D-Link → [Info] DI-624 Firmware 2.52 on www.dlink.co.il site

This might be old news, but this is the first 2.52 I heard of that didn't have a Beta/Build number and that had a very recent date.

Firmware Version: 2.52 , Wed, 29 Dec 2004

»www.dlink.co.il/firmware ··· _nml.bin

Differences I've noted so far (from v2.50)

WLAN Security Modes: None WEP WPA WPA-PSK WPA2 WPA2-PSK WPA-AUTO WPA-AUTO-PSK

Something called "Wireless Jumpstart" (which I haven't investigated yet).

WMM Function: Disable Enable (with a bunch of AP and Station parameters) same as above

Improvements in NTP and Daylight Savings Time handling

They broke the DDNS page -- it might still work but it looks like hell.

The help file was not updated.

I shall test!

Alright, seems that *something* I set on the wireless page sent the router into a fit of reboots [one every 10 sec!!!].

I disabled wireless radio for now and it seems really stable.

By the way, JumpStart is the Atheros way of wireless security by the push of a button I believe. Not too effective from what ive heard.

The DDNS page has a gap at the top but otherwise should work. I recommend using IEXPLORE to config the router, since that's what they test the FW in.

Sorry for so many posts- EDIT button isn't there for me!

Solved 10sec reboot problem- DISABLE WPA! Do NOT have WPA on in this release. It's CHAOS.

EDIT: Woot, edit is there for me now.

The router took longer to reboot... but it is still doing it. I will have to turn wireless radio off =(

I tried WPA-AUTO-PSK for a while and the G520 card could not communicate with it. The G520 was detecting the unit as running WEP. I'm guessing the G650 would be the same.

Took me an hour to figure that one out (I've got 10 clients here).

What is your wireless page config?

If I have WPA on, the router has a fit =\ Same with Super-G w/ turbo.

Or basically anything involving wireless @ all...

Disable super-g altogether + set channel to 2 = fix for me. Why does this thing reboot instead of just slowing down the wireless if it has interference (assuming thats the problem)?

still trying this new firmware:)
It has many new features.
it is good until now.

Tsume
I think there a circuit on chip that saturates and initiates the reboot. They also don't control initial states at turn-on so if you pull the power you might get lucky and it will be stable until the circuit saturates again. My signal has degraded by ~ 50% and the unit has become more stable as it degrades to no signal. Also correlates with turning off super G and having more stable operation. I agee with your conclusion that we should all avoid Atheros chips but you'll have to shop carefully because their list of customers is quite long. The Airgo chips in the Belkin Pre-N is the first breath of fresh air in the company of different labels on the same hardware. But even Belkin has a new A/G router which uses the Atheros chips.
I also will avoid all Dlink products based on my overall experience with the DI-624 C2

Just tried this firmware too.

All previous settings were gone, even though the previous was 2.52 too...not a problem but I'd like to warn people about this.

First look: continuous reboots with 'Super-G without Turbo' and fixed (free ?) channel. (Did not even try other modes yet.)
Had to turn it off. Previous fw 2.52 that did work normal.

Need to do more testing

Bwuutje.

edit: ps: the paeDISCONNECT messages seem to be gone...:)

Tried it and went back to 2.50 because of the following problems.

1) WPA2 does not seem to function.
2) Encountered a 33% wireless performance reduction (47mbps down to 31mbps)
3) CTS cannot be disabled

Ted

I saw a drop in signal strength of 3-5 dbi using this firmware versus 2.50 (went from 40dbi to ~35 dbi). Doesn't sound like much but every 3 dbi doubles the range.

I used Netstumbler to check the signal. With 2.52, I get 2 entries for my router using XR. Each entry has a slightly different MAC address. With 2.50 I see only one entry using XR. Curious!

Also had a lot of disconnects with 2.52 under XR. Not so with 2.50.

Anyway I went back to 2.50. Nothing better than doing crash recovery twice in one day.

