D-Link Forums

The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Routers / COVR => DIR-878 => Topic started by: twisted_mind on January 19, 2019, 09:09:35 PM

Title: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on January 19, 2019, 09:09:35 PM
Got the 878 a couple of weeks ago as an itch to upgrade from my aging 850L. With the 850L i somehow was never able to get a good reliable wifi signal in other rooms without using a range extender which brings its own hassles along with it, so i thought of upgrading to a router with actual antennae. The MIMO tech has piqued my curiosity for quite some time now and i finally bit the bullet and got this off amazon.
First unit received, buggy as hell. The router would frequently drop wifi connection altogether with all my devices as well as WPA2 password incorrect errors although the wifi leds on the unit itself were solid green. I read literally every single post on the dlink forums here for the 878 as well as it's brother 882 for a fix. Learnt about smart connect turned off. Tried turning off smart connect but then the 5GHz band would simply disappear after an hour even for a device right next to the router.
With time running out to return the product, i called up Dlink India tech support. Mind you, their tech support here is ultra awesome. I remember many years ago i wanted to resolve my double nat issues due to a dlink modem and a seperate dlink router. I just told them about nat and they sat down with me over the phone and helped setup the bridge on the modem and the dhcp on the router. Ever since i've been fan of sorts of Dlink products and vocally support them.
Coming back to the issue, the tech support asked me if i had factory reset. Since i had tried that before calling them, the next suggestion was to downgrade from 1.12 to an older fw which they said was an official fix to exactly the issues i was facing (wifi drops and 5GHz band dying completely).
I tried the downgrade but the issues showed up within an hour of me getting off the call with them. I quickly raised a return request on amazon and received a replacement fresh unit in 2 days.
≈Here's some of the interesting things i noticed throughout this whole ordeal :
Both units although sealed had a lot of dust inside the actual box and the unit. There is a noticeable amount of dust on the side antenna although the router was in a shrinkwrap sort of plastic film (like the one you peel off iphones). I'm quite surprised with two sealed units having the same dust issues which kind of rules out the possibility of a refurb being sent out to me. Maybe just poor quality control at the manufacturing plant?
For the second unit, i was literally about to simply return and ask for a refund but then reading through all these posts, tried something on my own.
Factory reset the router without configuring it manually or through the wizard.
Setup the router through  the wizard and post setup upgraded the fw from within the router GUI.
Upgraded the fw to 1.12 and then immediately factory reset the router again.
Accessed the wizard and setup the router again.

Ever since this trick of double reset, the router has worked well. Smart Connect though is broken. I enabled it for a day and it brought back all the issues mentioned above wpa2 password suddenly wrong and kicking my devices off wifi, 5 ghz band simply disappearing (checked via wifianalyser app on android) and kicking devices sitting next to the router off wifi generally.
I went back and turned off smart connect and life has been good. The upnp implementation is probably not as good on this as it was on the 850L. Here if the router is rebooted, i lose open nat on ps4 and xbox. The xbox had a fit a couple of days ago getting strict nat for no reason. Had to shutdown the router and the bridged modem for 5 minutes and all's well now.
Thanks for furrynutz for being so responsive on these forums. There's a lot of uncertainty with the way this product works but atleast for now it's working well albeit with smart connect turned off.

One thing that i've learnt along with the double reset, is the antennae positioning. My house is a single storey apartment and all 4 antennae pointing vertically up didnt work out as well for adjoining rooms. What worked for me was the rear antennae slanted at 45 away from each other. And the side antennae slanted forwards at 45. This gets me brilliant signal. :)

Another thing i learnt while trying to fix the xbox strict nat and upnp unsuccessful issue, the reboot router from within the GUI doesn't work the way it should. An actual powerdown using the physical button does the trick way better than the software option.

Pros : Great range. I get full range bars in adjoining rooms and am able to stream online /offline content to two devices at once which my 850L could never do without hiccups.
Cons : Smart connect just doesn't like me. Upnp for gamers who are ocd about open NAT is a hit or a miss. The actual router is quite big which is the thing i loved the most about my 850L (it's just so cute and small ;) ) LED indicators have a lot of light bleed through the plastic enclosure which honestly feels disappointing as this is not exactly an el-cheapo product. I paid almost $78 for this so poor build quality sticks out like a sore thumb. I prefer using Google DNS within the router settings and it frequently wipes out the saved google dns for no reason which points towards 1.12 fw not exactly stable.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 21, 2019, 09:38:31 AM
Link>Welcome! (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=49573.0)



How is the game console connected? Wireless. Does wired work better for the game console?

Internet Service Provider and Modem Configurations

Wireless Configurations
Links>Wireless Installation Considerations (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=48327.0) and Managing Signal Congestion (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=53228.0) and Good Neighbour Policy (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=10634.0)

Router Placement
Forum User - "Well I feel really dumb. After moving the router away from other electronic devices my speeds are back to normal. Just a heads up for anyone experiencing slow speeds, you might want to move it away from other electronics and see if that helps."
3-6' feet minimum safe distance between devices.
Placement on main level floor and central in the building and WELL ventilated is preferred. Not in basements or closets as building materials, or near by electronics devices could interfere or hinder good signal propagation.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 21, 2019, 10:58:08 PM
Region : India

PS4 and Xbox are hardwired with a Cat6 Ethernet cable.

Internet is a VDSL service by Airtel.
ISP modem is a Huawei HG630 modem router device. The modem has been set in bridges mode and dhcp has been ensured as turned off within it. The Dlink 878 has been input with the isp authentication credentials using a PPPOE setup. DHCP has been setup on the 878.

Smart Connect has been turned off. Both bands have the same SSID. I am using a custom SSID name. No other changes to channel or any other customisation. The password is also custom and same for both bands.

No cordless phones in the house. The microwave is at a distance from the router so I’m ruling out interference from it. Neighbours ofcourse all have wifi. Using wifi analyser app I can see lots of networks around however I haven’t tried setting any channels manually and prefer to just let the router do the heavy lifting :)

I must reiterate though, I am currently not facing any issues as such ever since I turned off smart connect. My original post wasn’t as much as a complaint but rather sharing my experience with this router. The upnp unsuccessful issue that happened last week hasn’t resurfaced ever since. Had to go through several power downs of the router and the 2 consoles. But it’s good now. Type 2 NAT on the PS4 with Open NAT within multiplayer games. Xbox One X Open NAT in the dashboard. Don’t have a mp game on the Xbox to check NAT status within game. But I’m sure it will be open because the dashboard detects as open. :)



Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 22, 2019, 12:22:42 AM
To add : I read so much about newer generation D-Link routers not working in terms of upnp correctly and something about full cone NAT but my experience kinda proves one can get an Open NAT simultaneously on two consoles. I was about to set an alternate port on the Xbox last week but since the multiple powerdowns resolved the issue I’m holding off on doing that for now.
If you’re collating data for better helping others in the future, one more thing I learnt with the upnp and strict NAT issue on the Xbox is, rebooting the Xbox wasn’t fixing the issue. I manually did a full shutdown of the Xbox, powered down the router, gave it a good 5 minutes and the. Powered on the router, let it settle in nicely and then switched on the Xbox and bam.. Open NAT
I still feel 0 issues with upnp and NAT over 4 years with the 850L and so many in a week with this new 878 indicates the upnp implementation certainly needs a lot of work from D-Link themselves and lots of patience from end-users like us. I’m not a networking expert but could it be that the 850L has full come NAT and the 878 has symmetric NAT which from what I read last week is supposed to be more secure?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 22, 2019, 06:27:03 AM
Oh uPnP works on newer generation D-Link routers. Hadn't been any issues that I've seen.

