IEEE 802.11n and DI-624M MIMO

The IEEE finally approved the 802.11n standard, or completed the necessary milestone for a release next year. The key to 802.11n is the MIMO technology that has a neat ability to reconstruct signals out of phase, among other things. Atheros have been releasing chips based on this technology ahead of the standard, and I currently run a DI-624M access point in my household. The dramatic improvment with plain old 802.11G clients has been tremendous, and I use it to push media in all directions.

On that note, I have been waiting to post my note on the DI-624M. I picked up a ‘brick’ on ebay late last summer, and was able to bring it back to life by flashing it to the latest firmware. It was not simple, and Dlink were not able to help me, as they did not understand themselves how to flash the device, as it has a tendency to overheat if not mounted on its little rubber feet, and the flash process is long, and the stages of the light indicators are not documented anywhere. Having said that, once it is up and running with the latest firmware, it is a great product. For anyone with a so-called ‘lemon’ or ‘brick’, check out my instructions on how to get it up and running. I am thinking it might be a good idea to pick some of these devices up off e bay, fix’em an re-sell them used (and working). Enough said - Go to my DI-624 page for how to fix ‘em up and get MIMO running on your DI-624M. BTW, the flash process was so troublesome, that D-Link re-released this product as the DI-634M in a new case with only minor improvements to the encryption firmware. I’ll update this blog, and related DI-624M info later.. but I have been sitting on it since last fall, so I’d better just get it out now.