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[anijatsu]

Hello. Since a few days ago I've started to get a weird issue with my DIR-600 router. I've checked that it's occurring on the router level, since when I connect my PC directly to the modem the problem isn't there.
First off, since ever I started using this router, I had issues watching video streams on the twitch.TV website. The stream would stutter every ten seconds or so, and the network usage didn't reach anywhere close to my ISP's provided network speed, which is 20Mbps download/1Mbps upload. All I've seen was twitch using constant 2Mbps and little to no upload bandwidth. After resetting the router's settings however, the problem disappeared for a certain time, which I'm not sure if is connected with me doing something.
The bandwidth usage pattern also changed. Twitch now downloaded data in bursts of 8Mbps, transferring no data every other second. The stream was working smoothly and without any stutters or buffering, same as if I'd be connected directly to the modem.

The main issue however, as I don't necessarily watch streams every day, is the packet loss that started to happen for 3 to 6 seconds without any discernible reason. It's happening every half of an hour or so and I can't find the trigger that causes it, but it's most noticeable in video games: Diablo 3, Dota 2, Battlefield 4, Team Fortress 2. It isn't an issue with the PC as I never had that using the modem alone. I've also switched the ethernet cables around to no avail.

The network setup in my house isn't very complicated.
I've got cable Internet that is converted by the aforementioned modem:
"Cisco 2100" - model revision EPC2100R3, P/n 4028386, H/w rev: 3.0, Date of mfg: 04/11
It goes further by a patch cord cable to the D-Link router:
D-Link DIR-600 - P/n EIR600EEU....B5E (sic) H/W ver: 55 Ver. 2.12 (updated to the latest firmware found on D-link's support site which is 2.17 beta). Packet loss occurred before and after the firmware update.
I use it for a single laptop by wi-fi, however packet loss occurs whether or not the laptop is even on, and for my main PC which uses the integrated Gigabyte Ethernet network chipset provided by Realtek (motherboard is ASUS P8H61-M LX2).

I've done most of the tips provided in this topic, as not every one of them is available for my router: http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=54498.0
However, after resetting the settings AND enabling Multicast Streams under ADVANCED/ADVANCED NETWORK SETTINGS, the twitch problem started happening again and the network usage while watching streams didn't exceed steady 2Mbps. Disabling the setting and restarting the router afterwards didn't help.

I will appreciate any help with this situation.

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!

• What region are you located?
• Was a Factory Reset performed before and after any firmware updates then set up from scratch?

FW Update Process

Does the Laptop exhibit the same issue when LAN wired to the router?

Router and Wired Configurations
Some things to try: - Log into the routers web page at 192.168.0.1. Use IE, Opera or FF to manage the router. Besure to log into the Admin account on the router.

• Turn off ALL QoS or Disable Traffic Shaping (DIR only) GameFuel (DGL only and if ON.) options, Advanced/QoS
• Turn off Advanced DNS Services if you have this option under Setup/Internet/Manual or under Setup/PARENTAL CONTROL/Set to>None: Static IP or Obtain Automatically From ISP.
• Enable or Disable Use Unicasting (compatibility for some ISP DHCP Servers) and test under Setup/Internet/Manual. Disable may help with speed performance on higher speed ISP services.
• Turn off DNS Relay  under Setup/Networking. Link>Finding Faster DNS Addresses using Name Bench and input new DNS addresses under Setup/Internet/Manual.
• Setup DHCP reserved IP addresses for all devices ON the router. Setup/Networking. This ensures each devices gets its own IP address when turned on and connected, eliminates IP address conflicts and helps in troubleshooting and maintain consistency for applications that need to connect as well as mapped drives.
• Ensure devices are set to auto obtain an IP address.
• If IPv6 is an option on the router, select Local Connection Only under Setup/IPv6.
• Set Firewall settings to Endpoint Independent for TCP and UDP under Advanced/Firewall. Enable or Disable SPI to test.
• Enable uPnP and Multi-cast Streaming under Advanced/Networking. Disable uPnP for testing Port Forwarding rules. Enable IPv6 Multi-cast Streaming for routers that have a Media Server option. Disable IPv6 Multi-cast Streaming if IPv6 or Media Server is not being used.
• Set current Time Zone, Date and Time. Use an NTP Server feature. The DST setting is only needed in the NA region. Tools/Time.

