DI-624 opinion

I just baught this wireless router because it had a great special on
it, and because of the speed advertised. I did some research on google
and seems a lot of people have been having connection stability
problems and weak signals.
I baught it to use with a future laptop purchase I will be making.
My questions are:
are the problems people state with this product still occuring or are
the newer models OK?
I baught this thing for it's advertised speed, but if I understand it
correctly you need a special d-link laptop card in order to take
advantage of the speed. Most laptops now already have a wireless card
built in so I doubt I will buy another card. So is this unit really
worth it in speed compared to others, if using the original laptop
wireless system?
I have 30 days to test it but don't know if I will have my laptop by
then so I am wondering if I should take it out of the box or bring it
back, and wait for a linksys or netgear to come on special.
Thanks in advance.

On 23-Sep-2005, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I just baught this wireless router because it had a great special on
> it, and because of the speed advertised. I did some research on google
> and seems a lot of people have been having connection stability
> problems and weak signals.
> I baught it to use with a future laptop purchase I will be making.
> My questions are:
> are the problems people state with this product still occuring or are
> the newer models OK?
> I baught this thing for it's advertised speed, but if I understand it
> correctly you need a special d-link laptop card in order to take
> advantage of the speed. Most laptops now already have a wireless card
> built in so I doubt I will buy another card. So is this unit really
> worth it in speed compared to others, if using the original laptop
> wireless system?
> I have 30 days to test it but don't know if I will have my laptop by
> then so I am wondering if I should take it out of the box or bring it
> back, and wait for a linksys or netgear to come on special.
> Thanks in advance.

The D-Link DI-624 is a very capable wireless router. Together with a capable
"super G" card, the speed is awesome, however, I doubt that your new
notebook will come with a super G card in it. It really doesn't matter
because card and wireless router are both configured correctly, the speed
will be more than enough. As for the issues of frequent disconnects, I guess
that depends on the DI-624. All wireless routers will have disconnects at
some point in time. It my humble opinion, two of the biggest reasons for
disconnects are misconfiguration and interference, whether it be from a
cordless phone, microwave, and especially a neighboring wireless router or
access point on the same channel as yours. Still, if you're concerned about
it and you are not a tinkerer like many of us here are, I recommend that you
purchase the Linksys WRT54G or the D-Link 524. Take care.

--
Just Me, D

On 23 Sep 2005 19:49:19 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I just baught this wireless router because it had a great special on
>it, and because of the speed advertised. I did some research on google
>and seems a lot of people have been having connection stability
>problems and weak signals.
>I baught it to use with a future laptop purchase I will be making.
>My questions are:
>are the problems people state with this product still occuring or are
>the newer models OK?
>I baught this thing for it's advertised speed, but if I understand it
>correctly you need a special d-link laptop card in order to take
>advantage of the speed. Most laptops now already have a wireless card
>built in so I doubt I will buy another card. So is this unit really
>worth it in speed compared to others, if using the original laptop
>wireless system?
>I have 30 days to test it but don't know if I will have my laptop by
>then so I am wondering if I should take it out of the box or bring it
>back, and wait for a linksys or netgear to come on special.
>Thanks in advance.

As for speed, I hope your expectation is not in line with the
advertised 108Mbps. That is just a marketing gimmick. That said, G
routers are very quick even if you don't use the propietary Super G
mode (expect something between 15-25Mbps). Your assumption regarding
your laptop wireless is correct. But if you choose to buy a D-Link
card for it, you will get even faster speeds (expect something around
20-45Mbps). Numbers are just to give you an idea, they vary
considerably depending on many factors.

The DI-624 has many useful features. If it works for you, I am sure
you will be pleased. I stress the "if it works for you" because a lot
of people can't manage to get it working. While a lot of that has to
do with misconfigurations and interference problems I would have to
say that a (considerable) part of it is due to firmware/driver
instability/robustness.

