DIR-890L Guide

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sew3521
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Bridgeton MO

PostPosted: Sat Dec 19, 2015 7:52    Post subject: DIR-890L Guide Reply with quote
I would first like to start off by saying I am by no means an expert when it comes to DD-WRT. However, I have found little support for the Dlink DIR-890L and I have found a few threads complaining about issues. I figured I would start this thread to hopefully help others with this router. I am going to try and use layman’s terms when possible.
If one of the more experienced members here have any tweaks to this setup, PLEASE feel free to let me know.
This thread will try to hold your hand a little bit, however I am going to expect that you have basic networking knowledge. Basic, meaning you know how to ping and how to release and renew an IP address. I wrote this guide assuming that you live in the United States. If you live outside of the US you might find inconsistencies.
I should also state that these instructions come with no warranty. If you brick your router I am not responsible.
Please remember: If I tell you to hit Apply Settings, HIT IT. There are many times where not hitting Apply Settings will make menus not work or not show up. Because of the error in build 28444 I wiped my router and wrote down step by step how I reconfigured it. There is a method to this madness, I promise!
If you believe your router is bricked, I will post some info at the end of this post.

Step 1 (Installing DD-WRT)- Start Here if you still have the stock Dlink firmware installed
First download DD-WRT. As I write this guide I am going to use the r28548 release from 12/18/2015. You can find the download here
ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/2015/12-18-2015-r28548/dlink-dir890l/

Save the factory-to-ddwrt.bin file to your computer.

Once the file is downloaded log into your router’s configuration screen. The default IP address for this is 192.168.0.1. By default, there is no password, so just leave that blank.

Go to the firmware upgrade screen and upload the factory-to-ddwrt.bin to your router.

Once completed you will get a message saying success.

Perform an ipconfig release renew

You should now have an IP address in the 192.168.1.x range. If you do not wait 30 seconds and perform an ipconfig release renew again.

Once you have an IP address in the 192.168.1.x range use your browser to go to 192.168.1.1

DD-WRT will ask you to setup the administrator username and password.

Once the username and password is setup click on administration and select factory default. Confirm you want to factory reset the router and press Apply.

Wait 120 seconds.

Perform an ipconfig release renew, you should have an IP address in the 192.168.1.x range.

Once you have an IP address in the 192.168.1.x range use your browser to go to 192.168.1.1

DD-WRT will ask you to setup the administrator username and password. REMEMBER THIS!

Step 2 (Configuring DD-WRT Basic Settings)
The first screen you should be on is the Router Setup Screen. This can be accessed by clicking Setup followed by Basic Setup.

If you want to name your router feel free to name it. Personally, I like naming it something with the model in it. For example: Home_DIR-890L

If you want to use a different IP scope than 192.168.1.x you can change it by modifying the local IP address. If you change the local IP address, click Apply Settings and perform an ipconfig release renew.

I like to have my IP scope setup to leave me plenty of IPs outside of the DHCP pool. Because of this I normally tell DD-WRT to start IP addresses at .30 and I set a maximum of 150 DHCP users. I recommend a client least time of 4 days, or 5760 minutes. If you changed any of these settings hit Apply Settings

Go to Time Settings, at the bottom of the page, and enable the NTP Client. Select your time zone. I recommend using time.nist.gov as your NTP server.

Step 3 (Configuring Wireless)
There are many settings here that are dependent on you hitting Apply Settings when I say to. Please do not try and shortcut this step because you WILL mess up if you do. The channels I choose are channels that I know work, I have found that this router can be very picky on channels, especially with the WL2 radio. I would recommend setting your router up like mine, and making modifications once you know everything is working. NEVER USE AUTO CHANNELS! I recommend giving all 3 of your networks a different SSID. Some people think you should let your device choose the network, but I like having control over what connects to what, and I find having 3 different network SSIDs will work the best.

For wl0 set Wireless Network Mode to AC/N-Mixed. This mode will only allow clients supporting AC or N to connect to this radio. Name this network something that ends in 5 so you can easily see this is your 5Ghz N network. For example, you could name it My_Home_5.

For wl1 set Wireless Network Mode to NG-Mixed. This setting will only allow clients supporting G or N to connect to this radio. Name this network something without an ending on it, so you know this is not a special network. For example, you could name it My_Home.

For wl2 set Wireless Network Mode to AC-Only. This setting will only allow clients supporting AC to connect to this radio. Name the network that ends in AC, so you know that this is your AC network. For example, you could name it My_Home_AC.

Hit Apply Settings

For wl0 set channel width to HT40 (40 MHz). This will allow you to use2 channels.

For wl1 set channel width to 20 Mhz. This will keep this radio on only one channel. This will help provide support for legacy devices.

