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[JayM481]

I recently (a bit over a week ago) bought a DIR-878 because my ISP-provided modem/router wasn't up to the task in our house (wireless N). Initially it was great, easily providing enough power to give a strong signal to most of the house. However, after about 5 days I started to notice devices were dropping wifi, and not automatically re-connecting. When I attempted to re-connect, the device would ask for the password, but it would be rejected as incorrect.

I am on DSL, using the ISP-provided Smart/RG 505n bridged as a modem. Cable connecting modem to the router is the one provided in the box, router to wall is the one provided by ISP (both are the black ribbon style). Firmware is 1.12. I am using Smart Connect mode, and haven't tried the frequency bands separately.

Devices with specific issues have been:
iPhones, which wander around the house, of course.
iPads - same.
Nest thermostat which is less than 10 feet from the router.
Two PC laptops - these have had fewer password incorrect issues.
Chromecast Audio - located in an area that has signal issues more frequently.

Tyhe dropouts would be much less annoying if not for the password problem. If it was just the iDevices I would blame it on Apple's iOS, but it's also the Chromecast and the Nest, which leads me to think it's a setting within the router. Any suggestions?

[GreenBay42]

Definitely try turning off smartconnect and assign different SSID's to each wireless band.

Does your wifi password include spaces and non-numbers and letters? It is case sensitive also.  You may want to test using a more simple password to see if you have the same issues with the password.

Did you use the same SSID/password as the other router?

Are you using any range extenders?

When it disconnects and you try to connect (when getting the password issue), are you for sure connecting to the dlink router or another SSID, or another device with the same SSID?

[JayM481]

I'll try turning off smart connect.

The wifi password is only letters and numbers, mix of upper and lower case. There has been a time or two when I've mis-typed, but the "incorrect password" message is every time until I reboot the router.

The SSID is the same as the other router, but the wifi on that router is disabled. The password is/was different.

No range extenders. I'm sure I'm connecting to the correct SSID as it's the only one of that name within range.

Let me try turning off smart connect and get back to you.

[JayM481]

I switched off smart connect and things linked up quickly. I'll know for sure when my wife gets home with her devices, and we go a while with no issues.

If I have both the high and low bands in a device as auto-connect wifi networks, will the device switch between them, automatically using the strongest signal?

[GreenBay42]

On your wireless devices (especially iOS), make sure since you are using the same SSID as a different router, sometimes it retains the MAC address of the device so it has trouble connecting. You need to "forget" the network and reconnect to it with your correct  Wi-Fi password.

You can try forgetting your wifi network, re-enable smart connect and then reconnect to see if that fixes the password issue. You will have better performance with smart connect disabled but it will not switch frequencies for you, that will be on the client to roam/switch.

If you have devices using streaming video, connect to the 5ghz. If you have devices for basic connectivity like a printer that does not need a lot of bandwidth, use the 2.4ghz. If devices are far away from the router and have issues with 5ghz, switch it to 2.4 since you get better distance with 2.4.

[JayM481]

Thanks for your help. Truning off smart connect seems to have worked, though as you suggested I did have to "forget" the SSID on a couple of the iOS devices. Also thanks for the tip on which band to use for streaming. My Chromecast Audio is quite far from the router, but it now seems to be working well on 2.4gHz. I'll try 5gHz at some point though.

Thanks again!