D-Link routers get added CAPTCHA protection

D-Link has been known to roll out some fairly significant firmware updates for its routers in the past, and while this latest won't exactly breath new life into your old clunker, it does at least break a tiny bit of new ground in its own little way. While the company is obviously quick to point out that its routers are already some of the most secure around, it apparently thought they could still do with a bit of added protection, so it's now added some annoying but reliable CAPTCHA tests to a number of its existing models. That includes the DIR-615, DIR-625, DIR-628, DIR-655, DIR-825, DIR-855, DIR-685, and DGL-4500, which can each be upgraded with the new firmware that's now freely available on D-Link's website, and will no doubt become standard issue on all future D-Link routers.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

[Justin @ May 12th 2009 5:14PM]

When it comes to wireless equipment for the home, D-Link > All.

[Goatee Man @ May 12th 2009 5:16PM]

I prefer Linksys, personally.

[Justin @ May 12th 2009 5:18PM]

I've got a WMP300N FS, if you'd like it. It was set aside after constantly dropping the connection--no thanks to Linksys's not-present Vista x64 drivers, which forced me to use a generic driver from 2005.

It's all yours if you want it. :D

[ebayaholic @ May 12th 2009 5:20PM]

Linksys>All.

I've had numerous Linksys Wireless G routers and they all worked like champs. I decided to get a new Wireless N router from D-Link and it was equal as if not worse than my old linksys. Let alone my xbox wireless adapter wasn't compatible with it either. Biggest waste of money. Ya, they look pretty, but who cares. I want speed damn it!

[digitallysick @ May 12th 2009 5:24PM]

You are joking right??? dlink makes some of the worst products ever, along the same lines as netgear

[nerdtalker @ May 12th 2009 5:25PM]

Building it yourself or something running *nix (which includes Linksys's legendary WRT54G/GS/GL series) > All

D-Link is hardly better than all, in fact, it's hardly better than any other OEM except Trendnet, which is the worst of the worst.

[A.C.E.R. @ May 12th 2009 5:28PM]

surplus thin client running m0n0wall > all

[Spiny Norman @ May 12th 2009 5:34PM]

Sure, but everyone knows that Linksys routers power the internet:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/17/screen-grabs-giant-linksys-wifi-router-is-the-internet/

Anyone have a paper clip?

[Jason @ May 12th 2009 5:47PM]

i used to only buy Linksys, but when my latest one died I went looking for a new one. All they have now is models without antennas, no good. I asked around and found the d-link 655, great device, much better interface and features compare to the linksys. For the next 5 years I'll be using d-link and suggesting them. They make better products than they did 7-10 years ago.

[DWells55 @ May 12th 2009 6:05PM]

Screw brand names, just buy a router with a decent CPU, a good amount of RAM, and a good wireless chipset. Flash it with DD-WRT or Tomato and you've got something far superior to any stock router out there.

[Kraken @ May 12th 2009 5:16PM]

I've had that update on my DIR-655 for about two weeks and it's really buggy. Wish I could downgrade. :(

[Kiteless @ May 12th 2009 7:25PM]

Wow I am sorry to hear that. I have an DIR-655 as well. I am sure something like DD-WRT is better but as far as stock routers go, mine is the best I have ever owned. I use it along with the Extreme-N Wireless/Ethernet bridge to wirel up the rest if the house, and its been solid. I have not rebooted it in months and months. I honestly can't remember. But I guess I will pass on this firmware.

[Jonyah @ May 12th 2009 8:35PM]

you can at least turn off the captcha. i haven't had any issues with this firmware in the last month.

[Saboosh @ May 12th 2009 5:19PM]

"added some annoying but reliable CAPTCHA tests". I dont know exactly what the tests look like but CAPTCHA has long been shown to be easily breakable.

[ThreeDee912 @ May 12th 2009 6:54PM]

Depends on the CAPTCHA. Google's was fairly simple looking, but apparently hard to break by bots.

Then there are these:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/favorites/cats-inside-rapidshare-captcha-images/3064/

[Cronick @ May 12th 2009 8:47PM]

CATS! I can't even break those and I used to be human.

