GrtCornholio
join:2004-01-09
Tustin, CA
|  DI-624 revision C New Firmware!
There is a new firmware version available on the US Support Site, version 2.36. Anyone brave enough to give it a go? I will probably try to flash tonight after work. Let's see if this firmware does anything positive!!!!!
Here is where you can get it:
»support.dlink.com/products/view.···4%5FrevC
I noticed that 2.28 is not posted anymore, hmmmm...:D
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I am the Great Cornholio! |
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kpiskin
join:2004-01-20
Virginia Beach, VA | That's weird I just checked about 30 minutes ago. I'm willing to do it, but it doesn't say it's an XR upgrade. |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
 ·T-Mobile VoIP
| reply to GrtCornholio
Have to watch out for my impulsiveness -- saw your post and immediately clicked the link to look at the new download. Will probably download it, but thinking I'll let somebody else be the guinea pig. I've had my DI-624 for just a few days, and only just got it working properly today. Will post details in another thread -- all the various posts about problems with these WAPs/Routers led me in SO many wrong directions, and the actual problem turned out to be something totally different that does NOT, after all, reflect badly on D-Link. Details in the next thread...
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-- Jonazen -- |
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WallyThacker
The Central Scrutinizer
join:2002-02-12
Canada
| I'm slamming this puppy in as fast as I can. I could care less if I totally hose my 624. I'll just swap it for a 624 C when I have time.
I'll report back ASAP. Grr, my 624 is an AP. I'll have to dick around a bit and configure it as the router. Take me some more time.
Cheers
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"Our criminal institutions are full of little creeps like you who do wrong things, and many of them were driven to these crimes by a horrible force, called MUSIC" Frank Zappa, Joe's Garage |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| reply to jonazen
Lessons learned: connecting a DWL-G520 & DI-624
I'm not entirely new to WiFi -- I have a couple of Linksys 802.11b WAP's in the basement, neither of which ever seemed to manage more than 10 to 15 ft of usable range -- but from what I've read, that's probably a combination of the state of technology a few years back and the fact that the WAP was in a basement corner, near a couple of cement block walls with nothing but earth on the other side soaking up signal.
Anyway - moved all our pc's upstairs a few days ago. Snaked the Comcast cable (rg59) up through the wall from the basement and hooked up a jack on the first floor, and ran out to pick up a DWL-G520 for my wife's PC (at the other end of the house, and a DI-624 -- my pc's are all wired right into the 624, so the wireless part of this is primarily for my wife (I've also got a DWL-G650 waiting for my laptop to return from the shop, but that's next week's adventure).
Turned on the DI-624 and immediately downloaded the latest firmware, installed the DWL-G520 and downloaded the latest driver and installed. Had what appeared to be a good setup in short order. Oddly, though, my wife noticed that although we appeared to average about a 60% signal strength, the connection would "disappear" a few times a day.
As I continued setting up the new arrangement, I added a couple of UPS's at my end of the setup and in my wife's office. I also started reading dozens of posts and articles about WiFi, 802.11G, D-Link ExtremeG, etc. I became increasingly convinced that I would have to return the equipment and search for an alternative.
I thought that perhaps the signal strength had to be better, so I added a 6db omnidirectional antenna to the DI-624 (from Hawking, about $29), and a 6db directional antenna to the DWL-G520 -- sits on my wife's desk and is aimed at the access point. The signal now hovered near 98% most of the time. But it STILL kept dropping the connection.
Hmmm... So I started to think that maybe it was the Windows Zero Config service, or perhaps the WiFi WPA security patch that had been messing up other people's connections. Maybe one of the more obscure settings in the router, and I spent hours trying various experiments. No matter what I did, I got to the point where, despite a 90% or better signal most of the time, the connection wouldn't stay up for more than a couple of minutes at a time.
