Hi everyone. I have a D-LINK DIR-300 router with 4 LAN and WI-FI. It's acting very strange lately. It is connected to a UPS battery and the one LAN connection is in surge protection.
Here are the symptoms:
- Every 2 days it just loses connection. I have to reboot it so to make the connection working. It's a little bit annoying after awhile.
- One day one of the LEDs started like fading away and came back up (the one that signals the LAN connection).
- When all the LEDs were properly working and the connection was good also, I moved the the power adapter cord a little bit at some part (I didn't plugged it out) and some of the LEDs gone (Internet connection LED and Wireless) but all the other LEDs were working. Of course there wasn't connection either.

Dani AI

Generated

is right to look at firmware and the power connector first. The behavior described narrows things to three likely areas: power (adapter/UPS/connector), a failing Ethernet/wireless subsystem, or firmware/software instability. The quickest route is a short, ordered checklist that isolates each possibility.

First, isolate power. Bypass the UPS and any surge-strip on both the router power and the LAN run — plug the router directly into a known-good wall outlet and remove any inline Ethernet surge device. Try a different, compatible AC adapter (match the voltage/polarity on the label) or measure the adapter with a multimeter. If LEDs change when you wiggle the barrel plug, replace the adapter or the router power jack — intermittent power is the single most common cause of those symptoms.

Next, gather evidence with simple network probes. From a PC on the LAN run continuous pings to the router and to an external IP to see where the drop occurs:

Windows:
ping -t 192.168.0.1
ping -t 8.8.8.8
tracert 8.8.8.8

Linux/macOS:
ping 192.168.0.1
ping 8.8.8.8
mtr -r 8.8.8.8    (if available)

Also check the router’s admin pages for system logs, DHCP lease churn, and current firmware version. Back up the config, then update firmware only from D-Link’s support for your exact DIR-300 model; if you update, do a factory reset and reapply your backed-up settings.

Finally, test each LAN port and cable (swap ports and cables). If one physical port or the radio is flaky, replacement is usually cheaper than repair. If the unit is under warranty, gather the logs and failure timestamps before contacting support. If out of warranty and power checks don’t fix it, replace the router — consumer models of that age often develop intermittent hardware faults.

These consumer based routers can fail after time. It sounds like the power connector inside the router may be siifhtly damaged since wiggling it causes an issue.

With regard to the first issue, again maybe the wireless radio is starting to fail and generate erodes where a reboot temporarily clears the issue. You may want to check if your router is up to date on it's firmware. If not update it.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.