FN,
Well as we had talked, I gave the unit to a friend to use. I haven't spoke to them for a while but I'm pretty sure they are working (or they would have said something to me). Now their configuration is a simple out-of-box basic outbound - nothing at all like I'm doing. So in that kind of configuration I guess it works OK. I ended up running a Buffalo WZR-600DHP with their version of DD-WRT - a little over a month now and zero issues. I wish there was a DD-WRT version (or tomato version) of firmware available for this unit as I'll bet it would have fixed my issues. I am confident there is an issue somewhere (either firmware or hardware) when using some features - but I was never able to pinpoint just where. However every single other WAP I used in its place never had an issue. And because I got wrapped up in this problem, I actually tried 4 different units from 4 different vendors.
I wish I could have narrowed it to something (I still suspect the connection table not clearing up), but it just got to a point of diminishing return. It always did show the problem - give it a day or two and slowdown to a crawl with traffic drops. Power off and on - all was good. And none of the other 4 routers had an issue. I can't explain it...
Having said all of that - I hope DLINK appreciates all your work on this forum. You are truly helpful and stick with an issue - thanks for that! And I still think DLINK's UI is as close as someone can get to a DD-WRT like experience for monitoring what if going out and coming in to a network. This little unit, if it works for someone, is a real bargain. But I still think there is something a bit off with the unit, as I see others having the same issue I did - and I could not replicate it with any other unit I tested. And yet, it looks like in my friend's environment it is just fine. Strange indeed...
