DI-624 Flashing Breaks Wireless Network

Situation: Motorola SBG-1000 wireless cable modem gateway with two PCs
connected to switch ports, and one switch port feeding a D-Link DI-624
(Hardware Rev C3) wireless access point to extend wireless range. The
Motorola is 802.11b and the D-Link is 802.11g.

The DI-624 firmware was at version 2.50; two subsequent updates are
available. So, using a PC hard-wired to the D-link, I flashed the bios
to version 2.70.

The Motorola cable modem, still connected to the D-link, immediately
became intermittent in the following ways: Wireless connectivity to
the Internet was occasional, usually OK after a reboot, but soon
failing. One PC hard wired to the cable modem connected to the
Internet every time. Another PC hard wired could never see the
Internet. A ThinkPad could occasionally connect to the Internet via
hard wire connection or wireless. But all three could always log into
the cable modem's admin account, via hard wire or wireless.

The cable modem was leased from the ISP, who confirmed my report of
intermittent connectivity with their laptop, and swapped it out for the
newer SBG-940 which is an 802.11g equivalent to the SBG1000. All three
PCs could now connect to the Internet; everything worked as expected.

Now, back to the newly firmware flashed D-Link wireless access point.
It couldn't see the Internet, but any computer could log into its admin
account either via hard wire or wireless connection. I flashed it
again to version 2.70; still nothing. So I flashed it back to Version
2.50; everything worked perfectly!

I'm convinced the flashing of the D-link still connected to the
Motorola cablel modem affected it's performance. But the word firmware
didn't appear in the user manual, nor was there any reference to
firmware in the support section. I understand the intended customer of
this line of cable modems is ISPs which have support capabilities that
I don't know about, such as remote diagnosis and configuration. I told
the ISP support guy exactly what happened, but he didn't say anything.
I'm convinced that if the SBG1000 has firmware, and it could be
reflashed, it would start working normally.

I learned, wherever possible, never to flash firmware when the target
device is connected to any other device which might contain similar
firmware.

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <(E-Mail Removed) .com> on 22 Feb 2006
08:48:36 -0800, "Paul" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Situation: Motorola SBG-1000 wireless cable modem gateway with two PCs
>connected to switch ports, and one switch port feeding a D-Link DI-624
>(Hardware Rev C3) wireless access point to extend wireless range. The
>Motorola is 802.11b and the D-Link is 802.11g.
>
>The DI-624 firmware was at version 2.50; two subsequent updates are
>available. So, using a PC hard-wired to the D-link, I flashed the bios
>to version 2.70.
>
>The Motorola cable modem, still connected to the D-link, immediately
>became intermittent ...

Are the two wireless units on two different non-overlapping channels (1, 6,
11)? Do they have the same or different SSIDs?

>I'm convinced the flashing of the D-link still connected to the
>Motorola cablel modem affected it's performance. ...

I seriously doubt that.

>I learned, wherever possible, never to flash firmware when the target
>device is connected to any other device which might contain similar
>firmware.

It's unwise to draw general conclusions on so little data.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR ALT.INTERNET.WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FAQ_for_alt.internet.wireless>

> Are the two wireless units on two different non-overlapping channels (1, 6,
> 11)? Do they have the same or different SSIDs?

The two units have different SSIDs, and both different from the default
SSID that flashing would revert to. Same thing with channel: the
D-link was on channel 11 which reverts to channel 6 upon flashing while
the Motorola was on channel 1, which is also the default upon reset.

The strangest part of the problem is the intermittent and
non-functioning of the hard wire switch ports.

v[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <(E-Mail Removed) .com> on 22 Feb 2006
10:18:46 -0800, "Paul" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>> Are the two wireless units on two different non-overlapping channels (1, 6,
>> 11)? Do they have the same or different SSIDs?
>
>The two units have different SSIDs, and both different from the default
>SSID that flashing would revert to. Same thing with channel: the
>D-link was on channel 11 which reverts to channel 6 upon flashing while
>the Motorola was on channel 1, which is also the default upon reset.
>
>The strangest part of the problem is the intermittent and
>non-functioning of the hard wire switch ports.

Do the wired units work properly when you power down the second wireless
router (changing nothing else)?

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR ALT.INTERNET.WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FAQ_for_alt.internet.wireless>

John Navas wrote:
> Do the wired units work properly when you power down the second wireless
> router (changing nothing else)?
>
My original post was long, so it got lost in two paragraphs. After the
ISP swapping out the SBG-100 with the newer SBG-940 AND reverting back
to firmware 2.50 from 2.70 for the D-Link, everything worked perfectly,
both wired and wireless, separately and together.