One of the most compelling reasons to use the original firmware for the version 1 e4200 routers, was because of the potential routing speeds. So much so, that even with the version 2 e4200s with a much faster CPU (and different firmware), could not match the version 1 routing speeds.
The reason why the version 1 routers were so fast was because the firmware had a feature called CTF (Cut Through Forwarding). This allows the router to interpret the packet header as it is assembled and begin forwarding the packet data stream once the port numbers have been identified in the transport layer. This means that it doesn’t require as much overhead as conventional routers which have to assemble the packet and store it before forwarding the packet to it’s destination.
As of build 92, Tomato Shibby, you now have that feature so you can boost the performance of your router. Note that you potentially will be limited to the performance of your modem, so make sure you have that set to bridge mode so that you get the maximum performance out of your link to the WAN.
I have discovered a bug in TomatoRAF 9010 when attempting to set up a guest wireless on both the 2 and 5 gHz channel.
I have installed v1.28.9010 MIPSR2-RAF-NCC-VLAN K26 USB VPN-NOCAT on an e4200 and when I attempt to set up Virtual Wireless on both eth1(wl0) and eth2(wl1), I get issues in the interface that will not allow me to access eth2(wl1), wl1.1, wl1.2 and wl1.3 tabs. Further more, when I go to the basic network settings, the wireless eth2 information is not displayed.
Although Tomato Shibby might be the most popular of the Tomato mods, TomatoRAF comes in at a very close second. So I decided to give it a go and got some very interesting results.
TomatoRAF build 9010 is certainly faster than Tomato Shibby 83V, you notice it right off the bat. It also adds the ability to create guest wireless SSID’s, but you will loose the BT feature and some other smaller features in the firmware (ie, graphed results).
I am going to stick with TomatoRAF for now and see how I go, but note that Tomato Shibby is still great firmware.
Once I took the site down, I had many requests from users to join the site, so I have put it back up. I’ll leave it in the background for now and post when ever I feel like.
Well after more than a year of blogging about Dlink and their products, I am no longer motivated to continue blogging about either.
I no longer buy DLink as they insist on using the ubicom platform for their devices and I have yet to see a stable build for their firmware.
Even their new products are based off the same platform and so will have the same issues as their old. I suspect their late CEO was pushed out for the decision/agreement to lock in ubicom which cost them dearly based on their financial results published earlier.
I’ll leave the site going for a little while so as to allow people to grab what ever firmware they need.
The only one bit of advise I can give you all as home network consumers, only buy devices based off the Broadcom platform. This means netgear, linksys/Cisco, Buffalo and believe it or not, apple. Broadcom platforms appear to be the most stable and offer alternative firmware builds.
I have had an interesting discussion with someone who develops firmware for network equipment. He/She suggests that there will be no more scheduled firmware releases for the DIR855, DIR655 and the DGL4500. DLink will most likely continue to sell these products until superseded by the upcoming new models, they should continue to provide technical support but there are likely no developers working on the current series product firmwares. The developers will all be allocated to the new upcoming models and subsequent firmware releases once the products are released.
You are most likely wrong if you think you are getting any more new firmwares unless something very drastic happens and the developers will need to be re-allocated to these products.
I do not know if DLink use internal developers or if they outsource the development but this is a sad turn of events for DLink customers.
Today I was asked why it had been so long since my last poll and I said, “there’s no issue to take a vote on at the moment”.
However, later on in the day, a colleague came to me asking what brand router they should get as they wanted an upgrade. I immediately said, which ever brand you settle on, DO NOT CHOOSE DLINK. I then began to explain to him all the quality issues with the firmware, how they don’t test their firmware before they release it to customers and how long they sit on issues before they acknowledge them, not to mention their support drones on the phone who just read from a script and actually have no idea about networking and routing.
So I thought, here we go, a poll with taking, Would You Recommend DLink to Your Friends.
