D-Link Wireless Router - Unreliable

jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
edited June 2006 in Science & Tech
I have a really cheap dlink wireless router. I got it for about 40 bucks (after rebates) a couple months ago when I was tight on cash.

Almost since day 1 the router has given me issues. The signal isn't very strong. My parents laptops, which are across the house, are constantly dropping the signal and reconnecting. The other problem I am having is the router just seems to die maybe 1-2 times a day. The internet will just stop working (wired and wireless) although all lights are functioning on the front of the router. Most of the times I can't even get into the iweb interface to do anything, so I am stuck with just unplugging and replugging it. Then it will work fine for another half a day. Its getting to be a real pain in the ass when it is locking up multiple times during the day. I have checked for firmware updates etc and everything is up to day.

Is there anything last minute things I could check? If not I am going to take a sledge hammer to the thing and get myself a nice one.... any suggestions on a new one? :D

cheers :cheers:

Comments

  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited May 2006
    Welcome to the world of dlink.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    I have a really cheap dlink wireless router.

    Yeah I get customers all the time saying that "Your hotel is constantly dropping the signal" and I ask what kind of card they have and it'll usually be a d-link, man I hate D-Link.

    Linksys are the only ones I like... I like cisco aironets, but I am not fond of the software.

    Netgear sucks as well, I had one, my cousins had one, my cousins girlfriend had one... each had the same problem after about 6 months.... they would have to get powercycled on a daily basis, if not more becuase it'll drop the internet. It's crap.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    RWB, exactly.

    I had a netgear wireless router for about 8 months and it starting doing the same thing! I figured maybe it was just a dud (had to powercycle daily as well) so I bought a dlink, since at the time it was all I could afford. Now it has been doing the same thing almost since I got it.

    Well since it looks like dlink and netgear just sucks, or alteast the cheap models I get, what is a decent router that I won't have to powercyle or jack with all the time? You say Linksys but my friend has one and its been messing up too....

    grrr routers aren't what they use to be thats for sure
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited May 2006
    RWB wrote:
    Yeah I get customers all the time saying that "Your hotel is constantly dropping the signal" and I ask what kind of card they have and it'll usually be a d-link, man I hate D-Link.

    Linksys are the only ones I like... I like cisco aironets, but I am not fond of the software.

    Netgear sucks as well, I had one, my cousins had one, my cousins girlfriend had one... each had the same problem after about 6 months.... they would have to get powercycled on a daily basis, if not more becuase it'll drop the internet. It's crap.
    D-links B wifi cards are accuraly pretty decent most of them use the prisim chipsets.

    Also Netgears highend equipment is quite good.

    All of dlinks equipment has been crap in my experence.

    edit: Linksys is definatly my faverate routers right now if your goina get one the wrt54gl is one of there best.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Yeah I have the one that Thrax would recomend due to the QoS scheduling and cool mods you can do ;) It's been doing great for the past couple years now.
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited May 2006
    RWB wrote:
    Yeah I have the one that Thrax would recomend due to the QoS scheduling and cool mods you can do ;) It's been doing great for the past couple years now.
    Yup same here im on a older WRT54G rev 2.2 :).

    Im now running DD-WRT I was running hyperWRT for the longest time tho.

    What firmware do you use ?.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    No clue it's actually at my mom's house taking a beating by my brothers downloading.... they really don't wnna give it up. And I don't feel like driving for 4 hours to pick it up... right now I have a Belkin..... it sucks. But it works as long as we dont download like crazy. I think my cousin bought it becuase it looked cool... omg I wanted to kill someone when I saw him bring it home.... IT HAS THREE ANTENNA'S!:rant:
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Actually DLink makes some fine products. I have never had issues with most of their stuff. I have had a wireless network between 3 houses up for 18 months using 3-2100 AP's and a 624. Never missed a beat. I have recently switched it out to USR equipment since they do WPA in all modes. I still use a DGL-4300 and it stays up for months at a time. I also use 3 Dlink gigabit switches in my house and all are flawless.

    I feel that all Linksys stuff is crap cause I replace them almost every day and have had 3 different ones personally. I have also had netgear without issues, but they are finicky.

