D-Link Forums
The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Routers / COVR => DIR-857 => Topic started by: Beeder on May 07, 2012, 09:26:59 AM
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Prospective new owner...supporting 2 xboxes (like the DGL-4500 does) is important.
My reasons for upgrading are simple: getting much more interference from neighbor's wifi after we moved to a new location--need a more powerful signal. Went from DGL-4500 for Xbox (great, but neighbor competition is killing me) to Cisco E4200v2 (signal, great for PC, but awful for Xbox supportl--even for 1 xbox). Trying to come back to DLink.
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You might see if going 5Ghz on 4500 or the 857 will help you. We notice lots of problems with people using 2.4Ghz in crouded areas, I call it WiFi congestion. 2.4Ghz is very prominent in everything. 5Ghz is less and is the alternative in using WiFi. Both 4500 and 857 work well in multiple xbox configurations. I'm currently using a 4500 in AP mode onn 5Ghz with my xbox. Works great.
One other thing you should try is using wired connections for gaming. It's preferred and in your case, might be a better way to game if your having Wifi interferences.
Review the XBL Gamefuel and QOS in the FAQ Library (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=48075.0).
Keep us posted.
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We have 4 xboxes, 3 are wireless and they run great on the 857 with open NAT. However, only one of these are on 5GHz band.
I know that the original style xboxes with the Microsoft black wireless N adapter will run 5GHz or 2.4GHz, oddly the Slims only seem to be 2.4 or am I missing something?
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Thanks, Kargo. Slims only support 2.4GHz. From your report, sounds like it works well, kind of what I expected. With my E4200v2's FAQ indicating multiple Xbox on UPnP is "impossible", looks like I'm going to be donating a router to charity or trading it in somewhere. Apparently, "full cone NAT" was lost in translation with that other company's engineers.
I can deal with a few oddities in the UI if the router runs stable (BTW, does DLink recommend which browser/s to use to do config?)
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I use Safari on Mac and IE on Windows. Both Opera work great on both Mac and Windows to configure any Dlink router.
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Thanks, Kargo. Slims only support 2.4GHz. From your report, sounds like it works well, kind of what I expected. With my E4200v2's FAQ indicating multiple Xbox on UPnP is "impossible", looks like I'm going to be donating a router to charity or trading it in somewhere. Apparently, "full cone NAT" was lost in translation with that other company's engineers.
I can deal with a few oddities in the UI if the router runs stable (BTW, does DLink recommend which browser/s to use to do config?)
Hey Beeder, thanks for the heads up on the Slim!
BTW, I have an e4200 V1 that ran the xboxes (3 at that time) with no NAT issues either. But again, it was the first version. However, I had an E2000 that could not get open NAT with 1 of the 3 no matter what. It was just impossible and was a known issue. So, you're right, I don't know what Linksys engineering was thinking.
This 857 has been flawless for me, I'm using Charter high speed with the new Motorola Surfboard SB6141 modem on a 30/4 plan.
Edit to add: A weird thing with the e4200 is that QoS throttles the upstream speeds so my 4MB up speed was only getting 1.5. I had to adjust the settings to "manual" and set the upstream speed to 10MB in order to get my full 4MB up. Other than that, I have to admit it's a great router, too, but the 857 is less quirky and required fewer configurations on my part.
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Well, I pulled the trigger this morning. Should have a shiny new DIR-857 tomorrow...won't have to fight with my son as to who gets to use their Xbox online (stupid E4200v2....)
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I think you'll like it. Keep us posted on your experiences. I haven't had a chance to test it out with more than one xbox so having your experiences will be helpful. I think Kargo has some good times with his. You'll like it. ;D
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BTW, whats your ISP and ISP Modem? I highly recommend Motorolas SB 6 series cable modems if your using cable ISP. ;D
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No modem upgrade for me just yet...I have a Motorola SB5101 that I purchased about 3 years ago. Currently we're in an apartment (hence the horrible Wifi interference), but maybe I'll upgrade the modem when I move into a house in a couple of months. Time Warner Cable is my ISP, and I'm not too happy with them. I see slowdowns in my bandwidth when my neighbors rent movies. Even watching TV on the digital channels gets hurting (digital blocky dropouts) on busy cable nights.
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The 5 Series is a ok modem, pretty base line and isn't DOCSIS 3. Ya if your in a apt complex, the down side of cable is that your neighbors will impact performance the more that are online at the same time. I think if you get moved into your own place and upgrade to a 6 series modem, and in a area with less cable internet users, TW might be better for you. You might check out DSL too if your moving to another area with high cable internet users, if DSL is available. More and more now days, people are getting internet and WiFi routers. Hard to find a good area that isn't congested. ;)
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Installed it last night. So far so good, both xboxes on and open Nat. No lag on either the wireless or wired. Speed tests show the full speed advertised by my ISP.
