dslreports logo
 story category
Adventures With D-link
Firmware woes go on...and on...
It isn't that having your router reboot every time your phone rings isn't a neat party-trick, but some of our users are getting fed up with D-link. Their DI-624 wireless router has been nothing but a nightmare for many users, who thought they'd see improvements last week with the release of the v2.41 firmware. As discussion in our D-link forum indicates, a few have seen their problems disappear with this latest release, but a good many users are still facing bizarre glitches, connectivity issues, and other assorted problems.
view:
topics flat nest 

insomx
Premium Member
join:2003-01-26
Canada

2 edits

insomx

Premium Member

Funny

I don't have problems with mine :S

You'd think D-Link would test it though before they realeased it. I have had it knock off for once a bit but it wasn't anything I cared about. Other thent this one bad router, Dlink is a good company.

who is that
Hat Trickery
Premium Member
join:2002-09-29
Brooklyn, NY

who is that

Premium Member

Re: Funny

last post!

ool user
@nychhc.org

ool user

Anon

ool works good with ool

I have never expericenced a problem with mine either and I have ool in brooklyn, ny

midryder
@sbc.com

midryder

Anon

Well I'll be, the 614+ firmware works (3.35)

Have a DLink 614+, had to back down firmware upgrades twice (3.20)would reboot itself during an upload. the 3.28 was a disaster!, it would just sit like a lump and reboot every 30-80 seconds, could not surf that way. Back to 3.20. They came up with the 3.35 firmware, everything changed to working like it should, can upload without a reboot happening. Finally! Only took about 7 months.

NGuru
@suscom.net

NGuru

Anon

D-Link still in business why?

"D-Link is still a good company". Hardly. I've gone through.. what has to be 20 D-Link wifi products at the office where I work, every single one is a piece of garbage. I sent them all back, and got Linksys, which has all worked without issue.
X_Zeratul_X
join:2003-07-28
San Jose, CA

X_Zeratul_X

Member

Re: D-Link still in business why?

My friend bought the di-624 and told me on the phone. I started laughing at him and he got all mad. "The guy at bestbuy told its faster it even says 108 on the box and the linksys said only 54!"

After 10 hours of trying to get it to work I just simply told him to return it and we went back to bestbuy and bought the 'slower' linksys g router. Everything in his house worked fine after that hehe

b_zen
Premium Member
join:2002-07-24
Saint Louis, MO

b_zen to NGuru

Premium Member

to NGuru
E.X.A.C.T.L.Y the same situation happened here... Most of them we couldn't send back, but got Linksys instead, and it all works like a charm...
scsmith77
join:2003-08-10
Garden Grove, CA

scsmith77 to NGuru

Member

to NGuru
You state D-Link is junk and Stinksys is better. It is apparent that you still lack the knowledge of quality security firewall products.

1. Sonic Wall

2. Symantec Security Appliance VPN 100-200 or 200R

Yes they cost more, however besides a PIX box you can;t beat these products for reliability.

midryder
@sbc.com

midryder to midryder

Anon

to midryder

Re: Well I'll be, the 614+ B firmware works (3.35)

Clarification, Thats a DI-614+ Rev "B" 3.35

AlbertQMoy
Premium Member
join:2001-12-23
Bayside, NY

AlbertQMoy to midryder

Premium Member

to midryder

Re: Well I'll be, the 614+ firmware works (3.35)

Hmmm well mine doesn't work... 3.35? Hmmm, maybe I'll try that (but the last time I checked, I had the latest firmware) It definitely sucks, if that doesn't work, time to get a new wireless router.
AlbertQMoy

AlbertQMoy

Premium Member

Re: Well I'll be, the 614+ firmware works (3.35)

Scratch that, opting for "G"

