Just thought I'd post this story in hopes it might help someone else. My apologies in advance for the wall of text
OK so I'd had a 655 router that has served me well for a few years. All of a sudden a month or so ago it started not only dropping the wireless but rebooting itself at random times. Sometimes it'd go 20 minutes, sometimes 2 hours, sometimes 10 hours--but it'd never go a full day. That was unacceptable for my gaming so I tried a few things. I thought the power supply might be going bad, changed it, no dice. Mine was an A4 and I'd put off flashing the FW to 1.35 in fear of screwing it up but I tried that and it made no difference. The performance was fine--while it was working. But the reboots told me it was time for a new router. I liked the Shareport utility and use that to share my printer around the house. Saw other brands had USB ports on them but they weren't "universal" like on the D-Link routers being compatible with not only certain devices but again only certain brands or models of those. So I decided to stick with a D-Link and settled on the new 835 which is really the latest generation of what I had that had all the features I'd need for the future. I have no need currently for the 5Ghz band but it's just a click away for when I do. I'm not finding much insofar as reviews on the internet but I'm thinking that might indicate a good thing as if people have a problem they're certainly gonna post about that.
The saga begins.
I found an 835 on sale at a local office supply store for a few bucks less than I could get it online and grabbed one up. I come home, retire the old 655, hook up the new 835, boot it up--it's good. I go into the UI to set stuff up (pretty familiar with it as it's almost identical to the 655's). I reboot--no internet. I get power light and internet both on steady. I try rebooting my cable modem, no dice. I try rebooting the router--I get internet back. But the settings I'd made aren't there anymore. Thought that was weird. Tried a factory reset on the router. Same thing happens--first boot OK but can't apply changes. I come back to the same both lights steady on and no internet connection. I'm wondering if I have some co-incidental internet outage so I call my ISP (Comcast) who tell me there's no problems in my area but they can see from their end that my modem is doing funny things and I should get it replaced. No problem, there's a service center nearby and I stop there and exchange my old modem (I forget the brand) for a new one ( an Arris Touchstone DOCSIS 3.0). I hook that up--same thing.
So I call D-Link support where I spent almost 2 hours with a tech and one of her supervisors that were completely puzzled by what the router was doing. We tried everything and it'd come back to the same problem. They advised me I had a bad router and to return it. I was thinking this too as I never had this problem with the 655 router I set that up in a few minutes and never had a problem. It also didn't require a reboot for every stinkin setting change but when it did it was only 15 seconds! This one is short of a minute. So I take the original router back and exchange it for another. Number two.
I hook that one up--same thing. LOL What are the chances? Two bad ones? Nah! So another call to D-Link support. I told them the story I just wrote. We tried and tried but kept coming back to the same problem. They advised me to take it back but I'm not ready to admit defeat yet.
I did learn something from the support sessions that did get me up and running. I found once that I could get the time set using an internet time server if I applied the change and powered down the router for a few minutes. The time would stick. Hmm. I remembered that if I ever had a problem with my 655 router usually the case was that it had somehow lost track of the time. Resetting that usually cleared the problem and it would be good to go. But I tried on the 835, from that point, to apply other settings and it came back after a boot to the same no internet connection problem. Dang!
OK, so a shot in the dark, I tried making all the settings I could make at once and NOT reboot after each--clicking reboot later on each page. I did that until I got to the IPV6 settings where it forces a reboot. I'm thinking --crap here we go again. But this time it rebooted properly and all my settings had applied! Victory is mine! From that point I've been able to make changes, assign IP addys to my devices, etc., and it boots up properly each time. I don't know what made it click but it's working normally. Well--almost!
I install the new version of Shareport (think it was 4.11). It finds my printer, I connect to it, print a test page. Cool. Later I come back to reconnect, it does--for about a 5 count and then disconnects. It goes around in a loop of connecting and disco. So--another call to D-Link support. They're baffled. Advise me to take back the router LOL. So I do, and that's router number three. I set that one up using the same trick I'd learned with the second one but it gave me the same problem with Shareport. At least with the printer. I tried it with a flash drive and it works. Tried it with an external hard drive and it works. Moved files from different devices on my network so it generally works. Was only the printer (a Canon MP500) that wouldn't work. Frig it--bought a new Wifi printer (Canon MG6620), assigned it an IP. Problem solved! Just for kicks I plugged in the USB to the printer, set it up, tried Shareport. It did the loop thing too.
Now I know from my 655 experience that one of the reasons I didn't ever flash the firmware was that it seemed that I'd run a chance of it breaking Shareport. I was wondering if that was the problem with the 835 but they came with the original version 1.0. I see there's a new version but I don't see anything in the release notes that mention a Shareport fix so I'm not flashing. One thing I noticed that's missing in the UI is a section specifically for the USB port in order to select what it's being used for as there was on the 655. Think that might be the problem?
I must say tho that the router is now working fine short of the Shareport. Making changes Performance is a notch better than the 655s on 2.4 Ghz and I get better coverage in one of my bedrooms that was a problem with the 655. So I'm liking it a lot but it was a massive PITA to get set up.
Hope my story helps somebody.
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Topic: My DIR-835 Experience (Read 7426 times)