Difficulties with Wireless Router

Hey all,

So I'm having difficulties with a recently purchased Wireless router. To be specific, the model is the DI-714p+ Airplus Print-server router offered by D-Link. It's replacing a DI-713P router mainly for compatibility with wireless repeaters to extend the range of our network.

I called tech-support about the problem and got probably one of the most inept tech support personel you can get. normally I have it good with them, but this guy really didn't seem to have a clue what was going on, and...long story, so until the shift is over and i can guarantee getting someone else, maybe you guys can help out

So here's the nitty-gritty. The old router worked fine, just couldn't work with the repeaters (limitation of the repeaters). The new router works fine as a print server, works find with it's four ethernet jacks as well. The problems only occur with the wireless access. While I admit this problem has only been tested on one computer, I've used two network cards in both cardslots, and it still happens. One of the network cards is itself a d-link from the very same series of wireless products (and it has problems too of, hopefully, not hopefully(?) a different nature).

I can connect to the router fine. And throughout the entire problem, it remains connected, or so says the information window, with excellent reception (15 feet away, clear view), transmitting at 11mpbs. However, the router will not give internet access to the computer. after rebooting the router several times, it may give the computer two seconds of internet connectivity, and on good days it will last a day, but eventually the internet connection is dropped. further more, I can't log into the router itself for its admin pages. Meanwhile the ethernet-linked computers can log in and get internet connectivity. This problem persists even when i reset the router.

There are no conflicts or problems in the device manager on my computer, the wireless card I've been using (Lucent Tech Orinoco Gold Card) worked perfectly with the old router. I've tried changing the router's channels, SSID, WEP encryption is not enabled, I have Kerio Pers Firewall on my comp - disabled it, even set my computer as the demilitarized zone on the network. Nothing works. my gut tells me the router may have been shook too much in transport or something.

Any ideas? PS - can't see any other computers in network neighborhood, plus I tried flashing the firmware of the router from both a mac and pc, and in both cases the firmware version remains the same (although the version number matches the current version number, but the firmware dates don't).

Loss for words,
o Draith

( EDIT )-------------------------------------------------------------
Did I forget to mention I run WinXP Pro (no SP1)

 

I am going to assume that there is not a MAC address filter that was a saved config is it?

 

The MAC address filter has been disabled the entire time. The router is also currently in its defaul factory settings after i reset it. Both wireless network cards i've tried in this computer encounter the same problems. the ethernet card that i'm currently using for a cable connection to the router works perfectly fine.

Looking over the Wireless Performance page of the router, these are the factory values that i didn't change of certain variables:

Beacon Interval: 100msec
RTS Threshold: 2432
Fragmentation: 2346
DTIM Interval: 3
Transfer Rate: 1-2-5.11-22(Mbps)
Preamble Type: long

I had tried short preamble type as well and would still have the problems. As for Tx rate, the 22Mbps listed is because of a special feature in the Airplus series where compatible devices will communicate at up to 22Mbps, I will try setting this option to the normal transfer rate of (1-2-5.5-11Mbps).

I don't know how clear some of these variables are to some of the readers, here's the best explanation i can find:

Beacon Interval, in milliseconds, of how often the router sends out a packet to syncronize the wireless environment.

RTS Threshold: no clue, but the help pages advice that this should remain at this value, however if modification is necessary, one should not change the range too much. (during inconsistant data flow...hmm...)

Fragmentation: also recommended to remain at factory value. however if packet fragmentation occurs too often, it's recommended to increase it only slightly, and keep the value an even number.

DTIM - Delivery Traffic Indication Message is the beacon sent out by the router announcing the countdown time to the next window for clients to listen for a datapackage.

preamble sets the length of the CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) block between the router and clients.

o Draith

 

Humm, thats a good one. Here are my thoughts..

Make sure that you are REALLY resetting the router, I mean sometimes the reset button has a series of steps to fully reset, some I know you have to press the reset button with a paper clip or whatever, and then release, and then do it again and hold for 5 seconds, and then wait 30 seconds. I know my Linksys is like this.

My next step would be to take one of the PCI cards from one of the know working computers and see if it works in the computer to fully isolate the problem.

 

RTS means "Receive to Send", usually. RTS Threshold should be the time (in milliseconds) the router waits to get the "received packet OK" message from the recipient computer before telling the sending computer that it needs to resend the packet. In other words, the router waits to hear from the recipient, and if it doesn't it assumes the packet didn't get there.

Only thing I can think of is: Are you violating the old 3-4-5 rule for network design? LINK

- Maximum of 5 segments
- Maximum of 4 Repeaters/hubs
- Maximum of 3 populated segments

That rule used to be for old 10BaseT and 10Base2, but it might apply to wireless because of the similar bandwidth (10Mb to 11Mb). The rule exists precisely because the RTS will time-out before it gets sent back. Note that "segment" is a virtual link in this case.

Try:
Pinging a computer attached to the router.
Pinging a computer and the very far end of the physical network.
Pinging your gateway.
Pinging a site on the Internet.

You just want to see if your packets are timing out or failing to reach their destination. If they time out ("Destination time out.") then your network is too slow to be the size it is. That means you'll need to subnet your network, or replace your wireless repeaters with copper (100BaseT). you could also try increasing the value if this threshold, but that might affect network performance. Additionally, the sending computer might RTS timeout on its own, so this might not help at all except to make the router effectively dumber.

You might not have a problem with your 100BaseT connections because the speeds are high enough.

If you get "Destination not reached." or "Host not found." then your packets aren't finding their way to that computer. That's a communication problem of a different color.

 

I appologize for you frustration with D-link customer support. I am currently with D-link as a customer rep and I agree it is touch and go whith who you actually talk to ....(next time try to influence the rep (nicely) to send you to level two support.

In the meantime try to lower your rts threshhold and your fragmentation to 2200. this should help with dropping the connection in this particular instance.

Hope this helps