"I saw a drop in signal strength of 3-5 dbi using this firmware versus 2.50 (went from 40dbi to ~35 dbi). Doesn't sound like much but every 3 dbi doubles the range. I used Netstumbler to check the signal."

Euh..correct me if I am wrong but don't you mean from -40 to -35 dbi ? If so that means your signal improved !

Bwuutje.

in 2.50 the xr mode doesnt work, doesn't show up in the atheros scan utility, with 2.52 it acually works(shows up when you scan for networks)

You're not wrong. I should have said Signal-to-Noise Ratio.

Well I guess we have to disagree on this.

When I check the signal with Netstumbler, I see increases of 3 to 5 db with XR enabled. Of course you can't use XR with static turbo.

I seem to recall that the icon for XR doesn't appear under scan networks, but that's not enough for me to conclude the XR doesn't work in 2.50. D-Link said they added XR to 2.50 and I have to agree.

Best regards.

"You're not wrong. I should have said Signal-to-Noise Ratio."

So your signal IMPROVED by 3-5 dBi !! (Remember it's a NEGATIVE number that got less negative so...)

"I seem to recall that the icon for XR doesn't appear under scan networks, but that's not enough for me to conclude the XR doesn't work in 2.50."

What special icon ? Where ? A special icon for eXtended Range ?

Bwuutje.

I do remember. Yes, signal is a negative number (as is noise). Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) is a positive number so...the bigger the number the better. To illustrate, if your signal is -63 and noise is -100, your SNR is 37. If the signal improves by 3 db and noise is constant signal is now -60 for an SNR of 40.You can find it burried in the wireless utility that comes with the driver. There's a tab or button somewhere for scanning networks. There's an XR column which is supposed to show an icon if the router is using XR. I'm being vague because I use WZC and haven't touched a D-link or Atheros utility in months.

Yes, you could scan for XR networks using the beta Atheros driver, however if you try to use the utility on a non-capable card (AR5004+) or other capable cards, the utility will freeze everytime you start Windows.

After some further toying around I got Super-G/No Turbo back to work without have a continuous rebooting router. I decided to disable XR mode, since I wasn't using that anyway, and that did the trick.

Haven't gotten WPA2 to work yet either, I know it works with WPA(-PSK) but WPA2 is still new to me. Also still no problems with DHCP and WPA.

Bwuutje.

Hi All,

before my story, first the most important thing:

With this firmware, my DI-624 does not reboot anymore !

So thanks a lot for the link !!

I bought a DI-624 in December, not aware of the reboot problem. It did happen to me at this time, but I though I did not configure something well (DI-624 or my SpeedTouch modem). This month I had more time to look into it, and needed to as the routeur was rebooting every 5 minutes ! I can see it also from my ISP history log (the DI-624 is online for 5min30s 75% of the time then 3min for 10% of the time then 8min for 6% of the time, the rest being a bit longer). This is was with the DI-624 alone on the network (no LAN nor WLAN PC connected).
Then I tried fw 2.50 from dlink.com, which started to reboot as I was configuring it and the 2.52b39 provided by effortless, which had also some reboots.

So I am quite surprise to see this 2.52 from dlink.co.il working well up to now. I did not want to invest in 108Mbps cards for my PC's before I could trust the routeur. So I am now in 11Mbps, WEP, even if I use the default DI-624 settings: Super G Dyn, no XR.
It is up and running for 60hours now. Next good thing that makes me believe it can stay like this: with the previous firmwares the routeur had difficulties after his reboots or my manual deconnections to get back on the Internet (I often had to power off then back on my modem and routeur so that it works). With this firmware, it's always first time right. I tested it when I was setting the DDNS. After reboots (due to setting the routeur), manual disconnections or power off, the routeur is always immediately back online !

Of course I do not know what will happen if I buy some 108Mbps cards... but at least I can start thinking of buying some, while before I was thinking of giving the routeur back !

