I H8 Routers

As you may remember from last time, I had to download some new firmware for my router so that the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live (XBL) would play nice with it. I sort of made the leap from that to having had to buy a new router to make it do right. Here’s what went down.

So, I hit up the support page on the D-Link site and fill in for the DI-784. I get back a page with a bunch of crap that isn’t very relevant to my model, but since it is just confusing enough, I click on a link that seems to indicate what I want is there. What I got was a nice fat 500 Server Error for some Taiwanese domain. Excellent!

I easily found the Tech Support link to send an e-mail though. Funny how that goes… anyway, I started this nice little chain with those helpful folks “Building Networks for People” (you should read it like any other e-mail chain and start from the bottom):

That’s a great answer. Very helpful. So, when your web site says I need to upgrade to v2.38 so I can be Xbox Live compatible, it’s wrong? Are you telling me that v2.36, which came installed, is the last version available, thus no download is available? How about a little bit more help than your one sentence answer from your script?
Thanks for your *help*

—————————————————————————

From:
To:
Subject: D-Link Email Case ID:
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:38:20 -0800
>Dear Sean O’Brien,
>
>Your Case ID is .
>
>[Critical: Please do not change the subject line of your email when you reply. Leaving the subject line as it is will allow us to review your complete history and help us to better serve you.]
>
>Date of Reply: 3/20/2006
>Products: DI-784
>Operating System: Windows XP Media Center
>
>There is no firmware available for the DI-784.
>
>Should you require further assistance with your D-Link products, please reply to this message, or call toll free at 877-453-5465.
>
>For D-Link’s prefered Home Networking application please try http://www.networkmagic.com/nmlp/dlinksupport.php from Pure Networks. It simplifies Micrsoft Networking and may allow you to trouble shoot your network on your own.
>
>Thank you for networking with D-Link.
>
>Sincerely,
>Ryan Olshan
>D-Link Technical Support
>
>============Begin of Original Message============
>The link to download 2.38 produces an error in chinese for a taiwan domain. Why isn’t the firmware on the product support page? You’ve got manuals, but no firmware download. Running a real tight ship there…
>============End of Original Message============
>

I never heard back from them about my second message, but I didn’t expect to unless I wanted to wait on the phone for three hours, tell them my password was “big boy,” set my kitchen on fire and still not get an answer.

I guess I started off with a snarky comment that may not have helped my case, but they still suck. Oh, and that link I was clicking wasn’t the right one either. I thought it was an “all other” kind of deal because my particular model wasn’t listed on the page that did come up.

However, with the answer I got back from them, I decided there and then that I would never buy another D-Link product and would tell anyone willing to listen to do the same thing. So… there, I think I just did that. Just to pile on, did you notice the two typo errors in their canned response? Fly-by-night these guys… have to catch that stuff. What, do they think they are bloggrs?

Anyway, I just bought the router last summer after my Microsoft one – which was excellent BTW – was fried by a power surge. Yes, thru a power strip too. Thankfully my other, more expensive stuff was spared. So, was Zeus trying to say something about Microsoft? Maybe, but now I was out a router.

Let me go back in time to gripe about more XBL router issues… I had to get that MS one because the Linksys 802.11b router I had wasn’t XBL compatible anymore – at least for Ghost Recon Island Thunder it wasn’t – so I upgraded to 802.11g, which also meant a new Wireless Ethernet Bridge. I hated the Linksys setup too, so I wasn’t sorry to mothball it (it now lives on as my Mom’s network).

Just to finish off my router history, I started with a reliable Netgear hard-wired unit a long time ago but didn’t like the 50 ft. Ethernet cable running from my office across the living room floor to the Xbox, so I went wireless before the XBL beta was even complete.

Tangent – sort of relevant since I titled this I H8 Routers — over, the fried MS router gave me the opportunity to upgrade to an 802.11a wireless network to better support streaming Media Center content to the living room. I had previously read about setting up a Media Center Extender and XBL network in an article on the Microsoft site, so I thought, “Can’t go wrong with what is being recommended” and I picked up the DI-784 and a DGL-3420, though it was seemingly obvious D-Link provided Barb with all that equipment for free… you know, as good pub.

Anyway, as I said before, it worked fine with the old Xbox and XBL, but I went back to that article to see if there were any changes. Sure enough, Barb had updated it for the 360, but the same hardware was still listed as compatible there, dlink.com and xbox.com (which said I needed the firmware upgrade).

On the way home from work the night I got that D-Link reply e-mail, I detoured to CompUSA and picked up a Netgear WGU624. Netgear rocks! Since MS isn’t producing routers any more, I have to recommend Netgear now. Easy setup and a nice and clear admin interface. Another gripe I had with D-Link was the absolute crap of a UI and navigation they had for their admin panel. It was always a guess as to where something might be found.

