Hi
I wondered if I could ask for the input / feedback concerning the TP-Link TD-W8970 V3 ADSL WIFI router.
A relative of mine has been using this router for a couple of months now without too many problems, of late there has been some lagging and slow connectivity from a Youview box which is wired to this unit. After checking the TP-Link support page for this router I noticed that there was a new firmware available which would appear to resolve the problem which has been experienced.
The firmware which can be viewed at:
http://uk.tp-link.com/download/TD-W8970.html#FirmwareThe revision is question is TD-W8970(EU)_V3_160707 which as the name suggests became available 7/7/16 and was a revision of TD-W8970(EU)_V3_160428 which dated back to 28/4/16.
So I downloaded and upgraded the firmware via the web interface, all seemed to go fine but I then found that it was impossible to enable the wifi on the router, the status page shows that it is disabled but the appropriate settings page for the wifi indicate that it is already enabled (even though it is not, which is confirmed by the wifi led on the unit being unlit and the lack of any wifi signal to connect to).
After many attempts to resolve this myself including: downloading and re-installing firmware, disabling and then re-enabling wifi (at which point the WIFI LED would light for around 3 seconds), factory resetting and resetting up, changing the SSID to enable broadcast (I normally have the SSID hidden), all of this was to no avail. So I decided to roll back the firmware to the previous version (TD-W8970(EU)_V3_160428) this succeeded it getting the WIFI back on.
So I thought I would do the responsible thing and contact TP-Link support to report what my findings were and that I think they need to take a look at their latest firmware as it appears to have problems. TP-Link support have through many exchanged email communications asked me to do a number of things (Factory reset with the new firmware, changing the SSID name and passkey, changing the WIFI channels (I tried them all). They eventually asked me to register the router on their warranty site including details of my invoice for the router from Amazon. They then went onto say that I should contact the retailer (Amazon) to ask for the unit to be replaced and that if I had any problems what I should ship the unit back to themselves via recorded delivery and that they in turn would then issue a replacement under warranty.
They just could not (or would not) grasp that it is not a hardware fault but a firmware fault (IMHO).
My concern is that if I ship the unit back to them (or if Amazon exchange it) that a perfectly good unit is being exchanged for no reason and that I will still have the same problem trying to get the new firmware to function.
It was only around a week ago that I first started trying to use the latest firmware but it has been available for best part of a calendar month so I would have expected that I would not be the first user of this router to have encountered this problem with the new firmware, which has in turn got me doubting my own assessment of the problem being down to firmware. Also I would have thought that firmware would be tested before releasing (and wifi being disabled would stick out like a sore thumb?)
So I just wanted to ask anyone who has this router (or has access to one) if they encounter the same problem when upgrading to the latest firmware?
Is it the firmware or am I just jinxed?
Thanks in advance for any help or enlightenment anyone can offer.