You will hear all sorts of horror stories about ANY home router you
ask about (and success stories too). Considering sub-50 dolar prices
for these boxes, I'm not surprised that shear luck has a considerable
part in this.

After playing around with a Linksys and D-Link myself, I would say the
Linksys is more stable/robust than the D-Link. This does not mean that
you will be hassle-free or trouble-prone by either one necessarily. It
just means that with the D-Link your *chances* of encountering
problems are greater (or, your *chances* of success with the Linksys
are greater). I speak for my own experience. Example: I could get the
DI-624 to work perfectly (and under heavy load) with WPA-PSK (using
firmware 2.42). The instant I upgraded to firmware 2.70, the router
starts to reboot every 15 seconds. The 2.42 has some noticeable bugs
for me but any firmware after that makes it completely unstable. With
the Linksys, no problem, but I can't do all I want as in the DI-624.

Make the best of that 30-day trial period. If by the end you can get
all the features you need to work, keep it. In general, I think it has
more features than the Linksys. Personally, I would go for a Linksys
WRT54G and a third-party firmware that adds more features. Then you
could get the best of both worlds, stability AND features. No
guarantees, though :-)

On 24-Sep-2005, speeder <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> As for speed, I hope your expectation is not in line with the
> advertised 108Mbps. That is just a marketing gimmick. That said, G
> routers are very quick even if you don't use the propietary Super G
> mode (expect something between 15-25Mbps). Your assumption regarding
> your laptop wireless is correct. But if you choose to buy a D-Link
> card for it, you will get even faster speeds (expect something around
> 20-45Mbps). Numbers are just to give you an idea, they vary
> considerably depending on many factors.
>
> The DI-624 has many useful features. If it works for you, I am sure
> you will be pleased. I stress the "if it works for you" because a lot
> of people can't manage to get it working. While a lot of that has to
> do with misconfigurations and interference problems I would have to
> say that a (considerable) part of it is due to firmware/driver
> instability/robustness.
>
> You will hear all sorts of horror stories about ANY home router you
> ask about (and success stories too). Considering sub-50 dolar prices
> for these boxes, I'm not surprised that shear luck has a considerable
> part in this.
>
> After playing around with a Linksys and D-Link myself, I would say the
> Linksys is more stable/robust than the D-Link. This does not mean that
> you will be hassle-free or trouble-prone by either one necessarily. It
> just means that with the D-Link your *chances* of encountering
> problems are greater (or, your *chances* of success with the Linksys
> are greater). I speak for my own experience. Example: I could get the
> DI-624 to work perfectly (and under heavy load) with WPA-PSK (using
> firmware 2.42). The instant I upgraded to firmware 2.70, the router
> starts to reboot every 15 seconds. The 2.42 has some noticeable bugs
> for me but any firmware after that makes it completely unstable. With
> the Linksys, no problem, but I can't do all I want as in the DI-624.
>
> Make the best of that 30-day trial period. If by the end you can get
> all the features you need to work, keep it. In general, I think it has
> more features than the Linksys. Personally, I would go for a Linksys
> WRT54G and a third-party firmware that adds more features. Then you
> could get the best of both worlds, stability AND features. No
> guarantees, though :-)

Very well put. I commend you. Take care.