As a bonus, I was able to put my Ooma behind the router without a hitch: no special settings needed (and yes, I did try this with the e4200v2 aka ea4500 and tested xbox with no Ooma). While playing Xbox and making phone call, no problem with call quality or lag.
It's too early for me to comment on stability, but I had no problems at all using the web interface in regards to formatting or text. Router also lets you configure settings and defer the reboot. I'm impressed. This is the only router I've ever owned where the 1.00 firmware was even useable, let alone great. 2.4ghz band has a better signal (stronger) than the ea4500. 5ghz is on par. Signal "owns" my apartment. Son says this thing is a beast. I could go on and on,
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Beeder, we use an Ooma Telo too, behind the router, and have experienced no issues. Just FYI.
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Enjoy!!
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Update: After a week with this router in service I have only noticed one problem: If you do not use a fixed I.P. (reserved) for all Xboxes, UPnP can become confused, resulting in strange lag/disconnects from Xbox Live. I'm guessing this has to do with the two units exchanging IP addresses in the midst of the connection, but I haven't tested this theory out by reserving only one of the two. Confusion is evident by single "m" entries occurring in the log periodically (no explanation, just "m": looks like garbage--took only one day to reproduce this). Reserved I.P's have not exhibited the problem, so that's a feasible workaround, and fairly painless. Thinking back, I had to do this on my DGL-4500, so this is probably nothing new, just an old lurking bug.
This is the only thing I've noticed so far, so router gets an A- because of it (stability issue, but easy to workaround, no sacrifice in performance)
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It's recommended to always use Reserved IP addresses when using any router, specially when you have more than a few devices and more than one of the same device. What these routers are designed for, helps ensure each device maintains its own address, troubleshooting and operation. Have you reviewed the QoS setup sticky for XBL? What most people use and it works well.
How are you connecting to the router when gaming? Wifi, if so, i would test wired gaming out before submitting a request post as a bug. All troubleshooting options need to be investigated before submitting a bug report or posting about it. Have you used INSSIDer application to see who's around you? Have you changed the wifi modes to see if that helps? Try these first and test.
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One unit is wired, the other is wifi. Major lag in the wifi one (about 12 ft from the router, but through a wooden wall, on the 5GHz band--signal quality stable at about 87% strength as reported by the router). There was no visible sign of other 5GHz routers in the area as evidenced by a scan, but there could be other appliances generating interference that I could not see. That said, the problem went away 100% with reserved I.P. addresses.
The "m" entries in the log (nonsense, garbage) are a definite sign of some firmware issue. It could be as simple as a malformed message, or as bad as stack corruption--it's hard to tell, but there were a LOT of them. 5GHz signal was also dropping out periodically--say every 60 seconds or so for a small "blip"). Problems easy to reproduce without reserved IP addresses, but so far impossible to reproduce with reserved IP addresses, with the same wired/wifi mix (the only variable is the reserved IP)
Anyone reading this, however, should keep the perspective: this is the most stable router I've ever owned, bar none, and I've pretty much owned them all, not just Dlink. Don't let this petty problem dissuade you from it--the workaround is easy. (Even more amazing is that this is with the original 1.00 firmware.) It's a fine machine, a definite safe buy. Right now, I wouldn't even consider a fix for this to be a reason to update the firmware.
I have no big issues. BTW, I also have Ooma behind the router (no config necessary), plus use Cisco VPN software (which died a horrible death with my Cisco-branded unit, but works great on this router) to connect my network to the network at my workplace on several occasions this week.
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Can you post a capture of these logs entries? Did this only happen when using xbox on wireless? Does this happen on wired as well?
Have you changed from mixed mode to single mode N on the 5Ghz radio?
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I'll grab some tonight (weekend's a good time for Xbox, doing some Minecraft) and check my configs. May set it up with Syslog Daemon on a wired PC to get details (I love it that this router supports it).
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Well, I took a log over the weekend. There are hundreds of these "[truncated] m" messages in the log, but the router's connection/ui/whatever don't show any signs of instability. I am using reserved IP's for most of the devices in my network. I do see occasional messages from my HP printer tray software saying "Scan to computer is no longer active" but those are always passing--scan to computer still works. It happens most often when my CPU on my laptop is at around 100% busy, which leads me to believe it may be a bug in the HP stuff that's a bit oversensitive.
I can send the logs if you wish, but they're not very revealing. All messages look normal except for those.
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Let us know if how the newer FW does. ;)