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[moraseski]

Hi,

I just purchased this unit to replace an old WAP. On the 615, the wireless light goes on and off even if there is no client attached. Is this normal? On the old WAP, it only changed when a client was connected.

TIA,
Jim

[caper_26]

It might be in the manual what that light actually means, but here is my guess:
Either:
1 - Wireless transmission is turned on, allowing the router to transmit wirelessly as well as wired.

Or

2 - It is broadcasting the SSID, in other words, your router is announcing publicly "Hi everyone, connect to me!" so that other devices (a laptop for example) will see your router (access point) and allow you to connect to it.  You set that option as "visible or invisible".  If it is set to invisible, you will not see your access point in the list, but you can still manually type in the SSID and connect to it.  For whatever reason you may want to do this, no one else will be able to see your access point when they do a search for access points (ie, neighbors etc.)

[moraseski]

Thanks, it is not #2. I turned off the SSID and it still happens.

[caper_26]

Curious to know what happens if, in Wireless Settings, you UNcheck "Enable Wireless".

[moraseski]

In the manual, it says that this on solid means wireless is on and flashing means wireless activity. But I don't see any activity not even in the logs. Turning off wireless does turn off the light.

Jim

[caper_26]

oh yes that sounds familiar.  I noticed when I was setting up my friend'd 615 that exact problem.  It flashes in a slow, cyclic pattern (like a yellow traffic light), correct?  You would think if it was "activity" then it would flicker like the wired connections.

[moraseski]

Yes, it seems like every second.

Jim

[caper_26]

May I suggest contacting customer support at 1.800.361.5265 and asking them about it.  And while you are at it, a few of us were curious about the button on the side of the router (kinda looks like a refresh button) that has no explanation in the manual, so maybe you could inquire about that too.  Post results here please!  Thanks.

[moraseski]

I'm not sure if it is worth calling. If I do, I will post the results here.

One thing I noticed this morning. If I don't have any clients attached, the dropped wireless transmitted packets count on the statistics tab keeps increasing. Also, the lan transmit/receive count keeps going up whether a client is connected or not.

I have this configured as a WAP and it is plugged into a gigabit switch. I have no idea why the lan count would change.

Jim

[moraseski]

I found out what the switch is on the side. This is from an email from dlink support:

It is used to configure the WPS ( Wi-Fi protected setup ).This feature is not to set up the security.

To use this feature the wireless card must support the feature so we reccommend not to use the same at this moment.

I am still working with them on the other problem and will report back if I get any answers.

Jim

[bcas400g]

hi,

I saw your thread, after I created a similar one, and I called tech support. They say that the flashing light, even when no wireless clients are connected, is OK.

Also, say the dropped TX Packets when no wireless devices are connected,  are normal too.

Everything seems to work fine for me, but the manual does say the light should be solid until wireless activity starts.

I even tried turning off the SSID broadcast, with the same results as you.

Not sure if this helps, but I thought I'd share my experiences.

Thanks!

[Jasu]

I can't tell you why the wireless light is flashing but disabling SSID broadcast doesn't not solve the problem. The SSID is sent in beacon packets which, as caper_26 already told, are used to advertise the router and it's capabilities. If you choose to disable SSID broadcast, only thing that happens is that SSID field in beacon is set to zero. The beacons must be sent anyway to make wireless network usable.

Also disabling the SSID broadcasting is not a way to secure your network. The device connecting to wireless network has to know the SSID of course, but it can wait until legimite user connects to network and just listen to SSID the legimite user is sending back to router.

[moraseski]

Thanks for the info. I have an open ticket with dlink and will post if they say anything of value.

At least this behavior is normal?

Jim

[bcas400g]

according to the phone support people I spoke to, this is normal operation.

[blenchi]

while other devices may be on the same or adjacent channel of your router, it has to verify and see if those signals aren't meant for him.  When your neighbors are using the same channel as you do, your router will be blinking the activity light without showing any attached devices.
When there's a lot of traffic on the same channel towards other routers, you might even experience some slow down on your router.