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[norm]

I found this forum very useful when I was configuring the 890, so thought I would pass on my experience.

Equipment:
   1. Ipad air  (2.4 or 5ghz)
   2. Ipad air2  (2.4 or 5ghz)
   3. Asus laptop (LT) (2.4 ghz only)
   4. Linksys ea6400 FW 1.1.40.176337 Connected to cable modem
   5. Charter ISP:  Typical 60mbits down, 5 Mbits up.
   6. DIR-890L HW:A1  FW 1.11 (v1.11b01_beta01_g97i)  Connected to Linksys via LAN port.
   7. 890L is running in AP mode all cases.

My reason for purchasing the router was that my 2.4 ghz net signal/bandwidth was dropping on the LT along with disconnects at different times of the day.  My assessment is that I live in a neighborhood that is being developed and with the addition of new houses, ATT installing fiber (likely cordless phones with the deal), many new SSID's coming up when I search, some amount of signal interference was likely happening.  5Ghz, was ok with the ea6400, ipads ran well on this net.

890L router install went smooth (info on the forum helped).  It came with a pretty old version of the firmware that was noted to have issues, so I first upgraded the firmware to the newest version.

First setting test:  Smart connect on.   Power high.
This worked at first, but the air experienced disconnects on 5 secondary (5s), then would auto reconnect.  The air2 was ok on 5s  as was the LT on 2.4.

Second:  Same, power medium.
I read that maybe too much contention in high power mode may challenge the router as it tries to adapt to the surrounding signals.  This did not help and I did notice some range limitations.

Third:  Turn off SC mode.  Three separate nets to connect to.
LT - fine.  Still had some issues with the air on 5s.  Moved air to 5 and did not see the drop/re-connect.  The air2 was fine on 5s.

I left the configuration this way:  LT (2.4 ghz), air (5), air2 (5s). 

After 1-2 weeks noticed that I would start using the air2, net worked, then mid operation the net connectivity was gone.  Normally I can just go to the SSID for the 5s and auto connect.  However, it asked for the wpa passcode. I entered it several times correctly - failed.  POPO'd (power off, power on) the router and everything was fine.

This happened twice now, ~1-2 weeks later.  Second time I tested the system more.  LT was fine on 2.4.  I tried to connect the air2, did not connect (passcode issue as before - both 5 and 5s), but the air2 would auto connect to the 2.4 ghz net.  I then had the air2 "forget" the 5 network and it would reconnect fine after entering in the passcode.  Tried the same for 5s (forget), but did not accept the passcode.  Ended up doing a POPO.

Limited conclusions, from very limited experiments: 
   1. The air and air2 implementations vs the 890L implementation did seem to affect the reliability of the connection.  Folks may want experiment and try those devices on different nets.
   2. SC mode was not good for the ipads likely due to the air/890L issue. I would guess that in some cases the air was auto selected to be on the 5s net. 
   3. High vs medium power did not help.
   4. I have not solved the issue with the 5/5s drop/fail to sign in.  Happened twice now, will track.
   5. Plus:  bandwidth on the LT is much better.  Often went down to a few mbits DL before installing the 890L, now around 40 DL, 5UP.  5/5s are at the peak of Charter performance (60DL/5UP).

Norm

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!

• What Hardware version is your router? Look at sticker under the router case.
• Link>What Firmware version is currently loaded? Found on the routers web page under status.
• What region are you located?

Thank you for the nice details.

What version of FW was loaded on the 890L before you upgraded?
After upgrading, was a factory reset performed then set up from scratch?

[norm]

Is this the info you are looking for?

6. DIR-890L HW:A1  FW 1.11 (v1.11b01_beta01_g97i)  Connected to Linksys via LAN port.

Region:  USA, east coast.

I can not remember on the reset, I followed the instructions, so will look them up.

Norm

[norm]

Dug out my notes, I used this process w/o step 1 as I had no old configuration to save (new router).  Then set up the router from scratch.

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=42457.0

Norm

[FurryNutz]

I presume the wifi radios are disabled on the Linksys router?

[norm]

yup, the linksys router is not active on the wireless. 

Normally everything works fine.  Having done software development in the past, either some event triggers this or some type of accumulated error (like a memory leak).  These are just guesses and I only have two data points. 

I was more looking to see if the specific symptom of dropping and not being able to authenticate on one of the SSID's happened in the past like this and someone had a fix.

I will track and see if I can find some time period or event that triggers the issue.

Norm
 

[GreenBay42]

Try downgrading the firmware to 1.10 and see if the problem is still there.

[FurryNutz]

Any status on this? 

yup, the linksys router is not active on the wireless. 

Normally everything works fine.  Having done software development in the past, either some event triggers this or some type of accumulated error (like a memory leak).  These are just guesses and I only have two data points. 

I was more looking to see if the specific symptom of dropping and not being able to authenticate on one of the SSID's happened in the past like this and someone had a fix.

I will track and see if I can find some time period or event that triggers the issue.

Norm
 

[FurryNutz]

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=66984.0