SMC Barricade SMC7004AWBR no connection

I bought an SMC7004AWBR a while ago. After having upgraded the firmware to
1.94a _nothing_ works!

No WLAN signal at all. I have tried to change the firmware by accessing the
router through cable, but that doesn't work either.

After having done some research i contacted the router with a nullmodem
cable and Hyperterminal, and that works fine. I get to enable/disable DHCP,
change IP adress, change pw, and so on. Still no signal or result trying to
connect through ethernet cable or wireless.

Is it possible to up- or downgrade the firmware through the nullmodem cable?
Or is it some oher solution tha might work?

Regards
Ola

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 08:35:58 +0200, "Ola Aas Seeberg"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I bought an SMC7004AWBR a while ago. After having upgraded the firmware to
>1.94a _nothing_ works!
>
>No WLAN signal at all. I have tried to change the firmware by accessing the
>router through cable, but that doesn't work either.
>
>After having done some research i contacted the router with a nullmodem
>cable and Hyperterminal, and that works fine. I get to enable/disable DHCP,
>change IP adress, change pw, and so on. Still no signal or result trying to
>connect through ethernet cable or wireless.
>
>Is it possible to up- or downgrade the firmware through the nullmodem cable?
>Or is it some oher solution tha might work?

I don't know. See:
http://www.kataan.org/techref/barricade.html
for some good hints. You'll need a paper clip.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

Just curious but what problem(s) did you have that caused you to upgrade the
firmware?
You can not ping it at all?
Any firewalls enabled on the router or computers?
Do you need to release your computer's TCP/IP(?) connections so they can be
renewed??
On WIN98SE winipcfg.exe
Not sure what OS you are using.

sorry but I am trying to learn more by asking questions. :-)
later,
dave

"Ola Aas Seeberg" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1D76d.53204$(E-Mail Removed) ...
> I bought an SMC7004AWBR a while ago. After having upgraded the firmware to
> 1.94a _nothing_ works!
>
> No WLAN signal at all. I have tried to change the firmware by accessing
the
> router through cable, but that doesn't work either.
>
> After having done some research i contacted the router with a nullmodem
> cable and Hyperterminal, and that works fine. I get to enable/disable
DHCP,
> change IP adress, change pw, and so on. Still no signal or result trying
to
> connect through ethernet cable or wireless.
>
> Is it possible to up- or downgrade the firmware through the nullmodem
cable?
> Or is it some oher solution tha might work?
>
> Regards
> Ola
>
>
>

> Just curious but what problem(s) did you have that caused you to upgrade
the
> firmware?

Well... none, I suppose. Just another time when the saying "if it works,
don't fix it" applies... The firmware was "old", so I thought that if the
manufacturer makes new firmware, it has to be a reason for it...

> You can not ping it at all?

No. No response when I try to ping the router. I do get contact with it
through nullmodem cable, and get confirmation that the IP adress is the
default 192.168.123.254
If I could ping it, I probably could down- or upgrade the router too.

> Any firewalls enabled on the router or computers?

No firewall enabled.

> Do you need to release your computer's TCP/IP(?) connections so they can
be
> renewed??

There is no contact with the router or its DHCP server, so I can't renew it
either. (Did I understand you correctly here?)

> On WIN98SE winipcfg.exe

I have no contact with the router, and have tried ipconfig on my WinXP pro,
but no response.

> Not sure what OS you are using.


> sorry but I am trying to learn more by asking questions. :-)

That's ok. That forces me to think trough the problem once more, and that's
a sensible thing to do.


The only way I can contact the router is through nullmodem cable... Any good
ideas?

Ola

On Sat, 2 Oct 2004 21:37:15 +0200, "Ola Aas Seeberg"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>The only way I can contact the router is through nullmodem cable... Any good
>ideas?

Apparently, my last message didn't appear. Try:
http://www.kataan.org/techref/barricade.html

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>. ..
> On Sat, 2 Oct 2004 21:37:15 +0200, "Ola Aas Seeberg"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >The only way I can contact the router is through nullmodem cable... Any good
> >ideas?
>
> Apparently, my last message didn't appear. Try:
> http://www.kataan.org/techref/barricade.html

Thank you. I have tried to reset the router the ways described...no
response.
...or to be correct - no change, or at least I thought so..

But.. miracle over miracles:
After having reset the router before the weekend, I let it stand with
the power on for a few days. Today I started my laptop to do some
work, and there it was: A wireless connection to a network called
"default". I wondered which of my neighbours had installed a new wlan,
untill I powered off my SMC. The connection was lost..

It seems that my router decided to get well over the weekend, and
start working again. What happened? I had to connect to the router
with a nullmodem cable to reset the dhcp server, and - voila! I was
surfing the net. I renamed SSID and made it a little less accessible
with wep-encryption. No problem doing that either...

