TP-Link TD-W8951ND admin interface dead after 24 hours...

Hi

Last week I purchased a TP-Link TD-W8951ND as I was having problems with my existing D-Link DSL-2640R router with dropped connections and excessively long time for it to reconnect.

So, connection-wise so far so good, the TP-Link seems a lot more stable and either there have not been any random drops since or there have been and it's able to auto reconnect quickly.

What is not so great is the admin interface. The D-Link would very occasionally fail to respond if you tried to log into it, but the TP-Link seems to be consistently refusing to respond after about 24 to 36 hours. The internet connection itself is still up so the router hasn't actually crashed, but it just will not respond with the admin login. There's not even a page timeout either, the browser just sits there waiting for the site to load.

Have I got a dud router or has anyone else seen this problem? It's running the latest V4 firmware, release 120511, though that was not what was originally supplied. Updating it has made no difference then.

Thoughts please!

Got a replacement 24 hours ago, same firmware, same configuration. Same problem! TP-Link say they've never seen this problem before... surely I can't be the only one?

Wherever possible it's always best to use IE 9 for going into the admin panel or updating routers as using other browsers can stall from time to time

Other browsers can stall?

It's not a browser issue, I used IE9 as my default browser anyway. Regardless, this cannot be the problem as telnet access also stops.

TP-Link is generally good kit. Given that and the D-Link's past "failure to respond", I would be looking at your system. Have you tried booting to "Safe Mode With Networking" and using IE rather than any other browser? Can you ping the gateway?

It's nothing to do with the computer since I have more than one and none of them can connect after around 24 hours either. The D-Link was (is) a different kettle of fish, it would randomly decide not to present the web admin interface - sometimes it would it work for weeks before deciding not to, occasionally it would crash totally or the wifi side of things would suddenly stop. It is a router so beset by weirdness that you can't even upgrade the firmware on it (any attempt to do so results in an error).

The TP-Link to its credit by contrast is keeping a solid, stable, internet connection and the wifi works fine even when the admin system goes into a coma. It's definitely something with the router but I've no idea what. The only thing that I thought might be a factor is that my home network has long been on the 10.0.0.x subnet. So the first thing I do with any router is change the default IP to one in that range. I've now reversed that to see if that makes any difference. Shouldn't do, but with odd bugs like this, you never know.

Edited by andrewh1973 (Sun 05-Aug-12 00:41:51)

When I've had routers freeze on me, it's often overheating - which is a bit of a contradiction.

Hmm I've thought it could be an overheating issue also. But the unit is well ventilated and it doesn't feel all that hot. If it was that though, surely there'd be others complaining about it and TP-Link would already know it's a problem?

Well, they say they haven't heard about any problems at all, so it doesn't exactly rule overheating out.
Interesting that your D-link also had problems freezing. Maybe it's something else, other than the routers?