For wl2 set channel width to VHT80 (80 MHz). This will allow the radio to use 3 channels.

Click Apply Settings.

For wl0 set the Extension Channel to lower.

For wl2 set the Extension Channel to Lower Lower.

Click Apply Settings.

For wl0 set the Wireless Channel to 48. Make sure only Wireless SSID broadcast and Implicit Beamforming are enabled. Make sure the Network Configuration is set to Bridged.

For wl1 set the Wireless Channel to 3. Make sure only Wireless SSID is enabled. Make sure the Network Configuration is set to Bridged.

For wl2 set the Wireless Channel to 149. Make sure only Wireless SSID and Explicit Beamforming are enabled. Make sure the Network Configuration is set to Bridged.

Click Apply Settings.

Click Wireless Security.

Enable WPA2 Personal with the AES Algorithm on all of the networks.

Enter a WPA Shared Key on each network. You need to make this at least 8 characters. You can set different passwords for each network if you want, however I normally have them all set the same. If you want something easy to remember and pretty strong try using your first name, cell phone number, last name. For example, Vladimir18004444444Tarasenko.

Click Apply Settings.

Click Administration, followed by Backup. Click Backup to save a backup file. Power cycle your modem and router.

Congratulations! Your router should be working now. I will attempt to keep this post updated with notes on new versions as they are released. I am going to put some optional configuration changes in Step 4, you do not need to do these.

Step 4 (Optional Configuration Changes)
These changes should help your routers performance. Did you notice I said should… I said that because trial and error can help you a ton with some of these settings.
Enable UPNP:
In theory this could lower security in a network, however for a home network I would leave this enabled. It will make your life easier when it comes to forwarding ports.

To enable UPnP, click NAT/QOS followed by UPnP.

Enable the UPnP Service and Clear port forwards at startup.

Click Apply Settings.

Enable QoS:
QoS will try to prioritize traffic. These are many ideas on how to get this working the best, feel free to do more research into this. I only configure the upload portion of QoS as most home networks do not need to worry about flooding download bandwidth.

First you need to determine your Upload Speed. To get the most accurate readings make sure that only your computer is connected to the network. Use a speed test website to find your upload speed, I use speedtest.net. The result of the test will give you a number that is most likely in Mbps. Go to google and type in that number to kbps. For example, if your upload speed was 2.3 Mbps you would type in “2.3 Mbps to kbps”. In the 2.3 Mbps example you will get a result of 2300 kbps. Take the resulting number and multiply it by .85 to find out 85% of your upload bandwidth. In the 2.3 Mbps example we will have a resulting number of 1955. Enter the resulting number into the Uplink field.

Enable RCP Packet Priority for SYN, FIN, and RST packets.

Add any services you want to give priority to. For example, I have Xbox Live as a Premium Service, Netflix as an Express service, and BitTorrent as a Bulk service.

At the top of the page make sure the Port is WAN, the Scheduler is HTB and the Queueing Discipline is CODEL.

If you want to add any MAC address to the priority table, you can add them under MAC Priority. For example, I have my Plex server and my Slingbox set to Express services.

Click Apply Settings.

Disable Unused Services:
Click on Administration followed by Management.

Disable Cron and 802.1x.

Click Apply Settings.

Optimize IP Filter Settings
Make sure the TCP Congestion Control is Westwood.

Set Max Ports to 32768.

Set TCP Timeout to 600.

Set UDP Timeout to 60.

Click Apply Settings.


Last edited by sew3521 on Tue Jan 05, 2016 18:25; edited 2 times in total
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sew3521
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Bridgeton MO

PostPosted: Sat Dec 19, 2015 7:54    Post subject: Reply with quote
How to Recover your router or go back to the D-Link firmware.
If you need to recover your DIR-890L follow the D-Link Emergency Flashing Guide.

First go to D-Link’s website and download the latest firmware. As of this writing the link is
http://support.dlink.com/ProductInfo.aspx?m=DIR-890L%2FR

The file you download will be in a .zip container. Unzip the file so you have a .bin file.

Connect your computer directly to the router using Ethernet.

Set a static IP on your computer of 192.168.0.2

Unplug your router. Wait at least 5 seconds.

Using a small object, like a paper clip, press in on the reset button, while holding that down plug in the router’s power cord so the router powers on.

After 5 or so seconds you will see the red power light blinking, you can now stop holding in the button.

Use your computer to browse to 192.168.0.1.

Click on Choose File and select the .bin file from earlier.

Click Upload.

You should see a Success Page

Browse to 192.168.0.1.

Remove your static IP from your computer.

