I recieved a notice in my email earlier today (I originally thought it was a hoax) about a D-Link settlement in Furman v. D-Link Systems, Inc. and Donavin v. D-Link Systems, Inc.  To all those who didn't register your D-Link products, you didn't recieve this notice.  If you can understand legal stuff, you can read it here
[url]http://d-link-resolution.net/Notice.aspx[/url]
I confirmed with D-Link customer service that this indeed is not a hoax.
You can even see the details of the hearings here
[url]http://www.sftc.org/[/url]
I thought this site was a hoax too until I confirmed it indeed it was registered by a Superior court in California via register.com's WHOIS.

Simply select Name search query and type the company name "D-Link" in without the quotation marks.

I'm confused about this, I've always been happy with my D-Link products, they've never given me problems.  I'm not sure if I should fill in the claim or not...

Does anyone know whats going on?

I think its something about D-Links' products not being as good as advertised.

Looks like they got sued for false advertising.

[quote] 3. The Actions were filed by individuals who allege that D-Link’s advertising of the Covered D-Link Wireless Products is false and misleading in violation of <uninteresting>, and constitutes fraud and negligent misrepresentation. [/quote]

Looks like it was something really, really stupid.

[quote]  Future shipments of Covered D-Link Wireless Products shall have the following language on the packaging:

    Maximum wireless signal rate derived from IEEE Standard 802.11_ specifications. Actual data throughput will vary. Network conditions and environmental factors, including volume of network traffic, building materials and construction, and network overhead, lower actual data throughput rate.

Such language shall also appear on D-Link’s website, in user manuals, and in certain press releases.[/quote]

D-Link wireless products have a mode ("D-Link Mode", or "4x mode") in which they are faster when talking with other D-Link products. It is possible that they advertised this feature, and some grandma misinterpreted the advertisement and thought that it does magic tricks, then was unsatisfied to find that it, too, works via simple RF waves just like other 802.11 equipment; so she sued them for false advertising. Really stupid, if you think about it.

(I am not sure, but I think their "D-Link Mode" is a binary data compression, so it does not even always increase the speed. I may be wrong though - it might be RF wave tricks.)

If I were able to fill in the claim, I would NOT do it, just out of protest. Not that anyone would notice. Stupid abuses of the legal system.

I think they advertised 11 Mbps speed wireless network when in practise you only get 50% or so actual throughput on a wireless network. And in some cases, like if you put the base station behind a metal grid blocking the radio waves, you may get even lower throughput.

That's my interpretation of the text they have to add to their packaging.

Actually, they advertised 22mbps :P

This might be differnet, but I once read about a wireless device that advertised double-speed.  What it did was used 2 channels (like 5 and 11) instead of 1.  In reality, this helped very little because they interfered with each other. 

Note to self: D-Link router = No No.

[quote author=Joe[x86] link=topic=11580.msg112508#msg112508 date=1116139420]
Note to self: D-Link router = No No.
[/quote]

For any other reason than that their PR guys are like all PR guys?

[quote author=Joe[x86] link=topic=11580.msg112508#msg112508 date=1116139420]
Note to self: D-Link router = No No.
[/quote]

I haven't had any problems with my D-Link routers.  I've had problems with Linksys routers though which is why I buy D-Link now :(
I had a Linksys wired router that would shut off if I unplugged cables or if I bumped it maybe a wire lose or something.  This wasn't a defect, it worked fine for a few months and then it seemed to mess up.  I also had a Linksys wireless router that would choak under heavy load. 
My oldest router I've had since 2000 still works like a charm :o
Also note that Linksys is owned by Cisco...Cisco had a home networking division some time back and it failed badly.  They seem to be doing better now though...

Settlement: you get 15% off a purchase at their online store and they have to donate $25,000 in products to a non-profit organization that will give them to underprivaelaged schools.  Seems somewhat fair to me, no monatery(sp?) reperations,  mainly because if you were unstisfied the first time then why buy more?