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Anyone with D-Link issues?

B

Bake151

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2007
17
0
Upstate, NY
First let me say that after weeks of trying to decide if I shoud buy now or wait, I decided to buy a new MacBook. I was using an old clamshell (lime green 466). It was time. I'm very happy with my purchase.

Here's the problem: I just had WildBlue satellite service installed, which I'm happy with (only option besides dial-up at no higher than 26,400). I also hooked into the system a D-Link DI-624 wireless router. When the router is in the loop, my connection keeps cutting out (not only to the MacBook, wirless, but to my iMac also which is connected by ethernet cable). I'm wondering if anyone else is having problems with a D-Link router. I've looked on D-Link's site for troubleshooting but nothing seems to work. Tried unplugging both router and modem, then plugging one in, then the other so that they match up". Could some settings be off? I'll be calling D-Link but I wanted to post here first since I got so much good info in the past here. Plus I figured, I'd better join and start posting. Hoping someone out there might have some sort of answer for me. Thanks!!

Bake
 
Yes! I have a D-Link model DIR-625. My MB uses it wirelessly and my 2 PCs are connected to it with ethernet cables. Every other day (or so) the connection cuts out in some way. Sometimes just one computer can't connect to the Internet, and sometimes none can connect, and I think every now and then the network/file sharing connection drops and there seems to be no pattern to it. The only thing that works for me is to power cycle (unplug, replug) the router and/or the cable modem. It drives me nuts but I haven't yet got the time to sit down and troubleshoot it. I am looking forward to reading a possible solution on this thread!
 
I don't have a DLINK router, I have a netgear, and I hate it for the same reason you both have. Although not as often, it drops connections every other day, but only the wireless kind.

Other than the loss of connection issue, do you like the router? I set up specific IPs to each mac address that connects to the router so only my 4 computers can connect to it. Sometimes it doesn't even honor it! it's pretty unreliable after I make changes to it.

Any issues like that? I'm considering getting a new router as well, and i was thinking about a DLINK.
 
Bake151 said:
After looking at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/dlink~days=30 it appears that we're not the only ones with problems. It almost seems that the D-Link mght be the problem. Maybe I'll look at a different router or should I just get an Airport?
Click to expand...
Yep, for what it's worth I also have a D-Link 624 and have had issues with dropouts, connection issues, dropouts on other wireless devices and after 40mins onto AppleCare they said it must be a router issue. They gave me the number of D-Link but when I dialled it I got a number not available signal. It doesn't appear to be just D-Link though, as I swapped over to a brand-new Belkin N router and that (the MacBook) wouldn't connect at all with the correct SSID and password supplied. So I put back in the D-Link.

This is my first Apple purchase and if it wasn't for these wireless issues I'd have been well impressed. As it stands at the moment all I keep thinking of is that slogan, 'it just works'. Yeh, right...
 
I have DLink DI-624 at home and in my office (I have also talked relatives into buying this wireless router). I haven't had any problems, nor have my relatives. This was true BEFORE the recent security update. Now, my signal isn't dropped, but it fails to automatically load at startup and requires several attempts to connect. Is anyone else having this problem?
 
D-Link products are notorious for this, it's not an isolated incident. I once owned a DI-524 with the same issues and returned it after a few days when I got sick of the router 'rebooting'.

Your only option is getting another router - I'd recommend the Linksys WRT54G, that's what I bought. It's my 2nd Linksys router (the other being a wired BEFSR41) and I've never had a single problem with Linksys routers in well over 6 years of ownership. :)
 
I have had two DLink Routers and have set several up for friends. I think I even have your model DI-624. Anyways there are three steps you need to take to make the DLink more reliable.

1. Download and install the latest firmware for your router. DLink has a really bad habit of sending products out with buggy firware.

http://support.dlink.com/default.asp?orig=1#

Just select your model at the bottom of the page. Then select your revision on the next. If firmware updates are available they will show up in a section marked firmware.

2. In your wireless settings for your router change the default channel (usually 6) to something else. As most anyone in your neighborhood will more than likely be using channel six causing some interference.