NAT also works, however when it comes to two game consoles online at the same time, playing the same game at the same time, one of the two games will not be fully OPEN NAT. This mostly effects multi player online games like CoD.

Full Cone NAT isn't available anymore on D-Link routers. I used to be. They started removing it 2013/2014 time frame. If the 850L had a firewall feature selection of NAT EndPoints in the UI, then yes, the 850L has the ability to use FULL CONE NAT. I didn't test this model router, however these had the ability to use FULL CONE NAT: D-Link DIR-655 Rev A, B and Rev C*, DIR-825 Rev B, DIR-835, DIR-657,827 and 857, DGL-4500
The 868L, 826L and 836L and 810L had the ability in early FW version, however was removed in later FW versions.
The 850L may have been effected as well since the 850L was about the same time frame in development as the 868L. 

You can find out what your 850L and 878 does here:
http://nattest.net.in.tum.de (http://nattest.net.in.tum.de)
Please post what router reports. I presume it will be Port Address Restricted NAT.

To add : I read so much about newer generation D-Link routers not working in terms of upnp correctly and something about full cone NAT but my experience kinda proves one can get an Open NAT simultaneously on two consoles. I was about to set an alternate port on the Xbox last week but since the multiple powerdowns resolved the issue I’m holding off on doing that for now.
If you’re collating data for better helping others in the future, one more thing I learnt with the upnp and strict NAT issue on the Xbox is, rebooting the Xbox wasn’t fixing the issue. I manually did a full shutdown of the Xbox, powered down the router, gave it a good 5 minutes and the. Powered on the router, let it settle in nicely and then switched on the Xbox and bam.. Open NAT
I still feel 0 issues with upnp and NAT over 4 years with the 850L and so many in a week with this new 878 indicates the upnp implementation certainly needs a lot of work from D-Link themselves and lots of patience from end-users like us. I’m not a networking expert but could it be that the 850L has full come NAT and the 878 has symmetric NAT which from what I read last week is supposed to be more secure?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 22, 2019, 07:41:04 AM
Thanks Furrynutz I’ll take a look at that link.
I don’t have the same game on both consoles but I the fact that NAT is open on both consoles at the same time is pretty good  for me.
I appreciate all the help you provide on these forums. This coupled with D-Link’s super nerdy tech support is really reassuring. So thank you once again :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 22, 2019, 09:30:42 AM
Yes, ON the consoles should be open and glad they are. ;D  Same game, different story. LOL  ::)

Thanks and glad to be of help. D-Link makes good stuff.

Have fun and enjoy.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 24, 2019, 09:00:15 PM
Update : Started getting NAT as strict and error as “upnp unsuccessful” on the Xbox One X out of nowhere yesterday. Figured I might as well try the Alternate Port selection the Xbox allows in Network Settings.
Did that, cleared the Mac (as advised on google searches), the Xbox reboots and back on Open NAT again. The PS4 meanwhile continues to be on Open NAT within games. I’m hoping this fixes this issue for good once and for all. If anything changes will post back. Sharing this to help someone else who might encounter a similar scenario.

By the way @FurryNutz I tried the NAT test url. It required java and inspite of installing it, am unable to run the test. Just keeps saying I need java installed. I guess I’ll leave it at that. :)


Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 25, 2019, 05:52:18 AM
I found that using FF x32 ESR version v52 and Java x32 version works for testing that NAT site.

Let us know if you need NAT issues again on the 878. I may need to get on of these routers just to see since  I have two xboxes. However I presume both should be OPEN NAT at the dash board and one will be OPEN NAT and the other moderate or strict when playing same game at the same time.

Update : Started getting NAT as strict and error as “upnp unsuccessful” on the Xbox One X out of nowhere yesterday. Figured I might as well try the Alternate Port selection the Xbox allows in Network Settings.
Did that, cleared the Mac (as advised on google searches), the Xbox reboots and back on Open NAT again. The PS4 meanwhile continues to be on Open NAT within games. I’m hoping this fixes this issue for good once and for all. If anything changes will post back. Sharing this to help someone else who might encounter a similar scenario.

By the way @FurryNutz I tried the NAT test url. It required java and inspite of installing it, am unable to run the test. Just keeps saying I need java installed. I guess I’ll leave it at that. :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 25, 2019, 08:48:43 AM
The Xbox today started showing moderate NAT and upnp unsuccessful. Set another alternate port. Let’s see if it again does the same upnp error after 24hours. I really think you should pass this feedback to D-Link. The more I read, good routers are supposed to work out correct upnp in a multi console environment. And I’m not even talking about 2 xboxes and the exact same game. Thankfully the PS4 has clung on to open NAT which is a bit of a relief.
If after 24 hours the Xbox reverts to the same error, do you suggest portforwarding only for the IP I have assigned to the Xbox in the router? I’ve read it’s not advisable to have both upnp and port forwarding enabled at the same time. Your thoughts?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 25, 2019, 08:57:50 AM
What region are you located?

Do you have PF configurations enabled, if so, then yes, upnp needs to be disabled if your using PF configurations.
uPnP should be able to handle two different game consoles with out any PF configurations.

Is the PS connected and online when this happens to the xbox? Test the system with out the PS being connected to see if the xbox gets correct NAT.
Be sure Instant ON feature on the xbox IS disabled aswell.


The Xbox today started showing moderate NAT and upnp unsuccessful. Set another alternate port. Let’s see if it again does the same upnp error after 24hours. I really think you should pass this feedback to D-Link. The more I read, good routers are supposed to work out correct upnp in a multi console environment. And I’m not even talking about 2 xboxes and the exact same game. Thankfully the PS4 has clung on to open NAT which is a bit of a relief.
If after 24 hours the Xbox reverts to the same error, do you suggest portforwarding only for the IP I have assigned to the Xbox in the router? I’ve read it’s not advisable to have both upnp and port forwarding enabled at the same time. Your thoughts?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 28, 2019, 09:06:28 AM
Just checking to see if there is any progress on this. Let us know.

The Xbox today started showing moderate NAT and upnp unsuccessful. Set another alternate port. Let’s see if it again does the same upnp error after 24hours. I really think you should pass this feedback to D-Link. The more I read, good routers are supposed to work out correct upnp in a multi console environment. And I’m not even talking about 2 xboxes and the exact same game. Thankfully the PS4 has clung on to open NAT which is a bit of a relief.
If after 24 hours the Xbox reverts to the same error, do you suggest portforwarding only for the IP I have assigned to the Xbox in the router? I’ve read it’s not advisable to have both upnp and port forwarding enabled at the same time. Your thoughts?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 30, 2019, 12:43:12 AM
Hi FurryNutz

Apologies for the late response.

My region is India
Fw : latest one 1.12

No kind of PF enabled on the router. I just prefer to let upnp do it’s job. Only thing I’ve done is assign a static IP for the PS4 and Xbox One X. The consoles themselves are set to obtain IP and DNS automatically.
Over the past 3-4 days, while the PS4 remains on Open NAT in-game and Type 2 on the dashboard. The Xbox fluctuates between moderate and strict along with upnp unsuccessful error. I’ve tried the alternate port selection on the Xbox and doing that the NAT opens up for maybe a day. After 24 hours it’s back to the same issues.
To add, only one console is powered on at any given time.
As for your suggestion to avoid Instant-On mode on the Xbox, with due respect the previous router never had any issues so it’s something with the 878 that needs fixing.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 30, 2019, 07:31:14 AM
When you say Static I presume you are Reserving an IP address ON the router for the game consoles?