    I switched to USR because they have excellent stability, good security, good features, and the highest output power for user grade stuff (100mw). I have had over 40 units installed over the last 8 months and they have not generated one call to be fixed or reset.

    Now to try to help a bit on the original question.

    With Dlink you need know a couple of things. They don't like to reload settings from a file. They like to reboot themselves if you do. Usually you can fix them by doing a hard reset to factory defaults using the reset button held down for 15 seconds. Then load the latest firmware. After the load is complete and the reboot is done, do another hard reset. Now login and make all your changes to setup the router. Should at least stabilize the unit. One other thing. Never run the router with turbo enabled. Set it to Super G with no turbo. Now you can move channels to a clear one. I like channel 1 if it is clear. You get the least interference. Remember there are only 3 non overlapping channels in 2.4Ghz WiFi. 1, 6, and 11. You should always try to a get as far away as possible from any existing networks or go for 1 of the 3 primarys. If you see a Linksys unit on channel 6 running default turbo you will not be able to run on channel 1 because they take channel 1 for their second channel, but don't say anything about it.

    I hope some of this helps.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    I had nothing but trouble with Linksys APs, not only my own, but multiple clients' as well. I switched to a high end D-Link (the DI-624M) and have been 100% happy with it. It works great and since then I'm finally able to get good wireless reception on the top floor of my house.

    I agree their budget stuff is garbage, but their high end gear is decent.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Alright, well if I end up getting a new router what do you guys suggest?

    I'm willing to break the bank up to about $100 bucks or so. Can that get me anything decent that won't kill over in less than 3 or 4 months?

    I push a whole lot of traffic through this thing.. between the podcasts, IPTV, torrents, etc... so any suggestions you got.

    cheers :D
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Yeah, I have a D-Link router. I remember the firmware they released for it that made it crash every 5 minutes or less. Then the next firmware was corrupted...
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    looking to hit up newegg tonight, any last min. suggestions?
  • bikerboybikerboy PA
    edited May 2006
    i heard that sometimes a 2.4ghz cordless phone can mess with how it works. shouldnt drop the wireless connection though.

    bikerboy
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    If you want a good stable router that is fast and fairly cheap try one of these :

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833135113

    I put them in all over and they work like advertised and do all the right top of the line security stuff.

    They also have a high output power on the wireless.

    USR support does respond too !!
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Missileman wrote:
    If you want a good stable router that is fast and fairly cheap try one of these :

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833135113

    I put them in all over and they work like advertised and do all the right top of the line security stuff.

    They also have a high output power on the wireless.

    USR support does respond too !!

    Thanks man, just put in my order through the egg.

    No matter what it has to be better than this pos dlink!

    cheers :rockon:
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Just curious if you got your router and how it's working for you.

    Hopefully it's running half way decent
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Just came in yesterday! Been taking finals all week so I didn't get a chance to set it up yet. However, I took my last test today so tomorrow I'm going to take a sledgehammer to the dlink and setup the USR one.

    I'll let you know how it goes. Can't be any worse than the one I have now that is for sure. NEVER get a cheap dlink.. you get what you pay for if you are lucky
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    I don't mean to bump an old thread but I figured I would give an update.

    After 3-4 weeks with the U.S. Robotics USR5461 router, I would hands down recommend it to anyone. The wireless signal is stronger throughout my whole (2 story) house and I have never had to power-cycle/reboot it once.

    I would consider myself a pretty heavy user, I transfer 100+ gigs of traffic a month easily... so if it has been surviving that I think it is safe to say this router is solid.

    Missileman, thanks for the suggestion.

    I would recommend it to anyone who needs good router!

    cheers!
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    You're Welcome. they are an exceptional router for the money. Ther are times I wish they had a few more bells and whistles (QOS for one). I still run my D-Link 4300 as my router, but I have it tied to a USR 5451 which has a WDS link to a 5441 in repeater mode. It has 2 USR 5432 tied to it. System runs WPA2/AES all acrossed the board and it stays up for months without an issue. My lowest signal is 76% and it's at the far end of the block. I think the USR stuff is very underrated by the wireless community in general. They really are some decent gear for average configurations.

    Glad to hear it is running well for you and thanks for the performance report :)
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