D-Link Forums
The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Routers / COVR => DIR-655 => Topic started by: FragMaster B on December 13, 2011, 07:04:40 AM
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I have two DIR-655s. One is my main router, connected to my modem. The other, on the other side of the house, is set up as an access point. I followed this guide to set up my AP: http://blogs.oracle.com/simonthorpe/entry/configuring_a_dlink_dir_655_as
Both are are hard wired. I have both of them using the same SSID. Both are 802.11g only, have the same security mode, and key. The only wireless difference is the channel. One uses 6, while the other uses 11.
On initial setup, everything is fine, but after a few hours, the AP just seems to stop broadcasting a signal. I'm using "Wifi Analyzer" on Android to monitor it. When I look at the AP, the wifi indicator light is still on. If I log into it, change the channel, and press save on the "Wireless Settings" screen, it will broadcast for a few more hours before stopping again. The wired connect of this AP always seems to work (Xbox is hard wired to it).
Any ideas?
AP Hardware Version: B1 / Firmware Version: 2.03NA
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Any cordless house phones?
Any other WiFi routers in the area? Use InSSIDer (http://www.metageek.net/) to find out.
Turn off Short GI and Extra Wireless Protection if you have it. Under Advanced/Advanced Wireless.
Might try channels 1 and 11.
Make sure you turn off ALL features like filtering, ALL QoS, WISH, SPI, protected WiFi, basically everything on the AP. Those services are handled by the 1st router and not needed by the AP.
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=40856.0 (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=40856.0)
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Thanks a bunch FurryNutz. I'll give those things a try, and look through your guide. Will report back if it drops again.
Do have cordless phones, and there are several wireless signals from neighbors. I count about 6.
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Could be some interferences from one of those 6 neighbors. Check to see the channels they are using and adjust accordingly.
Keep us posted.
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Still dropping. I have tried several different channels, to no avail.
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Any chance you can swap routers and see if the problem stops?
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Great idea. I am going to try that, but it is a little bit of a pain to do, so I'm going to try a few other things first. Will report back results.
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Save off the configuration files for each router. That way all you need to to is load the others configuration file and then swap the device out. Keep us posted.
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Frag -
I've observed this identical behavior at our offices. We use DIR-655s in each of two offices for visitor Internet (segregated from our office, internal LAN). Both are running 2.00NA and are revision B1. You are running 2.03NA, so obviously this issue was not fixed in the firmware.
One was setup as a router, the other as an AP. The DIR-655 configured as a traditional router always works and hasn't been rebooted in months. The DIR-655 configured as an AP in the other office would stop broadcasting wireless every 24 hours or so, just like you. Reboot would fix it, albeit temporarily.
I took a look at the guide you provided... and had a thought in regards to the AP configuration:
Did you enter the static IP information in the WAN section (even though you are not using it)? Obviously there's something about the router not acting as a router that's causing this issue. Also, have you disabled uPNP? Others have said that's a potential fix.
Please let me know if these suggestions work for you... I just sent two of these preconfigured to a friend for a Christmas present in AP mode, and I didn't enter any WAN information into them, but did disable uPNP. I'll post back if he has issues.
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Thanks for chiming in on this waldrondigital.
I do have upnp disabled, and I also do have a static IP info entered in the internet section.
I've been doing a little testing, and have gotten the AP to stay up for more than 24 hours (and it is still up as of now). In the past, it would go down several times per day. The only change I made, was to give it a unique SSID. In the past, I had both AP and router using the same SSID. Changing the AP to a different SSID than the router seems to have kept it up.
I am going to change it back to the same SID as the router now, and see what happens. My guess is that the signal will vanish before lunch. Will come back with results.
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That's odd. In our case the two offices are 20 miles apart and the office with the DIR-655 configured as an AP was flaky as hell. Since I've put it in router mode, it's been a-ok.
Keep me posted on your progress Frag.
-Mike
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Frag, you should be able to use the same SSID on each device, you just need to set the channel scan to manual and set each device to a different channel, say 1 and 6 or 1 and 11. Should work ok. Keep us posted. Glad your getting somewhere with the AP.
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The signal on the AP just dropped.
Here is something interesting. This may just be a coincidence. I am using Wifi Analyzer on an Android phone, to monitor the signals: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&hl=en (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&hl=en)
I looked at the chart (like the example screen below) just after the signal dropped, and noticed that the signal strengths of both the router and the AP synced up for a couple seconds immediately before the AP signal dropped to zero.
