D-Link Forums
The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Routers / COVR => DIR-655 => Topic started by: tsitalon1 on March 31, 2010, 01:22:12 PM
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Hey guys,
Im coming from an original wrt54g with DDwrt. I've had this router for ~5 years or so and I am looking to replace my router. I have read about all the firmware issues and I believe I also read about a way to downgrade the firmware.
Would you buy this router again? Do you reccommend this to others? Are you getting decent range/speed with your wireless clients?
Thanks!
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Plain and simple....NO!
This forum REALLY brings out the problems with the DIR-655.
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If you had asked me a few months ago I would have said yes. Despite the handful of issues I've had (Bittorrent, connections, feature nerfing, etc....) with this router. Even taking into account that my first two D-Links were total POS (constant dropped connections, etc...) I eventually landed on the DIR-655 and overall was pretty happy. But the feature nerfing, lack of a "customer voice" and issues with the newer firmware really have put me completely off D-Link. I currently have new routers from Asus and Linksys and by comparison (with my new critical eye) I'm much happier with them. So much so that I have stopped recommending D-Link to all my friends.
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I must say that I am quite disappointed but, I will hold my final decision until D-Link (if they ever do it!) releases a new Firmware without SecureSpot. :-\
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Never! Not this model, or any other D-Link!
Nnyan said it best--I used to be a D-Link fanatic, but since I updated my DIR-655 to 1.3X and have had nothing but resets, hijacked internet and completely unpredictable and unreliable behaviour from it.
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Great router so yes I would buy again.
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I think the problem is the dedication to make WORKING firmware updates, or lack thereof. As time has gone on, it's clear to me DLink has put less and less work (or maybe talent) into firmware updates for this router. I will say the router works WAY better for me with non-N cards than with N cards.
Would I buy again? Tough call, honestly.
I hear the excuse of "this is not a business class router" and that is true. However, I say if you implement a feature in firmware, it should work, PERIOD. If you can't get it to work right, then don't implement it.
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After recommending this router to several people I would like to say (not in Dlink's favor) I absolutely love this router. I have a version A2 router and have never had a problem. I am a 2nd level support person and it is imperative that I am able to work from home after hours etc. Never had an issue with this router running 1.32NA firmware. I have paired it with a DPR1260 print server that has yet to fail me touching wood.. ;D
I have seen lots of people complaining about this print server. I installed a A4 version last Saturday at my brother-in-laws house in his basement. Everywhere I went on the upper level we got an "EXCELLENT" signal.
Quite often it is human nature (especially men) to read the documentation if all else fails.
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Given that there appears to be no way to adequately log in-bound or out-bound connections, I would not buy another one. Too bad, because it meets all my other requirements.
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Thanks for the reply fellas, the replies seem somewhat varied, I think most dislike it but a few love it...hmm..
What is this A2 vs A4 I'm reading? Is this a hardware version number or something? If so which ones are having the issues?
Also it seems like securespot is the major issue, is this correct?
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Hi,
I would buy MY router again. Would not buy what others have apparently gotten. I am very happy with MY DIR and it has performed quite well in the time I have owned it.
SD1
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I've been pretty happy with my DIR 655 A2 (hardware version). I am running the 1.11 firmware. I have tried to upgrade to the 1.2x firmware a long time ago when it was beta. Since then I've been pretty leery of trying to upgrade. This was especially true when it was announced that there was no way to fall back.
I also telecommute so having a working router was critical. So once it got it working I'm reluctant to try to upgrade as its working pretty well now. Now that there is a way to fall back from 1.3x, perhaps I'll try this at some point in time.
So if this router died, I suspect that I would look around before deciding on what to replace it with.
Chuck H.
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At this moment? Probably no, there are already better routers on market.
2 years ago? Yes. The only problems i got was when i've installed 1.3x NA firmware. Since i am in Europe, i act at my own chance. At this moment i got back to EU firmware (1.3x), and the router is rock stable again.
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At this moment? Probably no, there are already better routers on market.
2 years ago? Yes. The only problems i got was when i've installed 1.3x NA firmware. Since i am in Europe, i act at my own chance. At this moment i got back to EU firmware (1.3x), and the router is rock stable again.
