For the last few months, I’ve had a D-Link DSP-W110 sitting in a drawer. I bought it when it was on sale, and have been meaning to compare it to the TP-Link HS100 smart plugs. Having put up our Christmas tree yesterday, I thought that now was the perfect time to pull it out of the drawer, set it up and tie it in to our “smart home” via the Amazon Echo.
The D-Link costs a bit more than the TP-Link, but I actually think its worth it. I wish I had gone that route instead. Don’t get me wrong, the 3 TP-Link devices we have have worked flawlessly, but the D-Link product is better in several ways.
There wasn’t a lot of information in the box, a GPL code statement and two small cards with QR codes, one in French and one in English, so not a whole lot of information. Luckily, setup was pretty simple and only took a few minutes, its all done from your phone or tablet. I did all the setup from my OnePlus 3. First think you’ll want to do is plug in the device. You should plug it in near where you’re going to be since your phone or tablet will be making a WiFi connection directly to the DSP-W110 to configure it.
Next, you’ll want to install the mydlink Home app. If you don’t have one already, you’ll need to create an account with D-Link. This is required to connect it to the Echo. After you’ve setup your account, they’ll send you a verification email. Verify your account before you start doing the setup. Once your account is verified, open up the app again and select “Add a new device”. On the adding device page, there is an option to scan the QR code from one of the cards. That made installation extremely fast since there was very little typing involved.
I did run into a spot where things slowed down and I thought that things might have stalled, so be patient when adding the device and going through the setup process. It will finish just as you think its not going to. They really should have put some sort of progress bar when doing the initial setup, it would have created a more positive experience.
Everything is setup and working on the D-Link app, you’ll need to connect it to the Echo. This is done through the Alexa app. Click on the menu in the upper left, and select Smart Home. Then you’ll need to add the mydlink Home skill and provide your D-Link account credentials that you used when first opening the D-Link app. After providing your login information, the Alexa app will offer to rescan your network for devices, select rescan and the newly installed DSP-W110 should be controllable via the Echo.
“Alexa turn on the Christmas tree” is now something I can say. Nice when there are presents surrounding the tree.
The specified gallery does not exist.
As I mentioned early on, I like the physical design of the D-Link DSP-W110 much better than the TP-Link. It is quite a bit thinner and doesn’t stick out from the wall nearly as much. It is also more square and looks better aesthetically to my eyes. The biggest advantage is the location of the plug. The D-Link has located the plug for the wall as close to the bottom of the unit as possible. This means that it won’t block the second outlet like the TP-Link does, which is a huge advantage of the D-Link and worth the extra $10-$15 price tag.
I’ve had it installed for a couple of days now, and I can recommend it with confidence. The setup was easy and it works with the Echo with minimal setup.
