Today D-Link of Irvine, CA announced the availability of the D-Link AirPro DWL-AB520, a PCI wireless network adapter for desktop computers that supports both the 802.11a 5GHz band and the 802.11b 2.5GHz frequency.
Like the other dual-band products on the market today, including the recently announced PC Cards from SMC Networks and Netgear, the AirPro DWL-AB520 uses the Atheros AR5001X chip set, a three chip set with a baseband/MAC processor and one radio frequency (RF) chip for each band.
The card has built in support for 802.1X authentication on a Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server and Advanced Encryption Security (AES) on top of the usual WEP protection.
The AirPro DWL-AB520 is expected to sell at retail for $159.99 (the MSRP is $189.99). It carries a 3-year warranty and 24 hour a day, 7 days a week free technical support.