Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[archo]

I have a DIR-655 A3 running the 1.11 firmware (non-beta). I have QoS disabled, and WISH disabled, and have reserved DHCP leases by MAC address for all clients. There is only one wireless device other than the router itself: a laptop with a 4965AGN, using WPA2 w/AES, constant 100% signal quality at 130Mbps (the max for this card).

I frequently have connectivity issues with the wirelessly connected device (laptop), where it cannot send/receive to the WAN or even get to the DLink router admin pages. These periods of connectivity loss will last around 30 seconds or so, and then everything recovers and works fine for another minute or so. Sometimes the router will work fine for hours at a time. I initially thought that the problem was with the wireless configuration on the laptop or the router, but I have conducted a test which proves that this is not the case. 

Please consider carefully the following scenario:

I have a wired PC connected to the Dlink router (we will call it P for hard-wired PC) and also a wireless laptop (called W). Let's call the router D (for DLink) and an internet address (called Y because I used yahoo.com as a test target).

The configuration is:

    W-------D--------P
            |
            |
            Y

I setup several simultaneous ongoing ping commands that I could monitor during periods of connectivity loss:

1) ping from W to D
2) ping from W to Y (through D)
3) ping from W to P (through D)
4) ping from P to D
5) ping from P to Y (through D)

The results were interesting (and not what I expected).

The ping commands numbered 1 and 2 will both stop seeing echo responses at the same time and for the same duration during periods of connectivity loss. During these periods, I can't get anything else working either (such as pointing a web browser at an internet site, or even at the DLink router admin pages).

The ping commands 3, 4, 5 always continue without packet loss even during the periods where pings 1 and 2 have stopped getting responses.  The most interesting thing is that ping number 3 keeps working which proves that the wireless connection to the router is just fine, and the the router passes the incoming ping requests off to the hard-wired PC and passes the echoes back. I did not expect this. This proves that the wireless connectivity loss is not a wireless transmission, configuration or interference problem at all, but some sort of internal routing issue within the DLink itself. Let me repeat this, in a futile attempt to fend off the expected questions about my wireless setup: the wireless is fine, because I get uninterrupted connectivity to another device that is routed through the DLink. I just can't get to the DLink or through to the WAN side.

I have searched a ton of forums for DIR-655 problems, and I am not the only one experiencing intermittent connectivity problems, so hope that this tidbit might help DLink figure out what the real problem is instead of issuing pat responses.

This problem is frustrating enough that I intend to return the router and try another brand. Before I do, I want to try the beta 1.11 firmware to see if it helps, however, I spent over $100 on this router, and I'd like to get my money back if it isn't working properly.

@DLink: Will flashing the firmware to the beta release void my warranty and render my router unreturnable?

[wib]

@DLink: Will flashing the firmware to the beta release void my warranty and render my router unreturnable?

I have the same issue and the beta  firm did not help.

If you are bringing it back to "big box" just reset everything to factory configs. its as good as new.

[thecreator]

I have a DIR-655 A3 running the 1.11 firmware (non-beta). I have QoS disabled, and WISH disabled, and have reserved DHCP leases by MAC address for all clients. There is only one wireless device other than the router itself: a laptop with a 4965AGN, using WPA2 w/AES, constant 100% signal quality at 130Mbps (the max for this card).

Hi archo,

After you log into your Router Settings, click Setup > Wireless Settings > Manual Wireless Network Setup and change the Channel Width: 20 MHz to Auto 20/40MHz. To achieve 300 Mbps, wirelessly.

When Bandwidth is set to 20 MHz, you only get 130 Mbps instead of 300 Mbps, with matching Wireless Adapter.

[FearlessG1]

my router started with this issue.  it would drop my 802.11N connections only and their pings would spike to 200+, while the G wireless connections seems to work fine and ping normally as well as the Ethernet connected ones.  after trying to fix this by playing with every setting in the router imaginable, doing hard resets, trying beta firmwares, older official firmwares, and current official firmwares, the problems continued.  after 3 months of trying to fix it the router would go into reboot loops every minute.  then would act ok for like 10 minutes, then reboot loops again.  even after doing a hard reset to factory defaults, the router would last a little long before going into reboot loops, but the performance was almost unusable.  My RMA'd replacement unit will be here by tomorrow, and i am crossing my fingers that i get a good one....

[Cobra97]

I have exactly the same problem except that I am using the DWA-652 Extreme N wireless adapter in an Inspiron 6000 laptop. I am also using WPA2 (AES), with the Microsoft Knowledgebase "fix" for PWA2. Performance is reported at 300 Mbps according to the DLink management software, but in reality performance is slower than it was on its predecessor - a LinkSys Wireless Access Point (54Mbps unit). The adapter won't remain connected for more than a few minutes, but the PC is able to remain connected constantly with uninterrupted Internet and networking connectivity (I have 2 wired PC's on this network).

I believe the problem may be related to the WPA2 protocol, and tonight, I plan to change to the WEP protocol, even though it is less secure, to see if performance improves.