Congratulations! You now have your router back to a factory state.
sew3521
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Bridgeton MO

PostPosted: Sat Dec 19, 2015 7:55    Post subject: Reply with quote
Firmware:

I will try to list the firmware I am running currently and any firmware versions I have had issues with.

Currently running: 07-27-2017-r32868
No issues noticed. Wifi is stable, SSH is working without issue.

Firmware with major Issues:
12-05-2015-r28444: I was unable to update off of this firmware. I tried using the Web GUI and SSH. Neither would allow the update to complete. I had to recover to factory firmware and reinstall DD-WRT. Oddly enough all of my DD-WRT settings stayed on the router. I performed a factory reset to be safe.

08-03-2017-r33006: This firmware resulted in my router not booting. Only the power LED would flash after applying this firmware. I had to recover to factory firmware and reinstall DD-WRT. Thankfully all of my DD-WRT settings stayed on the router.

Useful Links:
This thread will show you the changelog to each new version. It looks like this is not being updated anymore.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=279468

This is the link to all of the beta releases of DD-WRT
ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/


Last edited by sew3521 on Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:26; edited 14 times in total
m4dm4rtig4n
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 27 Dec 2015
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 2:19    Post subject: Low range with My_Home_AC Reply with quote
Hi,

I have follow your tutorial and with My_Home_AC configuration, i have an very low range :/

Have you an idea ?

With My_Home & My_Home_5 not problem.



EDIT : When i choose France in my "Regulatory Domain", i can't select Wireless Channel manually...

I have switch to HT40 on wl2 vith hight Wireless Channel and it's better Smile

milkk
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 09 Apr 2007
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 19:23    Post subject: Reply with quote
For this step:
For wl2 set the Wireless Channel to 149. Make sure only Wireless SSID and Explicit Beamforming are enabled. Make sure the Network Configuration is set to Bridged.

My Channel is set to Auto on WL2 for some reason but I remember I was able to change it before.
Firmware: DD-WRT v3.0-r28598 std (12/24/15)

_________________
D-Link DIR-890L
sew3521
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Bridgeton MO

PostPosted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 15:50    Post subject: Reply with quote
milkk wrote:
For this step:
For wl2 set the Wireless Channel to 149. Make sure only Wireless SSID and Explicit Beamforming are enabled. Make sure the Network Configuration is set to Bridged.

My Channel is set to Auto on WL2 for some reason but I remember I was able to change it before.
Firmware: DD-WRT v3.0-r28598 std (12/24/15)

Did it just reset to Auto or is it locked on auto? I know that sometimes when you change certain settings it will reset the channel back to auto.
Watanuki
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Jan 2016
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 1:44    Post subject: Reply with quote
Just to post about my experience. I am using the current latest beta build r28647 std (01/02/16).

Initial Impressions:
Seems a bit finicky with keeping IPV6 address from Comcast when I save settings in different areas such as saving wifi settings. It would lose it but still keep IPV4 address. It comes back after saving the IPV6 settings again.

Rebooting the router from within the interface, the WAN IP resets to 0.0.0.0 and will not release or renew the IP. To get it back working, I just unplugged it from the modem and replug it back in. That seems to do the trick.

@Sew, I had an issue with my chromecast when setting wl1 channel width to 20Mhz. It would not connect, but after setting it to HT40, it started working again.

Using the 12/24 build, I had an issue with setting the wireless security. I don't know if it was because I set all the passwords for all three of them at the same time but even though I set the security as WPA2, my devices were telling me that the security was set as WEP. Strange.
sew3521
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Bridgeton MO

PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 0:28    Post subject: Reply with quote
Watanuki wrote:
Just to post about my experience. I am using the current latest beta build r28647 std (01/02/16).

Initial Impressions:
Seems a bit finicky with keeping IPV6 address from Comcast when I save settings in different areas such as saving wifi settings. It would lose it but still keep IPV4 address. It comes back after saving the IPV6 settings again.

Rebooting the router from within the interface, the WAN IP resets to 0.0.0.0 and will not release or renew the IP. To get it back working, I just unplugged it from the modem and replug it back in. That seems to do the trick.

@Sew, I had an issue with my chromecast when setting wl1 channel width to 20Mhz. It would not connect, but after setting it to HT40, it started working again.

Using the 12/24 build, I had an issue with setting the wireless security. I don't know if it was because I set all the passwords for all three of them at the same time but even though I set the security as WPA2, my devices were telling me that the security was set as WEP. Strange.

Unfortunately I do not know about the IPv6 issue. I use Charter Communications and they are still using IPv4.
I have seen the WEP issue before.
Once this happened to me because the WPA option did not stick and I had to reselect the option. This is why I say click save when I say to.
The other time I saw this was an odd glitch with my old GoogleTV. I rebooted the GoogleTV and the router and the issue was resolved.
CalvinM
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 10 Jan 2016
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 2:17    Post subject: Reply with quote
How did you install r28647 std (01/02/16)?