Wireless Configurations
Links>Wireless Installation Considerations and Managing Signal Congestion and Good Neighbour Policy

• Ensure the default (dlink) SSID name is changed. Can be anything and not something that's already in use by any neighboring WiFi routers. Under Setup/Wireless/Manual.
• What wireless modes are you using?
• 2.4Ghz Routers only: Try single mode G or N or mixed G and N?
• Channel Width set for Auto 20/40Mhz or try 20Mhz only.
• Try setting a manual Channel to a open or unused channel. 1, 6 or 11. 11 for single mode N if the channel is clear. 13 for EU regions.
• What security mode are you using? Preferred security is WPA-Personal. WPA2/AES Only. Some WiFi adapters don't support AES, so you might want to try TPIK only or Auto TPIK and AES.
• What wireless devices do you have connected?
• Any 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz cordless house phones or WiFi APs near by?
• Any other WiFi routers in the area? Link> Use InSSIDer to find out. How many?
• If you have any of these options, Try turning OFF or ON Short GI, WLAN Partition, Extra Wireless Protection and HT 20/40 Co-existence if you have it. Also testing with HT20/40Mhz Co-existence enabled will impact results as well. I prefer to use this option OFF. Recommended settings are default. Under Advanced/Advanced Wireless.

Router Placement
Forum User - "Well I feel really dumb. After moving the router away from other electronic devices my speeds are back to normal. Just a heads up for anyone experiencing slow speeds, you might want to move it away from other electronics and see if that helps."
3-6' feet minimum safe distance between devices.
Placement on main level floor and central in the building and WELL ventilated is preferred. Not in basements or closets as building materials, or near by electronics devices could interfere or hinder good signal propagation.

PC 3rd Party Security Software Configurations

• 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 LAN PC while testing.
• Disable any downloading client software managers, i.e. Torrents or similar.

Please answer questions so we can get a better idea of your situation and give you better feedback and suggestions.

[anijatsu]

I'm in central part of Poland. I didn't reset the factory settings before applying the firmware upgrade, I did it after I noticed problems.
I'll check how the laptop works when plugged in wired to the router in a moment. Afterwards I'll try to upload the firmware once again but with resetting the settings before and afterwards.
From the tips sections I've applied everything and it didn't seem the help. I'm still pondering on why enabling Multicast Streams caused problems to twitch streams.

[FurryNutz]

Just to confirm that you got your FW file from this location?
http://www.dlink.com/pl/pl/support/product/dir-600-wireless-n-150-home-router?revision=deu_revb1b2

I have seen some issues with Multi-Cast features, In most cases enabling it shouldn't effect streaming and should help it.

Please provide feedback for the questions presented so we can get an idea of what you tried and what the settings are currently.

Thank you.

[anijatsu]

Yes, I've downloaded exactly this firmware version.
I've checked a stream from twitch.tv for 30 minutes on this laptop but connected through the cable and it still has packet loss going on. I've opened the video playback stats under the right click menu of the flash player and noted the stream buffer going down five times during that half of an hour, for .5 to 2 seconds. It looked like this when it occurred: http://imgur.com/DFsfvOe.png
I wasn't able to check any multiplayer games as the laptop's too old and it's running Ubuntu 14.04.
I've reset the settings to check if anything would change, however it did not, so I proceeded with flashing the firmware once again. It went successfully and no errors occurred, but the issue was still present, even after I reset settings.

• Turn off ALL QoS or Disable Traffic Shaping (DIR only) GameFuel (DGL only and if ON.) options, Advanced/QoS

QoS is disabled by default, so nothing to do here.

• Turn off Advanced DNS Services if you have this option under Setup/Internet/Manual or under Setup/PARENTAL CONTROL/Set to>None: Static IP or Obtain Automatically From ISP.

I can't find that, there's no such option as "Advanced DNS Services".

