Network Connections” in the left menu bar
  
  Right click on “Local Area Connection” and go to properties
  
  Double Click “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” (Or right click, “Properties”)
  
  Select “Use the following IP Address” and put in an IP greater than 192.168.1.2 (I did 192.168.1.8)
  
  Subnet Mask will auto-populate to 255.255.255.0
  
  That’s all you need, then “OK” your way out.

  Opened internet explorer, typed “http://192.168.1.2″…nothing. Turns out you have to give it a few minutes. It finally worked. Got in, follow the User Guide to set it to “Client Mode,” found my network, and added it. I didn’t know the security my new Verizon Wireless provided router was (turns out its the basic 64bit WEP if you have it), so that added to my confusion.

  It didn’t work right away. I don’t know why, but I spun in circles for an hour with different security settings, different cables, etc. In the end, I went back to my original setup, and it worked. Not sure why, but I’d suggest to just give it time.

  I didn’t have to do anything special to the XBOX and it connected to Xbox Live without any issues.

  I hope this helps. In the end, great product for the money (so far). The issues in connecting it are consistent with previous experience in connecting any wireless components. This item and documentation was not any worse than others in my opinion.
• 

  James Stark
  October 29th, 2010 on 1:13 pm

  Rating

  I purchased this to use in client mode to hook up to my blu-ray player to provide wireless internet access. The documentation was straight forward and it took me maybe 10 minutes to get it up and running. I temporarily gave my computer a fixed ip address greater than 192.168.1.2, hooked the zyxel to my computer, navigated to 192.168.1.2, entered my wireless security settings. After that I hooked it up to the blu-ray player and all worked perfectly.
• 

  BC
  October 30th, 2010 on 8:19 am

  Rating

  I needed a temporary wireless internet bridge to connect 3 desktop computers wirelessly while an office space was being renovated. I initially tried a Netgear WG602 Wireless-G Access Point and while it had a Client Mode that seemed like it would function as a wireless bridge, the documentation for it was very poor and after some fussing it turned out that it could only work with one computer at a time so I returned it. Some Googling found the ZyXel, and while I was skeptical of a brand name I never heard of before, and that it was was over $15 cheaper than the Netgear despite also being Wireless-N as opposed to the Netgear being only Wireless-G, I’ll be darned if it turned out to be a much most sophisticated device than the Netgear or even the last Linksys units I had fussed with, despite being a very small and light device to boot.

  Documentation for these types of devices is usually pretty awful as a matter of course for whatever reason, and I actually found the onboard web setup to be much slicker and more straightforward than what the Netgear had. As noted in the prior review by J. Fergunson, though, the place where you need to go to switch to Client Mode is not at all obvious — it’s under “Maintenance” and then “Sys OP.”

  But it turned out that unlike the Client Mode in the the Netgear, the Client Mode in the ZyXel supports full wireless bridging between that and any typical wireless router. While the ZyXel comes with 2 Lan ports to hook up 2 computers, I just connected one of them to a spare 5 port hub, and then hooked up the three PC’s through that. No problem.

  So as a piece of tech, it’s actually pretty impressive for the money. It’s not meant for non-techies, but you can find some basic how-to’s like that in the J. Fergunson review here and there on the Internet.
• 

  GKCMilner
  October 31st, 2010 on 3:52 am

  Rating

  I was a little hesitant at first to purchase this because I am not very familiar with the brand, but at the price, and with the rebate, it definitely was worth a shot. I am pleased to write that my concerns were unfounded.

  I have this setup as a client/bridge for one of my Dish Network DVRs. On my other DVR I am using a Linksys WRG54G2 wireless router that has DD-WRT flashed on it. It works very well and I was going to get another (I bought it on eBay) but the seller has raised his price so I started looking elsewhere.

  When I came across this it was significantly cheaper than others I was looking at plus it was “N”. I ordered from [...] through Amazon and it arrived quickly. Upon opening the box I was pleased to see a high quality product with excellent packaging. It came with a good “Quick Start Guide” and a CD that has additional documentation. The documentation is pretty complete but not laid out in the most logical manner (at least not to me). Since it is required to set a static IP address on your computer (like on my Linksys), It would be helpful if the manual showed how to do this. I can’t believe a reviewer gave this 1 star because of this.

  I had it up and running in about 15 minutes. I plugged it into my DVR, ran a connection test, and everything worked perfectly. I have been monitoring it now for a while and it’s been rock solid. I plugged it into my computer at its location to test signal strength and speed and it’s a very solid performer.

