Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:20:01 AM

Left to itself it will deteriorate

I haven't touched the router in a while. Passwords are forgotten, both "admin" and the "link" passwords. Your (mind you not the computer) memory will fail. You won't even know where to start. The menu options the manual says are there, are not there. You will be scratching your head at 1 in the morning why don't things just work.

Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:21:43 AM

First things first, getting to your router: 192.168.0.1

The ip address of the router on your computer is 192.168.0.1. You can type the following url to get to the thing

http://192.168.0.1

Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:23:07 AM

You would have forgotten your password: admin/blank

For the model that I have the default password for the user of "admin" is nothing. just blank. Leave that field blank and login. I have read in google that for some models it may be admin/admin

Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:26:12 AM

Reestablishing your sanity: Take a pencil and reset the router

Get hold of a stubby pencil and look for a small inward looking dimple right next to your ethernet cable entries on the back of the router. While the power is on, press this for 10 secs. Give it another 20 for it to reset. Try a few times if the first time it does'nt work.

Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:28:21 AM

SSID needs to be visible for windows XP (At least for some versions)

Apparently some flavor of windows xp will not connect to the wireless router unless its SSID is broadcast. So you may want to try to broadcasting the ssid

Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:30:47 AM

Enablign SSID: not so fast, and the story of missing options

Follow the manual, and how hard it can be to enable ssid again. The manual says go to "admin/performance" and then look for the enabling/disabling option. Well I went there 20 times. No luck I don't see the option. I visit google again. There is a sporadic mention of browsers hiding something on a screen thinking that is an ad. Wildgoose chase ofcourse.

Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:35:17 AM

Go and get the firmware ..

Very reluctantly, as a last resort, decide to upgrade the firmware on the device. I go to "tools/firmware" and visit the link to go to the dlink site. I pick my model "DI" first and then the "615" to go to the download directory.

Big thing splashes warning me I can't upgrade the firmware over wireless. Must be a joke. Even if not, you bet, at 1'0 clock I am going to try it anyway.

I go back to the firmware option again and browse to the file uploaded. Apply it. It takes a minute or two for the device to restart. This reset all my passwords again. No big deal I can put them back.

I am really looking for that ssid. There it shows up now.

Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:36:54 AM

Never seen that one

I used to think I have seen everything that can go wrong. But the above is a new leaf. Amazing. Half an html page is just missing.

Satya - Friday, July 22, 2005 8:39:40 AM

Setting my passwords

Now I change my admin password. (I am pretty sure, I will forget very quickly). Then I enable WEP encryption with an ascii password. (I have to remember to leave a pencil next to the device).

Setting this password for wep is confusing as hell. Just choose "ascii" and use the "key1". I am sure there is a compelling logic to this complexity, but I sure am not going to figure this out at 2 in the morning.