Resolved:A whole day working with no drops. The key was to disable Advanced DNS
Setup / Internet / Manual Setup
[ _ ] Enable Advanced DNS (uncheck the box)
I have no clue what this option is, but I left it checked:
- Extra Wireless Protection
DLink users who share: Thanks. Organizing my experience, and then cross checking
it with what others had done allowed it to work. I hadn't gotten around to changing this option.
DLink Technical Support: Pfffffft
Of course it will be too late for new users to protect themselves from SecureSpot.
As soon as you attach the router to the internet, the hackers have harvested your IP address,
and possibly an insecure one. To protect yourself:
0. Do not attach the router to the internet until you:
1. Download the 1.24NA firmware and apply it.
2. Disable SecureSpot
3. Change your Admin password
4. Then connect to the internet and finish setup.
Disclaimer: I have used D-Link products in the past, and liked them.
This router has ruined my business productivity for a month.
Environment: Comcast ISP in Florida, new installation
Wireless Clients: iMac, iPhone, Android HTC, Win7, WinXP, DLink NAS, LG 3D TV, Tivo Series II
Major work: WinXP Pro, Cisco VPN, Dell Latitude D630, Intel Wireless, Windows ZeroConfig
Wireless Disconnects happen continuously, blowing my VPN connections, ruining productivty.
So how do I diagnose and resolve this ... this is what I do for a living.
- Turn on DIR_628 logging.
Ok, I'm being hammered by connections from China, but filtered fine by the router.
- Turn off SecureSpot in the router.
What a commercial disaster that is for new customers.
* Plugin a new DLink router, which comes preconfigured with no password.
* Immediately it "phone home" to SecureSpot somewhere in China
* What a security disaster: I'm sitting here with a know Admin password (null),
and all someone has to do is monitor for new IP requests to that site,
and infect my router with malware before I have a chance to change the password.
* I turned off SecureSpot ... then read in these forums that the router will
acknowledge it is turned off, but continue to use it.
Every IP address I contact gets routed through SecureSpot?
That's great for responsiveness, eh? And watching all my links? Good grief.
* The problem has been corrected by new firmware.
I ask the router to update my firmware.
"You are running the latest"
- No, I'm not running the latest firmware. I navigate to the firmware download area,
and I'm two rev's behind.
* Saved my router settings on my laptop
* Downloaded and applied the firmware
* Tried to reload my settings from the laptop
"These settings are inconsistent with the new firmware"
* What? Ok, save the settings again, and compare the two files.
The bloody settings have been saved in some binary format that
guarantees they are not portable to the next firmware (*****s).
Ok, how about morons.
- Still no joy. My laptop keeps dropping the connection, randomly.
* Nothing in DIR-628 logs indicates why
* I turned on WireShark to watch the network traffic,
and read the logs when a drop happened. No obvious hints on what happened.
* Perhaps it is some software in my laptop that is triggering the
disconnects. Turn on sysinternals process monitor.
When a disconnect happens, analyze the logs. Still no obvious reasons.
- Wireshark is showing an incredible number of packets coming into my machine
that are not being screened at the router. Things like:
* Machine wants to become the Master Browser for the network.
Ok, what's that? My wife's WinXP laptop had a configuration option
to "allow other machines to connect to the network through this machine".
Maybe that means Master Browser. Turn that off.
* No joy, the drops continue
- DLink NAS
Been running smoothly for me, except that it is incredibly slow on a
1000 Mbit network. Got some transactions that originate from that
IP address, so I turn it off.
* No Joy.
- LG TV
That's a new component on my network, and has some obvious Linux software
controlling the Network access to things like NetFlix.
Turn it off .... No joy.
- My laptop is required to run AV software by my employer,
and they lock it down so it cannot be turned off.
* What do they think? They're playing with kids ??
* I turned it off ... and also all the other malware stuff like Microsoft Defender.
* Nope ... the disconnects continue.
- Perhaps a new tool to trap abnormal behaviour.
* WinPatrol is a very nice, light-weight, enjoyable app that does just that.
* I caught my machine doing some crazy stuff with WinPatrol, but nothing
that might trigger disconnects.
- Maybe it is Wireless Driver software.
I use the Dell drivers for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG adapter,
and Windows Zero Config. Has worked flawlessly for me.
* Reinstalled Dell drivers to ensure they weren't corrupt. No help.
* Replaced those with the Intel drivers. No help.
- Maybe wired connection will work more reliably. Nope.
* I conclude the problem must be in the D-Link router.
- The really obscene part of these disconnects is that it disables
the wireless card completely on my laptop. To recover (without rebooting),
R-Click the wireless icon, and choose "Repair".
* This restores the "view available wireless" listing.
- Having exhausted all of the things I can think of to identify the
root cause or these disconnects, I point my laptop wireless to
a Verizon MiFi broadband connection to a 3G network.
* I have worked without interruption all day. No disconnects.
So what would you do?
- If you're a DLink owner?
- A perspective DLink customer?
I have to admit defeat and try to return this router, without original
packaging because I fully expected it to work correctly.
The absence of anything like *SUPPORT* from Dlink, means I have wasted
hours-and-hours on a lost cause. I pay myself per-hour more than the
DLink is worth ... into the trash it goes.
Author
Topic: Frequent Wireless Drops --- ** Resolved ** (Read 10909 times)