Really, name a router with external antenna's that has better range/speed than this? I am not defending, just find it hard to find a router with as much range as my wrt54g with ddwrt installed.
I know all the LINKSYS internal antenna units SUCK A$$....
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Well DD-WRT does not support the DIR-655 but I've been doing some research and the EnGenius 9850 seems pretty rocking for the price (just ordered one myself from J&R). No DD-WRT but I'm going to see about starting a fund to get a donated unit to them.
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Never heard of that one before....I am not sure I trust it...
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No never again, in fact I go out of my way to recommend to any body that asks me to avoid D-Link products like the plague. >:(
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This is sorta the question I'm struggling with now. I just bought a 655 yesterday, and after reading this forum, I'm not sure if I should open it, or if I should return it and get the Asus RT-N16 or a similar gigabit/N router.
My 655 is the A4 version with the 1.21 firmware pre-installed.
I think I understand that there is a downgrade path if I try the 1.33 firmware, that Securespot can be disabled now (if you register for the service as a trial), and that most people don't experience dropped connections or slowdowns. Is that accurate?
Return or open?
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We immediately noticed improved web browsing speeds, and slightly-increased streaming speeds, even just using G devices. So, I think it was a good move. I also like the expanded options (over what I had with my old Linksys) although I can't say that I use all that many of the options.
In retrospect, I think I could have stuck with the Linksys, but we pretty quickly decided that the improved speeds were worth keeping the D-link.
The only negative I can find is that the Shareport (USB) connection sometimes becomes inaccessible and I have to reboot the router to access it.
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After recommending this router to several people I would like to say (not in Dlink's favor) I absolutely love this router...
Yes, I would buy this router again, despite the glitches that the current firmware exhibits. Compared to the lack of quality exhibited by many other brands D-Link does a good job.
We as consumers must however, play a much larger role in what is tolerated on the market. Far too frequently substandard products are tolerated by people. It is a D-Link's credit that they answer their e-mails and inquiries promptly. Having said that does not put them on a pedestal, customers still need to do their research and call businesses to task when necessary. So that quality remains paramount.
The signal strength on this router is indeed the best I have have experienced.
Patrick
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Definitely not.
1.If you have few budget, just buy a TP-link TL-WR1043ND with DDWRT @ US$59. The same Atheros WIFI chipset and Giga Ethernet switch chipset as DIR-655.
2.If you have a lot of budget, buy a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH, WHR-HP-G300N or WHR-HP-GN.
Buffalo herself authorizes DDWRT to write firmware for official use and releases source code(Ralink/Atheros NPU) to them. We can see that Buffalo is active but Dlink and Ubicom is conservative which is leading to the death of commpanies and do not give customers/ end users what they want.
Wed, 03/10/2010 - 14:05 — admin
BUFFALO has decided to use DD-WRT as the factory default for its HighPower Routers WZR-HP-G300NH, WHR-HP-G300N and WHR-HP-GN distributed in the US and the EU and should be available in june 2010. The firmware is a full featured DD-WRT with a BUFFALO branded interface and contains some BUFFALO specific features.
Right now the normal DD-WRT firmware binaries for the devices are available through the router database. In contrast to other BUFFALO firmwares these binaries can be flashed via webflash making the process much easier.
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Hi,
Does the use of DD-WRT imfer that it is more stable than some other factory developed firmware ?? Or just that it is more end-uder influenced as far as functionality is concerned ?
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I too will state that every since the decision to block the firmware "downgrades" with the newer firmwares and the SecureSpot "hijacking", No to recommend a D-Link router.
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Likely NO! I may have bought my last D-Link product, after countless firmware issues with DNS-323 and DIR-655, it's time to switch diferent brands. The best working firmware they have (1.21) its quite old and even with some bugs still the best, that must say something about the support team. Its too bad, hardware wise the products are decent. One would expect for a product to be in the market this long would by now be as close to perfect as possible, seem to go from bad to worst.
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I am never going to buy d-link anything ever again. I spent 5 hours try to find out why i am getting a bescure on all my computers, first i thought it was a program that was installed on one of computers. then thought it could be att dsl. but when i plug my notebook into the modem the problem went away.
i am buying new router now and it wont be a d-link
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I have always been a dlink fan, but I am starting to not be. This router will not keep port forward/virtual server settings. Drops connection to often. I am looking at 825, but it seems to have problems too. I will probably by one just to see if it will be stable.
