| Always On Wireless WDB20B WiFlyer Wireless Access Point |
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Model: WDB20B
Brand: Always On Wireless
Manufacturer: Always On Wireless
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 29
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b
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| Features: |
Enjoy wireless WiFi / 802.11b Internet access using existing dialup services
Sleek, portable design easily fits in any briefcase or laptop bag - or even in your pocket
Easy to install and use by connecting to a standard phone line
Works with any WiFi-enabled Windows, Linux, Mac OS and UNIX system
International design for worldwide use |
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| Description: |
| The WiFlyer is a portable, shareable wireless access point supporting both dial-up and broadband connections. Simply attach an ordinary phone line or Ethernet port to enjoy convenient, secure, wireless Internet access in your home, office or hotel. The compact WiFlyer is easy to carry in any laptop bag and is a full featured access point that allows one or more desktop PCs, laptops or PDAs to share a single dialup or Broadband connection. It works with your existing dial-up ISP including AOL, MSN, EarthLink and most others with no additional monthly charges. Designed for ease-of-use, your Browser automatically directs you to clear, simple setup screens to make installation and Dialing a snap. Compatible with any 802.11b or 802.11g capable laptop or PDA. Supports a range of up to 300 feet and Network speeds up to 11Mbps. Browser automatically defaults to intuitive WiFlyer Web pages for easy dial setup. Dial-up connection compatible with AOL, MSN, EarthLink, SBCGlobal, Bellsouth and most other dial-up ISPs worldwide. Convenient wireless Networking allows multiple PCs to share files, printers, and a single dialup connection. Quick-connect button eliminates time waiting for dialup connection. Secure wireless Communications supports up to 128-bit WEP Encryption and MAC address authentication Internal high-gain diversity antennas permit up to 300 ft range, Optional external antenna available International design for worldwide use |
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| User Reviews (29 total): |
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Company gone belly-up?, June 22, 2008
By chrischram (Langlois, OR USA)
It would appear that Always On Wireless has gone belly-up. Nevertheless, if you are in need of a wifi to dialup connection, I can recommend this device, if you can find one, with a couple of reservations. The first reservation is, of course, you won't get any customer service from a company that no longer exists. The second reservation is that this device provides no way to store a backup of its settings. I've had a few occasions when the device lost all its settings, and the only way to retrieve them was from screen-dumps of the several setup pages. There are lots of settings that can be tweaked, but most users will probably leave most of them at the default. Reentering the settings by hand is a minor annoyance, but goes quickly, and is not a deal-breaker.
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Neat Gadget, May 3, 2008
By wdexter (Illinois)
This is a neat little gadget but don't expect broadband speeds just because there's WiFi - it's still the slow dialup if you're using a dialup connection.
I bought it a couple years ago to take on vacation, and although I did use it some, most of the time we "borrowed" one of the neighbor's true WiFi signals.
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product didn't have a good range, March 9, 2008
By Michael Church
The product was hooked up in a bedroom and wouldn't pick up signal in living room. I sent it back, with no hassle at all.
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great everyone that can't get wireless,should get one, March 6, 2008
By James A. Sanchez (natalia,tx)
this is great wireless converter from dailup,and if u call the seller they will hekp set it up to be a secure connection so people within range CAN'T use ur internet connect and slow u down.and since i'm a disabled vet and forget times how to re-install,my dialup information,they gladly help me all the time,yet it only happens once in a while,after re-installing XP only,i got lucky in finding this companies product,cuz i live in a ranch,and nieghbors are to far to pick up my internet connect.
I highly recoment this product to all that want Dialup converted to Wireless.
James
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Product Fails to Connect, February 16, 2008
By Disappointed Person (Salinas, CA USA)
I recently purchased a WiFlyer in January 2008 from JR Music and it was shipped and delivered promptly. The setup was easy , you could even view the WiFlyer on the available Wireless networks with XP or Vista. With an MSN dialup account I tested this unit with Windows XPPRO and Vista. The connect fails. I tested the same dialup account just using the modem on my laptop using the same user/login info I had on the WiFlyer and it connected. I have tried every configuration available on the unit. It still will not connect. The sad thing is I read so many good things about it before purchasing.
I tried going to the Always on Wireless Web Site and submitted a help ticket and even called their support and left a message three times. I haven't heard from them yet and it has been more than a month. Most of the download links on their site did not function.
All I can say for this story is live and learn.
