D-Link

Hello,

My name is Andrew and I look after D-Link's education business in the UK and Ireland. I think this website is a cracking idea and I am happy to support it. If you have any questions or issues regarding our kit, or networking questions in gerneral just drop me a message below or PM me and I will do my best to give you the answers you want.

Don't worry, you will not get any sales pitches from me. But as I said if you want to test any products, need any surveys completed (wireless or switched), have any issues with products, or just want to touch base with D-Link drop me a message.

Andrew

Might I pick your brains about a problem at home...

I've got a D-Link DSL-504 ADSL Modem Router here which shares my Wanadoo 1Mb broadband out to my computers and a wireless AP.

It's pretty good most of the time, but tends to crash fairly frequently - all the lights stick on and the Internet goes off. It comes back on OK after a power cycle, but it's a devil to get the Internet back afterwards. Although the it gets a connection immediately, it often takes 1 or 2 more power cycles and a couple of ADSL Re-trains before browsing is back after a crash.

Any thoughts? I'm thinking of replacing it, but I like it and don't want to ditch it if there's a simple solution :)

Chris

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Originally Posted by crc-ict

Might I pick your brains about a problem at home...

I've got a D-Link DSL-504 ADSL Modem Router...It's pretty good most of the time, but tends to crash fairly frequently.

Chris

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Hello Chris,

I will not pretend to be a genius with the consumer products, but are you running the latest firmware on the unit? Let me know the version you are running and I will check if it is the current best option. I know what you mean with having to wait with the ADSL to come back to life, I have the same issue myself at home. The unit certainly shouldn't be crashing all the time, drop me a mail on antaylor@dlink.co.uk and I hopefully we can resolve the issues without having to through tech support.

Andrew

Moved to the Suppliers section - Tony

Hi,

It's a shame this is my first post, but I thought it'd be a shame to let it slide by...

We started using D Link equipment a few years ago (4-5). Just over 3 years ago we 33 out 75 PCMCIA a/b standard cards that were faulty. Not broken, by abuse/misuse, but definitly faulty. Some would disconnect and reconnect intermitently and others would faintly light up their LEDs but wouldn't fully power up and couldn't be recognised by windows. We were also using D Link Access points around the site, and a similar percentage of those developed faults. Some of them could be temporarily be fixed (2-3 days) by a reset, and others just died.

Around half of the faulty equipment was still under warranty, and so I was tasked with getting them replaced under warranty. Getting them to even be looked at or even acknowledged was a challenge to say the least. I would spend literally 40 minutes at a time on hold, and normally got through to someone who's english was a *very* weak second language. By and large the accents of the people i was getting through to were German. And these guys were the absolute opposite of helpful. They insisted on logging a new call for each item, as in hanging up, and ringing back. I fell for it a couple of times, and after waiting the obligatory 40 mins, i would get through and they would say that there was already a call logged and when i explained the situation i was repeatedly told that the call had already been logged. I was given false numbers to call to get things escalated, they wouldn't give their names or they gave fake names, they wouldn't even pass me to a supervisor. The service i received was abismal to say the least. The equipment was... abismal... to say the least.

Foolishly about 6 months later i bought a consumer wireless kit for home, made by D Link that was on offer at PC World at the time. 3 Months later the very same happened to both pieces of equipment. Fortunatly PC World took it back, so i didn't have to battle with D Link direct.

I can't think of any manufacturer off the top of my head that i would reccommend LESS than D Link. I can safely say that they will never be on my networks again, and that I will try my best to dissuade anyone (unless i dislike them intensly) from buying anything from them.

Anyway, sorry to get off on a negative on the site. I'm sure my future posts will be more positive! :)

MB

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Originally Posted by monkey_boy

Hi,

It's a shame this is my first post, but I thought it'd be a shame to let it slide by...

MB

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I am sorry you have had a bad experience. Technical support is a real issue for most manufacturers, I personally would like all our support to be local in the UK, but that is not economically possible these days. When you sign up to a support contract and the outsource company let you down, as a company you have to go through a lot of legal proceedure to get out of that contract. I know service levels were poor, and we have now internalised our support function through our India office. It is not perfect, but it offers a support function that is part of D-Link as a world wide company so we have direct control over the quality, plus we can guarantee the technical knowledge of the staff. This is no excuse for the service you received, which as you said was unsatisfactory.

I (for the last two years) try to bridge the gap between D-Link the company and educational users as part of my job, and I am sorry no one put you in my direction. I have given my details to every LEA, and all the major educational resellers. I also know that our support function should have let me know but I doubt the support person knew I existed. D-Link generally has a very good reputation in the education market, but we do get it wrong sometimes. If you want to talk about this to a human being call me on 07834 265319 and I will make sure that your complaint goes to the top. Things like this annoy me, and I need to ensure that the people at the top can see how their decisions can impact on D-Link customers.

Andrew