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That's simple.... NO ..... any more questions ;D
There are simply too many options on the market today to take the cr*p that D-Link has been sitting on for so long.
Beside the many listed on these forums .... I have been impacted by the Securelink/Bsecure issue.
I have also been using NetGear, LinkSys and Cisco home routers/APs, etc for many years and never had the issues, or the attitude from their support and PR(?) folks.
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Nope.
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I'm beginning to feel that this should have been set up as a poll: easier for potential
victims buyers to find out what they need to know before they purchase.
...or, how many potential customers have you personally advised to avoid De-link like the plague?
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Absolutely not.
Even though the DIR-655 has been reasonably good to me over the past year (I never did a trial of Securespot, which seems to have saved me a lot of trouble) I have been plagued with the router constantly/randomly restarting itself for no apparent reason. For the $130 i spent on this router over a year ago, I am still envious of my old DI-524 which may have been slow but never restarted on me.
I must have spent over 100 hours in the past year tweaking minor settings on this router to 'reduce' the number of restarts it does. It's averaging about 1 restart every 3 or 4 days now. Very annoying when it does it in the middle of a file transfer or MSN chat...
I like the route Buffalo has taken with supporting DD-WRT. I think i will look in their direction next time I have the money to buy a new router.
jB
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Nope, will never buy dlink again either at this point.
Just starting using irc again and I can not get ident working no matter what I do.
Damn port 113 will not open.. Tried virtual server, port forwarding, and application rule. Nothing works.
In fact it seems I cant open any damns ports now with 1.33NA Firmware.
Seems the old 1.10 Firmware worked fine but I had upgraded to fix the security problems. :(
But dang it, 1.10 breaks my xboxes, only 1 allowed at a time with 1.10 so back to 1.33na.
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hell no, dlink lacks software support such as firmwares,
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In fact it seems I cant open any damns ports now with 1.33NA Firmware...
Have you tried the Enable SecureSpot->reboot->configure ports->reboot->disable SecureSpot->reboot boogie?
It's the only way that I have found to configure my port forwarding.
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Yeah tried that, no difference.. :(
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There is no way in hell I would buy another D-Link anything. I completely disappointed by this router ( and I've had two of them )
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Well I've used DLink for years and just got this router, so giving it a shot.
Off topic, how do you know if you're port forwarding isn't working? Would it be listed in the logs?
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If port forwarding is working then your port should be open when you run a port scanner on it such as:
http://www.canyouseeme.org/
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If port forwarding is working then your port should be open when you run a port scanner on it such as:
http://www.canyouseeme.org/
Thanks, seems my ports AREN'T open. Even when DMZ'ed. Any idea what's going on?
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I am not very happy with my DIR655 purchase. This was my first Dlink purchase because another forum recommended this router, I gave it a try, it's alright.
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Update from my original post on 03/31/2010. After trying to flash my DIr-655 A1 routers firmware to 1.33NA from 1.32NA I had major problems. So I reverted back to the 1.32NA version. Well all was well until I tried to name my wireless network and I kept getting the error message "Cannot use a multicast MAC address in WDS". Trust me it wouldn't budge from that message everytime I tried to save a configuration in wireless settings. I did the 30-30-30 and reflashed it with 1.32NA. Still the same issue. Obviously 1.33NA trashed it originally somehow. So in all my wisdom I decided to flash it with the downgrade path (Russian then Europe firmware) to a lower level of firmware. Well I can tell you ALL without any doubt I do not think that downgrade patch was written for A1 version routers. My router became instantly bricked as I was doing the Russian firmware flash. When it was finished all I had on the router was a power LED and no other lights at all. Now comes the good part?? I contacted DLink tech support. After speaking to a Level 1 & Level 2 techs they passed me to a product specialist. They all agreed more than likely the attempt to flash the firmware ver 1.33NA caused the problem with "Multicast MAC issues". At this point the product specialist offered to replace the unit providing I had my proof of purchase. Unfortunately for me I couldn't find it but I know that the router was at least or close to 3 years old.