[HyperHacker @ May 12th 2009 10:25PM]

The Crapidshare CAPTCHAs are designed to be annoying and unbreakable even by humans.

[seth @ May 12th 2009 5:19PM]

The firmware update does not cover the DIR-625 Rev. A, only the Rev. C. (in the US at least).

I have Rev. A, which means no captcha and no shareport. =(

[Justin @ May 12th 2009 10:46PM]

I have the A and I have shareport. Weird...

[Uncontrol @ May 12th 2009 5:21PM]

lmao

great pic

[sonicwind @ May 12th 2009 5:22PM]

Yeah, I turned that annoying crap off. Noone will guess my password is 'god', anyway.

@Saboosh: some CAPTCHA's have been shown to be breakable. I don't think the term 'easily' was every accurately used, though.

[Saboosh @ May 12th 2009 5:24PM]

I was trying to be dramatic

[Rick @ May 12th 2009 5:29PM]

breathe*

[Theodore Wirth @ May 12th 2009 5:25PM]

That's great but I have none left to update because the 2-3 D-Link routers that I owned all bit the dust within two years. Same with Linksys routers. It's like they get tired or something and start disconnecting for no reason. Netgear routers have been much kinder to me. Haven't had to try Belkin or Buffalo routers yet and I hope that I don't need to.

[chrisk1590 @ May 12th 2009 5:25PM]

How many people in their homes are routinely attacked by computer software? Maybe I'm missing the true purpose of this, but if you have a decent password and use WPA, that's plenty of protection for pretty much everybody.

[chadow @ May 12th 2009 5:35PM]

My DIR 655 is and has been the best router I have ever owned and has always performed flawlessly. I am not sure the point of this new firmware update, as I see no reason at all to need this CAPTCHA crap. I don't think I will be upgrading to this, unless there are some other nice tweaks.

[ChrisP @ May 12th 2009 5:40PM]

I'm with you. This is definitely the best router I've had. I'm not fixing what isn't broken.

[Cronick @ May 12th 2009 8:52PM]

Totally agree. The DIR-655 was great until it started freezing up once or twice a day.

[pika2000 @ May 12th 2009 5:41PM]

What I hate about these companies (D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, etc) is that there are too many different revisions for the same model number. Sometimes it's very confusing to get support/firmware updates as they're not compatible with each other. How hard is it to just add another number on the model number instead of putting all different revisions into 1 model number without any clear indications of the rev?

That said, I have D-link n-router and gigabit switch, and they're great. I haven't used any Linksys products ever since Cisco took over, but I had an old Linksys router that worked great. I'm not too fond of Netgear though.

[RyanTV @ May 12th 2009 5:44PM]

why exactly would i want to install this? sounds like a "feature" most of us just don't want.

[??? @ May 12th 2009 5:57PM]

CAPTCHA? Urrrrgh. That shit is so useless...you can only put up so many gates before you start pissing off your userbase. Learn to actually protect their passwords!

[Sam @ May 13th 2009 9:38PM]

My experience is that most people don't even set up passwords or security on their reouters.

So all that this CAPTCHA thing is doing is adding an extra step to the login? Interesting..

[??? @ May 14th 2009 5:04AM]

If the former is the case...well, they should suffer. If they can't bring it upon themselves to do something as simple as making a new password, then they should get hit hard.

[feelingpoor @ May 12th 2009 7:40PM]

@ Justin, Dlink is totally crap. I bought their modem, failed within a month and constant disconnections. Bought a Dlink usb wireless adapter, died (probably over heated), same thing with two friends that bought the same adapter. Buying the cheapest stuff on Newegg with free shipping is a mistake, especially with Dlink. Lost too much money to Dlink already. Sooner or later, your gonna have to go with the tried and true combo: Zyxel usb adapter (who makes enterprise stuff before making consumer), Motorola modem, and Linksys router.

[Subliminal @ May 12th 2009 6:43PM]

All of you saying that one wireless card maker is better than the other can STFU, you have no clue what you are talking about. Thats like arguing which instruction set is better between Intel and AMD, you cant, its the same standard!