When you see this fluctuation, which game console is turned on First? The xbox or the PS4?
So even if the PS4 isn't ON, the NAT type is fluctuation on the xbox when its online alone?

Please try disabling Instant ON and let us know the results.

I've ordered a DIR-878 and will be testing this out with my two xbox game consoles I have.
 
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 30, 2019, 07:38:27 AM
When you say Static I presume you are Reserving an IP address ON the router for the game consoles?

When you see this fluctuation, which game console is turned on First? The xbox or the PS4?
So even if the PS4 isn't ON, the NAT type is fluctuation on the xbox when its online alone?

Please try disabling Instant ON and let us know the results.

I've ordered a DIR-878 and will be testing this out with my two xbox game consoles I have.

Yes static means i've reserved the ip for the xbox in the router.
Yes for your second question as well. The ps4 is fully powered off whenever i boot up the xbox and it boots into strict or moderate nat.

Instant On turned off : I'll try this and respect your recommendation as far as troubleshooting is concerned, but wouldn't turning off instant on be kind of counter productive? With it OFF, the xbox no longer auto-downloads patches not to mention the slightly longer time to boot up. I'll def try it though and post back in 2-3 days with my observations :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 30, 2019, 08:40:34 AM
Yes, however there feature is known to cause problems on there consoles. This has been on going since day one when the xbox one first came out.
I see this still on going in other router forums as well. This is something MS has not fully addressed for some reason.

I'm waiting on my 878 to arrive and i'll have a look at this.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 30, 2019, 08:40:39 PM
One more thing, I read up when you get a strict or moderate NAT on the Xbox, in the network settings if you go to Test NAT type and once it completes the test instead of pressing A to continue, if you press both LB & RB and LT & RT (all 4 together) the NAT opens up. I did this last night and the NAT did open up. Will go back and check later today if it’s gone back to strict or moderate. I have a feeling it will fall off again.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 30, 2019, 09:04:06 PM
Ok, let us know how it turns out. Please try with Instant ON disabled as well. After applying the change, hold the power button until it turns off. Then reboot the router. After the router is ready, turn ON the xbox and check NAT.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on January 31, 2019, 04:31:17 AM
One more thing, I read up when you get a strict or moderate NAT on the Xbox, in the network settings if you go to Test NAT type and once it completes the test instead of pressing A to continue, if you press both LB & RB and LT & RT (all 4 together) the NAT opens up. I did this last night and the NAT did open up. Will go back and check later today if it’s gone back to strict or moderate. I have a feeling it will fall off again.

Unexpectely the nat has remained open 24 hours after doing the above stuff. Will check back again tomorrow at around this time. Instant On is ON for now.
Only difference is last night the xbox has updated a couple of games so it must have something to do with the nat remaining open. Let's see how it goes tonignt.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 31, 2019, 06:35:03 AM
I forgot about that trick. I've never had to use that. Seems that maybe has kicked your console into working correctly. Wonder if something just got stuck on it.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on January 31, 2019, 07:00:42 PM
My 878 arrived today. I'll get it configured and put online this weekend to test my two game consoles. I presume I should see OPEN NAT on both consoles. I hope.  ???
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 01, 2019, 05:48:11 AM
Xbox is back on moderate NAT and upnp unsuccessful. I’ll turn off the instant on feature for a couple of days to see how that goes now.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 01, 2019, 06:46:15 AM
Ok, I'll get my router on-line this weekend. It's updated and ready to roll.  ;)

Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 02, 2019, 01:32:23 PM
Ok, it seems that I may have found a bug, at least with my DIR-878 using v1.12B01 FW.  :-\

Both a single and two xbox consoles, 1 non MS Preview Program, 1 MS Preview Program no matter what order they are turned on, power button OFF reset, all 4 buttons on xbox controller reset, 1 xbox Instant ON enabled while the other is disabled, disable and re-enable of uPnP on the router and reboot of both 878 and ISP modem, both are showing STRICT NAT on the dashboard networking settings. Nothing else I've tired will not change to any other NAT status on the consoles. One console reports port 3074 and the other reports a random 4#### or 5#### port number.

This is not good.  :( I can put other routers online and get OPEN NAT on both dashboards.

Both console should have OPEN NAT on the dash board and in game> one game would be OPEN NAT and the other game would be Moderate due to the NAT kind D-Link now uses.  ::)

I'm hoping that D-Link will take a look at this and consider making some changes where needed. I hope I can be of help if more information is needed.


Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 02, 2019, 06:39:05 PM
Ok, it seems that I may have found a bug, at least with my DIR-878 using v1.12B01 FW.  :-\

Both a single and two xbox consoles, 1 non MS Preview Program, 1 MS Preview Program no matter what order they are turned on, power button OFF reset, all 4 buttons on xbox controller reset, 1 xbox Instant ON enabled while the other is disabled, disable and re-enable of uPnP on the router and reboot of both 878 and ISP modem, both are showing STRICT NAT on the dashboard networking settings. Nothing else I've tired will not change to any other NAT status on the consoles. One console reports port 3074 and the other reports a random 4#### or 5#### port number.

This is not good.  :( I can put other routers online and get OPEN NAT on both dashboards.

Both console should have OPEN NAT on the dash board and in game> one game would be OPEN NAT and the other game would be Moderate due to the NAT kind D-Link now uses.  ::)

I'm hoping that D-Link will take a look at this and consider making some changes where needed. I hope I can be of help if more information is needed.

Thanks. I hope D-Link take note and address our concerns. Once again I really appreciate the effort you put in to validate all this :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 03, 2019, 11:28:22 AM
I'll get this to D-Link for review. I took my 878 offline as this would impact my gaming systems here. Went back to using a good ol DIR-655 Rev C.  ;D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 03, 2019, 11:04:27 PM
I'll get this to D-Link for review. I took my 878 offline as this would impact my gaming systems here. Went back to using a good ol DIR-655 Rev C.  ;D

LoL thanks buddy. One thing you might want to let Dlink know is on the Xbox when you get a strict or moderate NAT, simply doing a Test NAT Type in the Network Settings opens up the NAT fine and dandy. So somehow between a 12-18 hour window where the Xbox is asleep, it loses the open NAT. I realised this last evening. Will be a pain having to do this every single time hence would urge D-Link to investigate this. Like I mentioned earlier and sorry to ham it repeatedly, my previous 850L had Zero issues keeping open NAT on multiple consoles so Dlink hopefully can take a leaf out of it and investigate the root cause.
:)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 04, 2019, 06:34:26 AM
Do you still have your 850L by chance?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 04, 2019, 06:43:16 AM
Do you still have your 850L by chance?

Yes as a backup.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 04, 2019, 06:45:02 AM
Would you take a look at the Firewall page on the 850L and tell me if you see any EndPoint configuration selections in the Ui?
What Rev is it and what FW is loaded on it?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 04, 2019, 07:22:55 AM
Would you take a look at the Firewall page on the 850L and tell me if you see any EndPoint configuration selections in the Ui?
What Rev is it and what FW is loaded on it?