Would be nice to put the whole post as a "sticky", as this nice link and firmware will be soon lost in the middle of other posts. At least, up to now, it solved my reboot problem.

Regards,

CP

I am glad to hear that you have a working setup now.

However just to be clear and fully correct: if you are just using 11mb (802.11b) having you router setup with or without Super-G will not make any difference. Super-G is as far as I know only for 802.11a and 802.11g. (Btw: the DI-624 does not support 802.11a.)

Don't want to upset you but this also could mean that once you do get a card that uses 802.11g and/or Super-G/Turbo you might see some of the problems other users experience....

Bwuutje.

Hi Bwuutje,

I know that in my case super G does not help. Still it is on, and might already causes some problems, even without devices connected. That's why I tough it was worth to mention.

I also fully agree on your last part, as I mentioned I do not know what will happen if I buy some 108Mbps cards. The best would be to find one somewhere and test it. Anyway, I am so far now that I will maybe test it by buying one and hope that it will at least not work worse than today and that DLink will come one day with the perfect firmware

I will keep on reading this very interesting forum on the DI-624.

One more thing. I have a DWL-520+, 22Mbps capable, on another PC. Once connected to the DI-624, the DLink utility says 11Mbps, and the windows adapter says 22Mbps. I will make some tests to check who is right, but maybe someone knows the answer already... ?

cu,

CP

11 Mbps is right. The DWL-520+ needs to be talking to a TI chipset to get 22 Mbps (e.g. a DI-614+ or a DI-650+).

I have one of these DWL-520+ and a DWL-650+ (exactly the same in a PCMCIA formfactor) and both report 11 Mbps when connected to my DI-624. I am using the latest drivers ... are you?

Hi funchords,

I had a DSL-604+ in the past, that's why I have this DWL-520+. I am using the latest drivers, 3.07, from the D-Link website.
So no need to make a test.

And thanks for the firmware link. I was really getting upset by the reboots.

LOL, same story here -- except it was a DI-614+.

Earlier I said:

"if you are just using 11mb (802.11b) having you router setup with or without Super-G will not make any difference. Super-G is as far as I know only for 802.11a and 802.11g."

After some more reading I realised that while Super-(A)G is not for 802.11b but only for 802.11g (and a), it looks like some elements from Super-G, like e.g. packet bursting, actually still might improve ones throughput. Even if only the router supports it and your card does not because it's e.g. only 802.11b. So I would leave it on anyway and see if it helps. Of course you won't get the full Super-G enhancements, not to mention the Turbo...

See also: »support.dlink.com/faq/vi ··· 3#packet and »www.super-ag.com/faqs.html

Bwuutje.

Hi,

do you know the differences between this firmware from dlink.co.il, and the one that was available on the Australian website ?
From previous posts I see that they should be the same, but on some screenshots (from Tsume) I saw the 2.52 australian dated from Fri, 22 Oct 2004, while mine (co.il) is dated from Wed, 29 Dec 2004 !

For reference: »New firmware for DI-624: 2.52

Thanks.

This firmware (29 Dec 2004) seems to be working OK so far. No more paeDISCONNECT messages. Can't say much about stability yet, except that I can confirm that enabling the XR mode causes constant reboots.

Well, I am using the co.il one because I though it was the most advanced. I discovered yesterday the Australian one on another forum and a guy who tested it said it is surely very stable (no reboot) with turbo off.
On my side, I saw a huge improvement with the 2.52.co.il compared to 2.42 and 2.50. I had like 3 reboots in one week, but still three.
That's why I ask the difference between those two firmwares. The Australian one is 2.52b37.
Also with this recent post from funchords I though the co.il firmware was a new one, but then I find in this forum and on another one that it came out in November 2004. As I mentionned, mine states December 2004. So I get confused with all these firmwares now.

By the way, is there a way to see which build we are using ?? The routeur pages only diplay the firmware number, not the build, as far as I saw.