Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (
More info?)
On 8/20/2005 11:48 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 15:07:13 GMT, "DanR" <dhr22@sorrynospm.com> wrote:
>
>
>>In addition to upgrading firmware via "wired" connection I disconnect or turn
>>OFF other networked computers so they don't try to talk to the router during the
>>firmware upgrade. Jeff, is that a good thing to do or not necessary? If that is
>>a good thing... then to be extremely careful (paranoid) might it be good to also
>>disable the wireless part of the router?
>
>
> I've never "bricked" a WRT54G, but I've recovered them for friends and
> customers. In one case, it was attempting to upgrade with *BOTH* a
> wireless and wired connection to the router. They assumed they were
> doing the flash upgrade over the wired LAN, but because they didn't
> disable or disconnect the wireless first, the upgrade was accidentally
> performed via wireless. It hung at the end and trashed the flash
> upgrade. However, I made exactly the same mistake and the wireless
> flash upgrade worked just fine. Dunno.
>
> Where I've had the most entertainment value is when switching firmware
> from different developers. For example, going from stock Linksys to
> Sveasoft Alchemy tended to make a mess of the settings. After the
> upgrade, the router appeared to be hung. The parameters were stored
> in a different part of memory and what appeared was a mess. I few
> power cycles and resets restored everything to reality and defaults.
> I suspect that if I had followed instructions and reset the router to
> defaults, this would not have been a problem.
>
> One the local hacks like to juggle firmware and do custom compiles.
> He had it down to an art when one of his experimental builds "bricked"
> his router. So, I built him a JTAG port adapter to make recovery
> allegedly easier. He claims he's never needed it after this one
> accident. Most of the time, the "boot wait" feature is sufficient to
> allow a TFTP upload recovery.
>
> The Sveasoft instructions also suggest returning the router to default
> setting before attempting a firmware update. After a bad experience
> with a flash update to a desktop PC, I like to run everything from a
> UPS just in case the power decides to die in the middle.
>
> Note that I'm not an expert on WRT54G firmware juggling. I've only
> recently become involved in trying different firmware builds and
> systems. Such a question would best be answered in the numerous
> WRT54G firmware support blogs by those with more experience.
>
Sveasoft Talisman is well worth the $20 if doing WDS or need a more
flexible firewall.