I actually did that way before posting the thread here. No endpoint stuff there. The fw on it is the latest one as well. Sorry it’s packed up now. But I do remember checking for new fw via the router interface before swapping it for the new one.
I can get you the hardware revision details in a day if that’s critical.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 04, 2019, 07:57:48 AM
Ah ok. I was curious to the FW version and rev.
If it was readily available, I was going to ask you to try and run the NAT test on it, however if it's packed up, no worries. Would have been good to know it's NAT kind.  ;)

Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 04, 2019, 08:35:08 AM
Ah ok. I was curious to the FW version and rev.
If it was readily available, I was going to ask you to try and run the NAT test on it, however if it's packed up, no worries. Would have been good to know it's NAT kind.  ;)
NAT test as in the tour you gave me last week? The one that needs java?
I can certainly do it. Just need maybe the weekend. The 850L has all settings saved on it so swapping should be easy but swapping back to the 878 is the pain since it loses open NAT on the PS4 and needs several reboots. I’ll try my best to do this as early as I can and post back.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 04, 2019, 08:46:01 AM
Yes, if you can, Just out of curiosity.
Even with Port Address Restricted NAT, a single game console should bet OPEN NAT thru the router. I have several routers and I can get OPEN NAT on at least two. In game of course will be Moderate of course depending upon which one is turned on first and loaded first.

For this model router, I can't get any console on OPEN NAT.  :-\

Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 04, 2019, 12:25:47 PM
Also, can you down grade yours to v1.10 as test NAT status with your one xbox console?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 04, 2019, 06:17:59 PM
Good news, I downgraded to v1.10 and now I have both consoles on OPEN NAT.  ;D

I think v1.12 has a problem.  :-\
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 04, 2019, 07:17:08 PM
Good news, I downgraded to v1.10 and now I have both consoles on OPEN NAT.  ;D

I think v1.12 has a problem.  :-\

Downgrade was suggested to me by Dlink phone tech support. But they had an older fw 1.04 which didn’t solve the 5ghz Wi-Fi drops issue.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 04, 2019, 07:53:05 PM
Load v1.10.

I don't know if that solves any wifi issues as I'm not using the 878s wifi. Mines turned OFF.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 04, 2019, 11:08:59 PM
Load v1.10.

I don't know if that solves any wifi issues as I'm not using the 878s wifi. Mines turned OFF.

The Dlink India site doesn’t have any fw to download manually at all. Just checked.

Also tbh I’m a little uneasy rolling back the fw and breaking open NAT on the PS4. If you could get this up to Dlink with your findings atleast they can start investigating and working towards a fw update.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 05, 2019, 06:56:20 AM
You can get FW from the USA site if you want too. The PS NAT will be fine. I don't know when this will be fixed. If your in India, you'll need to contact your regional office and inform them of this. There are different regions for D-Link and each handles there own support. I'll be sure to have USA review this as well. When you do contact your regional office, please reference this forum thread so they can review it. Let us know what they say.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 05, 2019, 04:05:15 PM
I re-upgraded back to v1.12. Single xbox shows moderate NAT now, even after doing a hard power OFF of the console and rebooting the router.  :-\

Ive asked D-Link to submit a bug report for v1.12.

I'll be downgrading back to v1.10 for now. If I get a chance all try v1.11 to see if thats problematic as well.  :-\
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on February 06, 2019, 07:18:44 AM
Ticket (DTrack) has been submitted. With Chinese new year I will not get any response until middle of next week but will report back when I hear anything.

When testing with 1.12, try unplugging the power to the 2nd console since when they are powered off, they are still on and seen by the router. But I expect the same results.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 06, 2019, 07:23:06 AM
I've already gone back to v1.10 on the 878. After seeing Moderate NAT on the 1 console tested yesterday, I applied v1.10 back on and after turning ON the same xbox again from a hard power OFF, NAT was OPEN.  ::)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 06, 2019, 08:09:03 AM
Just checking to see how your doing.

Did you roll back to v1.10? It's working well for me.

I reviewed your initial post as well about Smart Connect not working for you? I've had SC enabled and it's working for me, both v1.10 and v1.12. Have quite a few wireless devices connected to it.

Load v1.10.

I don't know if that solves any wifi issues as I'm not using the 878s wifi. Mines turned OFF.

The Dlink India site doesn’t have any fw to download manually at all. Just checked.

Also tbh I’m a little uneasy rolling back the fw and breaking open NAT on the PS4. If you could get this up to Dlink with your findings atleast they can start investigating and working towards a fw update.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 06, 2019, 05:42:00 PM
Just checking to see how your doing.

Did you roll back to v1.10? It's working well for me.

I reviewed your initial post as well about Smart Connect not working for you? I've had SC enabled and it's working for me, both v1.10 and v1.12. Have quite a few wireless devices connected to it.

Load v1.10.

I don't know if that solves any wifi issues as I'm not using the 878s wifi. Mines turned OFF.

The Dlink India site doesn’t have any fw to download manually at all. Just checked.

Also tbh I’m a little uneasy rolling back the fw and breaking open NAT on the PS4. If you could get this up to Dlink with your findings atleast they can start investigating and working towards a fw update.

Is it safe to flash another region fw? Say if i flash the US fw 1.10? If yes i could try to do this..
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 07, 2019, 06:35:30 AM
Yes you can.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on February 07, 2019, 07:07:14 AM
Yes the firmware for this router is global.

You can always double-check at https://tsd.dlink.com.tw (https://tsd.dlink.com.tw).  All firmware is posted here so you can see if any files have a country code.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 09, 2019, 01:38:11 AM
Yes the firmware for this router is global.

You can always double-check at https://tsd.dlink.com.tw (https://tsd.dlink.com.tw).  All firmware is posted here so you can see if any files have a country code.

Hey thanks that url is awesome... i have to flash Firmware:DIR-878_A1_F/W:v1.10 right?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 09, 2019, 09:54:40 AM
Yes.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on February 11, 2019, 09:37:51 AM
DTrack team answered back.

They are requesting the following information:

1.DIR-878 Config file - PM me when you have this file and I will give you an email address to send it to.

2.DIR-878 detail version (http://192.168.0.1/version.txt) - Please provide screenshot.

3.Draw a complete topology for us checking further.

Need ISP, modem model, and what is connected to what and how it is connected (wifi or ethernet). Include ANY switches, hubs, etc.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 11, 2019, 10:33:31 AM


1.DIR-878 Config file - PM me when you have this file and I will give you an email address to send it to.
Ok.

2.DIR-878 detail version (http://192.168.0.1/version.txt) - Please provide screenshot.
Current FW is v1.10, do they want this for v1.10 or when we have v1.12 loaded?

3.Draw a complete topology for us checking further.
Need ISP, modem model, and what is connected to what and how it is connected (wifi or ethernet). Include ANY switches, hubs, etc.
Mines NetGear CM1100 cable modem only>DIR-878<>two xbox one's connected via CAT6 to the back of the 878. I have a D-Link DGS-1100 switch connected to a free port on the 878 and a different wireless AP device connected to the last available LAN port on the 878. The wireless is shut OFF on the 878. From the DGS-1100 I have an HP-1400-24 port and a HP J9794A-8Port non managed switches connected to the DGS-1100. All of the rest of the house hold devices and other switches are connected after the HP-1400 and J9794A switches. Xboxes are not connected to any switches. They are direct with the 878 router.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on February 11, 2019, 11:02:01 AM
When 1.12 is loaded
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 11, 2019, 03:30:33 PM
Hope this isn't right: v1.10
(https://i.ibb.co/9WzXMCJ/DIR878-Version-TXTv110.png) (https://ibb.co/L1bwG2M)

Not seeing any value information. Tried two different browsers.

