Print

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

[olgot]

Hi there ppl!

Recently D-Link routers have been giving me headaches.

After about two years of almost uninterrupted use, my DIR-615 (I know this is a DIR-600 section, but I think this is relevant) suddenly stopped working. After just a few seconds of going through it's boot up, it would restart, boot up and then restart again. I was able after a few attempts at reseting it, to access it's control panel. But it would just stop working after a while... as if it's DHCP was off... manually configuring the address on my pc would also not work.

So I just gave up and bought a DIR-600, thinking this was an isolated case.

But after just a few days of use, my brand new DIR-600 had almost the same problem:

Unlike my DIR-615 it would not keep rebooting, but I was simply unable to reach it's control panel (manually setting the address and reseting wasn't solving anything). Strangely I was sometimes able to access the control panel through a wireless connection, but that to would eventually fail.

Even stranger, the lights would all bee green. Indicating that the cables where all apparently fine.

Also it didn't seem to be pulling or sending anything through it's wan port, as my modem's activity light was not blinking

Fortunately, I able to take it back to the store, they tested it out and saw that it was broken and gave me a new one.

These events left me  completely dumbfounded... I simply have no idea of what might have caused (or might cause again) this apparent "bricking".

So before connecting my new router, I would like to know what you guys think might have caused this.

Here is some more info:

My network setup:

The old Dir 615 (Version C2, FW 3.03) and the recently broken Dir 600 (Version C1, FW 3.02) acted as a gateway. The wan was connected to my cable modem.

Connected to the LAN ports was a Windows PC and an ethernet cable connected to a DIR-600 (version B1) with dd-wrt (v24-sp2 08/07/10) firmware  that acts as a bridge. Finally, this router was connected to another router (GTS Network Super AP Router Model: 78.0454ARB/ Unfortunately I don't know the firmware version) that also acted as a bridge.

Well that's about it if any more info is needed please let me know.

Suggestions or thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

[FurryNutz]

Does the router boot correctly with just the PC connected. Leave off everything else including the ISP modem.  Can the PC connect to the routers web page for this test?

What ISP Service do you have? Cable or DSL?
What ISP Modem do you have? Stand Alone or built in router?
What ISP Modem make and model do you have?
If this modem has a built in router, it's best to bridge the modem. Having 2 routers on the same line can cause connection problems.
Double NAT
To tell if the modem is bridged or not, look at the routers web page, Status/Device Info/Wan Section, if there is a 192.168.0.# address in the WAN IP address field, then the modem is not bridged.
If the modem can't be bridged then see if the modem has a DMZ option and input the IP address the router gets from the modem and put that into the modems DMZ.

Some things to try: - Log into the routers web page at 192.168.0.1.
Turn off ALL QoS or Disable Traffic Shaping (DIR only) GameFuel (DGL only and if ON.) options. Advanced/QoS or Gamefuel.
Turn off Advanced DNS Services if you have this option under Setup/Internet/Manual.
Turn on DNS Relay under Setup/Networking.
Setup DHCP reserved IP addresses for all devices ON the router. Setup/Networking
Ensure devices are set to auto obtain an IP address.
Set Firewall settings to Endpoint Independent for TCP and UDP under Advanced/Firewall.
Enable uPnP and Multi-cast Streaming under Advanced/Networking.

Turn off all anti virus and firewall programs on PC while testing. 3rd party firewalls are not generally needed when using routers as they are effective on blocking malicious inbound traffic.
Turn off all devices accept for one wired PC while testing.

Check cable between Modem and Router and PCs, swap out to be sure. Link> Cat6 is recommended.

[olgot]

Hey Furry Nutz,

I forgot to mention that I did try disconnecting everything from the router and just plunging in one pc to a lan port to troubleshoot.

As for the rest:

01- Cable service

02- Stand alone modem

03- Sorry, forgot to post this: RCA Cable Modem  Model DHG534B

04-My modem doesn't have a built in router, so that's not really an option.

As for the things to try->

01- QoS (I didn't have gamefuel option), advanced dns services and DNS relay were all off when I was troubleshooting and I'm pretty sure they were off before the problem hit.

02-I tried reserving a DHCP adress (assigning an ip to the MAC of the ethernet card on my pc). Though it worked perfectly without DHCP reservations for two years.

03-I tried setting up my pc to auto detect the ip as well as manually inputing it (192.168.0.1 for gateway, I never changed the default address), and assigning my ip to 192.168.0.x (X means I tried various combinations of the range I knew DHCP was supposed to be giving out), subnet mask to 255.255.255.0

04-I remember that SPI was set to Port and Address Restricted for TCP and UDP before the problem hit. But I think that it might have switched to it's default setting when I reset the router

05-upNp was enabled before and after though I don't remember if Multi-cast streaming was on or off... I think I always left it in it's default setting.

06- All unnecessary devices where not present during troubleshooting (only pc and router where on and connected to each other).

07- All cables are working fine. Though they are pretty old (and long), I've been using them for probably 8+ years, but I'm using them right now to send this message as well as doing everything else I do online. I don't notice too much lag either in regular browsing or even gaming.

AT any rate, there is one important factor to consider. The router WAS working for about 2 years with absolutely no problem, connected to other 2 routers. This went on fine until suddenly last week my DIR-615 kept reseting and giving me a hell of time to access its control panel. Eventually I just gave, I simply can't get into it's control panel.

The same applied to my late DIR 600, for the first few days it also worked fine, and then suddenly stopped working (when I say suddenly I mean, that nothing was done to the router, I had it password protected with a password generated in keypass, theoretically only I was able to access it's control panel). Wireless was set to WPA2 AES, and was (as far as I know) used by ppl around here and the odd guest that would need internet access.

As for someone reseting it without me knowing... very unlikely as the ppl around here are extremely non tech-savvy.

I mean, I really don't know why all of a sudden, after all this time it would just stop working, and if that weren't enough a few days after I got a new one to replace it, it too stopped working "out of the blue".

Ohh as for a potential electrical problem: I had the router behind an APC passive surge protector. The cable that connects my modem to the outside is also plugged into this filter, so both electric and internet cables are filtered.

Anyhow, if it where an electrical problem I think my modem would have fried to, as it's also connected to the filter my old d-links were connected to. (Also if it where an electrical surge or something, the router's lights wouldn't even blink right?)

[FurryNutz]

Does this happen if you try a different PC?
I would also check your PCs NIC as well...drivers up to date? If this is a desktop PC, try a internal add on PCI NIC and see.

If your using Old cables, I would test with new one to be sure.

Very odd that you have had 2 routers basically do the same thing. Leaning towards something connected to the router thats the cause.

I might take the router to a friend, family or neighbor and just connect it to one of there PCs, do the problem follow?

If so, then Might need to RMA them.