I still don't understand what made it work again, and that bothers me
a bit...

Now I don't dare to touch it at all, as long as it works.

Ola

Hi
you are not allone with this fuzzy behaviour. Have same expierience ,
but the other way round: worked propperly and after restarting a cable
connected PC it stopped working wireless. no network is seen by a
wireless notebook. Latest german firmware 1.96h.
Cable connections work.
you really will wait until this fuzzy things acts again ?


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

On 4 Oct 2004 00:09:11 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Ola) wrote:


>But.. miracle over miracles:
>After having reset the router before the weekend, I let it stand with
>the power on for a few days. Today I started my laptop to do some
>work, and there it was: A wireless connection to a network called
>"default". I wondered which of my neighbours had installed a new wlan,
>untill I powered off my SMC. The connection was lost..
>
>It seems that my router decided to get well over the weekend, and
>start working again. What happened? I had to connect to the router
>with a nullmodem cable to reset the dhcp server, and - voila! I was
>surfing the net. I renamed SSID and made it a little less accessible
>with wep-encryption. No problem doing that either...
>
>I still don't understand what made it work again, and that bothers me
>a bit...
>
>Now I don't dare to touch it at all, as long as it works.

Congrats.
There are some possible causes:
1. Overheating. As I vaguely recall (not sure), the 7004 has a
rather inspipid clip-on heat sink on the voltage regulator. Reseat.
2. Defective Low-ESR electrolytic capacitors. See:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY...eb03/ncap.html
http://www.ec-central.org/magazine/n...wanese_cap.pdf
http://www.vonwentzel.net/ABS/Repair/
http://www.feistworks.com/ben/3comfix/
I have replaced literally hundreds of the capacitors. Mostly on
motherboards, but also on power supplies, VCR's, TV's, and older
Apple/Lucent access points. The problem window is devices made in
Taiwan between about 1999 and late 2003.
3. Defective or marginal external power supply.
4. Low AC power line voltage. Are the lights dim?
5. Divine intervention. Prayer sometimes works.
6. Offers of burnt sacrifice were accepted by the gods. You may want
to repeat the exercise to insure continued operation. Human sacrific
is usually not needed to repair a router, but does seem to work for
file/web/mail/news server related issues.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

thomas juestel <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> Hi
> you are not allone with this fuzzy behaviour. Have same expierience ,
> but the other way round: worked propperly and after restarting a cable
> connected PC it stopped working wireless. no network is seen by a
> wireless notebook. Latest german firmware 1.96h.
> Cable connections work.
> you really will wait until this fuzzy things acts again ?

Well.. I have been without wireless connection for a while bescuse of
the trouble I had, so I had already started looking around for a new
one. I found that the cost was only about €75 for a new accesspoint,
so I think I'll see what happens when I have been using my fuzzy SMC
for a few weeks. (If it lasts that long)
Regarding your problem, you made the same experience as me. "If it
works, don't fix it..."
You probably have to downgrade the firmware to a lower version. Google
around, and there's lots of solutions out there, as long as you are
able to connect to the web gui via ethernet cable.

Regards
Ola

> >
> >Now I don't dare to touch it at all, as long as it works.
>
> Congrats.
> There are some possible causes:
> 1. Overheating. As I vaguely recall (not sure), the 7004 has a
> rather inspipid clip-on heat sink on the voltage regulator. Reseat.
> 2. Defective Low-ESR electrolytic capacitors. See:
> http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY...eb03/ncap.html
> http://www.ec-central.org/magazine/n...wanese_cap.pdf
> http://www.vonwentzel.net/ABS/Repair/
> http://www.feistworks.com/ben/3comfix/
> I have replaced literally hundreds of the capacitors. Mostly on
> motherboards, but also on power supplies, VCR's, TV's, and older
> Apple/Lucent access points. The problem window is devices made in
> Taiwan between about 1999 and late 2003.
> 3. Defective or marginal external power supply.
> 4. Low AC power line voltage. Are the lights dim?
> 5. Divine intervention. Prayer sometimes works.
> 6. Offers of burnt sacrifice were accepted by the gods. You may want
> to repeat the exercise to insure continued operation. Human sacrific
> is usually not needed to repair a router, but does seem to work for
> file/web/mail/news server related issues.


Thanks. I'll look into the links and other possible causes you
provided. If I don't come closer to a solution, at least I will learn
something.

So far I am leaning towards cause #5. If it should fail me again, I
may have to go to #6 and burn some diskettes, or maybe even a cd or
two. If that doesn't work I will sacrifice the router itself..

Ola