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wiflyer, February 9, 2008
By SRV lives on (Savoy, IL USA)
This is a nice option if you can't get a high speed connection. I use mine with my laptop at home which allows to to be online and not attached to the phone line to the wall. The range is decent enough as long I don't go to a different floor of the house. Set up took about five minutes and I have had no problems since set up. Once set up and plugged in you just hit the dial button and wait about 30 seconds to connect and my laptop automatically detects the connection with the wifi card. Until I can get something other than dial up at home this has been a good option and since the price has recently dropped it is pretty affordable.
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constantly loses connection, January 29, 2008
By Leland Pendleton
router was very easy to configure and connected pretty fast but lost the connection every 10-15 minutes.according to their chart compatiable with people pc which i have.tried to reach support by email 3-4 times all was return to sender tried ph# mail box always full. have sent back to vender and will try another one. hope it works out the box as there is no support with this company.
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wiflyer wireless dialup router, January 8, 2008
By Bill (Florida)
Not everything it's hyped-up to be. I use it with AOL and your AOL screen name must be less than 10 characters or it will not connect. It connects to AOL thru your Internet Explorer and it's slow connection. Easier to just get a real long telephone cord. A poor substitute for true wireless internet. Way over-priced,personally I would save my money.
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Wiflyer, December 12, 2007
By wblady
Wiflyer is an innovative product and tried to do what it was designed to do. Unfortunately, it played havoc with my computer. After a couple weeks of trying different things, I gave up & asked for return authorization. I loved the freedom of not being tied to the phone line. I am so disappointed!!
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Excellent Product, August 10, 2007
By Cattle Baron (Luray, VA)
I bought the +v version which also offers a wireless connection to a printer. This device provided one hundred percent functionality right out of the box. Excellent support at the web site for connection to the internet and a printer. Works with a small internet provider: shentel.net.
The only downside: the web accelerator offered free by my ISP does not work. The accelerator interpets the wifi connection to the WiFlyer as having broadband width and thus no need of a dialup accelerator. I'm just starting to trouble shoot this. Worst case: I may have to buy the accelerator from WiFlyer.
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Not stuck in the office, May 13, 2007
By Islander
The Wiflyer wireless works great! Had to call to get some help at
first as I'm on AOL which always has a complication it seems. After that
got figured out...have had no problems.
its wonderful not to be stuck in my office. I can move to another
room to use my computer and even watch TV while waiting for websites
to download...I still have dial-up!!!! We live in a remote area!!
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POTENTIALLY, March 18, 2007
By cludii (WISC)
THIS DID NOT WORK AND HAS TO BE REPLACED. BOUGHT FOR MY NIECE BECAUSE LOVE MY OWN WHICH I'VE HAD FOR YEARS NOW. IT WORKS SO WELL AND ELIAS IN TECH IS SO KIND AND HELPFUL IN HELPING TO SET UP AND HAVE A REPLACEMENT SENT IF NEED BE.
SMALL AND ATTRACTIVE AND EASILY TRANSPORTED ON THE JOURNEY.
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UPDATE: My WiFlyer works again after a 'Hard Reset', January 16, 2007
By luckybook
I bought this in early November of 2005 before a trip I took in December. I only needed to use it once with an Earthlink dial-up account. Worked fine. Once. After that, it remained in safe storage away from heat, away from cold, away from the sun, away from handling. In fact, it was stored safely in my laptop travel case, which was stored safely in a closet. No one could have bothered it, since I live alone. I did not need to use again until 6 weeks ago. When I got the Wiflyer out and plugged it in ... NO wireless signal. None. Kaput. My laptop connected just fine to other wireless, just not the Wiflyer because there was NO SIGNAL AT ALL, so there was NOTHING TO CONNECT TO. The little wireless LED in the middle front of the unit does not come on. Of course, the unit is no longer under warranty, so that's the end of that.
Honestly, I think the product is just not well made. The concept was excellent, and yours may work for you for a while, just as mine did. But I wouldn't expect this to last for very long if used frequently. Perhaps some sort of minor jostling caused the unit to fail? I'll never know. And I sure won't buy another one.
***** UPDATE *****
I emailed techsupport at [...] about my difficulty with the wireless LED staying off and no wireless signal being broadcast. I was informed that I could return the WiFlyer to its factory default settings using the following procedure to initiate a "Hard Reset":
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(1) Unplug the power connection from the rear of the WiFlyer, then
(2) Hold down the top button (with the lightning bolt), then
(3) Continue holding this lightning-bolt button and
(4) Plug power back into the WiFlyer, and then
(5) Continue holding the button down while the WiFlyer cycles its 5 LED lights on top from right to left, then all LEDs will go solid on. There will then be three beeps, and then the unit will cycle through the LED lights again, and WHEN THE MIDDLE LIGHT (the wireless LED) COMES ON, RELEASE THE LIGHTNING-BOLT BUTTON.