The DIR-655 has some strengths, but apparently wireless connectivity using the DWA-652 is not one of them. I have my setup just like you do: QoS is disabled, my network devices are identified by MAC addresses and assigned specific IP addresses, etc...I'll let you know if changing to WEP had an effect...

[Sammydad1]

Hi,

Cobra...if you switch to WEP you will disable .11N mode because .11N doesn't do WEP (by design).

I would try running with no encryption as a test, altho I would suggest at least MAC filtering if wireless security is a concern even for testing....

Also have you checked the router for heat issues ?  Wireless routers are very ****e to heat build up, or so it seems.  Are you running the 655 in vertical or horizontal ?  Vertical seems to allow for much better heat dissipation.

SD1

[Cobra97]

Thanks for the tip, SD1...I am running the unit horizontally...it is sitting on top of one of the PC's, but the fact that the 2 PC's remain constantly connected causes me to think the problem is not with the router itself (at least, not with respect to the laptop failing to remain connected continuously, but I could be wrong). I thought that I had read that reception is not as good with the unit vertical, but it makes sense that cooling would be improved by running vertically.

[archo]

thecreator: Thanks for the tip, but my 4965AGN will never get more than 130Mbps, since it doesn't support the 40Mhz bands. My problem is with loss of internet connectivity.

FearlessG1: Please post back here if your replacement router solves the problem for you - we'd all love to know. I'm not encouraged by the fact that you tried many different firmware revisions without success.

Cobra97: I'm curious to know if you can still ping either of your 2 wired PCs when your wireless drops out. If you can, then it can't be a problem with WPA2, since if the WPA2 was messing you up, your pings wouldn't get through either.

That's what I find interesting about my problem, even when my wireless laptop can't get to the internet, I CAN still ping the wired PC via from my wireless laptop. And the wired PC can always get to the internet.

[Cobra97]

I now have acceptable speed and a stable, continuous wireless connection, but I have not isolated which change made the difference (or if it was a combination of more than one change).

I was wrong when I said that I was not using QoS...I am, and still am.

WISH was also enabled, but now is not.

My suspicion that the connectivity issues are related to wireless security (and specifically WPA2) have not changed, but since I made several changes, tonight I am going to re-enable ONLY WPA2 wireless security, and see if the problems return, now that they appear to have been eliminated.

Here are the changes I made, which resulted in a stable, continuous wireless connection between the DIR-655 and a Dell Inspiron 6000, using the DWA-652 Extreme N Wireless adapter:

1. Under Setup --> Wireless Settings --> Manual Wireless Network Setup, I changed Transmission Rate from MCS 15 - 130 [270] to Best (automatic).

2. Under Setup --> Wireless Settings --> Manual Wireless Network Setup, I changed Security Mode from WPA-Personal to None.

3. Under Advanced --> WISH --> Priority Classifiers, I unchecked all three check boxes.

4. Under Advanced --> WISH --> WISH, I unchecked the Enable WISH checkbox.

One of those four changes (or some combination of them) dramatically improved my laptop's ability to remain connected continuously to the router and improved performance many times over. My suspicion is that the entire issue is related to wireless security, and to test that theory, tonight I will re-enable ONLY WPA2 security (AES) and see what effect, if any, that has on dropped connectivity to the router and what effect it has on performance. I will report back tomorrow...

[FearlessG1]

i created a new post, but just to let you know, i received my replacement, which was revision A2 instead of the A3 i purchased, also it is cosmetically damaged, also ethernet port 2 on it does not work.....GRRRR  oh and on a somewhat sad, but humorous side note, If I dont have the broken one returned within 15 days, my credit card will be charged $180,  because that is how much a used router that is 2/3 working goes for these days.....

[Cobra97]

Looks like my problem may have been the WISH functionality...I re-implemented WPA2 security, and the speed is still there and the connectivity has not dropped off...also see the post titled "Gr, Disconnection Issues !"

[wib]

a laptop with a 4965AGN, using WPA2 w/AES,

Try setting the card to only use G or below. I just had to take one of my G+ (108) cards and turn of the 108 functionality and all of the sudden it has been stable for hours.

[webs0r]

Any updates on your situations?

I too have this problem... it is highly aggravating - trying to play online games and getting frequent intermittent periods of no communication! To describe it it is approximately 10-15 seconds every minute that I get 0 upload and 0 download - and not even able to access the router.

I have tried turning off WISH but this hasn't helped. (I'm running 1.11 beta firmware, blue lights, mixed bg, I have a Linksys g wiireless card)

Is there any official word from D-Link on this problem? I wonder how widespread it is.

If there is no acknowledgement of a problem I'm thinking I should I be returning this product (I only just bought it 2 days ago).

Update: just from observation it seems that it happens more frequently when there isn't mixed traffic... ie.. if I am just playing TF2 and there is no other activity. Or if I am just running bittorrent... The only other thing that may be different is that I changed my subnet to 192.168.1.x...
When you change WISH settings does the router need a reboot? It doesn't ask for one.

[webs0r]

Ok today I got a D-link 556 and a 645 (wireless N NICs for PC and laptop).

Everything is running smoothly so far - will keep you updated if this problem recurs.

Potentially the router and my linksys wireless-g NIC didn't like each other....