I was under the impression that DIR-890L was Broadcom
sew3521
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Bridgeton MO

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 23:43    Post subject: Reply with quote
CalvinM wrote:
How did you install r28647 std (01/02/16)?

I was under the impression that DIR-890L was Broadcom

The 890L is Broadcom.

You can find the file here
ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/2016/01-02-2016-r28647/dlink-dir890l/
datdaddy
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 26 Feb 2016
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 10:06    Post subject: Bricked D-LINK DIR 890-L Reply with quote
Well, that didn't work out too well. I tried to load the dd-wrt firmware. Didn't go.

Then I tried the reset to factory by uploading the D-Link software so I could start over again. No go.

I get to the router's recovery mode screen "choose file," and "upload" the correct one. the page disappears, and the Power light and the Wireless light stay red for hours.

Any more ideas, or do I just use this thing as a crazy hat next Mardi Gras?

Thanks. Dangit!
sew3521
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Bridgeton MO

PostPosted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 5:48    Post subject: Re: Bricked D-LINK DIR 890-L Reply with quote
datdaddy wrote:
Well, that didn't work out too well. I tried to load the dd-wrt firmware. Didn't go.

Then I tried the reset to factory by uploading the D-Link software so I could start over again. No go.

I get to the router's recovery mode screen "choose file," and "upload" the correct one. the page disappears, and the Power light and the Wireless light stay red for hours.

Any more ideas, or do I just use this thing as a crazy hat next Mardi Gras?

Thanks. Dangit!


Are you still having issues? It is very odd the DLink recovery is not working. What browser are you using to upload the firmware at the recovery screen?
datdaddy
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 26 Feb 2016
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 11:20    Post subject: Re: Bricked D-LINK DIR 890-L Reply with quote
sew3521 wrote:
datdaddy wrote:
Well, that didn't work out too well. I tried to load the dd-wrt firmware. Didn't go.

Then I tried the reset to factory by uploading the D-Link software so I could start over again. No go.

I get to the router's recovery mode screen "choose file," and "upload" the correct one. the page disappears, and the Power light and the Wireless light stay red for hours.

Any more ideas, or do I just use this thing as a crazy hat next Mardi Gras?

Thanks. Dangit!


Are you still having issues? It is very odd the DLink recovery is not working. What browser are you using to upload the firmware at the recovery screen?


Hmm, had not thought of using another browser. I had been using Chrome. I'll try another and post results. Now I have to remember what I was doing and how! haha
datdaddy
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 26 Feb 2016
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 13:29    Post subject: Re: Bricked D-LINK DIR 890-L Reply with quote
datdaddy wrote:
sew3521 wrote:
datdaddy wrote:
Well, that didn't work out too well. I tried to load the dd-wrt firmware. Didn't go.

Then I tried the reset to factory by uploading the D-Link software so I could start over again. No go.

I get to the router's recovery mode screen "choose file," and "upload" the correct one. the page disappears, and the Power light and the Wireless light stay red for hours.

Any more ideas, or do I just use this thing as a crazy hat next Mardi Gras?

Thanks. Dangit!


Are you still having issues? It is very odd the DLink recovery is not working. What browser are you using to upload the firmware at the recovery screen?


Hmm, had not thought of using another browser. I had been using Chrome. I'll try another and post results. Now I have to remember what I was doing and how! haha


Dang -- I NEVER use Edge Browser, but I just did and it worked like a champ. I now have DD-WRT on the 890-L
Thanks for the help!
sew3521
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Bridgeton MO

PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 22:49    Post subject: Re: Bricked D-LINK DIR 890-L Reply with quote
datdaddy wrote:
datdaddy wrote:
sew3521 wrote:
datdaddy wrote:
Well, that didn't work out too well. I tried to load the dd-wrt firmware. Didn't go.

Then I tried the reset to factory by uploading the D-Link software so I could start over again. No go.

I get to the router's recovery mode screen "choose file," and "upload" the correct one. the page disappears, and the Power light and the Wireless light stay red for hours.

Any more ideas, or do I just use this thing as a crazy hat next Mardi Gras?

Thanks. Dangit!


Are you still having issues? It is very odd the DLink recovery is not working. What browser are you using to upload the firmware at the recovery screen?


Hmm, had not thought of using another browser. I had been using Chrome. I'll try another and post results. Now I have to remember what I was doing and how! haha


Dang -- I NEVER use Edge Browser, but I just did and it worked like a champ. I now have DD-WRT on the 890-L
Thanks for the help!

You're very welcome! Sorry about the delay in response. These last few weeks have been crazy for me.
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