Recently my Linksys wireless-N router became flaky. It would forget it was a wireless device and stop accepting wireless connections. Sometimes this would solve itself after a while, other times it required a reboot. As a stopgap measure I hooked up a second cheap-ass wireless-G router I had on hand and configured it as an access point with DHCP disabled so it would obtain IPs from the other router. This didn’t solve the problem, really, but it did fix it so I could get a wireless connection without having to drop everything and go reboot the router when things got hinky, which usually happened when I was using the laptop in bed and didn’t want to get up and go do geekery in the basement with the router.
This held me over for a while. But then the Linksys got to the point where it wouldn’t accept new connections at all any more until it was rebooted, so there was no denying it – I needed a new router.
Naturally I wanted the migration to be as clean and easy as possible, so I got another Linksys – an E2000 to replace the failing WRT300N. I looked through the manual online before buying, and everything in the configuration was pretty much the same – all the options available in the old were in the same place in the new. So I thought things would be pretty easy.
Maybe, I thought, I can just back up the configuration on the old one and load it into the new. Nope. That didn’t work. So I set about the process of manually copying all the settings from the old one and about halfway through I hit a snag.
The Linksys routers have a built-in DDNS client. This allows you to use a service like dyndns.com to map a dynamic IP address to internet DNS, so you can host a domain on a dynamic IP. If your internet IP changes, the router knows right away, and it sends an update command to dyndns.com so users on the internet can continue to access your domain without a break. Not all routers do this, of course, but it’s nice to have one that does; otherwise you have to run an app on one of your servers that watches the IP and updates dyndns, which takes longer and generates more traffic. So I prefer to have the router handle it. I have multiple low-traffic domains hosted on a server behind that router, so on the old Linksys I just put them all in the same field, comma-delimited: domain1.com,domain2.com,domain3.com, etc. Dyndns parses the string when they receive it and everything is taken care of. It’s worked fine that way for quite some time.
But the new router wouldn’t accept the comma-delimited string. It would only accept a single domain name in the config field. The setup page looked identical, but didn’t behave the same. So I went to Linksys’ support site and started a support chat.
It took a while for me to rise to the top of the queue, but I eventually got someone who asked me about the problem and seemed to kind of understand it. His first step was to send me a link to the latest firmware. I clicked it and it closed the chat window, ending my support chat prematurely. So I swore a little and then got back in queue. By the time I was at the top of queue again, I had already found the latest firmware on my own, flashed the router with it, and tested the problem area to find it was still behaving the same way.
The second support chat tech also seemed to understand the problem; not at first, but after a little explanation. But before we got that far, he asked me to turn off the ad blocker in my browser and we spent about four minutes before he understood I needed to know whether he meant the browser I was using to talk to him or the browser I was using to configure the new router. So that was a little annoying, but once he had a handle on the problem he excused himself to do some research, and after about five minutes he came back and sorrowfully admitted there was a bug in the firmware of this router. He promised to submit it to the lab so it could be fixed in future releases. I asked if he could recommend another product without the problem. He told me the E3000, next step up in the product line, did not have that problem. I asked him how he could be sure, and he replied that they have all these products online on their own network so they can work with the product directly when helping customers solve config issues. The E1000 and E2000 have this bug, but he tested the E3000 personally and saw that it did not. Pretty neat, actually. I thanked him and we closed chat.
The problem is, if I’d wanted the E3000 for fifty dollars more, I’d have bought that in the first place. But I don’t need the extra functionality of that unit. So I went looking for alternatives and found the D-Link DIR-655. I downloaded the manual and it seemed to do everything the Linksys would do. I decided to try one out and found a unit at a local office supply store. Unfortunately I didn’t stop to read the big sticker the clerk put on the box until I got it home. “15% restocking fee if package is opened.”
Well, crap. Now I can’t try it out without incurring $13.50 in restocking fees if it has the same problem. So I went to D-Link support. They don’t have a support chat. They have something they call a chat, but it’s actually just a bot, and those never help me because I never need support unless it’s a really obscure problem. So I was forced to call them on the phone, and got an offshore tech who seemed to not really understand what I was trying to do. I told him I needed to know, before I opened the box, whether the DDNS field would accept a comma-delimited string of multiple domain names. He thrashed around for an answer for a while and finally told me you can only enter one domain name for DDNS, because each one needs to be separately updated. I already knew that wasn’t the case, and I asked him, are you telling me I can only enter one domain because there’s only one box for it in the setup? He said yes, and I said, okay, clearly we are not communicating; you don’t understand the issue, so please escalate the call.
Before he would escalate the call, he wanted to know the serial number of the router. I’m not giving you that, I told him, because if I do, and the answer turns out it won’t do what I want, then I have to return it to the store, and the next guy who buys it will have support problems if he ever calls you because it will already be registered to me. Amazingly, he seemed to understand this after having it explained only twice, and told me he would escalate the call, and to please hold.
At this point I was disconnected.
So I swore some more and called back. Waited on hold for a while and got another offshored tech who was even less acute than the last. I explained I was being escalated when I was disconnected and asked to be escalated again, but she insisted on trying to solve the problem first, and clearly didn’t have the first clue what I was talking about. “You want to know how to configure DDNS?” “No, I want to know if I can put a comma-delimited string of multiple domain names in the hostname field. Please escalate this call.” We were back and forth with things like that for a little while; she’d say something obviously wrong, I would try to explain it again, and ask her to escalate. Finally she told me she would consult the higher level techs for me and could I please hold. I asked her to escalate the call again and instead she put me on hold to go ask. In about five minutes she came back and said, “The higher level techs say yes, you can change the value of the field.” I asked her, “Do you mean to say you just asked them if that field is editable?” She told me yes, and I said, “Okay, that was not actually the question I asked you. Now, please escalate this call.” She finally decided to do that, and of course then we had to go through the serial number thing all over again.
Finally, after all that, I was put in queue for a tech at the next tier. This took about ten minutes on hold. When I got him I could barely understand him, his accent was so thick, but he glibly informed me the field would accept that kind of string, and we rung off. But by that time I didn’t really trust their answers. So I called the store where I’d bought it – OfficeMax – and talked to a manager. I explained my problem. He said, what exactly are you trying to do? I told him I needed to find out whether the DDNS setup would accept a comma-delimited string of multiple domain names. His response was refreshing. “Yeah, you’re not gonna get that information off the back of the box! If it were someone who came in after a month complaining that their cell phone wouldn’t connect to the router, I’d tell them they should have checked into that before they bought it, but in your case there’s no way to be sure without trying it, so if you need to bring it back within the next couple of days, ask for me and I’ll waive the restocking fee.”
Wow. Actual customer service judgment. I thanked him, opened the box, and went about setting up the router.
As it turned out, the DDNS configuration accepts that string. But it shouldn’t have taken this much effort to find that out. The D-Link is actually more configurable than either Linksys, though the configuration interface is less organized, and it has an annoying requirement to reboot after config changes. So for features and usability I’ll have to say it was a wash between the two. But Linksys’ support experience was definitely superior to D-Link’s. Both of them disconnected me unexpectedly, but the Linksys technicians both eventually understood what I was talking about, whereas two of the three D-Link people never did, and frankly I’m not sure about the third. His answer was right, but he could have been right by accident – after all, it was a yes/no question.
The router seems to be performing well. Time will tell. But I have to say, based on my support experience, I’d still consider Linksys next time even though the product disappointed me this time.
Very useful article, thanks a lot!
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