Hey, router problem solved. For those keeping track, that makes four routers and three Wireless Ethernet Bridges (Gaming Adapters). Hmm… busting out the abacus reveals those seven pieces of hardware cost me about $800 total. The networking cost alone on my original Xbox was twice that what I paid for the Xbox! Granted, as the technology was maturing, I was an early adopter and upgraded, but as I sit here and think on it now, I should have gone with the 50 ft. Ethernet cable and a roll of duct tape (for safety). I would have had a faster connection all along and money for games!

So, what exactly is Microsoft doing with XBL that requires me to upgrade my router three times? I’m a tech guy, so it doesn’t bother me as much as you might think, but what if Ma and Pa Kent in Smallville want wireless Xbox 360 for young Clark? Sure, they sell a wireless adapter for the 360 now – they did with Xbox too as I got that for 802.11g with the MS router – but they need to keep a better eye on the router situation, especially since they want to make the 360 the hub of the living room.

I’m still surprised that it is so hard to find 802.11a routers. These are as fast as the 802.11g routers and are probably a bit faster due to less interference from phones and microwave ovens. Basically, the “g” runs at 2.4GHz and the “a” runs at 5GHz in the frequency spectrum. Most home wireless phones these days run at the same frequency as “g,” so sometimes when your phone, or your neighbor’s rings, you are booted off your network! For this very reason, MS endorses 802.11a so that you get a better signal for XBL and streaming Media Center video around the house. Prices are about the same now and would go down if it was marketed correctly and more consumers adopted it.

The interference issue brings about another gripe I had with the 360 so far. As you may know, the premium unit ships with a wireless controller (core units ship with a wired one, but support wireless if you buy one). Guess what frequency the wireless controllers operate on? Say it with me… 2.4GHz. However, to avoid the chance for interference they have some nifty channel hopping feature so people don’t go into a blood rage when the phone rings and they lose control of their game. They push a 5Ghz technology for the network to avoid interference, but still go with 2.4Ghz for the controllers? I don’t get it… and oh, I’m not convinced it works.

If you remember, I had to return the first Play & Charge Kit I purchased. Well, when I plugged the new one in, I got the same behavior as the last one. WTF?! I lucked out with two defective kits?! So, again with the blood rage and the yelling. Then, the ring of light on the controller starts going nuts, spinning around like it is trying to connect even though it is plugged in with the kit. So, it keeps doing this about every minute and still no red light for a charge.

At this point, I am on the phone with Ed and griping about my bad luck. I get my network up, but now the controller won’t connect. Then the network starts going up and down. What, am I in some kind of radio frequency storm all of a sudden? What the hell is going on in my neighborhood to kill both frequencies I am using? Did little Joy fire up some popcorn in the microwave while updating her MySpace page, IMing 10 friends at once and talking on the phone?!? (I’ll give it to kids these days; they can multitask like nobody’s business when they want to.)

I got to my router admin to see if the “g” radio is on and causing some of the interference. I shut it off, but to no effect. Then I noticed my “a” radio was running on a different channel than the old router. Netgear seemed to prefer channel 40 when set to automatic. I adjusted it to channel 56 and lo-and-behold, everything started working. Not only did the controller stop channel hopping, the Play & Charge Kit started charging! I had a red frickin light! I still have no idea why this all magically happened, but it did all start working.

So my big question is this: how can Ma and Pa Kent deal with all the different things that can go wrong with these new pieces of technology? Like I said, I’m very tech savvy and it was annoying the hell out of me and I understand why all these things can and do happen. Ma and Pa don’t have any clue. They buy these things and they should be like a telephone or radio and just work. Microsoft has made strides towards things that just work – like Windows XP (for the most part and security aside (another topic for another time)) – but they still have a long way to go and I hope they realize this.

I will say that during all these issues, I never got fed up enough to fire a controller across the room. You know, maybe having wireless controllers isn’t a good idea for that reason. No more tether to save you from your rage. Then again, I have been much better than that since I stopped playing sports titles. I went thru a few controllers during my Sega Genesis days due to EA NHL 92 and Madden. Then again, I’m not young and stupid anymore, nor am I hanging with college roomies and playing such games all the time either, so such displays of manliness are no longer required.

In point of fact, the Rockland Police once made a house call due to my – solo – gaming rage, but that’s a story for another time…

UPDATE: To add insult to injury, I just checked on the D-Link site again for my router. Wouldn’t you know that they posted v2.40 of the firmware on 3/22/2006? Yeah, that’s two days after I got my response from tech support. I guess they don’t inform them of what’s coming. I still wonder where the hell v2.38 was. Their product and support still suck.