D-Link DIR-655 Firmware upgrade FAIL

As a rule of thumb, I avoid D-Link routers.

I have had unexplained drop outs from D-Links in the past when paired up with HughesNet Satellite internet, all fixed by replacing the router with a Linksys (my fav choice - the Linksys WRT-54GL).

Earlier this week, I was called out to a business that had a D-Link DIR-655 router. The client explained there were some dropouts. After making sure all clients were set to not connect to other wireless networks, I'm pretty sure I have fixed the majority of the "drop outs".

The next thing to do, just as a rule of thumb, is to make sure the router has the latest firmware (esp since this is a draft N router!). The D-Link website mentioned quite a few bug fixes from 1.2 to the latest at the time - 1.31

So off I went to D-Link's website to get the firmware, run the config backup of the router, flashed, and rebooted. Then I went to restore the config, and it FAILed. Tried uploading it via multiple browsers/OSes - no dice. Found some forum mentioning this is a bug! The saved config file is not recognized by the latest firmware - 1.31 (from 1.20).

Lucky for me, I was able to manually find out all the previous DynDns settings, and port forwards, but just a reminder to document, take screenshots etc and not to trust the config backup option on D-Link routers!!!

Finally, the new firmware had on by default, Securespot 2.0 - which was always nagging about expired subscription when browsing anything - so that was swiftly turned off - what more could D-Link do to discourage me to use one of their routers!