3. In your DHCP settings select each of your computers and assign them a static IP address. You can also set this address in your computers network settings to connect quicker when booting or waking from sleep.

Some quirks I have noticed with Macs and DLink. If your internet browser is left on all the time, even if no windows are open, it will lose its network connection. Which can not be re-established without rebooting the Mac, since I do not know how to restart the network adapter on Macs.

If your internet connection goes down, not your network connection. The best way to power cycle is to unplug the power for both the broadband modem and the router. Wait 2 minutes. Power up the modem only. Give the modem 2 minutes to auto negotiate, assuming it will do so and does not require DNS, user and password information from the router. Then power up the router. This way the modem can connect to your internet provider without your router interfering.

I do not know if these quirks and procedures are only with DLink products as I have not bothered with other companies routers.

Hopefully this helps.
 
The problems Bake is having is the router - it doesn't have to deal with the radio channel, DHCP or any of that stuff.

You can try updating the firmware but no guarantee that will fix your problem. In my case, mine shipped with the most updated firmware and the POS still rebooted every 5-10 minutes. I even tried re-flashing the firmware and it did nothing.

The router doesn't disconnect from your broadband, it completely reboots. As in - shuts off and turns itself back on again. Stare at the lights on the front next time...you'll see. :eek:

Welcome to the wonderful world of D-Link products. They are garbage. :p

If you can return it to the store, that's your best bet. If you're past the point of a store return, you can contact D-Link support but I doubt they'll do anything aside from shipping you a replacement router that does the same thing. :confused:

I have a 100% success with Linksys products. Other people have good experience with Netgear (although not me). Overall - D-Link products are usually more "miss" than "hit" and I'd wager that anytime I've seen someone complain of router problems, it's a D-Link router they're using. /shrug
 
I too had a similar experience with a D-Link DI-624 when an AirPort update was released back in early March. After that update, neither my MacBook nor my iMac (Intel) would connect via Wi-Fi at all any longer. After about an hour of troubleshooting, I went out and bought a cheap $35 Belkin G router just so I could see for sure if the problem was with the router or with the AirPort software update.

After getting the new router home and hooking it up, both systems connected via wireless to the new Belkin immediately. It's been almost 2 full months now since, and I've still not had a single wireless dropout at all with the new router, so it's obvious that the DI-624 was definitely the problem in my situation.
 
How depressing! If I had known that D-Link had these issues I never would have purchased mine, which is past the return date. However, I only bought it little over a month ago and am not about to buy another wireless router. I do regret not getting Airport Extreme bc I would like to have the ability to plug in a peripheral (external HD) to the router and can't with mine. By the way, I updated the firmware for my model (DIR-625) a while back and it did nothing.
 
I have a D-Link DIR-625 and it works fine with both my iMac and my MacBook, however, when I first got it, neither of my computers would connect when I had WEP turned on, I had to switch to WPA and now they both work fine.

I did have problems with an older D-Link router that would restart any time a Mac tried to connect to it. It was a firmware problem that D-Link never released a fix for.
 
coffeegonecold said:
I have a D-Link DIR-625 and it works fine with both my iMac and my MacBook, however, when I first got it, neither of my computers would connect when I had WEP turned on, I had to switch to WPA and now they both work fine.

I did have problems with an older D-Link router that would restart any time a Mac tried to connect to it. It was a firmware problem that D-Link never released a fix for.
Click to expand...
Just to add to my above post; Mine is set up for WPA2 PSK with a 40 digit password. Powering up the MacBook from a cold start and it always seems to connect after about 10-15secs. From sleep it appears to be 50-50 whether it decides to connect or not.

Another issue I've noticed: Fire up iTunes and it shows my shared iTunes library on my NAS, but play a song from off of this drive and the entry disappears and the music stops after about 10seconds. A right PITA...

And I'm sure everything was working okay before I added the updates, both wireless and 10.4.9, so go figure.
 
coffeegonecold said:
I have a D-Link DIR-625 and it works fine with both my iMac and my MacBook, however, when I first got it, neither of my computers would connect when I had WEP turned on, I had to switch to WPA and now they both work fine.