(https://lh6.ggpht.com/1B_Bt8rK7PofBzC6w9vMTQaiWSiD73BwbolqLUNrmudVKW12xteWfeIsdW0llcBBcUA)
For my next test, I'm going to disable the wireless signal on the router and only leave it on in the AP. I'll report back on if AP goes down again or not under this test.
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Interesting results man...keep us posted.
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My theory that the wireless signals we cancelling each other out just went out the window. With the wireless on the router turned off, my wireless signal on my AP just vanished.
It might be time to try switching the physical hardware, and seeing what happens.
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Which radio did you turn off the host router or the AP? If you turned off the host routers radio, the AP router should still broadcast correctly. Or did you turn of the AP radio? Then of course, that will disappear. ::)
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I doubt new hardware or changing the config will help. We had the same problem and by simply adding something to the WAN interface, it started working perfectly.
I have a crazy, insane thought to try just for sh*ts and grins:
Take a patch cable, and patch WAN to LAN1-4. Make sure that the WAN IP address is not on your subnet. Something like 1.1.1.2/255.255.255.0 with a gateway of 1.1.1.1. I'm almost willing to bet that your problems go away... like it did for us.
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No thats not a good idea. If the AP is set up right it should work well with out any cables being connected to the WAN port. DHCP is turned off and if the routers IP address and subnet is set up under the Host routers Pool of addresses, it should just act as a pass thru for wireless and a wired connection on the LAN ports in back. The wan port shouldn't be used.
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Still tinkering with settings. Nothing too much new to report. But, here is one interesting thing. I have all the logs enabled on the AP, and have been peeking at them now and then. Today, when my wireless dropped, I went immediately to go look at the logs, and noticed they got wiped out, which is entirely unhelpful.
I clicked "Apply Log Settings Now", even though now settings had changed, to start the logs again. Doing this enabled the wireless signal again.
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Ya, not sure if the logs are reporting anything on AP mode or if the wireless does down. So does this AP work as a stand alone router with the wireless going? Just wondering if this unit works as is and with out any other AP going. Still curious if there is additional WiFi around you that could be effecting. Possible the unit is faulty however if it works as a stand lone router, then I don't think it's faulty. I have 3 APs coming off my main host router, 2 Dlink and 1 Apple. All with in 15 feet radius. 2 are running 5Ghz only and Apple and the host router running 2.4Ghz. I have the 2.4Ghz radios on manual channel of 6 Host and 11 AP. Haven't see any issues as yet.
Let us know if this particular AP device runs normally. Were you able to swap out the routers and see if they exhibited the same or if the problem tracked?
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I have not yet swapped the router and AP to see if that helps. Planning to do that this week, and will report back.
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Doing this will let you know if the problem is tracking or not. If not then issue lyes in something else. Keep us posted.
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Semi-Solution
I enabled a schedule on the wireless signal yesterday to only operate from 7AM to 11PM. I was curious to see if this would automatically enable the wireless after it dropped. The signal dropped last night at about 7PM. I left it alone, and the wireless signal did in fact re-appear this morning at 7AM.
So, if you are experiencing the same thing as me, and your wireless doesn't drop too often, this will help by effectively re-enabling it once a day. You could even create a schedule to operate from 12:00AM to 11:59PM.
Still planning to swap the AP and router, and will report back on that.
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Good find. However the AP should be going 24hrs a day with out any issues unless there is a configuration or interference problem. Keep us posted.
Maybe someone can review your router and AP settings with you using teamviewer. (http://www.teamviewer.com)
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OK. It looks like I got it working. My wireless hasn't dropped in about 24 hours. Previously it was dropping several times a day. I did NOT try swapping the router and AP. Have just been systematically tweaking settings.
Here is the change that worked for me. Under Setup->Wireless Settings->Manual Wireless Connection Setup, I had the 802.11 Mode set to "802.11g". I only have 802.11g devices, so this seemed to make sense. I changed this, on both the AP and the router, to "Mixed 802.11n and 802.11g". Once I did this, a new option became available, "Channel Width". I set the "Channel Width" to "Auto 20/40 MHz".
Since making this change, the wireless signal has been stable.
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Keep us posted on how it goes.
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Update: It has been about 10 days, and the signal has still not gone down.
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Enjoy. ;)