1.02 FW fixes a problem I had with 1.00, but still has a few deficiencies that I'd like to see remedied. First, some background on how I am using it. I am not using the 857 as a router, I've configured it to be a wireless access point (DHCP off, static IP, WAN port is unused). I've got FibeTV, so there is lots and lots of IPTV traffic coursing through my home network. I've had problems with other WAPs due to this traffic, which is why I decided to upgrade to the 857 in the hopes that some of these stability problems could be resolved.
I unboxed the 857 with v1.00, reconfigured it to be a WAP, and everything worked great except when there was IPTV traffic (watching TV or recording a problem). Connections would become unstable and extremely slow (essentially unusable), much slower than it ought to be given the bandwidth used by the TV channel. My network monitor reports that all the TV (RTP) packets are being transmitted through the air (this is bad). Messing around with QoS and WISH did not yield any positive results.
After upgrading to v1.02 FW, things got much better. Connections are stable and fast when the TV is on, and IPTV traffic is no longer transmitted through the air (yay, I don't have to return the 857). However, there was one incident when I rebooted the 857 with the TV on, and it got back into an unusable, unstable and slow mode similar to v1.00, and IPTV traffic was going through the air again. No amount of reboots would fix the problem. I finally got it to work again when I rebooted while disconnected from my home network, and reconnect after fully booted. I have not been able to reproduce this problem since the first incident.
A couple of other things that are not working when configured as a WAP.
- The MAC filter does not work at all. I'd like to be able to add that extra level of security.
- The inbound filter does not work (because I am not using the WAN port). It would be nice to filter out traffic from certain devices on my home network (like the cable boxes) to maximize my wifi bandwidth. I guess I'm really asking for a local traffic filter.
Overall, after a day of use I am very pleased with the 857, so far it seems to be the most stable WAP I've tried (this is the 3rd one I've tried).