  The bottom line is that this is an excellent wireless access point, and at this price it is great value. All you will need to do is get familiar with setting a static IP address on your computer (you can set it back when you’re done). This is with the case with most access points. I will definitely consider this brand for my future network needs.
  
• 

  Comp Prof
  October 31st, 2010 on 6:43 am

  Rating

  This is the best Bridge I have ever had (among the 4, 5) so far… easy to setup and fast. The only thing if I add might be the document, it explains a lot of things but still a little bit confusing on some points.
  
  Hope it won’t die soon!
• 

  B. Grahmann
  November 1st, 2010 on 1:19 pm

  Rating

  Bought this to connect Samsung P1600 blu-ray player to my existing wireless network. It’s half the price of the Samsung USB adapter and I still have an empty port left over. Just used the instructions from Morgan’s review and getting to my power strip behind the entertainment unit took longer than setting up the device. Streaming Netflix in no time. Choosing free shipping and still getting next day delivery (Dallas to Austin) was a bonus!
  
• 

  J. Ferguson
  November 1st, 2010 on 11:34 pm

  Rating

  Once you have it setup it works flawlessy. Problem is setting it up for the first time. Documentation is not user friendly to the non-tech savvy. I’m using it as a wireless bridge / access point with my Sony blue-ray player. I already have a Linksys wireless router using WEP encryption (forced to use this because my XBOX 360 doesn’t support WPA). To make it easy for others doing the same thing use the following steps:

  1. Change your pc or laptop’s ethernet adapter’s IP address to 192.168.1.3 To do this on Vista or Windows 7 you open you network sharing center then you open your ethernet LAN adapter settings (or manage network connections in Vista). Select the Internet protocol v4 (IPv4) and go into properties. Manually put in the IP address with subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and don’t worry about the gateway address.

  2. Connect your WAP3205 to your pc/laptop with the ethernet cable that is provided. Of course make sure you plugged in the power to it or your going nowhere. Open up your preferred browser (IE, firefox, netscape, etc.) and then type in the address bar 192.168.1.2 and now you will be connected to the WAP3205. Type in the default password of 1234, you are now prompted to change your password to whatever you want it to be.

  3. Now that your in the WAP3205 click on Expert Mode. When in this mode on the far left you will see Status and below it Monitor, Configuration and Maintenance. Click on Maintenance and then hit the plus sign in front of Maintenance once you are in. Go to the last option of Sys OP Mode then select Client Mode and hit apply.

  4. Go back to the far left and hit configuration then go to Wireless LAN. You will see tabs for Profile, Site Survey and WPS. Hit the Profile tab and then hit the Add button. Type in your network name / SSID and then select your security drop down box. Select WEP if you have a setup like me with the XBOX 360 or if you don’t care about security select the no security option. Type in your passphrase that you use for your router’s security or the actual 128 bit security code (or 64 bit if that is what you use) and hit apply. Then select your newly created profile and hit the activate button. If it’s configured correctly you will get a green check. Now your done on this end.

  5. Disconnect your WAP3205 from your pc/laptop and change your pc or laptop’s ethernet adapter settings back to whatever it was before.

  6. Go to your blue-ray player and disconnect the power cord for about a minute or more. Connect the WAP3205 to the blue-ray player with the ethernet connection and power your blue-ray player back on. The blue-ray player will automatically pick up the network settings from the WAP3205 and you will be done.

  Hope this is helpful and if you don’t have an XBOX 360 or if you use WPA for security the setup should be easier.

  So far so good with the Zyxel WAP3205…I had used the Linksys WET610N (2 separate units) and they both failed. The first one worked a couple of days before the wireless stopped working and the second one’s wireless failed right out of the box. The WET610N’s are way easier to configure but they are too expensive and for me totally unrealiable. The WAP3205 is a steal and worth the effort when you consider the rock solid connection I have now, besides it was less than half the price of the Linksys. It’s not as nice looking as the Linksys that’s for sure but the main thing is it works as described.
• 

  S. Love
  November 2nd, 2010 on 4:49 pm

  Rating

  Struggled with the setup a bit at the start until I recalled the Amazon reviews for this unit. Once I went back and read and followed J. Ferguson’s review, I was done in 15 minutes. Using with my DirectTV receiver and it works perfectly. J. Ferguson should be writing ZyXEL’s documentation.