3Com 3crwe454g72

Hi

Does anyone else here have a 3Com Officeconnect 11g access point
(3crwe454g72)?

There's a security advisory (http://secunia.com/advisories/13942/), and
when I upgrade the firmware to 1.03.07A I lose wireless connectivity-
even after defaulting and reconfiguring the WAP, and with or withoutn
WEP turned on (I use WEP, not WPA because I have a client that doesn't
support WPA). If I then put the old firmware back, set to defaults, and
reconfigure, it works again.

I tried to place a support call to 3Com, but they're not interested as
the WAP is out of warranty.

This isn't a massive concern, as my wireless is seperately firewalled,
and to exploit it you'd need access to the LAN or to have cracked the
WEP (and I don't think anyone's going to be interested enough to do
that), but I'd still prefer it upgraded.

Chris

On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 18:59:26 GMT, Chris Bartram
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hi
>
>Does anyone else here have a 3Com Officeconnect 11g access point
>(3crwe454g72)?
>
>There's a security advisory (http://secunia.com/advisories/13942/), and
>when I upgrade the firmware to 1.03.07A I lose wireless connectivity-
>even after defaulting and reconfiguring the WAP, and with or withoutn
>WEP turned on (I use WEP, not WPA because I have a client that doesn't
>support WPA). If I then put the old firmware back, set to defaults, and
>reconfigure, it works again.
>
>I tried to place a support call to 3Com, but they're not interested as
>the WAP is out of warranty.
>
>This isn't a massive concern, as my wireless is seperately firewalled,
>and to exploit it you'd need access to the LAN or to have cracked the
>WEP (and I don't think anyone's going to be interested enough to do
>that), but I'd still prefer it upgraded.
>
>Chris

I have the same WAP, and my firmware upgrade to 1.03.07A
went smoothly. Try it again perhaps?

Regards,
Paul Smith
(E-Mail Removed)

on Wed, 09 Mar 2005 at 08:05 GMT, Paul Smith wrote:
> On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 18:59:26 GMT, Chris Bartram
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Hi
>>
>>Does anyone else here have a 3Com Officeconnect 11g access point
>>(3crwe454g72)?
>>
>>There's a security advisory (http://secunia.com/advisories/13942/), and
>>when I upgrade the firmware to 1.03.07A I lose wireless connectivity-
>>even after defaulting and reconfiguring the WAP, and with or withoutn
>>WEP turned on (I use WEP, not WPA because I have a client that doesn't
>>support WPA). If I then put the old firmware back, set to defaults, and
>>reconfigure, it works again.
>>
> I have the same WAP, and my firmware upgrade to 1.03.07A
> went smoothly. Try it again perhaps?
>

Well, upgrade went smoothly here as well, but I lost connectivity to my
802.11b devices (one at that time). 802.11g seemed to perform
better/larger range after the upgrade.

Regards, Peter
--
Hacking's just another word for nothing left to kludge.

MSN/Mail: pboosten at hotmail dot com

Peter Boosten wrote:
> on Wed, 09 Mar 2005 at 08:05 GMT, Paul Smith wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 18:59:26 GMT, Chris Bartram
>><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Hi
>>>
>>>Does anyone else here have a 3Com Officeconnect 11g access point
>>>(3crwe454g72)?
>>>
>>>There's a security advisory (http://secunia.com/advisories/13942/), and
>>>when I upgrade the firmware to 1.03.07A I lose wireless connectivity-
>>>even after defaulting and reconfiguring the WAP, and with or withoutn
>>>WEP turned on (I use WEP, not WPA because I have a client that doesn't
>>>support WPA). If I then put the old firmware back, set to defaults, and
>>>reconfigure, it works again.
>>>
>>
>>I have the same WAP, and my firmware upgrade to 1.03.07A
>>went smoothly. Try it again perhaps?
>>
>
>
> Well, upgrade went smoothly here as well, but I lost connectivity to my
> 802.11b devices (one at that time). 802.11g seemed to perform
> better/larger range after the upgrade.
>
> Regards, Peter
Thanks for the replies. I did try the update several times, and oddly
enough, it was an 802.11b client (My Sharp Zaurus with a cheapy prism
card) I was testing with. I didn't try the 11g client (with a 3com
3CRPAG175 card) I also have more than once, but my wife gave up on it
and used the wired network instead. I *might* retry the upgrade one more
time, but it's a bit tedious as I've found if I have to downgrade again
I have to default all the settings and reconfigure, or I get a 404 error
on the encryption page......