In-stat has released figures for market share for 4Q10 Wireless LAN (#1105009WL) for North America. I’ll quote the figures in just a bit, but firstly let me highlight to you all the most popular and stable routers on the market at the moment. The Netgear WNDR3700 / N600 and the Linksys/Cisco WRT610 of which are based on well established hardware that even have OpenWRT/DD-WRT firmware available due to their established and open hardware platforms.
Here is the table of results that some sites have published (I couldn’t find these values directly from In-Stat but sites who published them link back to In-stat as the source).
2009 Revenues (000s)
2010 Revenues (000s)
Cisco
$902,116
Cisco
$1,186,974
Technicolor
$469,542
NETGEAR
$638,084
NETGEAR
$455,948
Technicolor
$454,444
Linksys
$417,322
D-Link
$419,717
D-Link
$410,377
Linksys
$392,111
Pace
$351,527
Pace
$360,453
Buffalo Tech.
$215,250
TP-LINK
$291,038
Belkin
$192,891
Aruba
$235,662
TP-LINK
$178,431
Buffalo Tech.
$221,329
Aruba
$158,989
ZyXEL
$209,454
2009 Q4 Revenues (000s)
2010 Q4 Revenues (000s)
Cisco
$251,196
Cisco
$361,845
NETGEAR
$159,321
NETGEAR
$199,062
Technicolor
$122,949
Technicolor
$127,624
D-Link
$118,601
D-Link
$112,872
Linksys
$93,387
Linksys
$101,152
Pace
$83,839
TP-LINK
$87,545
TP-LINK
$59,788
Pace
$87,462
Buffalo Tech.
$58,269
Aruba
$68,944
Belkin
$49,079
Buffalo Tech.
$52,962
Aruba
$44,879
Belkin
$50,353
From the figures, the total market went up roughly 10% and notice how the market share for both Cisco and Netgear increased (3% and 2% respectively) while DLink shrunk by 1%. So if you are in the market for a new wireless device, you might want to consider which company appears to be growing in and which are shrinking. It isn’t all just marketing, at some point the quality of the products begin to factor in.
I got to thinking today, is the quality of their firmware affecting people’s decision to go with DLink products. Given that DLink is a public company, it must report it’s financials and so a quick google and hey presto here is the info.
Now, I started this blog around Aug of 2009 when they screwed up big time with their firmware on the N series routers. Everyone was up in arms and taking their routers back. Have a look at their figures (Note YoY= Year on Year ie this time last year totals for the year and MoM= Month on Month ie. compared to this month last year – figures are in US Million):
They clearly took a massive hit because they just didn’t care about what they where dishing out to the customers and everyone knew about it. So people voted with their wallets and went else where for networking equipment.
In 2010, people seemed to have forgotten about what happened in 2009 and began choosing them again but with some hesitation as they returned to very similar figures as 2008.
I am sure 2009 figures caused quite a stir at DLink with management having to explain the figure to shareholders however it doesn’t seem to have really made them put a lot more effort into their products from my experiences with my own router.
Who knows, the may pull a rabbit out of their behind and show us some new firmware or better still, give us the ability to install OpenWRT on them, but hey this is DLink, who am I kidding here.
Yesterday, I noticed that one of the antennas on my router wasn’t connected properly and so twisted it to screw it in, it actually then popped out of the back of the router with the gold internal connector.
It appears that the SMA/Antenna connector that is soldered onto the board is made up of two parts, the base which is soldered onto the PCB and the thread which screws into the antenna. I tried to push it back in but it would appear that a large amount of force is required to do that.
At any rate, I have taken some photos of it, clearly I doesn’t look damaged and should be able to pop right back in (that is my inexperienced opinion mind you). I am thinking of opening it up and pushing it back in while re-enforcing the connector so as to not rip out of the PCB. If you know any better or know what I can do to fix this, please comment on this blog.
UPDATE: It is easily fixed, you just remove the rubber gromets from the base to expose the screws, open the box up and then use a clamp to pop it back in.
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