I'll load up v1.12 and factory reset and post what I find there.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 13, 2019, 05:33:23 AM
Hey guys
Apologies for the late response.

I was able to downgrade to v1.10 like you suggested. When i downloaded the fw onto my pc, it gave two files one called encrypt and the other unencrpt. The unecrypt wouldn't flash on the 878 so i tried the encrypt one and it did downgrade to v1.10 successfully.
Note: I'm a little tight on time so didn't have the patience to factory reset for now. However for now atleast the xbox one x started showing open nat. This was with instant on turned on. PS4 Pro has held on to it's open nat within games which is a good sign. So i'll check back tomorrow morning again if it loses open nat like it used to do overnight with v1.12. Haven't been able to google the difference between these two files though.

If problems still continue, and if you strongly suggest, i can factory reset the 878 and start from scratch :)

Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 13, 2019, 06:38:37 AM
Yes, you only need the v1.10 file to downgrade from v1.12. I have tried both factory reset and no reset after downgrading to v1.10. OPEN NAT on both consoles.
D-Link is reviewing this currently. Hopefully they can figure out what happened between v1.10 and v1.12 and come up with a fix in next FW update.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on February 13, 2019, 07:43:47 AM
Furry, HQ is working on this and thanks for the config file. Hopefully they can figure it out and fix it. I assume they will send me a beta firmware to test but will prob take a little time as you know.

Twisted,
Firmware 1.10 added encryption to the firmware on the router for added security. The unencrypt file is needed if you are using an old firmware version to add the encryption to allow v1.10 and higher to be installed. Since you already had 1.10 and 1.12, the encryption is already added.

The only difference between 1.10 and 1.12 was the added support with the D-Link WiFi app and they fixed an issue for Australia.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 13, 2019, 08:19:57 AM
Thank you Sir. Sounds like I may have to get another router for my Bro in Law then. LOL this was supposed to be his when he got his new place which he has now. He's waiting to move in. I'll find him something else. Not like I don't have a boat load of routers that I can't part with.  ;D Maybe the 3902 would be good for him. We still have to check out the new home for ISP and router placement. Told him to let me know so we can take a look.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 13, 2019, 09:21:50 AM
Furry, HQ is working on this and thanks for the config file. Hopefully they can figure it out and fix it. I assume they will send me a beta firmware to test but will prob take a little time as you know.

Twisted,
Firmware 1.10 added encryption to the firmware on the router for added security. The unencrypt file is needed if you are using an old firmware version to add the encryption to allow v1.10 and higher to be installed. Since you already had 1.10 and 1.12, the encryption is already added.

The only difference between 1.10 and 1.12 was the added support with the D-Link WiFi app and they fixed an issue for Australia.

Thanks any idea how soon the fix could be out? Not that I'm too eager. If v1. 10 works as well as it did for Furry I'll be pretty alright with it.

I do notice v1. 10 is quite a bit faster at establishing a pppoe connection after a reboot. :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on February 13, 2019, 09:27:59 AM
Fixes can take a few weeks generally. Depends if the fix is simple or requires a lot of code rewrite.  Continue to use 1.10 if it is working for you. 1.12 did not have any security fixes or other complex changes.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 13, 2019, 07:49:00 PM
Left the xbox asleep overnight in Instant On mode. Checked today morning. Still Open NAT.
Thanks furry and greenbay for suggesting this "downgrade":D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 14, 2019, 04:00:50 AM
Left the xbox asleep overnight in Instant On mode. Checked today morning. Still Open NAT.
Thanks furry and greenbay for suggesting this "downgrade":D

Back from work and the xbox still on open nat. This v1.10 is sweet :D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 14, 2019, 06:56:48 AM
Good to hear. Hopefully D-Link can get v1.12 fixed and come out with a new release soon. Please be patient.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 14, 2019, 07:33:45 AM
Good to hear. Hopefully D-Link can get v1.12 fixed and come out with a new release soon. Please be patient.

I'll be wary of updating to a new fw. Let's see when it comes out. Maybe we can have you or Greenbay test it out first. I'm all golden with the current 1.10 not updating any time soon LoL
And super thanks to both of you for being patient and understanding of the issue I brought up. I would never have downgraded if not for your confirmation and assistance. Really appreciate everything you did. :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 14, 2019, 08:52:34 AM
No I think I'll let you update to the newer FW this time since I did all of the foot work in testing of v1.12 and v1.10. You can let us know how the new FW works for you when it comes out.  ;D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 14, 2019, 08:59:34 AM
I'm only kidding. I'll be testing this out again when new FW arrives.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: zeny1 on February 15, 2019, 05:10:12 AM
Hey. I plan to upgrade to 1.10 but I noticed there's a 1.11 ? Is that version not good or something? No one is talking about it either here or in any other topic on here........

I am super curious if 1.11 is even better than 1.10 ? Or should I just update to 1.10? I have a stock firmware of 1.00 lol
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 15, 2019, 06:48:50 AM
Link>Welcome! (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=49573.0)


I haven't had a chance to test v1.11. It was recommended to me to try v1.10 since it was the first major update since v1.0x and since you need to download v1.10 that includes the migration v1.04 that must be applied first on top of v1.00 before applying v1.10, we have been mostly testing with v1.10 and v1.12.

If you have a chance too, can you give v1.11 a try after migrating to v1.04, then v1.10?

Hey. I plan to upgrade to 1.10 but I noticed there's a 1.11 ? Is that version not good or something? No one is talking about it either here or in any other topic on here........

I am super curious if 1.11 is even better than 1.10 ? Or should I just update to 1.10? I have a stock firmware of 1.00 lol
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on February 15, 2019, 06:35:55 PM
Good point.  v1.11 fixed xbone and ps4 connectivity issues and a specific ISP/modem issue for Canada. I am going to assume 1.11 will have similar issues as 1.12.

Note when updating to 1.10, make sure you update to v1.04 included in the firmware package and then 1.10. That adds the encryption. If you try to update 1.10 from 1.00 it will fail.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 15, 2019, 06:58:35 PM
Good point.  v1.11 fixed xbone and ps4 connectivity issues and a specific ISP/modem issue for Canada. I am going to assume 1.11 will have similar issues as 1.12.

Note when updating to 1.10, make sure you update to v1.04 included in the firmware package and then 1.10. That adds the encryption. If you try to update 1.10 from 1.00 it will fail.

Good point. Thanks I was about to ask the same question. ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 15, 2019, 08:43:41 PM
Don't bother with v1.11. I just loaded it and turned on just 1 xbox. NAT was moderate and it also said that uPnP connection had failed. I reverted back to v1.10.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 15, 2019, 08:57:02 PM
Don't bother with v1.11. I just loaded it and turned on just 1 xbox. NAT was moderate and it also said that uPnP connection had failed. I reverted back to v1.10.

Aha thanks buddy. Would it be possible to pull down 11 and 12 altogether just to avoid customer grief. If 10 works so well just have that as the last latest stable release. I would imagine maybe 1 out of 100 customers of this product would end up on this forum. The rest would either be soured and defect to other brands or carry a negative impression and put up with it.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 15, 2019, 09:07:05 PM
I'll leave that to the admin to decide to pull it. I've brought up the v1.10 FW thread and made mention of using that version with problems with the later releases. Also put do not use on the v1.12 thread title for some visibility for forum readers. I presume if D-Link gets a lot more calls about problems with v1.12, they might. There may have not been any exposure to some users as this issue only seems to effect gaming consoles. Would have no idea what D-Link is seeing in problem reports with those versions of FW.

