Both of the products came in almost identical boxes (with different artwork, of course). Inside, they both included a Quick Install Guide, a User's Manual, a driver CD and the products themselves. The DWL-120 (USB version) also included the necessary USB cable.

The User's Manual for both products were well-written. It provides the user with extensive information about setting up a wireless network as a whole and has some useful troubleshooting sections at the back. Also in the User's Manuals is a useful section on "Networking Basics" that takes a novice user through the process of setting up network settings in Windows, such as using static IP addresses and troubleshooting with Ping, that I can see to be very helpful for those who are new to networking. Unfortunately, though, the only instructions on how to install the products were not included in the manual, but in the Quick Install Guides. These things take you step-by-step as to how to install each of the wireless network adapters and were quite easy to follow for me. There were, however, some problems with wording, such as "restart the computer" where "start up the computer" was more appropriate, that could mess with some users.

The DWL-500 package included a PCMCIA to PCI adapter and a DWL-650 PCMCIA wireless network adapter that the user can just plug into the PCI adapter. I haven't worked with PC cards in the past before, so I was quite surprised to see how small the DWL-650 appeared to be. At about half the size of a 3.5" floppy disk and only twice as thick as a floppy disk, this thing is small!

The black antenna sticks out of the PC card and a Link LED on that completes the package.

The DWL-120 was slightly bigger than the DWL-650 in the length and width departments, but was a couple times thicker. With a light grey color, the DWL-120 is actually quite attractive with its many curves and would fit nicely on a desk or on top of the user's beige box. Two LED's, Link and Power, are on top of the DWL-120 and a flip up antenna is on one of its sides.

The USB cable is about a meter in length and should be long enough for most people and maybe a little too long for laptop users.

On to: Powering Up...