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[IanR]

Hi,

We recently purchased a D-Link DSR-500N for use in our laboratory. The WAN port is connected to an ethernet socket on the wall, which is part of a large, managed network. We've configured the device to act as a wireless access point and it seems to work for both wired and wireless access.

However, during the first day of use I noted that cloud-synchronisation software, Dropbox, was not uploading any files (it reported the status as "uploading" but no progress was being made). To investigate this, I ran a speed test (www.speedtest.net) which reported many tens of Mbps for our download speed, although I was unable to make an upload speed test - the site just hung whilst trying to record it.

Using an ethernet cable to connect a computer directly to the DSR-500N: uploading works fine and speedtest.net records upload speeds of tens of Mbps.

In terms of WiFi settings, I've tried using different channel spacing, different settings (ng, g-only and b & g), different central frequencies and also connecting from different computers. The problem is always the same, web-browsing works fine and is pretty quick although upload speed tests consistently fail to work and services such as Dropbox, which need to upload data, fail to work.

How can we resolve this please?

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!
What Hardware version is your router? Look at sticker under router.
Link>What Firmware version is currently loaded? Found on routers web page under status.
What region are you located?

 Channel Width set for Auto 20/40Mhz or try 20Mhz only.
Try setting a manual channel to a open or unused channel. 1, 6 or 11. 11 for single mode N if the channel is clear.
What security mode are you using? Preferred security is WPA-Personal. WPA2/AES Only. Some WiFi adapters don't support AES, so you might want to try TPIK only or Auto.
What wireless devices do you have connected?
Any cordless house phones?
Any other WiFi routers in the area? Link> Use InSSIDer to find out. How many?
Turn off WISH, and WPS under Advanced.
Try turning off Short GI, WLAN Partition,and Extra Wireless Protection if you have it. Under Advanced/Advanced Wireless.
Enable WMM Enable Under Advanced/Advanced Wireless.

Turn off all anti virus and firewall programs on PC while testing. 3rd party firewalls are not generally needed when using routers as they are effective on blocking malicious inbound traffic.
Turn off all devices accept for one wired PC while testing.

Be aware that this router is meant to perform the duties of a main host router and not an AP. Please review the following:
Bridge Mode vs Relay vs Acess Point (AP) / Routers vs Dedicated Access Points (AP)
There is information regarding turn a router into an AP here.



What browser are you using?
Try Opera or FF? If IE 8 or 9, set compatibility mode and test again.

[IanR]

Thank you for your reply.

Hardware Version = A1
Firmware Version = 1.04B58_WW

Tried both 20/40 MHz and only 20 MHz -> no change. Still can't perform upload speed test and upload-based services don't work.
Used InSSIDer to find that Channel 6 was uncontested. Tried channel 11 too -> no change.

Using WPA2 only (not WPA+WPA2), encryption set to "TKIP+CCMP", authentication = PSK. I can't see an AES option in the router settings. The wireless connection works fine for downloading files and general web surfing, but uploading is problematic.

Tests performed using only one wireless device connected to the network: my Windows laptop. Tried with another computer and had the same problem.

There are other WiFi networks in the area although Channel 6 is uncontested / only one other weak SSID is reported there.

Couldn't find WISH in the Advanced tab.
WPS already off.
Couldn't see WLAN partition and Short GI. Extra protection already disabled.
My advanced wireless configuration is the default as reads:
Beacon interval: 100 milliseconds, Dtim interval = 2, RTS threshold = 2346, Fragmentation threshold = 2346, Preamble mode = long, protection mode = None, power save = disabled.

I've enabled WMM -> no change.

Turning antivirus and firewall off -> no change.

Using a a wired ethernet port, everything works fine.
Using a wireless connection to the router, I can't upload files. This router was bought to replace an older one we'd been using as a wireless AP, which had worked fine in the past.

I've tried using Firefox and Chrome -> both give same result.

Do you have any further suggestions please?

[FurryNutz]

What region are you located?

I recommend you take this router to a different location, OFF this main business network and see if you can get different results. Try at home if possible. Also test this in full on router mode while at home as well. I'm not sure if running the 500N in AP mode is going to be supported. However I think your main business network could be having an impact. I would recommend testing out with an direct connection with an ISP modem>DSR-500N<>PC. Test wired and wireless speeds.

Try other speed testing web sites as well.

[IanR]

We are in the UK.

From a little experimentation, the issue appears to be with Windows Vista / Windows 7 machines with a Wireless N network card.

We have a Windows 7 machine and a windows Vista machine (both 64-bit) with built-in N wireless. Both exhibit the upload problem.
We tried using a WiFi-N dongle (Dlink DWA 131) and on both these machines, the same slow upload speeds were a problem. This included installing the latest Dlink drivers for the dongle.

Interestingly, when the Windows Vista machine was booted into Ubuntu Linux, the internet worked perfectly - giving good upload speeds. This suggests a problem with Windows handling WiFi N I think.

Can you suggest a reason for this or any other Windows drivers to try which might work?

Thanks

PS - We have tried setting the router to Wireless b/g only and also setting the wireless card in the computer to b/g mode only. The problem still persisted.

[FurryNutz]

Try changing the Preamble Mode from Long to Short and see.

And do other non 7 or Vista based PCs work like XP? Good that Linux works and is a good test.

You might find the chip set mfr of those WiFi adapters in those PC, maybe something like RaLink or Broadcom or Intel, you might go to there directly web sites and see if you can find chipset drivers for them.

I might test using the Windows Wireless connection program then switch to the Mfr Driver Wireless utility and test. I have seen some people mentioning that disabling the Mfr Driver wireless utility and using windows default wireless utility fixes somethings.

Seems like this is an issue with Vista and 7.

Ensure any 3rd party security programs are temporarily disabled while testing.

[IanR]

Changing preamble made no difference.

I tried using Windows drivers and the manufacturer utility software. This made no difference. All of our computers run Vista / 7, we don't run XP I'm afraid.

Also, trying the Windows Laptop with Wifi-N adapter cards and also the Wifi-N dongle in a computer with a different Wifi-N router gave perfect performance.

So in summary:
It appears there is some incompatibility between the DSR 500N and computers running Windows with WiFi-N hardware.

Unfortunately, since the upload speeds were fine using a different router, we might have to look to return our DSR 500N. Unless there are any other suggestions you can think of?

Thanks for your help.

[FurryNutz]

Care to try a FW update?
I see that DSR-500 A1 v1.06B79 is available.
http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/support/product/dsr-500n-wireless-n-unified-services-router

I would do a factory reset, do the FW update process recommended for this unit, after the FW has been processed by the router and it comes back to ready, do one more factory reset then set up the router from scratch and test again.

[IanR]

Thank you very much, the firmware upgrade seemed to resolve our issue.

All computers, with WiFi b to n and with OSes from Linux to Windows 7 now seem to work well.

Thanks for your support.

[FurryNutz]

Glad it's working.

Enjoy.