It's being looked at and will just have to wait for new FW. For now, were not missing out on anything by downgrading to v1.10. Seems to be solid since I started using it. Even WiFi is pretty good. If D-Link can just fix the NAT and upnp issue and thats all, then router will be that much better. I hope.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 15, 2019, 09:18:49 PM
I'll leave that to the admin to decide to pull it. I've brought up the v1.10 FW thread and made mention of using that version with problems with the later releases. Also put do not use on the v1.12 thread title for some visibility for forum readers. I presume if D-Link gets a lot more calls about problems with v1.12, they might. There may have not been any exposure to some users as this issue only seems to effect gaming consoles. Would have no idea what D-Link is seeing in problem reports with those versions of FW.

It's being looked at and will just have to wait for new FW. For now, were not missing out on anything by downgrading to v1.10. Seems to be solid since I started using it. Even WiFi is pretty good. If D-Link can just fix the NAT and upnp issue and thats all, then router will be that much better. I hope.  ;)

Yeah reason I suggested this is because when I spoke to dlink India tech support they were quite confident that 12 is absolutely bug free and no issues reported at all. Not sure if they ping into the same database as the US or other large markets globally but they wouldnt believe 12 has any issues at all with smart connect or the nat and uPnP issues. That could also be because maybe the 878 is more of a premium router here in India and the lesser people that have it the lesser complaints. Here most folks are happy to use the isp provider crappy N routers.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 15, 2019, 09:26:44 PM
Well when dealing with phone support they probably don't have access to bug reports or current and historical information. So on the cover, it's probably rosy to first level support. Reality for us says otherwise. They and anyone else can review this thread if they wish. The issue is being handled and hopefully will get fixed for everyone, globally with the 878.   ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on February 17, 2019, 08:17:23 PM
Well when dealing with phone support they probably don't have access to bug reports or current and historical information. So on the cover, it's probably rosy to first level support. Reality for us says otherwise. They and anyone else can review this thread if they wish. The issue is being handled and hopefully will get fixed for everyone, globally with the 878.   ;)

Yeah that makes sense.
By the way just to add, I tried enabling smart connect on 1.10 for a day. In the same room as the router devices would latch onto 5ghz but upon moving to an adjoining room they would continue to hold on to the now significantly weaker 5ghz signal instead of handing off to 2.4ghz.
Noticed huge drop in speeds in the adjoining room whilst on the weaker 5ghz signal so turned smart connect off and reverted to my earlier setup.
Same custom said for both bands. No customisation in the channel settings. Everything on default. Works much better that way. The devices choose the band depending on the signal strength.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on February 18, 2019, 09:30:52 AM
Some of that is the behavior of the roaming of the device. It may not know when to disconnect then find a better signal.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 10, 2019, 08:56:46 PM
Update:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=74175.0 (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=74175.0)
 ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on March 12, 2019, 06:17:31 AM
Heyy Furry
How are you mate? :)
A new update huh? If i can just chime in, i had tried the factory reset >> Load 1.12 >> Factory reset right before starting this thread... Is this new update fixing the nat issue?
So far life's been smooth on 1.10... don't want to mess it all up with the dreaded 1.12 all over again :D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 12, 2019, 06:40:51 AM
Busy here of course. LOL. Life is good though...

May need you to reload v1.12 and retest...if this still happens on your system, may need you to setup remote management and we'll have someone from D-Link take a look at your router settings. I was setting mine up last Sunday expecting to reproduce this and someone was going to take a look but I could not reproduce the issue again after a reset, load v1.12, set and setup from scratch. Both consoles are with OPEN NAT has the dashboard. I'll check again tonite and see if anything has changed. If you can still reproduce, we'll see if someone can check your system out. They haven't been able to reproduce this issue at D-Link.  :-\

Also can you comment on this?
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=74646.0 (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=74646.0)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on March 12, 2019, 07:35:59 AM
No i'm not going down that rabbit hole again....
1.10 is working like a charm for me. Dunno why your HQ won't believe or accept 1.12 is broken. We both faced the same issues, didn't we? :)

Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on March 12, 2019, 07:48:18 AM
Dunno why your HQ won't believe or accept 1.12 is broken. We both faced the same issues, didn't we? :)

It is because 1. They cannot reproduce the problem. It works with their units and their xboxs. and 2. There has been very little complaints from the users around the world with this issue so it is isolated to your network/devices. How can they fix something that isn't broken? :P

Even furry reinstalled 1.12 and reset it. Now it works. If 1.10 is working for you then no reason to update.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 12, 2019, 07:53:25 AM
Ya, I think that if v1.10 works for you, then just keep it loaded. Seems to be a corner case issue. Again, I'll check tonite to see if anything has changed. If it has then D-Link will look at it again. Possible issues do crop up days later.  :-\

Can you comment on this though? I didn't test v1.10 and would be good to post your experience if you see or don't see this issue with v1.10.
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=74646.0 (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=74646.0)


Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on March 12, 2019, 07:58:59 AM
Dunno why your HQ won't believe or accept 1.12 is broken. We both faced the same issues, didn't we? :)

It is because 1. They cannot reproduce the problem. It works with their units and their xboxs. and 2. There has been very little complaints from the users around the world with this issue so it is isolated to your network/devices. How can they fix something that isn't broken? :P

Even furry reinstalled 1.12 and reset it. Now it works. If 1.10 is working for you then no reason to update.

Apolohies if I sounded curt or rude earlier. I just won't touch 1.12 a 10foot pole after all the heartburn it's given me.
But to be fair I had done factory reset >>load 1.12>> factory reset right when I had got the 878.i don't understand how that is suddenly expected to work now?
Infact back in January when I spoke to phone support they also walked me through doing the same thing 
Phone support had then made me downgrade to 1.04 and after the call I again did the reset 1.12 reset by myself because I didn't want to be so far behind on the fw.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 12, 2019, 08:15:25 AM
No worries man.

Understand the frustration. I saw that when you first posted. LOL. Can be frustrating with this kinds of problems. Some reproduce easily, some don't. I thought I had done the same thing when I first started testing as well. I know one time I didn't factory reset after applying v1.12 on top of v1.10 which still IMO has a possibility in my opinion that if v1.10 works and if a user applies v1.12 on top of v1.10, with out doing a reset and setup from scratch. The problem should not appear, which it did. Doing a reset, full reload, reset and setup doesn't seem to reproduce not. I used IE11 in Windows 7x64 to load FW on my 878. Possible different browser could be a factor as well. I NEVER use Chrome.

I may try to reproduce once more. Downgrade FW to v1.10. Test NAT, then just apply v1.12 with out doing a reset and see what happens.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on March 12, 2019, 10:43:34 PM
Thanks.
I had done the downgrade from 12 to 10 via IE. No factory reset done either before or after the fact :D
I was just short on time and lazy that day. But it worked absolutely perfectly since and continues to work even till date. By that logic maybe upgrading straight to 12 from a perfectly working and fully setup 10 should/could also work. I'm just too weak to do it myself lol
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 13, 2019, 07:59:36 AM
If you get a wild hair sometime, let us know. LOL

Not sure if I'll be able to get a retest done as I'm supposed to get this router over to my Bro In Law new place. I have a backup plan which I may put in place and maybe just keep the 878.

