Depending on how long the 4500 lasts, I might be a faithful D-Link customer for now on. For the price I paid for it, I would like at least 2-3 years out of the wireless portion. If I get that, then I am 'sold' on D-Link.
Does anyone own a D-Link wireless router older than 3 years (And the wireless signal is strong)?
What funny timing...
I decided to stop by just to post that I had to retire my DGL4500 today, and found your post. I bought it 11/28/07 from Circuit City (lol, they failed sooner, who would've guessed that?).
Anyhow, It was great for years, then in March after my wife and I picked up a couple of HTC thunderbolts, whenever the wifi on the phones was connected for more than a few minutes, the wireless would die on the router altogether, occasionally locking up the whole router (display still works fine though...). Took a while to figure it out. When we kept the wifi disabled on the phones, the 4500 will last days/weeks sometimes without a problem, then bam. Lose all internet access for no reason. The router in general has just gotten more unstable since then, which doesn't work well with online gaming. Can't even access the internal page to reboot remotely. I actually have to walk over and unplug the darn thing.
It's sad really, because I remember the router having 180day+ uptimes. It has been by far the best most stable router I've owned, and I still wouldn't have replaced it, except it dies too often when streaming HD content to my HTPCs. I refuse to constantly reboot it anymore.
I hate to say it, but I replaced it with an E4200. First, I don't dig white electronics. Second, Dlink has really struggled with their firmware. I was fortunate enough to have kept v1.02 on my 4500 this whole time. I half wonder if updating the firmware would fix the buggy wireless, but I don't want to bother at this point. Seems like a problem regardless of which option I choose, so I wanted a new router. The reviews surrounding the latest dlink models indicate more of the same, buggy products. I wanted simul-dual band to segregate my HTPCs from phones/tablet/etc. TBH, I thought the 4500 did that when I bought it, I was sadly disappointed. The 665 doesn't seem to do that, and it's got horrible reliability reviews. 855 does do it, but doesn't support 450Mbps, and looking at it would only serve to remind me that my beloved 4500 failed over a pair of new phones.
Also, I'd like to point out that the display was an awesome idea, but going with OLEDs that can't stay on all the time was a stupid idea. What exactly is the point of putting a flashy item on there that won't flash for fear of wearing out? Great idea, poor execution.
Dlink's attitude towards tech support has changed dramatically since then as well. I won't debate the merits, but I will say changing to a paid support model was not a popular decision with me.
So, that being said, I got exactly 3 years and 11 months to the day from my DGL 4500. I'll keep it as a backup, and perhaps even try an updated firmware one day. I still have my old 624 banging around some place, and I hated that thing.
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Topic: OT Conversations regarding not much or nothing or something... (Read 1367529 times)