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[tvance]

Hi there!

My parents have been experiencing problems with their wireless connection for more than a year. Sometimes the connection works, sometimes it drops and they have to manually reconnect, and sometimes when they try to reconnect they are not able to connect (even though the network signal is strong enough).

When I bring my laptop home, I normally don't experience issues with the wireless, although lately I've been dropping the connection as well (not as often as my parents' laptop).

Sometimes my iPod has issues too. I'll try to connect and it says "Unable to join the network" and then later it will work.

Parents' Laptop:
Acer Aspire 5534
Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter
Windows 7 x64

My Laptop:
HP Pavilion
Intel Wifi Link 5100 AGN
Windows 7 x64

When either laptop is plugged directly into the router by ethernet it works perfectly.

Things I have tried:

1. Reinstalled and updated the network adapter drivers
2. Factory reset of the router
3. Installed the newest firmware I found for DIR 615 (9.02)
4. Changed the channel from auto to 6
5. Changed the broadcast type from mixed bgn to mixed gn, just g, just n

I'm not very good with networking, and I'm really not sure what more I can try to figure out what's going on. Any help is much appreciated!

Also, just a note, my parents were experiencing issues before I bought this router, and I bought a new one (DIR 615) thinking the old router was fried. So I don't think think the router itself is malfunctioning, but maybe there is some sort of setting I'm completely missing? I really have no idea. I'm pretty sure it's not my parents' network card though because I do see issues with other devices, just nowhere near as frequent.

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!

What region are you located?

Has a Factory Reset been performed?

What ISP Service do you have? Cable or DSL?
What ISP Modem make and model do you have?
Check ISP MTU requirements, Cable is usually 1500, DSL is around 1492 down to 1472. Call the ISP and ask.

Some things to try: - Log into the routers web page at 192.168.0.1. Use IE, Opera or FF to manage the router.
Turn off ALL QoS or Disable Traffic Shaping (DIR only) GameFuel (DGL only and if ON.) options. Advanced/QoS or Gamefuel.
Turn off Advanced DNS Services if you have this option under Setup/Internet/Manual.
Turn on DNS Relay under Setup/Networking.
Setup DHCP reserved IP addresses for all devices ON the router. Setup/Networking. This ensures each devices gets its own IP address when turned on and connected, eliminates IP address conflicts and helps in troubleshooting.
Ensure devices are set to auto obtain an IP address.
If IPv6 is an option on the router, select Local Connection Only or Disable IPv6 options under Setup/IPv6.
Set Firewall settings to Endpoint Independent for TCP and UDP under Advanced/Firewall.
Enable uPnP and Multi-cast Streaming under Advanced/Networking. Disable uPnP for testing Port Forwarding rules.
WAN Port Speed set to Auto or specific speed? Some newer ISP modems support 1000Mb so manually setting to Gb speeds can be supported by the router. Advanced/Advanced Networking/WAN Port Speed
Set current Time Zone, Date and Time. Use an NTP server feature. Tools/Time.
 
Link>Wireless Installation Considerations
Try single mode G or N or mixed G and N?
Channel Width set for Auto 20/40Mhz or try 20Mhz only.
Try setting a manual channel to a open or unused channel. 1, 6 or 11. 11 for single mode N if the channel is clear.
What security mode are you using? Preferred security is WPA-Personal. WPA2/AES Only. Some WiFi adapters don't support AES, so you might want to try TPIK only or Auto.
Any cordless house phones?
Any other WiFi routers in the area? Link> Use InSSIDer to find out. How many?
Turn off WISH, and WPS under Advanced.
Try turning off Short GI, WLAN Partition,and Extra Wireless Protection if you have it. Under Advanced/Advanced Wireless.
Enable WMM Enable Under Advanced/Advanced Wireless.

Turn off all anti virus and firewall programs on PC while testing. 3rd party firewalls are not generally needed when using routers as they are effective on blocking malicious inbound traffic.
Turn off all devices accept for one wired PC while testing.

[tvance]

Thank you very much for the reply!

To answer your initial questions:

I'm located in Hamilton area, Ontario, Canada.

I have tried a factory reset.

My ISP service is cable from Cogeco.

The modem is an RCA DHG525.

MTU is 1500.

Yes we have cordless house phones- Uniden Dect 6.0

InSSIDer tells me there are 5 others in the area, and 2 cochannel, 2 overlapping.


I'll work on your suggestions and let you know how things go.
Thanks!

[tvance]

Okay so I've done everything in your list of suggestions except:

-disabling gamefuel
-setting the firewall settings to Endpoint Independent for TCP and UDP
-IPv6 options
-disabling uPnPfor testing Port Forwarding rules
-disabling WISH

because I didn't see those options.

Current speed is set to auto.

Security right now is WPA-personal, WPA2/AES only, but it has been on WPA-personal, auto/TKIP and AES previously.

Channel width right now is 20Mhz only, but has been set to auto before.

Trying Broadcast Mode N only on channel 11 right now. InSSIDer says no one is using that channel around me.

I'll see if the problem recurs with these settings!

[FurryNutz]

Keep us posted. Have a good weekend.

[tvance]

Both the computers have dropped the connection a couple times since changing the settings.
This last time I noticed the network disappeared entirely from the list of available network connections for a while before reconnecting. Sometimes it just drops and reconnects right away, and other times I can't reconnect at all (error message).

[FurryNutz]

Try setting Medium or Low power output settings and test again Under Advanced/Advanced Wireless.

Are the house cordless phones on a 2.4Ghz frequency?

[tvance]

Thanks I'll try that.

And no the house phones operate at 1.9Ghz.

[FurryNutz]

Ok, keep us posted.

[tvance]

I have had dropped connections with both medium and low settings as well (on both laptops).

[FurryNutz]

Is your model 615 a Rev I1 or I2 or I3?

[tvance]

I1 I believe. Well on the admin page it says Hardware Version: I1 in the top right corner next to the firmware version. Is that what you're asking for?

[FurryNutz]

There is a v9.03 here:http://tsd.dlink.com.tw/downloads2008.asp

You could try this.

Please follow this after you download the FW update file:
FW Update Process

[tvance]

Thanks, don't know how I didn't see that firmware version.
Followed the instructions in the link you gave me, and I'll see how it goes!

[FurryNutz]

Not sure why they didn't post it officially on the main web site.

Give it a go and keep us posted.