I think the 878 is supposed to get 160Mhz support.  ???
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on March 17, 2019, 08:19:28 AM
If you get a wild hair sometime, let us know. LOL

Not sure if I'll be able to get a retest done as I'm supposed to get this router over to my Bro In Law new place. I have a backup plan which I may put in place and maybe just keep the 878.

I think the 878 is supposed to get 160Mhz support.  ???

Haha I'll buckle up and do it whenever 12 releases. I know 11 will take me down the same hole no matter what hq says.
Once again I truly appreciate everything you and greenbay do. You two really take great care of customer feedback. And for that a big heartfelt thanks. :)
Let's see when 12 sees the light of day.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 17, 2019, 11:31:28 AM
Well, if v1.10 is working keep it loaded.

I'm out of the 878 game now. I gave the 878 to my bro in law. It's working at his place now and seems to be good for his needs.

I'm sure v12 will be ok.

Good Luck and enjoy.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on March 19, 2019, 07:22:45 AM
Furry, I have a beta firmware (1.20B03) if you wanna try it.

ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip (ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 19, 2019, 08:40:58 AM
Will have to pass this to TwistedMind.  ;)

Hey Twisted, can you give this a try? Please?  8)


Furry, I have a beta firmware (1.20B03) if you wanna try it.

ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip (ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on March 19, 2019, 08:47:41 AM
His is working fine. Don't wanna mess it up. 8)

This is for a security fix but was curious if the NAT issue is there.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 19, 2019, 09:49:41 AM
Ya, I won't be able to test. Router was handed off to my bro in law for his new place.

Why I'm hoping Twisted won't mind trying it for us.  :-\
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on March 19, 2019, 09:56:12 AM
Ah. Thought he had the covr. No worries.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 19, 2019, 09:59:49 AM
Original plan was to give him the 878 however I had not been to his place to check it out until the day he had the cable internet guy come over and get his Internet setup. So the COVR was back up if I though the house as bigger than I expected. We placed the modem and 878 in the living room which is central to the house so he should have good coverage. I need to go back and test signal strength around the out side as he was some wifi outside.  ::)

I haven't heard any complaints from him.  ;D  Yet.  :-\
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on March 19, 2019, 10:15:58 AM
Silence is compliance...
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 19, 2019, 10:33:51 AM
Rebellion brings light into dark places!  ;D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: zeny1 on March 20, 2019, 06:07:54 AM
Furry, I have a beta firmware (1.20B03) if you wanna try it.

ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip (ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip)

I'm tempted to try this. Ipv6 is funky with ISP in Canada (Rogers).

What does this have different than the regular 1.12b01?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: GreenBay42 on March 20, 2019, 07:13:15 AM
What does this have different than the regular 1.12b01?

I am not sure other than a security fix. I have not received the release notes.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on March 20, 2019, 08:06:39 AM
You can give this a try and if nothing works for you, you can revert back.

I would keep in touch with D-Link Canada about your IPv6 issue.

Let us know in your other thread if this beta worked or not.

Thank you.

Furry, I have a beta firmware (1.20B03) if you wanna try it.

ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip (ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip)

I'm tempted to try this. Ipv6 is funky with ISP in Canada (Rogers).

What does this have different than the regular 1.12b01?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on July 16, 2019, 09:05:11 AM
Hey FurryNutz & Greenbay
How are you guys doing? Sorry for the long long absence.
Just thought i'd share something with you. I had some time to kill today and just randomly thought of checking the router fw page for a new fw. It showed v1.2 as available to update.
I looked up the dlink fw downloads page Greenbay had posted in this thread somewhere and that repository doesn't list 1.2 at all...
Feeling adventurous i went ahead with the online update... no factory reset done post the update.. And at first only the xbox or the ps4 pro either one would hold on to Open nat. I was about to go back to v1.10 when i decided to give one last thing a try. Rebooted the modem (the isp supplied one) and kept the router powered down until the modem established the internet link to the isp. Then powered up the 878 and now both the ps4 and xbox seem to stay on Open nat.
Early days i know...knowing my luck with these fw upgrades. I'll check back tomorrow evening to see if 15-18 hours makes any difference.
Will post back :D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on July 16, 2019, 09:23:54 AM
Glad to hear. My 878 last time I tested it was OPEN NAT. THought seem to be a process in testing it all out. The v1.10 was working for me before I handed it off ot my bro in law for his main router. He's happy however he's not a gamer. LOL.

Thank you for coming back and posting your experiences with v1.20. We need to know this. Sounds like the 878 is solid now. I think the 878 and 882 are good solid routers now for gaming. Though NAT kind will impact two or more game consoles being online at the same time playing the same online MP games.  ::)

Are you using the FW file from this location?
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=74934.0 (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=74934.0)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on July 16, 2019, 09:56:52 AM
No I just let the router update from within the router web interface.
The new fw didn't show up on the fw downloads page greenbay had shared in this thread. So maybe 1.2 is specific for Asia or India maybe.
Some nice improvements I notice.. An option to auto update new fw once a available. Some user management settings as well.
You might want to add in your knowledgebase, the new fw shows buttons in the interface only in Edge browser. Firefox and IE have the buttons hiding in plain sight lol. :D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on July 16, 2019, 10:02:36 AM
Can do http://dlinkrouter.local./version.txt or 192.168.0.1/version.txt and see the build number and date. Please post what you see here.

The new FW is for our region and I think any region as well.

Any you please capture what your seeing in the broser Edge vs other browser?
Adding Screenshots In A Post (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=58120.0)

Would be interesting to see what is hidden from other browsers. Also please post browser versions as well.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on July 16, 2019, 06:57:20 PM
Update : 9 hours later, both consoles latch on to open nat just fine. The ps4 boots up from completely powered off mode. The xbox from instant on and no issues.   ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on July 17, 2019, 06:03:49 AM
Sounds like we can mark this as "resolved".

Enjoy.  ;)

Update : 9 hours later, both consoles latch on to open nat just fine. The ps4 boots up from completely powered off mode. The xbox from instant on and no issues.   ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on July 17, 2019, 06:36:34 AM
Still open nat across both consoles. :D All's good! You may mark this thread as resolved.
Thanks so much
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: FurryNutz on July 17, 2019, 07:09:16 AM
What was the hidden items seen in Edge vs other browsers?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: edilima on August 09, 2019, 05:37:34 AM
...
Would be interesting to see what is hidden from other browsers. Also please post browser versions as well.

I will provide one clear example:

In the WiFi Settings, the SmartConnect toggle button is not shown in Chrome browser but shows in internet explorer.
Other screens have the same issue such as automatic firmware update toggle botton.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt
Post by: twisted_mind on August 15, 2019, 06:01:48 AM
Still open nat across both consoles. :D All's good! You may mark this thread as resolved.
Thanks so much

A month later. Both consoles have been getting just moderate NAT for the past 2-3 weeks. Am rolling back to 1.10. :(
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on August 15, 2019, 06:07:23 AM
Wondering if that's a MS service issue or something. IF it started out being good and just changed...I wouldn't think it's a FW issue. Please let us know how v1.10 goes and if you notice anything.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on August 16, 2019, 08:34:53 PM
Wouldn’t blame MS as even the PS4 has been stuck on moderate for 3 weeks now. Nothing’s changed at all in terms of hardware. Reboots of both the modem and the router haven’t helped. :(
Will flash 1.10 over the weekend and post back.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on August 17, 2019, 10:56:01 AM
So it initially was on Open right while v1.20 was loaded?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on August 17, 2019, 10:09:02 PM
Yes for like the first two days. Ever since it went to moderate

Just flashed 1.10 and open NAT on both consoles. Back to sanity phew 😂
Also to add, the past one month that I was on 1.20 the Wi-Fi would just drop out every few minutes in the adjoining room. That’s what really bugged me. 1.10 has been such a stable rock solid fw. It’s sad that 1.12 and 1.20 still haven’t fixed basic issues.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on August 18, 2019, 10:41:21 AM
Are you using this version of v1.20 when the failure with NAT happend?
ftp://FTP2.DLINK.COM/SECURITY_ADVISEMENTS/DIR-878/REVA/DIR_878_FWV120B03_Beta_for_Security_20190223.zip


v1.12 WiFi is working as the 878 I had been testing on was given to my bother in law to use at his new place. If anything was wrong or happening with WiFi there, I would hear about it.  ::)  He's been using for while now with out issues. No he doesn't game.  ;)

I didn't get a chance to test v1.20 beta before I gave my unit away.