Finally called D-Link support, described the situation. The tech confirmed that neither the bluetooth hub nor the 5.8 gHz phones in the room should have any effect on the WiFi connection. He walked me through a few questions, and immediately said, "Interference" -- most likely from a poorly shielded surge protector and/or the UPS's. As a matter of fact, I HAD just put the big UPS behind my wife's desk just before the connection became totally dreadful today. Hmmm...
Anyway - the immediately suggestion was to try turning off the Extreme G 108 (aaak!), as it requires me to stay on Channel 6, where I'm most likely getting my interference. I switched to Channel 11 (reluctantly giving up my 108 mode in the process), and the connection has been rock solid for the past 6 hours -- not a single hiccup (and that's after not staying up for more than 1 or 2 mins at a time prior to that).
I'll be experimenting with eliminating sources of interference later on when I have the time -- e.g., taking out the UPS's, replacing the surge protectors, etc. On principle, I'd like to have the Extreme G mode back again, since that's what I paid for. But for now, I'm getting an excellent connection in 54 mbps mode. and that's still 18 times faster than my cable modem connection. The only downside will be transferring large files across the LAN, amd perhaps printing large graphic images across the LAN (or streaming video from one room to another??? not this week...).
Anyway -- just wanted to share the experience. I've read SO many posts in the last couple of days in which people had bad experiences, trashed the hardware and the vendor, and perhaps -- just perhaps -- could have been experiencing something on the order of what I experienced. There's SO much info out that is SO hard to validate against your own installation sometimes, that it's very easy to jump to conclusions about vendors, hardware, etc, and be very wrong. Net results for me: the D-Link seems like a good solid product, but the atheros ExtremeG seems perhaps a bit sensitive to outside interference -- hopefully some experimentation will let me use it again, but it's not a huge loss if I'm "stuck" with regular G.
Also: add-on antennas are SO simple, and make a huge difference in signal strength. Hawking claims that with a 6db antenna on the access point and one on the pc, you can conceivably get something like 2500 ft of usable range (I'm assuming that's with no intervening walls, trees, etc.). If you've got a low signal, consider adding a $29 antenna (or one at each end) -- could be the difference between a terrible connection and one that's quite good. 
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-- Jonazen -- |
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slavaluk
join:2000-01-26
Los Angeles, CA | It's interesting how they removed the 2.28 firmware, as if it never existed. |
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WallyThacker
The Central Scrutinizer
join:2002-02-12
Canada
4 edits | reply to GrtCornholio
Re: DI-624 revision C New Firmware!
2.36 firmware loaded fine, *but* of course returned the router to the default settings. No problem thinks I, just reload my config file which I created prior to the flash update.
I got a CFG Checksum error. All my config file(s)are useless. For f*ck sakes Dlink can't do anything right. Now I have to re-key all the variables (MACS, rules, everything I can remember) again by hand. I had a boatload of settings.
I'm not pleased. YMMV.
I just read the post below. WTF? Not so with my other brands.
I'll report more as I learn more. |
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joelinsf
join:2003-12-26
San Francisco, CA | config files can only be loaded into the same version they were saved from. 614+ is the same way, and my guess is that all the D-Link routers are that way.
Anxious to hear the results of this new firmware. Not holding my breath though. |
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SoCal99
join:2004-01-22
| reply to jonazen
Re: Lessons learned: connecting a DWL-G520 & DI-624
Jonazen, great post with lots of detail but its a little off topic here, A new post would of been much better for this subject. But since you're here just a couple of thoughts.
Dlink supports wants you to disable super g that's why they say the issue is interference and tell you to change channels (which forces you to disable super g).
Super G is not only suppose to increase speed but also distance. You were able to increase the signal buy adding ~$60 of additional hw to get that increased signal (Almost the cost of the router).
The point is, most people that are having problems here (like reboots and dropped connections) only happen with super g enabled. I'm glad that Dlink had you disable super g and it solved your problem and that you can live with that solution. But most us paid extra for the super g features and can't live with disabling it.
