D-Link DIR615 Not cutting the mustard, suggestions??

lettuce · 3 Mar 2013 at 12:26

I bought a d-link dir-615 last year to be pair up with the virgin superhub in modem mode, as the superhub was downright awful for wireless use. We now have our nephew saying with us who has a Xbox 360, which now brings the 360's in the household to 3!!, the bedroom where the d-link and 1st 360 is in is at the top of the hallway and the other 2 rooms with the other 360's in are the next 2 down the hallway, whilst the room nearest the d-link reports a full 4 bars on the 360 wireless test the furthest bedroom (which isnt really that much further away) with the final 360 in mostly only reports 2 bars sometimes 3!. The 360 in this room is only about 5 meters away as the crow flies, so is not that far at all so can't understand why the d-link is struggling, I have tried a number of different configs on the DD-WRT custom firmware that is installed on the d-link but can't get any better performance out of it.

Does any members have recommendations for a wireless router (dual band) that excells at long distance!?

banger9365 · 3 Mar 2013 at 12:56

looks like it might be time to get the pennys out ,look at asus for cable routers

lettuce · 3 Mar 2013 at 13:42

Looking at the asus rt-n16 or the buffalo wzr2-g300. Not sure if the asus is dual band?

banger9365 · 3 Mar 2013 at 18:00

no this one with virgin cable http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-028-AS&groupid=46&catid=1596&subcat=1934

lettuce · 3 Mar 2013 at 19:28

banger9365 said:
no this one with virgin cable http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-028-AS&groupid=46&catid=1596&subcat=1934

Bought, got a bargin £68 delivered!. Do you have one of these, if so notice the psu comes in 2 parts, with a adaptor block with a hard wired wire attached, is the plug end that attaches to the other end of the adaptor block a 2 pin kettle type plug?

Gammawolf · 3 Mar 2013 at 19:43

I've got one of these but i don't quite understand the question, it comes with the transformer block, to which you slid in the provided UK plug adapter into.

lettuce · 3 Mar 2013 at 21:16

Gammawolf said:
I've got one of these but i don't quite understand the question, it comes with the transformer block, to which you slid in the provided UK plug adapter into.

Yeah is it a 2 pin connectIon that plugs into the transformer block like the Sony PS3 console uses?......

As where I have my router position I will need a extender cable to reach my plug socket

Werewolf · 3 Mar 2013 at 21:58

I would second the Asus RT-N56U or Rt-N66U to go with VM.
I went from a DIR-615 which was barely coping with 50mb, and had a fairly weak signal (it also locked up at random), to the N66U which is far better in terms of speed, and seems to be better for signal strength as well.

One of the things I like about the 66U is that it allows me to have a guest network which a different name and security settings to the main ones, which is handy as my nephews tend to be lost without internet access on their ipods etc

You could also reuse the D-link as an access point from memory, as I think it has an option to turn off it's routing features, so if needed you could run a cable (or if you've already got a cable ran to somewhere else in the house use that), and have it boost or extend the range..

lettuce · 3 Mar 2013 at 22:06

Any ideas on the figure 8 lead I posted a pic of above?

bremen1874 · 3 Mar 2013 at 22:10

lettuce said:
Any ideas on the figure 8 lead I posted a pic of above?

Buy a standard 3-pin mains extension lead and plug that cable into it.

The figure 8 connector appears to be a C7. If you want a longer one just Google 'C7' with the length of cable you'd like.

Subliminal Aura · 3 Mar 2013 at 22:50

Werewolf said:
I would second the Asus RT-N56U or Rt-N66U to go with VM.
I went from a DIR-615 which was barely coping with 50mb, and had a fairly weak signal (it also locked up at random), to the N66U which is far better in terms of speed, and seems to be better for signal strength as well.

^^ This

The dir-615 is an EXCELLENT router and I have 2 myself both routing faultlessly doing 'stuff'

but when it comes to serving wifi they are absolutely pants - Rubbish range and can't cope with lots of clients fighting for bandwidth. My wifi is bridged with other routers and the wifi on the d-links are disabled

lettuce · 4 Mar 2013 at 00:16

bremen1874 said:
Buy a standard 3-pin mains extension lead and plug that cable into it.

The figure 8 connector appears to be a C7. If you want a longer one just Google 'C7' with the length of cable you'd like.

So the Asus RT-N56U does use a C7 figure 8 lead to connect into the transformer block?

lettuce · 4 Mar 2013 at 00:18

Subliminal Aura said:
^^ This

The dir-615 is an EXCELLENT router and I have 2 myself both routing faultlessly doing 'stuff' but when it comes to serving wifi they are absolutely pants - Rubbish range and can't cope with lots of clients fighting for bandwidth. My wifi is bridged with other routers and the wifi on the d-links are disabled

So the Asus RT-N56U should be a good upgrade for wireless range and performance over the DIR-615 then?

bremen1874 · 4 Mar 2013 at 03:32

lettuce said:
So the Asus RT-N56U does use a C7 figure 8 lead to connect into the transformer block?

I wouldn't have thought so, but that's what you'd pictured.

I believe they use the normal plugin power supplies with a clip on part to match the local socket type.

Whatever they use a bog standard 3-pin mains extension lead will allow you to extend it to where you want.

Subliminal Aura · 4 Mar 2013 at 07:32

lettuce said:
So the Asus RT-N56U should be a good upgrade for wireless range and performance over the DIR-615 then?

I have no experience with the Asus but forum members here swear by it. It should really be better as the 615 to be fair is just a basic router from yesteryear. Any dual band router should blow the 615 out of the water

Read up on options here