[matt @ May 13th 2009 2:24PM]

No it fucking isn't.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ May 12th 2009 7:00PM]

My guess is this will be a good addition to routers because a large percentage of users never bother to change to default login/password. Those people are easy targets for worms that can login to routers and open the floodgates so to speak. For advanced users who actually do change the password, I'm sure this feature can be disabled.

[ProcrastinationXtravaganza @ May 12th 2009 7:08PM]

DIR 655 FTW! I like a few other owners am a bit hesitant to upgrade my firmware because this router works so well! I even get full green connectivity rating on PS3's Street Fighter IV! The coverage and speed is awesome. I'll review this upgrade a bit and maybe do it, I mean, don't fix what aint broken right?!

[TavisJohn @ May 12th 2009 7:17PM]

I'll update when I have a few hours to re-program my router...

The bachup function does NOT work across Firmware Updates! I have all the computers (and other network stuff) assigned a fixed IP addresses.

So I will download the firmware, and probably get it installed in a month or so...

[crescentdavid @ May 12th 2009 7:46PM]

I installed a d-link dir624 for a small, non-profit because of price considerations, etc. and it's a POS. Their support is a POS. The computers can't "see" each other on the network and d-link tech says we need to buy special software in order to implement simple file/printer sharing, or, and then they also mumbled some bs about mapping drives, but said they didn't tech support that or file sharing issues.

Meanwhile, in linksys world, I plug it in, run the installs connect the wired/wireless computers and voila! I can see computers, I can enable or disable file/printer sharing. I would NEVER buy or install another d-link. Their tech support for new product installation problems completely blows. Netgear has also worked well for me ...tech wise as well.

[Jonyah @ May 12th 2009 8:33PM]

i have the dir-655 and they added this a while back. maybe now it's on all of those so it's release worthy, but it's old news. you can turn it off too if you want. i found it annoying.

[Ben @ May 12th 2009 9:21PM]

Ha,seems cool, who could tell me why it's anoying?

[volatileacid @ May 12th 2009 9:37PM]

Well, anything's better than a Netgear. The Debacle that is the DG834N and it overheating is beyond a joke. Furthermore, if I unplug the unit, I need to give it 10 minutes before reconnecting the power! Sorry to sidetrack, but there are people here promoting the idea that Netgear is a great alternative - please let me tell you - any company that uses the end user as a guinea pig - any company that releases products that to the trained eye, are unfinished in terms of their firmware, and finally, any company that releases hardware that overheats is a company we should be weary of, and stay away from.

[ED @ May 12th 2009 9:40PM]

hunter2

[MIC4311 @ May 12th 2009 10:01PM]

I have the dir-655. No problems so far with the new firmware. This router is my favorite one yet that Iv owned.Captcha,eh, take it or leave it.

[Paul @ May 12th 2009 10:36PM]

Am I the only one that misses having DNSMasq (or similar) on this router (655)? Without it, I can't resolve computers by name on my internal LAN. Well, I kind of can if they are all running windows, but I can't if I'm trying to find a PC from a Mac or vice versa. Perhaps nobody else cares, but I have a Windows Home Server and a media "server" and trying to get everybody to see everybody else is painful without DNS forwarding that ALSO resolves internal DNS requests. Linksys had this by default (as I recall) and DD-WRT certainly does. D-Link's firmware doesn't (also doesn't support WDS). The hardware is nice and the connections were fast and pretty solid (except to 802.11b devices, which it dropped like hot potatoes), but I'm back to my good old WRT-54g.

Am I alone or am I the only one trying to get so much out of my consumer routers?

[Shaun @ May 12th 2009 11:48PM]

My dlink gamerlounge dgl-4300 router has been going strong for about 2 years now :D

[digitallysick @ May 12th 2009 11:51PM]

Buffalo makes the best routers, along with the old WRT linksys routers

[GuN pOiNt @ May 13th 2009 1:34AM]

Engadget. you should also state that for the NA version of the firmware for DIR-655, they removed the 3G USB Modem support. No more mobile wifi for me. :'(

They crippled my router... :(