Tomek
Premium Member
join:2002-01-30
Valley Stream, NY

Tomek

Premium Member

DLINK != quality

I invested in their products, because they looked nice and had a nice set of features, plus the price was fair. Now I regret my choice. My router (DI-704P) would stop responding with no configuration access, so I had to reset it. Router manages my LAN, so when I'm away, I cannot watch it all the time in case of something going wrong. Also, the most useful tools actually don't work. My AP works fine so far, but I can't have TURBO and there are some WPA problems. I don't know what to blame, card or AP (both DLINK). When it comes to firmware, there is always something wrong with it.
p51d007
Naa-P51d Mustang
join:2002-06-07
Springfield, MO

p51d007

Member

guess I've been lucky

I've got the older 614+(dual antenna). I haven't had
any issues with it. I've got the 2.20 firmware, and it's
been hummin' along without any problems. I don't need
108meg speed, not that you would ever see anything close to
that

yoonix
Floating Taco Of Doom
Premium Member
join:2001-03-27
Teaneck, NJ

yoonix

Premium Member

Re: guess I've been lucky

I use a Rev. A 614+ as well, and I noticed that I consistently get packet loss when I use it as a NAT router. It's very annoying when I try downloading large files, since it tends to corrupt the whole download.
veh
join:2003-04-05
San Francisco, CA

veh to p51d007

Member

to p51d007
So far, I am lucky too with my 614+.

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

koitsu

MVM

Ex-D-Link user.

I can talk for days about D-Link products, and just how absolutely unreliable they are on a firmware level. But I've had mirrored experiences with 3Com and Netgear as well.

These companies either repackage third-party routers (Netgear = Zyxel, D-Link = Some Chinese vendor who also sells their units to Trendware), and sell them under their own brand name with a couple firmware tweaks -- 3Com actually makes their own. There is absolutely NO QA for these things; they may work for the average college dorm room idiot, but when it comes to actual stability and needing features that make NAT useful, they fail miserably.

D-Link in particular has wonderful flaws in "their" IP stack too, causing the unit to reboot on certain types-of malformed IP packets. This is something no one should put up with. Hardware-wise, D-Link's home routers are pretty decent, but as has been proven time and time again, everything boils down to the software driving the hardware.

After going through 6 different router brands and models, I finally ended up saying "screw it" and going with the Linksys WRT54G -- which, for the record, runs embedded Linux. I've been absolutely thrilled with this unit, as it has yet to fail me in any way shape or form. It's reliable as hell, stable, and has more features than I can count. The source-code was also released to the public by Linksys/Broadcom, and there's a project called wifi-box which has taken up making unofficial firmwares which are absolutely fantastic. I've donated money to the project, and also plan on dedicating some of my time to fixing up a lot of the nasty HTML in the UI so that it renders quicker and more reliably in non-IE browsers.

My condolances to all the D-Link DI-614+ and DI-624 users. I know exactly what you're going through, and my only recommendation is to buy something else (see above) and sell the D-Link unit you have on eBay.
SoCal99
join:2004-01-22

SoCal99

Member

No Party Trick

Having the router reboot every time the phone rings is a REAL PAIN IN THE ASS! I've seen 4 fw versions since I first purchased it and none have addressed the issue! And when the router reboots it reboots every 6-7 seconds until you hang up the phone. The problem is, that it not only effects the wireless connection but you lose all the wired connections while in the reboot cycle from hell.

I'm not sure what's worse, Dlink's refusal to address and fix the problem, or the idiots that feel the need to defend Dlink and call the phone reboot issue "normal behavior". Ok its Dlink refusal to fix the problem!!!

ChangeYourChannelID
@kilng01.ct.comcast.n

ChangeYourChannelID

Anon

Re: No Party Trick

Um... just out of curiosity, have any of you people who are having the "random resets" when your phones ring (I'm assuming you mean cordless, 2.4 GHz phones) try switching the channel ID that your router is operating on? Default is usually 6... try something like 4. Maybe your cordless phones are running on the same channel ID and interfering with it.
Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL

Zoder

Member

Re: No Party Trick

The thing with that is people are reporting the problem with the phones only occurs when Super G enabled. Super G uses channel bonding so you can't change the channel from 6. Now you could just get around the problem by turning Super G off, but ironically, that's one of the major selling points of the DI-624. Otherwise, you could have bought the 524 which doesn't include Super G.