I do find it frustrating that 3Com won't even let me report this to them
as the WAP is out of warranty. Dissapointing. I've used 3com gear for
about 14 years now, and I expected better.

Chris Bartram wrote:
Out of interest, I turned this up on an Italian newsgroup and had a
(slightly awkward) conversation there: I don't speak Italian, he doesn't
speak English, but it seems that he had the same problem, I think.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...2ff563163a037b

Chris Bartram wrote:
> Chris Bartram wrote:
> Out of interest, I turned this up on an Italian newsgroup and had a
> (slightly awkward) conversation there: I don't speak Italian, he doesn't
> speak English, but it seems that he had the same problem, I think.
>
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...2ff563163a037b
>
The poster in the above group got support from 3Com, and they mailed him
v1.03.07C, which isn't available on the website. It works fine now. A
pity they refused to talk to me......

If anyone has the same problem and wants the new firmware, drop me a mail.

Hi Chris,

I have the exact same problem. Can you please send the new firmware to
jesp@delete/this|myrealbox.com ? Much appreciated -

Hi Chris,
After some testing I realized that my thruput was only 6Mbit/s even
though my system said 54Mbit (the PC with a 3Com WLANcard was 1 meter
from the access point).
I checked with another PC and another 3Com WLAN card, but the result
was the same.
The test was just to copy a fairly large file and measure the time it
took.
The version in the access point was 1.03.07A
I know that I have had at least 20mbit/s earlier so I started to
systematically downgrade the version to previous ones.
When I returned to version 1.02.11 then I got my 20Mbit/s again !!!
So now I am using this version, but when I read about the 1.03.07C I am
interested to test that one, so Chris please send it to me.
magnus.extra@_removethis_telia.com
Have you guys verified what real throughput you have ?


--
Magnus
brought to you by http://www.wifi-forum.com/

Magnus wrote:
> Hi Chris,
> After some testing I realized that my thruput was only 6Mbit/s even
> though my system said 54Mbit (the PC with a 3Com WLANcard was 1 meter
> from the access point).
> I checked with another PC and another 3Com WLAN card, but the result
> was the same.
> The test was just to copy a fairly large file and measure the time it
> took.
> The version in the access point was 1.03.07A
> I know that I have had at least 20mbit/s earlier so I started to
> systematically downgrade the version to previous ones.
> When I returned to version 1.02.11 then I got my 20Mbit/s again !!!
> So now I am using this version, but when I read about the 1.03.07C I am
> interested to test that one, so Chris please send it to me.
> magnus.extra@_removethis_telia.com
> Have you guys verified what real throughput you have ?
>
>
I didn't do any throughput testing, I just found that 1.03.07A broke my
802.11b client (definitely) and my g client too (probably). Changing
back to 1.03.07 cured it, as did 1.03.07C, which is now on it's way to
both of you. Performace seems OK too.

Chris

I tested the 1.03.07C and it performed better than the 1.03.07A version.
The 1.02.11 however still works a lot better.
A 77 Mbyte file took 40 seconds to copy with 1.02.11 and 52 seconds
with 1.03.07C.
I also used the Task Manager (on the PC connceted by cable while I was
copying the file to the laptop). With 1.02.11 the traffic is smooth
during the complete transfer, but with 1.03.07C it looks strange. See
the attched picture. At least I will try to attach the picture.
100% is 100Mbit/s
Has anyone else tested ?


+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Filename: TaskMan.JPG |
|Download: http://www.wifi-forum.com/wf/attachment.php?attachmentid=516|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

--
Magnus
brought to you by http://www.wifi-forum.com/