[KrypteX]

Hello,

I've been running a D-Link DIR-615 D2 successfully on firmware 19519 and then 23320.
However, I've updated to 23503 and I've noticed the Transmit power Tx has increased from the default 71 mW to 100 mW. Can anybody tell me why ? Maybe it's not a good idea...

I'm copy-pasting a post from this thread, for more info:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=19381

"Hello,

as a radio amateur, I want to point out some aspects that haven't yet been mentioned enough. Not only heat aspects must be considered!

250 mW with a WRT54G (or comparable customer devices) is ALWAYS mad, bad, unsocial, and even from an egoistic point of view, it's completely useless!

First reason: Increasing transmission (TX) power without increasing receiver sensibility the same amount, means you're better heard (in best case), but don't hear better! So nothing is really done to establish a better link (except the partner station is also able to increase TX power in a non-standard way)! In ham radio community, such "dumb" stations are scoffed as "crocodiles" (big mouth, small ears...)

The second and even more important reason: Increasing power far over what the circuits are designed for, will, above a certain point, only increase signal distortion. This means: it makes the signal much broader, will increase only "bad" and unwanted signal components, which are "noise" for neigbourhood stations, decreasing their link quality, but doesn't contribute any more to the stability of the own connection.

For both reasions: forget TX power settings above, say, 70..100 mW. Forget it forever, as there is NEVER a good reason for it. (DD-WRT should even not allow higher settings as there are too much "fools" around which don't really know what they are doing!).

If even 100 mW doesn't work, you have a general problem and should analyze it. Blindly "pesting" around is no solution.

By the way, the influence of TX power is often over-estimated. Due to mathematical relationships, doubling TX power does not double the possible distance, but increases it only a relatively small amount. So even if we had "true" 250 mW which are really powering payload instead of distortions, there would be no dramatic real profit compared to 100 mW. Keep this in mind!

Much better and more intelligent suggestions are: Better Antennas with higher gain (especially directional antennas), shorter cables (to reduce cable loss). If there is no direct line of sight, maybe a building aside (which is seen by both stations), can act as a "reflector", so it could make sense to direct the antennas not to each other, but to that building instead. All this solutions will affect/improve transmission AND reception symmetrically. If nothing else does help, a repeater at a point which can bee "seen" by both stations, could be the best solution.

Regards,
Manfred"

I've personally set it back to the default value, 71 mW. Extra heat and possible damage to the router are not very alluring to me... What do you guys think ?

[ervau]

Hallo,
I updated my DIR-615 H2 from 23320 to 23503 and TX was 71mW and allways is 71mW; nothing changed.
Don't know why.
ervau

[KrypteX]

Thanks for your reply ! I had to revert from 23503 to 23320, which worked just fine for me.
23503 dropped the WAN connection several times on the DIR-615 D2, but restarted by itself after a few minutes... Also, I get connection timeouts when I'm browsing on the internet via WiFi... 23320 didn't do this kind of stuff...

So I'm back on 23320, no problems thus far. Fast and stable.

[facsi]

Some devices had the drivers updated...