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[papachungo13]

Moving farther than 20ft away from the router results in poor wifi reception with my devices (a notebook with N, and an ipod touch). There are times when the notebook indicates signal strengths as low as 60% 30ft away from the router. The ipod fares even worse.  I tried adjusting the settings as suggested in another topic to get the ipod to stay connected but with mixed success.

Another problem I've noticed is difficulty maintaining a wireless connection with my other devices if my Wii is being used to stream netflix content. 

Any suggested solutions are welcome.

[bkspero]

With it happening on 2 devices, and presuming that connection speeds and dropouts are consistent with the low signal levels reported by the router, then that does not sound normal.  First I would try reorienting the antennas (if you haven't already done that).  Not likely to be the answer, but easiest to do.

Next I would try another broadcast channel.  Do you have a WiFi finder app for your iPod (I know that Apple unilaterally removed them from the App Store a few months ago, but maybe you have a legacy one....talk about arrogance...but that is another issue)?  Or do you know someone with an Android phone...the WiFi Trak device for Android is the best I've ever seen for this (it shows the frequency spreads graphically to clearly show overlap).  Or does your laptop identify channels when searching for WiFi access points?  If so, then scan your area and look for nearby wireless sources on the same or a nearby 2.4 gHz channel.  Change your channel to an open one in the 825 firmware.

If you don't see a conflicting WiFi channel, then I would still try switching yours just in case there is a conflict with a different type of device (not WiFi).  Just test a couple of different ones blind.

If that doesn't help, then my guess is that it is the router.  As you can see from this board, the 825 does not have the most distinguished performance record (although your symptoms are not common on the 2.4 band).  If you can return it for another type, you might want to consider that.  If not, then I would look to doing a defective return.

Good luck.

[taekwon3dan]

I don't understand how smallnetbuilders got such good results for this router.  The performance on this unit (2.02NA) is pathetic.  Compared to my existing router, wireless throughput is about half - the laptop is only about 10 feet away.  (I've tried all sorts of configurations tips in this forum - no luck).

[papachungo13]

The problems occurred irrespective of the channel chosen. Interestingly, range would improve upon restart but gradually get worse over time. I have also observed the DHCP service no longer issuing IPs to wireless clients until a power off/on cycle was done.

Finally got annoyed/desperate enough to load DD-WRT this morning.  Results have been excellent so far, and I'm actually posting this from my iPod 150 ft away from the router with full signal strength.  I will continue to observe the performance over the next week to see if this is the answer to my problems.

[rickm1350]

Strange you should say that.  I have both of those routhers, the DLink here at home, and the Netgear at work.  Both of them work just fine for me.  I was looking a few days ago, and the Netgear at work has over 30 computers connected to it via a couple of ethernet switches.

Haven't had any problem at all from either router.

[papachungo13]

Strange you should say that.  I have both of those routhers, the DLink here at home, and the Netgear at work.  Both of them work just fine for me.  I was looking a few days ago, and the Netgear at work has over 30 computers connected to it via a couple of ethernet switches.

Haven't had any problem at all from either router.

It's important to note that you have 30 client connected via switches meaning WIRED. I've never generally had issues with any router using that connectivity method.  Wireless is where the flaws/challenges appear. I also don't believe the router hardware is the problem because again as I write the router is performing spectacularly with the DD-WRT firmware. I may even venture into testing the USB port's usefullnes, which I had wriiten off because of my bad experience with the DIR-655.

[rickm1350]

It's important to note that you have 30 client connected via switches meaning WIRED. I've never generally had issues with any router using that connectivity method.  Wireless is where the flaws/challenges appear. I also don't believe the router hardware is the problem because again as I write the router is performing spectacularly with the DD-WRT firmware. I may even venture into testing the USB port's usefullnes, which I had wriiten off because of my bad experience with the DIR-655.

I understand what you are saying.  I was just telling you that for a reference.  The router is doing a lot more than just wired internet/intranet.  We also have several clients connected to that router via wireless on the 2.4 Ghz band inside a fairly large single story building.  The 5 Ghz side of that modem is mostly used with just one wireless connection.

The DIR 825 router that I have at home has several computers and servers connected to it.  I have one computer, one NAS drive and one server connected to the ethernet ports.  I have two ethernet bridges connected via 5 Ghz, they both work flawlesslly.  My home is 1600 sq feet and the 5 Ghz bridges are going through a couple of walls.  One of the bridges has a 5 port switch hooked to it and has multiple computers and devices hooked to it, including a computer, an XBox360 and a Satellite receiver.

We also have a couple of desktop computers and usually at least one laptop, a netbook, or an iPad connected via the 2.4 Ghz wireless.  Again, it's works perfectly, no problems at all.  I can't remember when the last time I rebooted the router was, we certainly do not have to do that on a regular basis.

[Athan]

Strange you should say that.  I have both of those routhers, the DLink here at home, and the Netgear at work.  Both of them work just fine for me.  I was looking a few days ago, and the Netgear at work has over 30 computers connected to it via a couple of ethernet switches.

Wired operation is not a problem; AR7161 network processor used in both routers is powerfull, and can easily handle even more clients. However I'd never get a Dlink or Netgear home router to drive such a load, when devices such as Routerboard RB450G exist. Same hardware (NPU part), quadruple mem capacity, better switching, same cost and excellent pro-class routing firmware.

The actual problem with both routers is wireless and the firmware itself. D-Link's wireless firmware implementation is full of bugs and Netgear's firmware as well as the internal antenna design is just ...a joke. On the other hand, alternative firmwares have their own serious problems. DD-WRT suffer from the madwifi wireless issues (sort range due to extremely low power, buggy antenna chaining etc) and Openwrt is still experimental, though much better than DD and stock.

As a result of the above, we have two "top-of-the-line" routers, based on the greatest hardware currently available but driven by inefficient buggy software and completely unsupported by their manufacturers. 

[taekwon3dan]

I have two ethernet bridges connected via 5 Ghz, they both work flawlesslly.

My wndr3300 client bridge, which connects perfectly to the 2.4 GHz radio, can't do so on the 5GHz.  I've tried about every possible configuration on D-Link's crappy 2.02NA firmware with no luck.

I must admit, though, that the dir-825 2.4 is quite good within about 20 ft (unobstructed), relative to the Linksys wrt610n, but it is still no match overall.  The wrt610n, flashed with dd-wrt, wins easily.

[papachungo13]

The actual problem with both routers is wireless and the firmware itself. D-Link's wireless firmware implementation is full of bugs and Netgear's firmware as well as the internal antenna design is just ...a joke. On the other hand, alternative firmwares have their own serious problems. DD-WRT suffer from the madwifi wireless issues (sort range due to extremely low power, buggy antenna chaining etc) and Openwrt is still experimental, though much better than DD and stock.

As a result of the above, we have two "top-of-the-line" routers, based on the greatest hardware currently available but driven by inefficient buggy software and completely unsupported by their manufacturers. 

Can't speak for Netgear as I've never used them, but having used both the DIR-655 and DIR-825 I can agree regarding D-Link.
I have observed some of the issues you mentioned with the DD-WRT, but it has easily outperformed D-Link's own firmware. I am satisfied with it as it is getting the job done.
I'd love to see Openwrt support for the DIR-825 advance, giving us additional options/solutions where the manufacturers fail.

[lilleyen]

We also have a couple of desktop computers and usually at least one laptop, a netbook, or an iPad connected via the 2.4 Ghz wireless.  Again, it's works perfectly, no problems at all.  I can't remember when the last time I rebooted the router was, we certainly do not have to do that on a regular basis.

Is your router lying flat or standing up vertically?
(Thinking cooling here)