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

koitsu to ChangeYourChannelID

MVM

to ChangeYourChannelID
I think the whole "rebooting when the cordless phone rings" thing is a shennanigan. I have a 2.4GHz phone which I used constantly while online with the DI-614+ and the DI-624.

However, much to the defence of those who DO have the reboot problem when 2.4GHz phones are in use -- I disable the wireless interface of all of my routers, simply because I have no need for it.

But, with that fact in mind, the D-Link units continued to reboot, especially when handling DHCP/BOOTP-related packets, particularly over the LAN (i.e. Static DHCP).

People need to realise that D-Link isn't even making these products, none the less the firmwares. They're subbing all of this out to the actual manufacturer of these units, who is located in China. Trendware is another company which buys the same units from the aforementioned Chinese company, except that Trendware's firmwares *WORK*. I find this very disturbing...

atuarre
Here come the drums
Premium Member
join:2004-02-14
EC/SETX SWLA

1 edit

atuarre to ChangeYourChannelID

Premium Member

to ChangeYourChannelID
I've had linksys wireless routers cut out (not reboot) on me while using a 2.4ghz cordless phone, but that was only under 802.11B. As soon as you hung up the phone, connectivity was restored. I have recently hard wired that PC to the network because I got tired of being disconnected and did not want to pay money for the Wireless G routers that were coming out (they had just come out).
dbamber
join:2003-02-07
Bandon, OR

dbamber

Member

D-link????

Have had the 614# for 15 months now. Have had an xp box, and an Apple G5 hooked up with ethernet cable, and a P3 600, and Apple ibook running on wireless with no problems hooked into my Motorola surfboard cable modem. Could a lot of these problems be caused by either the phone or cable companies? BTW, have just got our fourth bill for Vonage without problems there too. Again, could a lot of these problems be the fault of the cable/phone company?

Abbey Normal
@nrockv01.md.comcast.

Abbey Normal

Anon

Is my D-Link the only one that works???

I have a 614+ revision A - it has been very reliable. I use it with DLink client cards for the 22 MBPS speed. I have 5 PC's using it (2 wireless).

I have a friend at work who has a 624 - he has no problem at all.
richard92683
join:2001-02-09
Santa Ana, CA

richard92683

Member

Re: Is my D-Link the only one that works???

How come I have 624 and it works very good compare to the old Linksys didn't even get the max speed for my new Expert Plus package
kingofdsl
join:2002-12-11
Indianapolis, IN

kingofdsl

Member

Re: Is my D-Link the only one that works???

said by richard92683:
How come I have 624 and it works very good compare to the old Linksys didn't even get the max speed for my new Expert Plus package

No I'm baffled by all this. I have two different locations running 624's in Super G mode with no problems whatsoever with 2.4 Ghz phones working right on top of them.

I would have to see these failures to believe it.
rogertipps
Hello My Name Is
join:2003-01-24
00001

rogertipps

Member

Re: Is my D-Link the only one that works???

said by kingofdsl:
I would have to see these failures to believe it.
I would have to agree with this statement.

There must be some kind of hogwash going on here, because I've had my 624 for about a year and a half now with minor problems here and there, but nothing a new firmware didn't fix. I've never had my 624 reboot due to my 2.4Ghz phone.

I've also installed the 624 with Super G enabled at about 5 other locations, home and business, with zero complaints or reboots due to 2.4Ghz phones.

Also wouldn't the power output of a wireless router overpower a dinky cordless phone? Doesn't anyone have the measurements of this? ... The DI-624 Product specs says "output power = 15dBm ± 2dB" anybody look in the manual for their phone or the back of their phone to see the output power?

I'd like to see the actual comparison

mbuechler
join:2000-04-18
Cincinnati, OH

mbuechler

Member

Re: Is my D-Link the only one that works???