My point is and NO DLink is not paying me to say this but after my experience on the phone with them I can honestly say they tried to help me and were willing to replace the unit for me providing I had the proof of purchase. So I went out today and bought a new DIR-655 A4 hardware version and flashed it to 1.33NA with absolutely no issues. Hey I had not had any problems with my original one until I bricked it with the Russian firmware. Just thought I'd share my experiences with you guys.
Guess I jinxed myself on 03/31/2010 ::)
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I own two DLinks: DGL-4300 and DIR-655. Reason why I got it is because I use bittorrent heavily.
My first router, DGL-4300, performed rather well, it replace my Buffalo Airstation G54. The G54 just could not handle bittorrent well, requiring frequent reboots. After doing a bit of research, I took the chance with the DGL-4300, and was very happy. Still using it to this day, though not as heavily.
The DIR-655 I bought about 2 years ago, again for bittorrent purposes... and so far so good.
Both routers on 24x7. It's not completely flawless, but I just can't find a better router with reviews backing it up.
I have yet to find a prosumer router that can handle bittorrent well, if anyone knows one... please post.
Would I buy another... yes.. even recommended my sister to buy Dlink when her Linksys died on her.
No.. I don't work for Dlink.
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Personally, I've never had any noticable issues with the 655. I'm sure I'd know if I had any like the disconnections and restarts that some users talk about. i can honestly say that this has never happened to me. I have 3 laptops connected by wireless and 1 Xbox 360 wired. I think the only visible issues I've ever had is that browsing the internet can be slower some days than others, but I always assumed that might be because of the time of day?
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I have quite a bit of D-Link equipment in use. Used to have some Linksys stuff, but some of it just died/bricked owing to old age. Still happy with D-Link, so yes, will buy again, despite all the negatives in these fora...
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Knowing what I know now about D-Link support in general and the DIR-655 specifically, there is no way I would buy a new one.
Their newer firmware revisions really leave much to be desired. They stopped testing them and just started unleashing them to the public and calling them "beta".
I have had to go through the D-Link RMA process twice now in the last year. Once for a DIR-655 and once for a gigabit switch. The RMA process is not fun and involves much phone time with India tech support, they will not issue you an RMA via email no matter how hard you beg.
I think next time I will buy the least expensive router that supports DD-WRT or Tomato and go that route.
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Except the issue with securespot I've been very satisfied with my 655. I also bought and installed one at my sisters place. They've worken flawlessly. So far the 1.33 firmware has done its job very well. On the other hand, I've no special configuration needs so I've used them more or less as they came out of the box. But yes, I would buy another one.
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In short, the hardware seems pretty good, the features are great. But I need reliability in firmware. I agree -- I'd rather have something stable with only 4-5 features. But instead, Dlink seems to have tons of features with bugs all over the place. I think because features sell in the store.
Yes, turn off a lot of them, and the thing gets more reliable. But, why not just get something you know works instead?
No, no more DLink for me anytime soon.
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I've got a DIR-655 with A1/A2 on 1.22.
It gives me problems if I let it go for more than 3 days without doing a reboot
on my wireless (Win XP SP3 laptop) but my iMac 17" does fine. My MacBook does fine also.
I don't want to upgrade the 1.22 because there have been too many problems from post about anything about 1.21/1.22
So yes, if it was like when I got this router 1.10-1.22 range
but no, if it was anything after that. I have had it for more than 2 years.
I am looking for a router that can give me steady 300Mbps and also 2.4/5Mghz at same time.
I look around and around online but nothing comes better in reviews than a 655.
Some of us don't want secure spot and USB connections to external things. Get a separate piece of equipment for that.
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I've installed about 30 of them and only one has failed. That was at a site where there was a power surge that also blew out the cable modem and the UPS. they've all been either at homes with minimal requirements or at businesses with Windows servers, with the latter needing about six or so ports forwarded and DHCP turned off. As far as I know, no gaming, bittorrent or uPNP. It's obviously a consumer product and it lacks tons of useful features, etc but it seems better than anything you can pick up immediately at a big box or office supply store. If anyone has a better idea, please let me know.