Remember that at the 54Mbps setting you will never see 54Mbps in real life, and at 1080Mbps the best that test have shown was 24.7Mbps (see attached link »www.Dlink.com/products/DI-624/ne···ward.asp)
The real test would be if you could temporary disable the ups/etc and enable super g and see if you can still hold the connection. Dlink's bet is that you'll leave super g disabled and call it a day. I know that's what they did went they want me to disable super g to change channels off of channel six. |
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Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL
| reply to WallyThacker
Re: DI-624 revision C New Firmware!
That problem with the checksum error occurs on all firmware updates for any revision of the 624. The config file will only work on the same firmware version it was created with. I've reported it everytime and I guess they still haven't fixed it. Maybe if more people called or emailed tech support about this they would finally fix it. |
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slavaluk
join:2000-01-26
Los Angeles, CA
| reply to joelinsf
said by joelinsf  :
Anxious to hear the results of this new firmware. Not holding my breath though.
My Rev. C1 that used to reboot every 3-4 minutes in Super G mode with the 2.28 FW, seemes to stop rebooting with 2.36, BUT... It started dropping connection to my laptop with DWL-G650 every few minutes. Also, in the same way, it drops connection to my Axim X3i (802.11b.)
Also, signal seems to be weaker with 2.36.
Just my initial observations... |
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WallyThacker
The Central Scrutinizer
join:2002-02-12
Canada | reply to GrtCornholio
I'm not putting my POS in as a router until I hear more, like the exploits reboot bug has been fixed. Somebody try the exploits tests at pcflank and report back. |
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kpiskin
join:2004-01-20
Virginia Beach, VA | The website does not say that 2.36 is an XR update. |
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WallyThacker
The Central Scrutinizer
join:2002-02-12
Canada
1 edit | Ya, I noticed that also, considering the fw date is Feb 10th. The XR wasn't promised till mid-Feb, which probably means mid-March. I am hoping 2.36 is a major bug-fix beta update for the XR release.
Informally, my signal is down a bit with 2.36 
I'm still hoping the exploits tests come back positive.
If not, off I go to Staples to hand this junk back and go with an all USR package. |
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joelinsf
join:2003-12-26
San Francisco, CA | reply to kpiskin
I've replaced my 624 with a Buffalo, so I've got nothing to lose trying it out. When I get home I'll update it and give it a whirl. |
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SoCal99
join:2004-01-22
| reply to slavaluk
Re: Lessons learned: connecting a DWL-G520 & DI-624
said by slavaluk :
It's interesting how they removed the 2.28 firmware, as if it never existed.
Yea but currently 2.28 is still on the ftp site if anyone needs to reinstall it after 2.36  |
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kpiskin
join:2004-01-20
Virginia Beach, VA
| reply to joelinsf
Re: DI-624 revision C New Firmware!
I was split between netgear and d-link after comparing them against the USR equipment. I didn't like that the USR8054 didn't have WPA. Reviews also reported lack of 24/7 support, poor router interface and lack of ability to add firewall rules. The other thing that kind of sold me on D-Link was that their gear used the atheros chipset which supported "potential" Super-G compatibility with other atheros equipped wireless units like netgear, unlike USR which uses a TI chipset if I remember correctly. |
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slavaluk
join:2000-01-26
Los Angeles, CA
| reply to slavaluk
said by slavaluk :
My Rev. C1 that used to reboot every 3-4 minutes in Super G mode with the 2.28 FW, seemes to stop rebooting with 2.36, BUT... It started dropping connection to my laptop with DWL-G650 every few minutes. Also, in the same way, it drops connection to my Axim X3i (802.11b.)
Also, signal seems to be weaker with 2.36.
Just my initial observations...
2.36 is constantly dropping the connection with Super G enabled as well as disabled. |
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ksanders165
join:2000-08-06
Graysville, AL
| reply to kpiskin
said by kpiskin :
The website does not say that 2.36 is an XR update.
What is the XR update that everyone is referring to? |
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sekim
Premium,MVM
join:1999-08-17
Saint Petersburg, FL | What is the XR update that everyone is referring to?
»presslink.dlink.com/pr/?prid=134 |
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