--
Just Me, D

speeder wrote:
> On 23 Sep 2005 19:49:19 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>
>>I just baught this wireless router because it had a great special on
>>it, and because of the speed advertised. I did some research on google
>>and seems a lot of people have been having connection stability
>>problems and weak signals.
>>I baught it to use with a future laptop purchase I will be making.
>>My questions are:
>>are the problems people state with this product still occuring or are
>>the newer models OK?
>>I baught this thing for it's advertised speed, but if I understand it
>>correctly you need a special d-link laptop card in order to take
>>advantage of the speed. Most laptops now already have a wireless card
>>built in so I doubt I will buy another card. So is this unit really
>>worth it in speed compared to others, if using the original laptop
>>wireless system?
>>I have 30 days to test it but don't know if I will have my laptop by
>>then so I am wondering if I should take it out of the box or bring it
>>back, and wait for a linksys or netgear to come on special.
>>Thanks in advance.
>
>
> As for speed, I hope your expectation is not in line with the
> advertised 108Mbps. That is just a marketing gimmick. That said, G
> routers are very quick even if you don't use the propietary Super G
> mode (expect something between 15-25Mbps). Your assumption regarding
> your laptop wireless is correct. But if you choose to buy a D-Link
> card for it, you will get even faster speeds (expect something around
> 20-45Mbps). Numbers are just to give you an idea, they vary
> considerably depending on many factors.
>
> The DI-624 has many useful features. If it works for you, I am sure
> you will be pleased. I stress the "if it works for you" because a lot
> of people can't manage to get it working. While a lot of that has to
> do with misconfigurations and interference problems I would have to
> say that a (considerable) part of it is due to firmware/driver
> instability/robustness.
>
> You will hear all sorts of horror stories about ANY home router you
> ask about (and success stories too). Considering sub-50 dolar prices
> for these boxes, I'm not surprised that shear luck has a considerable
> part in this.
>
> After playing around with a Linksys and D-Link myself, I would say the
> Linksys is more stable/robust than the D-Link. This does not mean that
> you will be hassle-free or trouble-prone by either one necessarily. It
> just means that with the D-Link your *chances* of encountering
> problems are greater (or, your *chances* of success with the Linksys
> are greater). I speak for my own experience. Example: I could get the
> DI-624 to work perfectly (and under heavy load) with WPA-PSK (using
> firmware 2.42). The instant I upgraded to firmware 2.70, the router
> starts to reboot every 15 seconds. The 2.42 has some noticeable bugs
> for me but any firmware after that makes it completely unstable. With
> the Linksys, no problem, but I can't do all I want as in the DI-624.
>
> Make the best of that 30-day trial period. If by the end you can get
> all the features you need to work, keep it. In general, I think it has
> more features than the Linksys. Personally, I would go for a Linksys
> WRT54G and a third-party firmware that adds more features. Then you
> could get the best of both worlds, stability AND features. No
> guarantees, though :-)
I have a Dl624 Revision C. Upgraded to firmware 2.7 and have no
problems. I use the wireless with 2 laptops and WPS-PSK. One of the
laptops is using a Dlink wireless card. The reported lan speed is
104Mb/s (it runs in the proprietary mode). The other laptop has an
internal receiver and runs at 54Mb/s. The network is stable and has been
like this for about a year now. I agree that this is a specific
installation and others may be less stable - try testing it with all the
possible bells and whistles. If it works for 30 days you should be OK.

erables40 wrote in message ..
> I just baught this wireless router because it had a great special on
> it, and because of the speed advertised. I did some research on google
> and seems a lot of people have been having connection stability
> problems and weak signals.
> I baught it to use with a future laptop purchase I will be making.
> My questions are:
> are the problems people state with this product still occuring or are
> the newer models OK?
> I baught this thing for it's advertised speed, but if I understand it
> correctly you need a special d-link laptop card in order to take
> advantage of the speed. Most laptops now already have a wireless card
> built in so I doubt I will buy another card. So is this unit really
> worth it in speed compared to others, if using the original laptop
> wireless system?
> I have 30 days to test it but don't know if I will have my laptop by
> then so I am wondering if I should take it out of the box or bring it
> back, and wait for a linksys or netgear to come on special.
> Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I'm using primarily all DLink hardware, so I'm pretty familiar with the
pecularities of DLink's proprietary "turbo" scheme.

My main router is a DI-764 (802.11a/b, which "turbo") from their
discontinued "AirPro" line. I've had this router for several years now and
it continues to work just fine. The "turbo" is also still completetly
compatible with DLink's new "AirPremier" line. Recently swapped out an
older "AirPro" card in one of my towers that began giving problems after a
few years for an "AirPremier" card. The new card's "turbo" for 802.11a
proved to work just fine with the DI-764.