I'll have D-Link look into this NAT issue. Seems like if it worked initially then all of a sudden its not, there maybe some form of a delay in when the problem starts happening. Any idea of a time frame on when it's working and when it stops?

Also wondering if a different 878 unit would exhibit the same problem...

Yes for like the first two days. Ever since it went to moderate

Just flashed 1.10 and open NAT on both consoles. Back to sanity phew 😂
Also to add, the past one month that I was on 1.20 the Wi-Fi would just drop out every few minutes in the adjoining room. That’s what really bugged me. 1.10 has been such a stable rock solid fw. It’s sad that 1.12 and 1.20 still haven’t fixed basic issues.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on August 18, 2019, 07:31:42 PM
A month ago when I upgraded from 1.10 to 1.20, I had done it from within the fw interface.
Over the past few days I have tried switching upnp off and on hoping that fixes the NAT issues. All I can think of is unlike 1.10 which correctly gives an open NAT on either console at a time, 1.20 somehow manages to get confused after a couple of days and starts handing out moderate NAT even if only one of the two consoles ais switched on.

Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on August 18, 2019, 08:31:40 PM
Thanks for the info. I'll have D-Link take a look at this.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on August 19, 2019, 03:29:24 AM
Thanks.
I don’t know if factory resetting while on 1.20 and setting it up from scratch would make a difference. I’ll try to do that when I have some free time in the next few days. Maybe that’ll help. :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on August 20, 2019, 06:28:16 AM
Please let us know the results after a factory reset. This would be needed. Thank you.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on October 25, 2019, 09:52:04 AM
Hi Furry
Am back :D
Had some time to kill today so here’s what I’ve done.
Was on v1.10.
Downloaded the latest 1.20 file from the Dlink fw page Greenbay had shared earlier.
Upgraded the router
Factory reset it before setting it up
Factory reset one more time before setting it up
Configured the router manually. No backup restore, went right from scratch.

Will monitor for a couple of days and post back. If doing all this still doesn’t resolve the NAT issue I can’t imagine what else would.
Fingers crossed. :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on October 26, 2019, 08:57:40 AM
Update:
24 hours in and both PS4 Pro and XBOX 1X continue to get Open NAT.
Both consoles have been put in stand-by as well as powered down fully. Am feeling good about this whole thing. Seems like 1.20 is finally the real deal. :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on October 26, 2019, 02:21:43 PM
Good to hear man. Glad it's working for you. Ya I think a factory reset and setup from scratch ON the router is best. Also hard powering OFF the xbox and PS to clear out all networking caches and clear uPnP ports is recommended as well. Set IP address reservations for them as well.

I think you'll be fine here on out. Just know that if you have same game playing on same consoles, like CoD mostly, In game NAT will not be OPEN for both. Nature of the beast with D-Link routers. Gaming should be good though.

Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on November 02, 2019, 09:02:27 AM
Thanks Furry
More than a week in. Multiple cold-boots of both consoles and the NAT stays Open on both.
I must also say the router no longer freezes overnight(losing internet connection) randomly. I used to have that at least once every 3-4 days.
Since I was so happy I also gave Smart Connect a shot. And it has worked absolutely flawlessly.
Anyone here who has problems like I did, just factory reset this thing twice and set it up manually from scratch.
And thank you once again a ton Furry. I was about to jump ship to another brand but your persistence saved me like a $100 :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on November 02, 2019, 09:08:24 AM
Glad to be of help and work with you to figure it all out. Glad it's working well for you.

Enjoy.  ;)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on November 02, 2019, 09:25:38 AM
Hey Furry
As an expert in this field, how do you suggest the orientation (angles) of the 4 antennae?
Right now I have the rear two pointed away like a V shape and the side antennae angled at 45 degrees each away from the router? My home is a single-storey apartment.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on November 02, 2019, 10:40:12 AM
Angle for multi story home, vertical for single level home:
Links>Wireless Installation Considerations (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=48327.0)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: GreenBay42 on November 04, 2019, 11:56:49 AM
If you are in a single story, have all antennas vertical.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on November 07, 2019, 09:10:23 AM
Thanks again furry and greenbay

Does smart connect have some kind of learning it does initially? The first 2 days or so my phones and laptops would fall back to 2.4ghz even when sitting right in front of the router. But they all seem to have smartened up of sorts LoL since. All’s dandy now :D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on November 07, 2019, 09:29:07 AM
Not really. Between the router which provides the signal and platform for devices to connect to mostly, it's the devices whom determine which frequency to connect too, based on support, noise, signal and strength. The router just provides the signals and helps getting devices to connect and steers them in the right directly. It's up to the device to make the choice.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on December 13, 2019, 08:45:05 AM
Thanks Furry
Sorry to bump an old thread. Does this 878 support gigabit Internet? I’m getting it and couldn’t find any info if the WAN port supports it. I’m planning to use the isp Fiber modem as a dumb pass through device in bridge mode and let the 878 do the pppoe stuff. That’s how I’m set up right now for my vdsl connection.
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: GreenBay42 on December 13, 2019, 09:32:26 AM
The 878 actually has pretty good throughput so you should get close to 1 Gbps speeds (Ethernet). 

Most WAN to LAN tests I have seen are betweek 941 - 925Mbps.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/179-wan-to-lan-tcp/35 (https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/179-wan-to-lan-tcp/35)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on December 13, 2019, 08:43:08 PM
Thanks Greenbay
So on 5Ghz wifi I can expect over 900mbps is it?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on December 14, 2019, 04:19:41 AM
Found at the bottom of the product page on the Dlink website this indeed supports gigabit internet so Yayy :D
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on December 15, 2019, 03:05:30 PM
If you have a client device that supports 1000Mbps or higher connection rate speeds then maybe. Most current wifi devices max out at around 400-500Mbps on thruput speed tests. Some devices that support 160Mhz and connect at 1733Mbps, then you may see speeds near 900Mpbs on 5Ghz WiFi thruput speeds.

I didn't get a chance to test the 878 WAN to LAN wired when I had mine. I presume it should support WAN to LAN speeds near 900Mbps. My 882 does.


Thanks Greenbay
So on 5Ghz wifi I can expect over 900mbps is it?
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: twisted_mind on December 15, 2019, 05:26:02 PM
Aha thanks Furry.
I’m old-school so hardwire the consoles and desktop. All Cat6 cables so that’s covered too :)
Title: Re: My experience with the 878 and lessons learnt - (RESOLVED)
Post by: FurryNutz on December 16, 2019, 12:15:43 AM
 ;)