Wireless Wrestling, Part II

Disappointed by the Netgear WGT624, I thought that I would try my luck with D-Link wireless products. So about a week and a half ago, I got a D-Link DI-624+ router and a DWL-G122 USB adapter.





The installation procedure is very similar to that of the Netgear products I previously tried. The router is configured using a browser (the D-Link interface supports Firefox, like that of Netgear, I’m pleased to report) and the adapter uses custom software included on CD.
This router operates in 54 Mbps rather than 104 Mbps. In practice I get 14.4 Mbps when performing a wireless FTP download to my laptop from the PC. Watching a streamed movie works without a hitch. My PC and server, both connected via cable, communicate with each other in 85.6 MBps out of a theoretical 100 MBps. That is more than sufficient for my needs.
The web interface used for the configuration of this router feels somewhat cluttered and confusing. The placement of sub-categories within five main categories seems largely arbitrary. Nonetheless the basic features are all present. A dynamic DNS update for the www.dyndns.org service is present, but I had to quickly disable it as it did not pay attention to whether the host already accurately resolved to the correct address — causing DynDNS to ban the host.
Having been in the company of this router for some time now, I have found it to be less error-prone than the Netgear. However, this one, too, has the very annoying habit of rebooting randomly. Sometimes it happens several times per day. Sometimes the interval between reboots is many hours, other times just an hour. In some cases it forgets the system clock as well, adding to the annoyance factor.
D-Link Support first suggested to upgrade to the latest firmware (which was already present on purchase), and then wanted to replace the unit. Fearing bugs or design flags given widespread reports about reboots by other owners of this model, I decided to evade the potentially lengthy warranty route and just return it to the store in favour of another brand.