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[Patrick533]

Hello,

Well it appears 5 months out of warranty my DIR-827 is having trouble. Maybe someone has ran into this, maybe time for a new router......

Running the current firmware(1.04). The router works fine until I turn on the WIFI. I recently did a full factory reset of the router and started turning things on one at a time over the last few days, when I turn the 5Ghz WIFI ON, the router starts crashing and restarting. This crash restart cycle seems to be load dependent, if my kids are on the Xboxs or streaming a movie via Cat 6 I have seen the DIR-827 crash 5-6 times and reset in a half hour. If it is just me reading the news, it does not crash as much. Turn off the 5Ghz radio and you would never even know there is a problem. The problem has been going on for a while because I thought it was Win 8 so I switched back to Win 7 and even changed my NIC. That is when I noticed the lights on the router turning orange and then going back to blue like I was doing a power cycle. The logs indicate a reboot of the router but I can't figure out why it is doing it from reading the logs.

Being an Engineer I started wondering if the RF inside the box was causing it so I voided my warranty even further my installing antennas on the back of the DIR-827. The results, one killer WIFI range but the router crashes just as much. I did notice that this router runs HOT inside! A little too hot for my liking.

Being I have a high power 2.4Ghz access point that covers the entire house and then some, I just loose that super high speed 5Ghz, channel bonding 2.4Ghz where I live is impossible, too many people on 2.4Ghz and yes I could force it and walk on them, but that is just not right.......

I'm thinking a good ol California summer cooked it because this has been going on since May time frame.

1 more possibility, the 26 character WIFI password is too much for it. It seems me and my job became a focus of the Chinese hackers(I have had calls from 3 banks and an E-mail from Facebook saying you better button everything down, here is the IP's trying to get into your stuff.) And of course the spearfishing that goes along with it. I'm pretty sure I read this is only a connection password and the router changes it many times once the connection is made.

Any insight or similar circumstances?  
 

[FurryNutz]

Any chance you could stick a laptop fan cooler under the router?

I presume a factory reset has been performed and ALL other WiFi APs and devices are disabled and tested with just one wireless device?

Try a simple 3 char PW.

Wondering if your 2.4Ghz AP could be a culprit injecting the surrounding are with RF...

[Patrick533]

The only user of 5 Ghz was my Android and my laptop, I hard wired the video streaming stuff a while back. I just did a reset of the android and also changed the password for the WIFI(the laptop has not been on the network in a couple of weeks). I am trying a much shorter password as suggested as we speak and I reset the logs too.

RF getting into the router though could be an issue, this setup is too far away and I am using directional antennas going the complete opposite direction. So for this issue I would rule that out.(good idea though)

The guy I purchased the mod kit from on Flea bay had fan and antenna kits, I just bought the antennas. Being the warranty is toast I will make a hole and mount a blower if need be. Frankenrouter!

So far we have been going for 20 minutes since the password change and no crash, I hear the kid using the Xbox 1 so I will go run some speed tests.

Current room temp is about 65F like last night.

Maybe the 26 character random number and the android was doing it, I will go watch some you tube and see if I can kill it.......... It does say I think 8-38 characters for the password in the router, but anytime Android enters the mix you can never tell.......

[FurryNutz]

Keep us posted...

[Patrick533]

Both Xboxers went to work. So I will have to wait for a full load test(high packet rate).

I just finished watching several 4K test videos on my wired PC while doing speed tests on my Android. No crash and the router is pumping out major heat.

I will get back after a couple of days of beating on it, still kind of leaning towards a medium CPU fan. Then you just have to deal with the LA dust and grime.......

[Patrick533]

I guess the wireless password was too long at 26 characters!

Since reducing the wireless password to about half of that I have no issues!

I will start turning back on IPV6 and such, but since it was just crashing last week with a recent factory reset and once I reduced the password length it ceased, I don't foresee any issues.

The software does say up to 38 characters but I guess no one has ever pushed that.

If anything changes I will post, otherwise I am good to go!

Thanks!

[FurryNutz]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting how that many characters causes the router to mis-behave.

Enjoy. 

[Patrick533]

Nope! My mistake! The Xbox 1 kid is home tonight and the DIR-827 is crashing again...... It actually crashed and bumped my Android to the high power 2.4Ghz A/P, once I forced the Android back to the 5Ghz DIR-827 again, the DIR-827 started crashing again(several times)......

Turned off the 5Ghz in the DIR-827 and not a problem since! I even moved the DIR-827 today to locate it away from all noise sources. I guess my 5GHZ is baked! Bummer, I really like that band.

It made it through one California summer!

