Have you got a Di- 624+ router that keeps rebooting all the time?
I had a D-Link DI-624 broadband router, hardware rev. B2
for some time (4 months), before giving it away to a friend of mine, after trying all the firmwares with no avail.
I found it very unrealiable under heavy load and with any form of encryption. Disabling the encryption would only space out spontaneus reboots, especially under p2p traffic.
Also the setting managament was acting weird, suggesting to reconfigure the router again instead of loading the config file, even with a config file from the same firmware revision.
Disclaimer: if you brick (e.g render it unusable or dead) your router following instructions or advise in this page, or in the linked page, it’s and will be not my fault. I am not and will be not responsible for any direct or indirect damages. Follow the advices and the step outlined only if you feel confident. On the other side, I have a long positive story with the linux-flashed mn-700 and the Asus wl500g, so I can advise you to buy or flash one of them, but bear in mind that I’m not affiliated with Microsoft or Asus in any way. Beside, there are some Linux-powered D-link routers (such as the D-Link DSL-G604T)
I found no solution to the spontaneous reboot problem for di-624+ and moved to the mn700/wl500g routers with satisfaction. I gave it away to a friend of mine. If are to get a D-link router, I would suggest to buy a linux-powered one (the DI-624+ uses “ThreadX” instead), or leave it in the shelf.
Anyway let’s say your are low on bugdet, and with a lot of time to spend… and want to try to get something out of this junk
I spent some time too trying to find some di-624+ hacking solution to upload a decent firmware on it.
Update(27/01/2013): Xavier (thank you! See comments below for his contribution) reports that changing the power supply with a suitable new one solved its problems. It may be worth checking!
Flashing the Junk
Two advices:
- Never update the firmware using the wireless link. Always use a copper link (e.g use the cable, luke!)
- Before and After the update, I advise you to do a complete setting reset. But Never restore your previous setting with a saved config file. Do it by hand. For more info on this, continue reading until Talon88 advice.
Maybe newer firmwares fixed the second issue. Experiment if you are in the right mood.
A good source of infos about the sponteneus reboot problem is DSLforums and another good one is BroadBandReports .
Newer firmawares may save the day
Someone at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,16443527 claims a relase of the sofware for REV.C solves the problem of spontaneus reboot, but I no longer own the router so I canno tell. I would like to hear your feedback on this. Before upgrading, bear in mind that you have to chec the REVISION of your router against the one of the firmware you downloaded. The web interface should stop attempt to upload a wrong revision, but I’d check anyway.
Bricking your di-624+ and buying an Asus router it’s surely a way to solve the spontaneous reboot problem, but it won’t be cheap. Just kidding, of course. It’s seems that newer firmwares address the sort of problem I had at that time, especially under heavy p2p load.
Manual Marano claims version 4.04 from REV.D works and solves the problem. You can read more on his blog: http://manuelmarano.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/router-wireless-d-link-dl-624.. and you should find the firmware on this page: http://support.dlink.com/products/view.asp?productid=DI%2D624%5FrevD# (the link is courtesy of Manuel himself)
Hacking the Junk
The main resource if you are going to try to hack it is surely:http://www.kilgus.net/hacking/di624p.html
Well, there is friendlier hardware out there, but if you want to give it a try, Marcel’s page is good starting point.
Infos on the Brecis CPU can be found here: http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Brecis_SOC
Back in the 2005, I found also a Linux Cross-compiler suite by Brecis itself, complete with an experimental kernel.
Search for it, but your mileage may vary.
Another source for Linux kernel patches can be found here: ftp://ftp.dlink.se/Products/di-products/di-624/drivers_firmware/di624.source.tgz
Another good starting point is this page: http://text.broadbandreports.com/forum/r19234644-DI624-FIX-Not-kidding-and-this-is-C3
as it seems that SureCom SuperG 9610SX and TEW 452BRP from Trendnet are both a DI624 REV.C clones. In other words, they share the identical in chipset to the DI-624 C revision (I’m citing, I cannot confirm it). Anyway it seems that reverting back is not possible, at least from the web interface, for the infamous checksum-mismatch. It seems also their firmwares won’t support Static DHCP, so consider well before flashing.
Should you incur on it, you can try following D-Link FW update “Talon88 Crash Recovery” Step by .
Remember: as Talon88 says too, Do not load any “setting Backup” from any version Firmware after FW update or you are asking for trouble. That definitely doesn’t work, leave it alone. Talon88 also tried to shred some light on the reboot problem. The link, if you want to read it is here: http://text.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11716779.
An older version of the DI-624 Firmware update w/ Crash Recovery Step by S can be useful.
The firmare file
The file provided is nothing more than an .ARJ compressed file. Some interesting details on it, and on the way to defeat the checksum error/mismatch to load anything (Well, I hope you are going to load a supposedely working firmware) can be found on this page: http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=60552
Another useful resource on checksums can be found here: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13458902 along with a checksum calculator for d-link firmwares from the same page(don’t know if it works for di-624, give it a try, needs VB6) .
Running Linux on the junk
Someone at OpenWrt managed to do it: look here for patches and stuff http://wiki.openwrt.org/WingedUnicorn and here for the original post: http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=59259#p59259
Some useful links:
http://folk.uio.no/arew/dlink/
http://www.securitywireless.info/Article14804.html
http://onlinehelp.verizon.net/consumer/bin/pdf/NetworkSteps/DLinkDI624Troubleshooting.pdf
Security advisories
The junk had a brief moment of glory also on security lists:
http://www.thunkers.net/~deft/advisories/dlink_udp_dos.txt
http://secunia.com/advisories/18833
but It happens all the time also in the best families, so no surprise nor D-link fault.
Mixed resources for the Junk
Firmware pages:
http://www.dlink.it/?go=gNTyP9CnptFMIC4AStFCF834mptYIe5XTNvhLPG3yV3oVYp…
Worst quality ever!
Cons: difficult to use, performance, Design, defective parts
Went through 2 routers, over 8-10 hours on the phone with “customer support” without any success. The “senior tech’s” werwe baffled – two different problems with the routers, neither would work. I’d never recommend this product & would be weary of any D-Link product
I mostly agree with you. But it’s not the case for all d-link products: I must say I’m fond of their wi-fi pci card (especially those with the atheros chipset, never had any problems with that). Also, I know and used some D-Link G604T with Linux on them and must say they perform very well.
The DI-624+ was an awful product, indeed.
I recently had problems with my dlink di 624 revision h1. after trying updates to the firmware, removing the cover to check for heat and trying various other suggestions from other sites ( all off which seemed to have some limited success initially) I eventually tried a different power supply. I had previously replaced the dlink supply when it had failed with a universal type from maplin. replacing this supply has returned the router to full operating condition.
Thank you! I updated the post to reflect your contribution.
It did not occur to me at the time to find a different power supply, but it worked for me on a different brand router so I suppose it may be worth checking for everyone.
i installed a wrong firmware (yeah i know), is it possible to still get into the rooter through this way? status light is blinking and cant connect wireless nor with rj45.
Unfortunately I cannot confirm it will work for you.
If Talon88 recovery doesn’t work, I am out of ideas.
Can you get in crash recovery mode? http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=476934
http://blog.secure-my-wireless.com/2012/10/never-too-old-configuring-d-link-di-624.html