My most NOT excellent saga with the 1750DHPD... enjoy the read!

[rwalker]

Just purchased a AirStation AC 1750 WZR-1750DHPD via Amazon. The thing keeps rebooting randomly, sometimes right after boot up. Bummed out for sure. Sending it back after a support call reveals they won't send me a new one and I'll have to work with Amazon. Amazon doesn't offer a replacement. Website here doesn't list it as available for purchase either. What's up with this? Is it EOL? Is it too popular? guess yall don't want customers? Let me know if I can purchase a NEW and WORKING product.

[rwalker]

...ok, so I've returned what I have discovered is an "already returned" 1750DHPD to Amazon... as it was apparently the only one available when I purchased it. They do not offer a "replace" option. So, in lieu of this, I have now gone and ordered a "new" 1750DHPD from Amazon as they mysteriously popped up today (2 days later.) Let's see how this one fares... *crosses fingers*

My question still stands, though reviews around the internets are all aglow for the 1750DHPD, the Buffalo no longer shows a "buy now" link for the 1750DHPD (nor the 1750DHP for that matter) on their website.

Is the device being phased out by Buffalo?

Could ya holler at Amazon and tell them to QUIT selling returned units with the obvious reboot cycle issues?

[rwalker]

Chapter III in my WZR-1750DHPD "saga"...

(Unit2: "NEW" from Amazon)
So, The performance of the second router was a bit better, but would still restart upon connections to the 5Ghz band wireless, seems like the negotiation of connection. Sometimes this would result in the wireless security type on the 5Ghz to go from WPA2 (what I set it to multiple times) back to WPA2/WPA (mixed, boo!)

So I go through one tech call, 2 factory resets, one firmware upgrade (even though it already had the newest firmware) all of these with reset of settings... at one point in the evening everything seemed to stabilize and I retired for the evening.

Next morning:

When walking to a different part of my house, I tried wireless, and BAM: The unit restarts again.

Calling Buffalo support resulted in the (almost) creation of an RMA. When I noted that the unit was bought NEW from Amazon, the tech checked the S/N and determined that the unit was over 1.5 years old. They noted it could not have been a new unit and was probably used. WTF?!?!?! They would not do process an RMA at this time to replace the unit. For now, I'm waiting (not so) patiently for a call back from y'alls.

So, hollering at Amazon this morning resulted in an expedited replacement unit. They claim it may have been a mixup in shipment of items which resulted in me getting a product over a year old. I'll be calling Buffalo to check the S/N immediately for the birthdate.

Hey Buffalo, you should holler at Amazon and get your eggs straight! Stop leaving the detective work for your customers...

Also, how about addressing my questions above about the product?

[davo]

Odd, Id had my 1750 for over a year, using build 23919 and havent had any issues.

[joma90]

I don't work for Buffalotech but I will answer what questions I can.

Not sure where you are looking when you state you cant find the WZR-1750DHPD on the buffalo site.

Main site for Americas
http://buffalotech.com/products/wireless click on the tab [Open Source DD-WRT]
or go here
http://buffalotech.com/products/wireless/open-source-dd-wrt/airstation-ac-1750-dd-wrt-router

They even sell it at the buffalotech store,
http://store.buffalotech.com/store/bufftech/en_US/pd/productID.296891300/categoryName.Wireless%20Networking/categoryID.63911800

Also not sure how its Buffalo's fault for Amazons mess up on the replacement they sent you. Buffalo has no control over what Amazon ships you. Amazon is its own company. Usually in the first 30 days the Reseller which is Amazon is in charge of replacements, afterwards its the manufacturing company is the one that does replacements. Some companies have different rule so it depends as well. I just did a RMA for a disk, The RMA site does seem to be having issues but if you are doing a Standard RMA replacement which I did, it should still work though that would mean you don't have a router for x amount of time. I assumed you wanted to do an Advance RMA which I believe they are calling people back to create one or something like that. I don't remember what they told me on the phone. I have spare HDDs so wasn't really worried.

Hopefully this answers the questions you asked.

[rwalker]

So, third one came in last night after calling Amazon for a replacement. #3's S/N is dated for November of this year (great!)

After configuring the device, same scenario. Reboots. ARRRRHGH.

Calling into support again and escalating the ticket I am waiting for a callaback from a higher level tech.

My current resolution is to disable the 5Ghz wireless band, not optimal, but the device has stayed solid for over 12hrs now with multiple wired devices and wireless devices on the 2.5Ghz band.. Yay... but I didn't pay for a 1 band device! So hopefully I can get some sort of resolution from Buffalo.

@joma90: To clarify what I stated earlier is that on this page:
http://buffalotech.com/products/wireless#open-source-dd-wrt
There is no longer a "buy now" option for the 1750.

As for RMA shenanigans, they wouldn't even RMA the OLD device I originally called in about. Luckily I have my ol Airport for backup, and in addition as of today have debugged a workaround for the device reboots (disabling the 5Ghz wireless.)

To expand on my settings for further debugging by the community, here are my configs for the device:
- WPA2 only security on both wireless channels
- Addition of DNS for clients (OPENDNS servers)
- Addition of NTP server "0.pool.ntp.org"
- Enabling of QoS
-- prioritization of all 4 TCP types
-- limiting of inbound/outbound data rates (~%90 of my service allotment)

[joma90]

Thats just bad linking to the actual buy now option http://store.buffalotech.com/store/bufftech/en_US/pd/productID.296891300/categoryName.Wireless%20Networking/categoryID.63911800

nothing big. Anything that is EOL is usually removed from the site. By chance do you have any switches connected to the Router. You issue sounds just like mine.. kind of weird how this all works out but anything my phone/laptop/ anything wireless on either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz connected to my router the router would crash. Did a replacement like you did and factory resets and firmware updates. started trying one thing at a time. just router connected to the modem. no Ethernet cables, i connected wireless devices and had no issues. Connected 10 different wireless devices in total so one cable at a time i started to connect things and as soon as i plug in my switch the router crashed. eventually found out there was a DNS resolve issue happening with the devices on the switch and the wireless. lot of time and fixed it all. So maybe you can try that kind of troubleshooting and see what happens.

[rwalker]

So, a day after disabling the 5G I find that when I try to access via 2.5G and the signal strength is low, the 1750DHPD crashes. The crashing is less frequent as most of my wireless devices aren't on the edge of signal strength.

@joma90 : I have no switches plugged into the 1750DHPD. (MacMini, Tivo, PS3, AppleTV)

Yeah, being a fairly technical person I've already put in a bunch of time on this device with little support from Buffalo to resolve the issue. That's the bummer part. I'm trying my hardest to play the "regular consumer" role to see how this pans out. AKA: Follow their instructions, reset and flash the devices to the same firmware delivered on the device about x100 times now. NOT try to wander off into the DD-WRT build forrest, etc. I figure if they're going to sell a device advertised with X functionality, it should operate as advertised, and not crash all the time... still waiting on my callback from Buffalo. *sigh*

[Eastmarch]

Since you've tried with 3 different pieces of hardware, I would assume that the problem isn't hardware. Since many people use this device, myself included, and do not have this issue, I'd wonder what you are connecting to the unit and are you running a community build or the buffalo build that came with the unit? There is a variable in your environment that is causing the issue, and finding out what it is will be the key to long term wireless happiness. Support will certainly do their best, but your environment is infinitely better understood by you than by anyone else so don't expect magic.