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[OC-Carl]

I read Furry's DIR-826L Review posted 2/16/13.

I saw the posting in the DIR-655 forum that was transferred to this forum.

I also saw the posting in this forum by jmsre 4/11/13 that seems to imply that FW 1.03 may fix a problem with Bonjour, although this is not specifically mentioned in the release.

So before I upgrade, I want to determine if Bonjour compatibility may be expected when using the USB port of DIR-636?

If not, when?

[FurryNutz]

At this time I can't confirm the full support operation of Bonjour. I found a problem with v1.03 and v1.04 versions of FW for the 826L ad reported it to D-Link. Seems that wireless is not working correctly. At least for me.  I'm not sure if the 826L version are in the same versions for the 636L or not. I presume that there is a possibility of them having the issues seen on the 826L as I presume they are designed on a similar platform in development, being that the 636 is the 2.4Ghz only model where the 826L is the 2.4 and 5ghz model. Other features being similar so I presume there is a slight chance of the issues seen on the 826L could also be seen on the 636L.

I have been working with D-Link to help in testing and information gathering. They haven't said anything about the 636L however there development team is aware of it and working on it.

The only think I can suggest is that you give the recent version a try. You can always down grade.
Please follow this if you decide to try it:
FW Update Process

Make a Save Config to file of your current settings first. So if you upgrade and it doesn't work for you, you can downgrade then re-apply the saved configuration from file.

I don't know when or if the fixes will be forth coming. I do know that many things are going on at D-Link and they are working on getting back to the issue at hand for the 826L. I'll definitely try to find out if this effects all the L series routers or not and post information when I get it.

Keep us posted on what you decide to do and results.

[OC-Carl]

I exercised my right under the GPL with which the router firmware was distributed and downloaded the source for review.

The good news is Bonjour (aka mDNSResponder) seems to be fully implemented.  The bad news is the Apple Filing Protocol (afp) is implemented in SAMBA, a Windows centric offering, to access Apple file systems.  So when I use smb://192.168.0.1 to connect to the USB disk drive from my Mac, I am effectively communicating to the drive from the Mac Finder through Windows Explorer.  SAMBA is a way for Windows to "Explore" the Mac filesystem.

Apple products like Time Machine, et. al. don't expect there to be a Windows intermediary to communicate to a Mac disk.  What is definitely missing is "native" afp.  I should be able to connect to the USB disk device like afp://192.168.0.1 but can't as this is not directly implemented.  afp is a layer under smb that is exposed to the router user.

The question is if D-Link will expose afp to the router user and when.  My guess is that it will take many thousands of Mac users who purchase the router and discover they cannot effectively use the USB port with a Mac formatted drive to complain to D-Link for the development team to sufficiently prioritize the implementation effort.

Or I can do it myself and maybe submit the patch to D-Link for review and possible inclusion into a future firmware release.

[FurryNutz]

I'll forward this on to my contact at D-Link for there review. Can't guarantee anything. I would phone contact D-Link support, level 2 or higher and ask about this.