Today, I updated my D-Link DI-524 Wireless router from version 1.05 to 1.23. According to the website, the new version has better support and speed improvements and was the recommended firmware to upgrade. As you can see, I was on a very old release.
What I got was a terrible disaster from something that worked, to something that I almost threw in the trash.
First, let’s start with my first impression. Here it is:
Please notice the 2 red circles that I have added to make it easier to explain my point. OK, poor ZoneAlarm – D-Link they couldn’t even spell their product name correctly on the button. And, instead of “License” they spelled it “Licence”. Some poor sap programmer obviously did this and he didn’t have a good product manager or QA department to help him out here – it get’s worse as you will see next. So, I can live will misspelling errors – we all make them. It is suppose to be a professional consumer product, though, right? The next fun is just unbelievable from a company this size, and not acceptable.
I configured my wireless security (or at least attempted to) and I restarted several times. Each time, it didn’t seem to take. Frustrated, I finally noticed my Firebug console showing errors in Firefox. I decided to check it out – they couldn’t have programming problems in their javascript could they? The next piece of work will really impress you:
Of course, I decided to just look at their code and see what the problem was. Problem: they’re calling the wrong function – they should be calling get_by_name instead of get_by_id. What? C’mon – this is impossible. This is a consumer product, right?
So, I assumed that I must be doing something wrong or maybe it was a weird combination, to give the benefit of the doubt. I tried several different security settings before re-looking at the code. Nope, every path goes back through this generic javascript routine to validate the length of the key, depending on the type of key selected.
WOW! What I came up with? This will never work if you want to configure security for the router. The only way it will work, is if you turn security completely off (which of course, is stupid). Frustrated, I tried several other combinations for the next few minutes. I actually contemplated just throwing it in the trash.
Instead, I decided to run the setup wizard. I personally don’t like them since I can’t tell what the exact settings they are making – but at this point, what the heck? I ran the setup wizard and was able to complete the wizard, setting my WEP key. After restarting the device, I checked the wireless status screen – no security still. Completely aggravated, and really ready to blog about this – I decided to give them one more chance and assumed I must have done something wrong. I did. I went back through the wizard once more, and this time at the security screen – after setting my password and choosing WEP – I realized that you had to change the radio option to “enabled” – which is “disabled” by default, even after choosing WEP and entering a key value. Finish the wizard and restart …. check the status screen …. presto! it worked.
Yet another 5 minute task which turned into a 30 minute fiasco. Unbelieveable. At home, I use an Apple Airport – now you and I both know why.
technorati tags: dlink, di524, zonealarm, wireless, security
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