Dlink DIR-825 Router ... a few comments.

[Dennis Wood]

Well, I finally gave up on daily resetting the wireless on a Dlink DI824 VUP router and ended up picking up a DIR 825 REVB dual band router to replace it. Those who've poked around here for a while know that I had tested several dual WAN routers and settled on a Draytek 2950G for business use. The DIR 825 router is in this case for residential where simultaneous dual band "N" radios were desired as well as uPNP. In this application, VPN endpoint was not required. Tim had tested the DLINK DIR 825 and folks seemed happy with it, so I picked one up.

Here are two comments that may help anyone having issues with installation.

Problem 1: Out of the box, just like a NETGEAR FVS336 dual WAN router I had tested, SIP was broken. In other words, all of my SIP devices stopped working. This includes a Talkswitch VOIP phone as well as several iPhone SIP programs we use.

The fix was beta firmware which is not mentioned on the DIR-825 product support page:

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=8956.0 -> NA Version
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=9161.0 -> EU Version

EDIT: beta01 firmware is replaced: ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir825_revB/Beta/Firmware/

Problem 2: The router dropped connections to the DSL provider after 60 seconds and connection for those 60 seconds was flaky. A call to the provider yielded nothing. Resets, reloading firmware etc did nothing.

The fix:

Change the DIR 825 WAN port speed from "Auto" to 10Mbps which in this case matches the Speedstream 5260 DSL modem's ethernet port. This modem came from the provider and is apparently a bit dated. This was a guess based on a few years of experience...and it worked.

It's amazing how much time yet again gets sucked up dealing with hardware/firmware issues. It seems every time I touch a piece of hardware lately it costs me way too much time. In any case, hopefully folks googling similar issues will find this. On the positive side, the wireless range on this unit is a lot better than the DI-824 VUP unit it replaces.

Cheers,

 

[Osamede]

Thanks for the useful info!!

 

[claykin]

Dennis

I have a DIR825 B1 for about 8 months. I'm using it as an AP so I don't have any of the WAN port issues thankfully (actually Dlink claims V2.02 firmware resolved the WAN port issues). Overall its an OK router but after comparing it to the Netgear WNDR3700 I'm no longer impressed. The WNDR3700 has it beat in every respect. My T-Mobile UMA won't work for squat with the 825 but works perfectly with the WNDR3700. Range and throughput are also better with the WNDR3700 in both bands. Not tons better, but enough to be noticeable.

The only savings grace that may come to the DIR825 Rev B is DDWRT support. Beta firmware is available but its suffering from some issues. Full support should be coming soon. Where DLink completely drops the ball with firmware support, luckily we'll have DDWRT to hopefully help sort out issues with this router.

BTW, the WNDR3700 will also have DDWRT support sometime in the near future for those who feel they need the additional capabilities. Fortunately, Netgear has been proactive in addressing issues in their firmware.

 

[Dennis Wood]

Thanks Claykin..I'll have to check the Netgear router out next time. I was a bit peeved after purchasing a Netgear WINDAP330 AP and finding out that although advertised as a dual-band unit..it could only be set to use one at a time. Figured I've give D-link a go this time.

With a newer replacement ADSL modem, the manual WAN setting worked fine back at the default "Auto" setting. One thing I've found with the router using the older modem is that with many sessions, it seemed to drop the modem connection and "crash" the router. Will try with the newer modem but if I see the same issue, the router goes back.

Data seems to move at about 12-17 MBps, or approx 96-122 Mbps connecting via N, to a laptop one floor up. We're using WPA2 AES.

Also, there's is now newer (but still "beta") firmware: ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir825_revB/Beta/Firmware/

 

[zurge]

Dennis, Have you tried the newer beta firmware? Does that resolve your disconnect problems?

I have been looking at purchasing a new router....the two were the D-Link DIR-825 or the Netgear WNDR3700. I considered the Apple Airport Extreme for awhile but reviews havent made the Airport sound too exciting.

Your posts here are making me wonder if I should write-off the D-Link DIR-825.

 

[Dennis Wood]

The beta2 firmware is indeed loaded but the readme indicates it just fixes an XBOX wireless connection issue. Replacing the ADSL modem with a newer version from the Telco seems to have solved all disconnection issues. WAN performance is dramatically improved with multiple sessions under load. So until something else comes up, this router is now working as it should with the beta2 firmware and newer modem.

With all the posts I've come across on issues with cable, fibre or DSL modems, it shouldn't be a surprise that a newer modem solved some strange behaviour. It would be nice, but at this point I don't expect all routers to work flawlessly with the wide array of modem hardware they are supposed to work with. That said, it is worth noting that the "old" ADSL Speedstream modem worked just fine with at least 4 other brands of routers, including a new Netgear FVS336G...and none of these routers required WAN speed changes from the defaults.