I have several DWL-7100AP (802.11a/g/b, also "turbo". These are in DLink's
"AirPremier" line. Use these as an additional AP and repeaters.

A mix bag of "AirPro" and "AirPremier" client stuff -- laptop cards, desktop
cards, wireless-ethernet adapters, ect.

So, does the "turbo" really make that much a difference? I can easily say,
yes, it does for me. I never benchmarked data throughputs, as I really
didn't need to since it worked well enough that had no reason to t/s. I do
a lot of video work, requiring the transfer of exceeding large files locally
kept on "file servers". (I like to do the actual work on my laptop, but
store them in towers.) In my experience, 802.11a (turbo) gives me the best
pipe based on transfer times. Also, 802.11a (turbo) allows me to work on,
and stream, these files in real time seamlessly. No complaints. 802.11g
(turbo) works fairly well, but with occassional hiccups while streaming.
802.11b is choppy. As was mentioned in this thread, actual throughput will
be no where near the marketed (and shown on your connection icon) 108Mbs.

If all you are wanting to do with a wireless network is pass internet
traffic, I wouldn't worry about the "turbo" rates at all. Even if you get
the DI-624, I wouldn't worry about getting a DLink card that supports
"turbo" for your new laptop. Its built-in vanilla 802.11g will be more than
sufficient for just internet traffic. Unless, of course, you are lucky
enough to have a T3 or greater at home. :^)

My internet (cable) is 5Mbs and even vanilla 802.11b (11 Mbs) has proved to
be a sufficient pipe for internet traffic. Perhaps, out of curiosity, I'll
do some benchmarking of local WLAN throughputs later. 802.11a (turbo) has
worked exceptionally well for me with local traffic. I wouldn't recommend
the extra cost of 802.11a to anyone, unless they have a strong need to pass
large files around locally -- and know their home's construction won't be
problem. (Many people find 802.11a, which is at 5 Ghz, to be a problem in
their home. It has less range than 802.11g/b, 2.4 Ghz, and some folk's
walls really attenuate the heck out of it.)

Anyway, the "peculiarities" with DLink "turbo":

- For "turbo" to remain active on a particular SSID, all connected clients
must support "turbo" and have it enabled. If a client connects that doesn't
support "turbo" (or even a client that does support "turbo", but moves out
of range where it can remained enabled) then all the clients on the SSID
fall back to standard vanilla data rates.

- For turbo to remain enabled, the clients have to a fairly decent receive
signal level or they will fall back to standard rates, taking everything
else on the SSID back with them (as above). With my AP's and clients, found
the mininum RSL to be ~65%.

- For "turbo" to be enabled, the SSID must be set at center channel (6 for
802.11g/b, 58 for 802.11a). In "turbo", what it is actually doing is using
all the channels. You may have interference problems if you got other stuff
going on in the air.

- If you start playing around with repeaters later, DLink doesn't really
cover specific documentation, so expect to do a bit of trial and error --
including playing with different firmware versions. I found that, with my
DWL-7100's, I could get "turbo" to be repeated on one band but not both.
Even so, you still take performance hits going through repeaters -- "turbo"
or not. I.e., with "turbo" enabled for 802.11a (going through repeater), I
still find it be a better pipe than with it disabled -- but still not as
efficient as connecting to the 802.11a SSID before it is repeated.

To summarize, basically if you are wanting to do local traffic, then it
probably will be worthwhile getting "turbo" capable cards, providing
everything will be "turbo" capable and within a decent RSL range. If all
you want is internet traffic, I wouldn't worry about it. As for the DI-624,
never used it myself but one of my friends has no complaints with that
particular router/AP. It also seems to be pretty popular.

Hope that was somewhat helpful...

