the d-link dir-825 conundrum

the d-link dir-825 is a great router that holds a lot of promise. but of course, it's not perfect.

don't get me wrong. the pros overwhelm the cons. and the problems i have encountered will be what i will be discussing here.

it's not because i want to pick on d-link but because there seems to be no documentation about the problems i will be discussing here.

so here goes.

firmware issue

i have a d-link dir-825. hardware version: c1. firmware version: 3.00.

as everytime, i have a new hardware (or if there is a new firmware available) i update.

downloaded via dlink.com.ph the latest firmware. the firmware on their support page reads version 3.00b32 dated 20 sept 2012 and updated the router.

after the router has restarted, the web utility still reads current version firmware: 3.00; date: 19 jan 2012.


weird.

went to the d-link US website and downloaded the latest firmware. the firmware listed there is dated 12 jul 2012.

after updating the router, the information indicated in the web utility of the router is still the same, as shown above.

"short gi" issue

i wanted to turn short gi off. so i go to the advanced tab and advanced wireless section.


what's interesting here is the fact that short gi cannot be turned off. sure, i can uncheck the boxes, save the settings, and reboot. but checking the settings later would indicate that the short gi options are still checked.

here's another ineteresting discovery: when making changes to other sections and you opt not to reboot right away, an additional button appears: reboot now.

obviously, clicking on reboot now would reboot the router.

but while the reboot now button would appear on all pages, that button would not appear on the advanced wireless section.

the media server issue

this router can be a network attached storage up to a certain degree. up to a certain degree because anyone in the local network can have full access to the storage be it a flash drive or even a usb-powered hard drive. this means that anyone can upload and delete files.

by the way, i have tried fat32 and ntfs formatted drives/flash drives and they both work.

so here's the problem. i plugged a newly formatted flash drive into the router. rebooted the router.

after the reboot, the power indicator would light up and the lan port where a switch is connected ends up blinking (i have a switch plugged into the router; my pc is connected to the switch). that's all no internet connection.

i unplugged the flash drive and rebooted the router. everything is back to normal.

plugged in again the flash drive and tried to access the flash drive via windows explorer (\\192.168.1.1; i have configured the router to use another ip address instead of the default 192.168.0.1). no access to the flash drive.

i unplugged the flash drive from the router and plugged it in the pc and copied a single mkv file. plugged in the flash drive to the router again and now everything worked fine.

out of curiosity and as a form of experiment, i again reformatted the flash drive via pc, turned off the router, plugged in the flash drive into the router, and turned it on. now, even with an empty flash drive, i have now access to the flash drive as mentioned above.

inconsistent.

the media server name issue

there are ways to connect to the shared drive, the one plugged into the usb port of the router. it may be via the ip address: \\192.168.1.1 or via a name.

but by what name?

under the setup tab, at the media server section, there is a placeholder for the media server name.

but using \\dir-825 doesn't work. not even \\DIR-825.

so what to use? use the device name found at the network section under the setup tab.

so \\dlinkrouter works.

please note again that everyone in the network would have access to the your shared device.

as a further information, you can even share your files on the net. just enable web file access found at the storage section under the setup tab.