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That's it. It brought my WiFlyer back to life and it functions normally again.
I did notice that when the unit is used to connect my laptop via wireless to my broadband modem that I did not see the higher internet download speeds that I see when connected directly to the cable modem via ethernet. I believe this is probably just a limitation of 802.11b in operation.
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WiFlyer is absolutely Slick!, January 13, 2007
By Old MX Rider (Central Illinois)
After hooking up WiFi for a DSL network, I expected the WiFlyer set-up to take a while. But when I opened the box, I saw that the quick start-up intructions were easy to follow. I plugged everything in as described and went back to the instructions to see how to open or launch a connection. When I looked back at the unit, it was already showing a connection on the indicator lights. Still skeptical about dialing up the ISP, I launched Internet Explorer. Instead of going to my home page, it went to a WiFlyer screen asking for the typical dial-up info, such as ISP phone number, user name and password. Once it connected, my home page displayed. On subsequent launches, the WiFlyer screen remembered (by cookie) the phone number and user name. There can't possibly be a better way to provide WiFi for a dial-up connection.
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good idea, January 9, 2007
By T. Cook
It is a great idea if the product worked. The problem is, it doesn't. There is virtually no customer support. It took a very long time to get in contact with anyone at the company who would listen to my complaints. They finally replaced the original defective product which had issue with the wireless feature and did not broadcast a signal. The replacement works better, but constantly drops out and has to be rebooted about once per hour. When this happens all information (passwords, dial-up number, etc.) has to be input again. I can't get anyone at the company to listen to my complaints and do anything about it. They say they will send a replacement or refund, but they don't.
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It works!, January 6, 2007
By Cancer Diva (Maine)
I initially purchased the WiFlyer because I had dial-up. Yes, there are still people out there with dial-up. It did its job. However, it cut the speed down from 43k to 24k, making it extremely slow. This was both on the PC and my laptop. I used it like this for around three months. After dealing with dial-up, I had enough and switched to RoadRunner broadband. But, was unable to set up the WiFlyer as told in the directions. I tried for a couple of days and then sent an e-mail to WiFlyer using their website's technical support page. I got an e-mail response back within a couple of hours stating that I would have to call their 1-800 number to speak with a tech that would help me with setting up an address for the WiFlyer. I called and got someone right away. He walked me through it. Made sure to check both the PC and my laptop for how it works. Then told me if I had troubles in the future what to do. He was very clear on how to set it up. Excellent communication and customer service. I am now up and running with my laptop and it's super speedy!!!=)
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Not as advertised, August 10, 2006
By GB 9 (CA)
The Wiflyer doesn't work with pocket PC as they desribed in the advertise, doesn't work with Net Zero, Juno or any of those Free internet access providers. The signal is so weak that it makes the surfing the net so slow. After the Wiflyer connected to the internet it could take forever to be able to go to the websites. I really regreted that I bought one.
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The WiFlyer is good, July 10, 2006
By Peter Hopkins (Texas)
The WiFlyer works very well, I am able to wirelessly use my dialup connection to the internet from anywhere in the house. I think its priced a little high but it's the only one of its kind that I have found.
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We can finally share our dial-up connection!, March 30, 2006
By Orionfarms (Linden, VA, USA)
We moved and had to switch from high speed internet to dial-up. The biggest drawback was the fact that only one of us could be online at a time, as our network devices did not allow for sharing of a dial-up connection. WiFlyer solved all of our problems! It only took a few minutes to set-up, and it works on all of our computers with any combination of connections. We usually have my laptop connected with a wireless network card, and my husband's desktop simultaneously connected with an ethernet cable. The WiFlyer connects to our dial-up service faster than a conventional modem, and the connection is of high enough quality that we can even both play low-bandwidth massively multiplayer online games together. What a terrific product!
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Nice, but won't work for everybody., March 14, 2006
By Jerry (Mystic, CT)
If you are going to buy the WiFlyer then you should know this:
"The following are the only known incompatible ISPs:
Compuserve
AT&T GlobalNet
Roadrunner dial-up
Walmart Connect"
This comes from the Always On web site, and could prevent a lot of confusion for customers. Always On has no way of making their product work with these ISPs and will normally not even respond to questions about them.
Never-the-less, it seems like a great product, if you have the right ISP. I had no problems communicating with it as soon as I plugged it in. But after several hours of tweaking, I found out it wouldn't work with my ISP. I wish I knew that before I ordered it!
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