Cheers,
Eric

Ok thanks for all the replies. So far I wasn't lucky I am waiting for
my new laptop to arrive so I connected the router wired to my deesktop.
Every hour or so it disconnected from the network. Icon in taskbar
saying missing network connection. My neighbour baught the same one and
his has no problems. I configured his so I know it isn't between the
screen and the chair. I went to exchange it and this one seems better
but still disconnect maybe once a day that I noticed. So I will try it
a little longer hopefully with no problems..


Eric wrote:
> erables40 wrote in message ..
> > I just baught this wireless router because it had a great special on
> > it, and because of the speed advertised. I did some research on google
> > and seems a lot of people have been having connection stability
> > problems and weak signals.
> > I baught it to use with a future laptop purchase I will be making.
> > My questions are:
> > are the problems people state with this product still occuring or are
> > the newer models OK?
> > I baught this thing for it's advertised speed, but if I understand it
> > correctly you need a special d-link laptop card in order to take
> > advantage of the speed. Most laptops now already have a wireless card
> > built in so I doubt I will buy another card. So is this unit really
> > worth it in speed compared to others, if using the original laptop
> > wireless system?
> > I have 30 days to test it but don't know if I will have my laptop by
> > then so I am wondering if I should take it out of the box or bring it
> > back, and wait for a linksys or netgear to come on special.
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm using primarily all DLink hardware, so I'm pretty familiar with the
> pecularities of DLink's proprietary "turbo" scheme.
>
> My main router is a DI-764 (802.11a/b, which "turbo") from their
> discontinued "AirPro" line. I've had this router for several years now and
> it continues to work just fine. The "turbo" is also still completetly
> compatible with DLink's new "AirPremier" line. Recently swapped out an
> older "AirPro" card in one of my towers that began giving problems after a
> few years for an "AirPremier" card. The new card's "turbo" for 802.11a
> proved to work just fine with the DI-764.
>
> I have several DWL-7100AP (802.11a/g/b, also "turbo". These are in DLink's
> "AirPremier" line. Use these as an additional AP and repeaters.
>
> A mix bag of "AirPro" and "AirPremier" client stuff -- laptop cards, desktop
> cards, wireless-ethernet adapters, ect.
>
> So, does the "turbo" really make that much a difference? I can easily say,
> yes, it does for me. I never benchmarked data throughputs, as I really
> didn't need to since it worked well enough that had no reason to t/s. I do
> a lot of video work, requiring the transfer of exceeding large files locally
> kept on "file servers". (I like to do the actual work on my laptop, but
> store them in towers.) In my experience, 802.11a (turbo) gives me the best
> pipe based on transfer times. Also, 802.11a (turbo) allows me to work on,
> and stream, these files in real time seamlessly. No complaints. 802.11g
> (turbo) works fairly well, but with occassional hiccups while streaming.
> 802.11b is choppy. As was mentioned in this thread, actual throughput will
> be no where near the marketed (and shown on your connection icon) 108Mbs.
>
> If all you are wanting to do with a wireless network is pass internet
> traffic, I wouldn't worry about the "turbo" rates at all. Even if you get
> the DI-624, I wouldn't worry about getting a DLink card that supports
> "turbo" for your new laptop. Its built-in vanilla 802.11g will be more than
> sufficient for just internet traffic. Unless, of course, you are lucky
> enough to have a T3 or greater at home. :^)
>
> My internet (cable) is 5Mbs and even vanilla 802.11b (11 Mbs) has proved to
> be a sufficient pipe for internet traffic. Perhaps, out of curiosity, I'll
> do some benchmarking of local WLAN throughputs later. 802.11a (turbo) has
> worked exceptionally well for me with local traffic. I wouldn't recommend
> the extra cost of 802.11a to anyone, unless they have a strong need to pass
> large files around locally -- and know their home's construction won't be
> problem. (Many people find 802.11a, which is at 5 Ghz, to be a problem in
> their home. It has less range than 802.11g/b, 2.4 Ghz, and some folk's
> walls really attenuate the heck out of it.)
>
> Anyway, the "peculiarities" with DLink "turbo":
>
> - For "turbo" to remain active on a particular SSID, all connected clients
> must support "turbo" and have it enabled. If a client connects that doesn't
> support "turbo" (or even a client that does support "turbo", but moves out
> of range where it can remained enabled) then all the clients on the SSID
> fall back to standard vanilla data rates.
>
> - For turbo to remain enabled, the clients have to a fairly decent receive
> signal level or they will fall back to standard rates, taking everything
> else on the SSID back with them (as above). With my AP's and clients, found
> the mininum RSL to be ~65%.
>
> - For "turbo" to be enabled, the SSID must be set at center channel (6 for
> 802.11g/b, 58 for 802.11a). In "turbo", what it is actually doing is using
> all the channels. You may have interference problems if you got other stuff
> going on in the air.
>
> - If you start playing around with repeaters later, DLink doesn't really
> cover specific documentation, so expect to do a bit of trial and error --
> including playing with different firmware versions. I found that, with my
> DWL-7100's, I could get "turbo" to be repeated on one band but not both.
> Even so, you still take performance hits going through repeaters -- "turbo"
> or not. I.e., with "turbo" enabled for 802.11a (going through repeater), I
> still find it be a better pipe than with it disabled -- but still not as
> efficient as connecting to the 802.11a SSID before it is repeated.
>
> To summarize, basically if you are wanting to do local traffic, then it
> probably will be worthwhile getting "turbo" capable cards, providing
> everything will be "turbo" capable and within a decent RSL range. If all
> you want is internet traffic, I wouldn't worry about it. As for the DI-624,
> never used it myself but one of my friends has no complaints with that
> particular router/AP. It also seems to be pretty popular.
>
> Hope that was somewhat helpful...
>
> Cheers,
> Eric