I did have problems with an older D-Link router that would restart any time a Mac tried to connect to it. It was a firmware problem that D-Link never released a fix for.
Click to expand...

That is the model I have (D-Link DIR-625) and I am also using WPA, not WEP so I wonder why this problem persists with my network and not yours? Maybe it isn't the router but something else?
 
sunsnewmac said:
That is the model I have (D-Link DIR-625) and I am also using WPA, not WEP so I wonder why this problem persists with my network and not yours? Maybe it isn't the router but something else?
Click to expand...

That is rather strange. What specific systems are you running on the network?

Does anyone run the DI-634M with Mimo? I set that router up for a friend and it seems to work fine with his MacBook Pro.
 
I thought I would also add my experience with DLink routers I initially bought the DI-624 and it worked fine for about a year, but then one day started reseting randomly, which would cause the net connection to drop momentarily. I contacted DLink RMA and had them send me out another one which was a newer revision but this one only lasted one week before it started reseting itself every 10 min or so.

So I decided it was a good time to switch over to a different company. Ive had my Linksys WRT54 router for over 9 months now and its been working great. No randomly dropped connections...the way it should work.
 
coffeegonecold said:
That is rather strange. What specific systems are you running on the network?
Click to expand...
My MB connects to the router wirelessly. I have two desktop PCs that connect to it with an ethernet cable.
I had no idea that different brands would affect connectivity like this~why do some brands work better than others?
 
Same problem with a different D-Link router. It works on ethernet but wireless sucks on my mac. My parents use it on their PCs fine. I plugged in a different router into the D-Link one and now wireless works fine on the new router.
 
Well, I did the firmware update for the router last night and it's made the problem worse. Instead of getting the signal dropped every so often it now drops in less than 5 minutes. I've tried changing the channel, thinking interference, but it drops my signal strength, even sitting within 10 feet of the router. I've now taken the router out of my system. I'll call D-Link tonight, but I doubt they can do anything. I won't be able to run my MacBook at home for a while, but I'll just have to deal. After taking the router out of my system, my iMac hasn't dropped connection once so it's definetly a router problem and the firmware upgrade has made it worse.
 
Sigh - i was hoping i was in time to save you from updating that firmware. It killed ours - we bought a Belkin because in order to go back to old firmware, you have to talk to level 2 tech. They work monday-friday 8-5. This was on Saturday afternoon.....

It was working FINE with everything but the new MacBook Pro and MacPro. OH, and my mom's XP wired machine.

We ended up replacing the Belkin with an Apple (the Belkin had heat issues) and have been running fine ever since.

I think i posted all the steps we did to try to fix it..... and it was 2 dLinks we were having issues with too. A 500 series, then the 624. UGH.
 
I can't believe D-Link is still in business after all the complaints I've seen on their products. :confused: :(

I have no idea how reliable their other network hardware is (for instance - wireless cards) but I know I'd never bother with their stuff based on my terrible experience with their routers.

Sorry to hear about everyone's problems...:eek:
 
My mac mini would never connect to the D-Link router unless ALL encryption was off.. so I got a linksys, haven't had any trouble with it anymore, and thusly can clam I have "no d-link issues". At least not anymore ;)
 
D-Link DI-624

Me, too. My MacBook wouldn't stay connected, then would have trouble finding and connecting to the network. I use a DSL service, no static IP. I updated the firmware, tried no security, WEP, WPA, both with various encryptions, assigning static DHCP IPs, all to no avail.

Finally, solved all of the problems -- I bought an AEBS. Now my MacBook, two TiVos connected by wireless USB adapters, two HP laptops and two hard-wired PCs all get along fine. I do use the network-shared hard drive capability, but haven't tried the network-shared printer. Yet.
 
Thanks everyone for the responses. I'm sending the D-Link back tomorrow. I'm either buying a Linksys or just puttng the money out for Apple's Airport. The other option for me is I could buy a non-wireless router and run a couple cables to different spots, although I give up the freedom of wireless. Will decide later today. Thanks again for the help.
 
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