These new router just run so darn hot, before I bought my DIR-825 the router I had before that I had for years. If it was NOT for IPV6, I would resurrect my old Actiontec! Looking inside at the DIR-827, even if I wanted to go in and heat sink it to death I could NOT, no room.....

Too bad.

[FurryNutz]

Were seeing some router crashing with the DGl-5500 with XB1. I'm wondering if there is something on the XB1 doing something. I'm not impressed but the XB1 networking. Worked with my friend in CA with his and the 868L. Were seeing both Wireless and wired LAN connections being connected at the same time...causing some NAT issues. We presumed that if the wired LAN connection is used, that the wireless should be disabled.

Was all good on the 360 and went to pot when he got the XB1.

You sure the 5Ghz is gone? Turn off all other devices and test with only one trusted 5Ghz device and see.

[Patrick533]

No, this has been going on before the XB1. He just puts a major load on it and maxes it out. It did the same thing with the Slim but I thought it was my NIC card acting up.

It it had not been going on for so long, I would say it was the android.

I will try my laptop with the 5Ghz tomorrow or later on tonight.

I will get back in a couple of days.

BTW, the XB1 is wired!

[Patrick533]

Well, just turned the 5Ghz radio back on and it crashed within 10 minutes with no clients logged in and the XB1 is currently off the network too. So now I am back to surfing with no WiFi on on the DIR-827.

So far as long as that radio is off I have experienced no crashes......

[FurryNutz]

Try a factory reset and re-load FW?

[Patrick533]

Right now I am trying it with both radios on. Before I only had 5Ghz on. Theoretically if it is a heat problem, this should make it worse. I don't have any clients connected to the WiFi so we can rule out incompatibly.

Next, reset and reload. I saved my DIR-825 with the 30/30 reload. Extreme yes and risky too, but this router did fine for some time. It held up to 4 XB's gaming and a streaming movie at the same time, no problem. Now 1 PC and 1 XB1 is killing it in a 70F house. Something is wrong!

My 2 college kids came to me last night and asked what router do you want for Christmas? The router you have works fine for you and mom and you have spent hundreds so we can game, if you can't work the bugs out we will get a new top of the line router for you Black Friday. Kind of nice since I am still unemployed, but more for them since they are causing the heat. The problem, most new routers have beans for IPV6 support, especially firewalls. I'm seeing dual core routers out there and I read the manual, no IPV6 firewall. As far as the oilcans D-Link is selling, the design is actually way better then the router I have and has MAJOR IPV6 support. I looked at the insides on small net builder, they are still stacking the darn radios, we tried this back in the olden days, too much heat buildup, bad design. I used to have a 12 channel thermal probe for problems just like this. In the DIR-827, the processor/heat sink is right under the radios like a BBQ!

I'm leaning towards we cooked something in the router last summer, but hey, a firmware reload won't kill me and since I just did a factory reset, all of the setting are FRESH in my head!

If they JUST would have fixed the firmware in the DIR-825 and added a FIREWALL

Holidays and such will take a few days to sort this out.

[FurryNutz]

I wonder if the 827 suffers from a similar heat issue the DAP-1533 is seeing:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=56166.0

Please try a laptop cooling fan and see if this might help as a suggestion.
If anything, keep the 827 as your main host router and turn off the radios and up grade and connect a DAP-1525 in AP mode. Other model optons there.

No reason to get another router really.

[Patrick533]

Well,

I actually was pretty close to breaking out the Dremmel and putting a large CPU heat-sink fan or power supply fan on top last night. Much like the post you directed me too, that is what I have done to routers in the past except I use thermal epoxy instead of JB weld, probably pretty close though thermally, thermal epoxy has Aluminum in it. I have a whole box full of heat sinks I got as a sample when I was a EE, but D-LINK stacked that darn WiFi board right on top of a flat piece of aluminum that D-Link designed as a heat sink for components under that , the same one that burned me!

This morning I moved everything over to a switch so that at least should help a little. The router no longer is acting as a switch, just a router.

When I said Franken-router I was not joking. After I have exhausted all other possibilities, I WILL COOL IT!

As I said above, there is a guy that sells cooling kits on Fleabay for a popular brand of router that also has this problem, they don't look bad, just a small CPU fan, though I may have to go with 2 small fans because of the amount of heat.

My PC has 2ea 140MM case fans, 2ea 120MM fans just for the 8 core CPU heat sink, 2ea more 120MM case fans and 3ea 80MM video card fans all running at low speed, you can barely hear my PC when it is on. My video card was running at 90C when gaming when I first built it, now I consider 50C high, but the system does start getting noisy under full load, kind of like a jet ready for take off. But I have NEVER met a game yet I can't run at full detail!

I will try the easy stuff first(setting tweaking), then install a fan or two(maybe 3).

Thus far it has not crashed in over 12 hours........