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <(E-Mail Removed). com> on 23 Sep 2005
19:49:19 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I just baught this wireless router because it had a great special on
>it, and because of the speed advertised. I did some research on google
>and seems a lot of people have been having connection stability
>problems and weak signals.

My own experience with it has been quite good, much better than the &(@#!&
Belkin router it replaced, both in terms of range and stability.

>I baught this thing for it's advertised speed, but if I understand it
>correctly you need a special d-link laptop card in order to take
>advantage of the speed. Most laptops now already have a wireless card
>built in so I doubt I will buy another card. So is this unit really
>worth it in speed compared to others, if using the original laptop
>wireless system?

I personally wouldn't bother.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <jSgZe.128766$(E-Mail Removed)> on Sat, 24 Sep 2005
18:25:19 GMT, "Doug Jamal" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>... It my humble opinion, two of the biggest reasons for
>disconnects are misconfiguration and interference, whether it be from a
>cordless phone, microwave, and especially a neighboring wireless router or
>access point on the same channel as yours. ...

Agreed. I was careful to put my DI-624 on a clear channel, and the only
disconnects I'm seeing are as expected from a 2.4 GHz cordless phone.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <(E-Mail Removed)> on Sat, 24 Sep 2005 21:12:37
-0300, speeder <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>After playing around with a Linksys and D-Link myself, I would say the
>Linksys is more stable/robust than the D-Link. This does not mean that
>you will be hassle-free or trouble-prone by either one necessarily. It
>just means that with the D-Link your *chances* of encountering
>problems are greater (or, your *chances* of success with the Linksys
>are greater). I speak for my own experience. Example: I could get the
>DI-624 to work perfectly (and under heavy load) with WPA-PSK (using
>firmware 2.42). The instant I upgraded to firmware 2.70, the router
>starts to reboot every 15 seconds. The 2.42 has some noticeable bugs
>for me but any firmware after that makes it completely unstable. ...

Weird. My DI-624 is rock stable with firmware 2.70 and WPA-PSK (two very
active clients).

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>