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[Odysseus]

I am using a DI-624 as  a secondary AP to expand my wifi coverage in my home. It is connected to the primary router/AP (DIR-655) via ethernet cable plugged into the lan port of the 624. On  the 624, DHCP has been turned off and it has  a fixed IP address outside the assigned range of the DHCP of the 655.

It worked well for many months, but when I returned recently from a trip and attempted to use the 624, it now drops the connection every minute or so (or less). I reset everything as above, but the problem persists. (There is a possibility that there was severe weather while I was away and there could have been lightning in the area, but no clocks needed resetting, etc so probably not this although I mention it as a possibility.)

What information can I provide that might help determine the cause? Thanks.

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!

• What region are you located?

Wireless Configurations

• What wireless modes are you using?
• 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. 13 for EU regions. Be sure that if you are using the DIR-655 as well, place this routers channel on 11 and the 624 on channel 1. Farthest channels apart. Try disabling the 655s wifi temporarily and test the 624 by it self.
• Any 2.4Ghz or cordless house phones or WiFi APs near by that maybe causing interferences?
• Any other WiFi routers in the area that maybe causing interferences? Link> Use a WiFi Scanner to find out. How many?

[Odysseus]

Hello FN, One important point is that the router worked just fine for many months before developing this issue, so I don't think it is interference. Now having said that, my knowledge of networking is pretty modest indeed, so let's go to work.
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Unsure about "region". I am located in central Texas (is this what you were asking?) and we are out in the country so no other wifis close by.

Re: the 624:
It is a 10-12 year old router with limited options (and so it may time to retire it). The following are what I see on the pages under the HOME tab at the top.
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On the Wireless page, choices are very restricted. I have named the SSID as "MasterB". Channel has a down arrow indicating a drop down choice, but if you click on it nothing happens. (The WiFi Scanner on my Android phone says it is broadcasting on Channel 6. Also it is at the far end of the house from the 655 which I have set to broadcast on 11) Right next to it is a box for Auto Select which I checked previously and saved it but upon auto refresh it returns unchecked.

Authentication choices are: open, shared, wpa and wpa-psk of which I have selected the latter
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On the WAN page (which if I understand it is not relevant given the above and below, but please help me if incorrect), "Dynamic IP Address" is selected and I have not changed it. Should I change it to Static? Boxes for Primary  and Secondary DNS's are both 0.0.0.0
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On the LAN page, the lan address of the 624 is set to 192.168.0.2 and subnet is 255.255.255.0
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On the DHCP page,
-DHCP is disabled under DHCP Server, lease time is one week (max available)
-Under Static DHCP, disabled is selected, and nothing is entered for name, in the fourth box of the IP address, or the mac address; and DHCP client is set to Clone (seems to be the only choice)
-under Static DHCP Client List, it shows the host name as MasterB, IP addy as 192.168.0.2 and MAC addy as 00-00-00-00-00-00
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Do you need any information from the ADVANCED, TOOLS, OR STATUS tabs?

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Re: the 655
It's DHCP is on and the address range is set to 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.199. It is set to broadcast on channel 11.

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Finally, the other secondary AP sits halfway between the two of them and broadcasts on channel 1. No problems with this one.

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Do you see anything that needs changing, or is there any additional info that I can provide?

[FurryNutz]

You might reset the 624 and set the channel to 1 and the other AP to 6 leaving the 655 to 11.

Test the 624 with the other wifi radios disabled as a test to see if the 624 maintains stability.
How is the 624 connected to the main router? WAN or LAN port on the back of the 624. Should be LAN port.

Just because the 24 has worked for a while doesn't mean that it's not interference related now that there is a problem. Maybe a new neighbor has move in or put in a new wifi router.

Ya, the 624 is old now and only runs G mode. It maybe best to retire that unit and maybe install a rescued DIR-655 from fleabay or amazon. I have DIR-655 at the far end of my house running as an AP: Turning a router into an AP.

[RYAT3]

Re: the 624:
It is a 10-12 year old router with limited options (and so it may time to retire it). The following are what I see on the pages under the HOME tab at the top.
---

These things die and don't last forever.  Mine died 8 years ago or more.  I still have the box 

[FurryNutz]

I still have my DGL-4500 

[Odysseus]

I remember when I set this up originally, I had the same problem,  but in  my tinkering, finally got it to work correctly, but don't know for sure what actually did the trick. I hoped that by giving lots of details (last post)  about the settings that there might be something obvious to more knowledgeable folks that might account for the problem.

Unless I am missing something, the channel of the 624 is fixed. Is there a way to change it? If so will reconfig to channel 1, but again, it worked just fine on channel 6 until recently. we do not have any neighbors close enough to see their wifi's and there have been no other changes (microwave, portable phones). My Primary router is 11, the one in the middle is 1 and the far one is 6. But even if I could switch the channels of the middle one and the 624, the 624 is still too far from the Primary to interfere, and the middle and the 624 will still be the same distance, only reversing their channels, so that doesn't seem promising.

I feel sure it is a matter of settings. Can anyone see anything in my list that might need changing? Thanks

[FurryNutz]

I would power cycle the 624 after you have disabled the other two wifi radios and see if the 624 runs ok alone. If it still exhibits problems then try a factory reset and set up from scratch and test again in stand alone wifi configuration. If it still happens, I presume the 624 needs to be retired.

Channels should be able to be changed on the 624. Use IE in compatibility mode or try using FF as a browser for it. Some newer browsers may no longer be compatible.

[Odysseus]

Sounds good. That should make it clear whether it is a hardware problem or not. Just about to go out of town but will try this upon return. If that doesn't resolve it as a hardware problem, and the reset doesn't make the problem disappear, will return to thread. Thanks all.

[FurryNutz]

Let us know how it goes when you get back.

Good Luck.