• Enable or Disable Use Unicasting (compatibility for some ISP DHCP Servers) and test under Setup/Internet/Manual. Disable may help with speed performance on higher speed ISP services.

Can't find that either.

• Turn off DNS Relay  under Setup/Networking. Link>Finding Faster DNS Addresses using Name Bench and input new DNS addresses under Setup/Internet/Manual.

Done that, I'm not sure if it's done anything. I use Google DNS servers, that's 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

• Setup DHCP reserved IP addresses for all devices ON the router. Setup/Networking. This ensures each devices gets its own IP address when turned on and connected, eliminates IP address conflicts and helps in troubleshooting and maintain consistency for applications that need to connect as well as mapped drives.

Have done that before, it didn't seem to make a difference.

• Ensure devices are set to auto obtain an IP address.

Done that as well.

• If IPv6 is an option on the router, select Local Connection Only under Setup/IPv6.

There isn't an option in the droplist that's called like that, I chose "Link-local only".

• Set Firewall settings to Endpoint Independent for TCP and UDP under Advanced/Firewall. Enable or Disable SPI to test.

Can't find the "Endpoint independent" anywhere, I only have SPI, DMZ and firewall rules. I've left SPI disabled.

• Enable uPnP and Multi-cast Streaming under Advanced/Networking. Disable uPnP for testing Port Forwarding rules. Enable IPv6 Multi-cast Streaming for routers that have a Media Server option. Disable IPv6 Multi-cast Streaming if IPv6 or Media Server is not being used.

I don't need uPnP for now, so I disabled it. I tried switching Multicast streams between on and off but it didn't help.

• Set current Time Zone, Date and Time. Use an NTP Server feature. The DST setting is only needed in the NA region. Tools/Time.

Done that - set it to automatically synchronize with Dlink's NTP server.


I've checked the MTU by using the ping command with example parameters being -f -l 1500 google.com, then dropping the value until it no longer notified me that the packets were fragmented. I found out that 1472 is the largest allowed MTU one. I've set it in the router's settings and my OS (Windows 8.1, used TCPOptimizer from speedguide.net) but it seems to not have helped either (checked with Team Fortress 2 and of course twitch).[/list]

[FurryNutz]

I recommend that you test a different and more up to date DIR series router and see if the problem still happens or not. It maybe that this model router might not be able to handle this kind of networking application. It's one of D-Link low end home routers and basically meant for just surfing, emails and maybe some basic video streaming from places like youtube.

Try something from this list if available:
http://www.dlink.com/pl/pl/home-solutions/connect/routers

[anijatsu]

I'd rather not buy a new, more expensive router not just because of financial reasons, but also because I did not have issues with packet loss at least in games earlier on. I'd be fine if I could at least fix that single instance of the problem which could've been triggered somehow.

Back on the topic I noticed that the packet loss on the laptop when it's connected through wi-fi doesn't occur at the same time that it happens on PC. I'm also not sure if it doesn't happen rarer on the laptop after all.

[FurryNutz]

Are all HW drivers for the LT and the PC up to date?

[anijatsu]

I'm pretty sure the PC drivers are up to date as there is no updates for the NIC on the ASUS' support website. Does LT mean laptop in this case? If so, it is updated as well.

[FurryNutz]

Yes, LT means Laptop. You may want to check with the individual Mfr for updates drivers and support, i.e. Realtek, Broadcom, Nvidia, AMD, places like that for up to date drivers just in case.

[anijatsu]

I've checked in the motherboard's manual and the NIC chipset is Realtek 8111E. I've installed seemingly universal drivers from the Realtek's page that's over here, but the problem still persists. I've checked by playing Diablo 3 and the network froze a few times for around 4 seconds.

[anijatsu]

It seems to have calmed down slightly after I turned on SSID masking, but it still occurs from time to time. I'm still trying to change the settings around and see what impact do they have. I've noticed that when the connection issues occur, I get logged out off the router's admin page with an error saying "InitGeneral() Failed!".

[FurryNutz]

Possible that you may have a bad unit...Keep us posted.

You might try a reload of FW code, do a factory reset, send the FW file, factory reset once again then set up from scratch. Use IE or FF with out any add-ons enabled.