If you haven’t come across the Dlink range of manageable network switches, it’s worth taking a quick look. For a long time Dlink has been associated with the lower end of the market, a more cost effective solution. However many of their products are packed full of features and provide for a decent experience.
Recently I had to send back a Dlink DWS 3160 switch which featured wifi management. This acted not only as the core switch for the clients network but also as their WiFi controller, managing about 10 or more DWL-2600AP access points. For a small network, it handles this role very well. Unfortunately the client hadn’t taken the onsite warranty option and so the whole thing had to go back to replace a faulty fan. The fans are covered by a decent 5 year warranty luckily.
Now, before sending it off I wanted to grab a copy of the configuration, in case we received back a new unit. Here’s where the problems started. The Download Configuration screen kept asking me to open a file. The file dialog that appeared wasn’t the normal Save As box but an Open one, and the Download Page referred to a source file.
Not wanting to wipe the config by mistake I called the Dlink support team and had a chat.
It appears that the configuration screens are worded in such a way that it’s relative to the switch. So if you want to download a config from the switch, the *switch* could be seen to be uploading it to you. So, I wanted the Upload Configuration screen to…errr….download a configuration.
I have no idea who coded those pages but, honestly, why?