There were significant issues with earlier firmware releases for the DI-624 apparently. I just purchased the DI-624 for my home network after all kinds of issues with a couple different routers and this one is totally rock solid and stable. Working from home, my remote connectivity needs to be up 24/7 and this router is doing just that with the 2.42 version firmware. Easy setup, excellent performance and 100% uptime so far. I'll keep you posted if I run into any issues.
veh
join:2003-04-05
San Francisco, CA

veh to Abbey Normal

Member

to Abbey Normal
My 614+ Rev A is OK too.
w2co
join:2003-07-16
Longmont, CO

w2co

Member

Adventures with D-link

No problems with the DI-764 here, yet. I run it via 802.11a only within the house and it works just fine. Have not done anything with 802.11b as my wireeless X10 camera system will trash that. So I stick with 802.11a band only. The average connection speed is around 48Mb/s, turbo off/ 64bit WEP enabled/ sig strength is around 80% through two walls. Also the hard wired LAN connections work good too.

jes35
@adelphia.net

jes35

Anon

router problems DI-514

Having a lot of problems with my router,,it is a DI-514,,constantly be kicked off..anyone else have this
Mwarhead
join:2004-05-03

Mwarhead

Member

Re: router problems DI-514

Are you using Intel Centrion in a laptop? If so under the intel proset configuration utility set the power to manaul and best performance. Fixed all my disconnect problems.

Hou-JRA
@sprintbbd.net

Hou-JRA

Anon

Mine finally works, but problems are very REAL

Bottom line for those in a hurry: I will never recommend the DI-624 for non advanced users. Go for another brand such as Linksys and stay away from features such as 108 mb which are still very "early." For those advanced users, plan on spending hours getting it to work, and on returning at least one or two of them before you get one that works. If you are lucky, you will get it to work, and your efforts will be repaid with nice performance and good features.

= = =

I have had my DI-624 for a couple of months already. It took a lot of work and resets (hard pin hole resets) to make it work. The firmware upgrades are unreliable and the guys on technical support are not very knowledgeable (I have to admin that they do have some gems though who are experts and also realize quickly when the caller is an expert and quickly switch away from basic stuff into advanced troubleshooting).

My opinion is that D-Link is trying to sell a lot of these things without proper testing. You do get advanced performance and nice features, but have to be willing to put up the hours.

A friend of mine convinced me to give the 624 a try. His works like a charm, mine works too finally. They do have better range and speed, but expect to spend hours on it and maybe a couple of trips back to the store to return.

I am right now trying to connect the DWL-G810 bridge. It simply does not work. I have been on it for 6 hours already trying all combinations of filtering, encryption, ssid broadcasting, etc. with no luck. This one I am probably going to RMA. It's a shame, good idea, bad product.

famepot
@12.104.x.x

famepot

Anon

Solid as a rock - with original firmware

My 614+ works great. I've tried updating the firmwire though and when I installed 3.28 my router would reboot every minute or so. Went back to 3.20, and no problems. D-Link sent me an email saying there were known problems with the 614+ and the 3.28 firmware, so when 3.35 came out, I loaded it, and my router started rebooting every 60 seconds or so. Went back to 3.20 and everthing is fine.

Tech Support couldn't help me, and said they were going to try to duplicate the problem in their lab. They must be pretty busy in there, cause I have heard from them.

kidz
@dsl.emhril.ameritech

kidz

Anon

DI-624

I'm reading all of these forums, and i have a DI-624. I use WAN, and it still disconnects me. Called tech support, and they told me to change a few things, like switching to 10Mbps, and changing MTU to 1452, disabling Norton's firewall, going back to 2.28 and updating to 2.42 again, but the problem still persists. So I don't know what else to do when i get disconnected 4 times in an hour. I use SBC, and i've noticed server problems, but this doesn't really help either. So honestly, i dont know what else to do, but trash it, and don't know what else to use. So give me some recommendations on what to do.