245833 - D-Link wireless routers *demand* IE for configuration

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: Other, defect)

Description

[Tigerwolf]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; IRIX IP32; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030618 Mozilla Firebird/0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; IRIX IP32; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030618 Mozilla Firebird/0.6

The latest firmware upgrades to D-Link wireless products DI-614+ (fw rev 3.35)
and DWL-900AP+ (fw rev 3.07b1) (likely other products as well) will not work
with *any* Netscape/Mozilla or geko-based browser (Konkeror, FireBird .06,
FireFox 0.8).  In particular, the 'WIRELESS' setup page depends on (broken?)
javascript added in the latest firmware which attempts to dynamically 'hide'
certain options depending on the state of a set of radio buttons on the same
page.  With Mozilla/FireFox, the page (improperly) displays all of the choices,
relevent or not, and the 'APPLY' button is totally broken, resulting in no
action at all.

After several totally frustrating days trying to get to anyone within D-LINK
that could understand the problem, both by phone and e-mail, their only answer
was 'We only support Internet Explorer.  Download that.'...as if IE was even
*available* for unix-based systems.  They need to be battered severely about the
head and shoulders.



Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Log into router 'admin' web-pages
2.  Select 'WIRELESS' from the buttons on the left of the page
3.  Attempt to alter and 'apply' any changes to options on the resulting page
(h_wireless.html).  Nothing happens when 'apply' is clicked.

Actual Results:  
Nothing.  Options will not change, and 'APPLY' does nothing.
Note that *other* pages within the router's web-admin menues work as expected,
but have no complex javascript.

Expected Results:  
Router should accept, store, and apply all options set on the subject page.  The
h_wireless  .html page simply does not function properly, though other pages
(not using similar javascript) work ok.

The h_wireless.html page on these products has an introductory section of
javascript that Mozilla fails to deal with.  It is uncertain if the script
language is defective, non-standard, or if Mozilla/Firefox just can't deal with it.

A javascript console with FireFox shows the following error when the 'WIRELESS'
page is loaded from a DI-614+ (DWL-900AP+ similar):

wep_hex_form is not defined
http://<router IP>/h_wireless.html

The result is using the latest firmware upgrades, these products *cannot* be
properly configured using Mozilla-based  browsers.  The company is both clueless
and seemingly not willing to address the issue since 'It works ok with IE'. 
While older firmware did *NOT* use the same sort of javascript routines meant
they worked ok with Mozilla/FireFox, those versions have known bugs and new
functionality meaning downgrade to an older version of router firmware is not a
viable solution.

If noone has one of these products for testing, I can cut/paste the page source
of the offending page into an e-mail for examination.

Comment 1

[Tigerwolf]

Attachment: 'Broken' WIRELESS web page in D-Link DI-614+ router

This is the page which fails to function properly with Mozilla.

Comment 2

[Michael Hendy (Hendikins)]

*** Bug 245675 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[George G. Bolgar]

I have a very similar problem with the D-Link DI-804HV VPN Router.

I have just submitted the following report to D-Link:

--------------------------
I have been trying to set up an IPSec based VPN connection.  At present
it has only been through a LAN attached connection on the WAN side of
the router; not yet looking at trying it through the ADSL modem.

When I go to the page for entering details for a Dynamic VPN Tunnel, if
I change entries on that that page, and click on the 'accept' button;
the router does not restart, and the details on that page do not appear
to be stored.  The tunnel name does not appear in the name of tunnels,
it does not appear in the list of tunnels listed in the VPN status
screen, and when I return to the Dynamic VPN Tunnel page, there is no
indication of any earlier entries.

-------------------------------------------
The problem *only* happens with the dynamic VPN page, all the other pages work
as expected.

I had, until now, only tried the page using Mozilla as the browser.  I have now
tried Internet Explorer, and the problem has disappeared.

It now seems there is some incompatibility between that particular page and the
Mozilla browser (version 1.7) and that page, but no problem between Mozilla and
any of the other pages (insofar as I have encountered them so far). 
========================================================


I have not yet received a response from them.

Comment 4

[Nicky Morrow]

This bug is not limited to the D-Link DI-614+ router.

I'm seeing it here with the D-Link DWL-G700AP and D-Link DWL-G730AP.  This is a serious problem and the only way to resolve it that I can find it to connect the hardware to a system running IE.

Here are the steps to recreate on a DWL-G700AP:
  ( http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=326 )

- From the configuration menu select "Home > Wireless"

- Change any setting

- Select "Apply"

- Nothing happens except the following entry in the JavaScript console:

  "get_by_id ("wep_Len") has no properties"

---

Based on my research in D-Link related groups this is a major problem and is giving Firefox a black eye.

Comment 5

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

This is not the case with more recent D-Link products, so marking FIXED. I don't think we really care whether older firmware versions on older D-Link routers are ever updated to allow non-IE browsers.