WAP54G firmware upgrade goes awry

The other day I upgraded the firmware on one of my Linksys WAP54G access
points from 2.08 to 3.04. I did it remotely from a PC in another building. All
went well until the upgrade was declared complete, whereupon the access point
became totally unresponsive. It continued to serve wireless clients, but could
not be managed. Even manually rebooting didn't help. I finally had to swap it
out, reset it to factory settings, and reconfigure it from scratch. (The
upgrade did "take"; the displayed firmware level is now 3.04.)

Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I did the same thing to another WAP54G
over the weekend, from home. Now I can't contact that one either, so I guess
I'll have to swap it out tomorrow and reconfigure it from scratch.

Is this a known problem? Is there a workaround (installing an intermediate
upgrade, for example)? I've got about a dozen more WAP54Gs I'd like to
upgrade, and swapping them all out would be a pain.

Bob

Robert Coe <b...@1776.COM> writes:

> Is this a known problem?

Yes, I'd say so. You just destroyed two routers.

Don't feel bad, I did exactly the same thing last week. Fortunately, I got a replacement router from Linksys.

If you're going to flash-upgrade, do it from a directly ethernet-cable-linked box with nothing going on with the router while it's happening.

Try it otherwise and you're almost certain to wreck the router.

Good luck!


-=-
This message was sent via two or more anonymous remailing services.

On 19 Jun 2006 07:56:03 -0000, Anonymous <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
: Robert Coe <b...@1776.COM> writes:
:
: > Is this a known problem?
:
: Yes, I'd say so. You just destroyed two routers.
:
: Don't feel bad, I did exactly the same thing last week. Fortunately, I got a replacement router from Linksys.
:
: If you're going to flash-upgrade, do it from a directly ethernet-cable-linked box with nothing going on with the router while it's happening.
:
: Try it otherwise and you're almost certain to wreck the router.
:
: Good luck!

Thanks for the well-intentioned advice, but you evidently didn't read anything
but the subject line of my article.

1) I didn't destroy the routers (access points, actually); they were fine (and
correctly updated) after I restored them to factory settings.

2) They were hard-wired to the Ethernet, as was the computer I used to update
them. I've updated dozens of routers and access points that way.

3) If an access point is turned on, you can't ensure that there's "nothing
going on" if there are wireless clients nearby. (If it isn't turned on, you
can't update it.)

As I said, thanks anyway.

Bob

On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 14:52:25 -0400, Robert Coe <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>The other day I upgraded the firmware on one of my Linksys WAP54G access
>points from 2.08 to 3.04.

I did the same firmware upgrade about a month ago. WAP54G hardware
version 3.0. Firmware went from 2.06 to 3.04. No problems. However,
the upgrade did not retain any of the settings. I had to reset the
access points to defaults and reload everything.

>I did it remotely from a PC in another building.

Ummm... did you do it via wireless or wired from the other building?
If wireless, I've had a few disasters trying to do it over wireless.
The problem is that the firmware overscribbles parts of the running
firmware needed to finish the firmware upload. It initiates a
disconnect or possibly a reboot before the upload is completed. This
does not happen with a wired ethernet connection.

If done from another building, how many feet of CAT5 were involved?
I'm not sure I would trust hundreds of feet of cable to deliver the
firmware without any errors.

>All
>went well until the upgrade was declared complete, whereupon the access point
>became totally unresponsive. It continued to serve wireless clients, but could
>not be managed. Even manually rebooting didn't help. I finally had to swap it
>out, reset it to factory settings, and reconfigure it from scratch. (The
>upgrade did "take"; the displayed firmware level is now 3.04.)

I've noticed that some routers and access points are very reluctant to
display the internal web server. My usual trick is to tack on the "/"
at the end of the URL as in:
http://192.168.1.245/
which seems to work better. Even so, it sometimes takes about 30
seconds for the login box to appear.

Also, I'm having a new problem with a different pair of WAP54G v3.1
(firmware 3.04) access points in bridge mode. If I make any change to
the wireless config going through the wireless link from the other end
of the bridge, the remote end of the bridge hangs or goes comatose
until the power is cycled. It's quite consistent in both directions.
It doesn't exactly fit your description but this might be what you're
seeing.

>Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I did the same thing to another WAP54G
>over the weekend, from home. Now I can't contact that one either, so I guess
>I'll have to swap it out tomorrow and reconfigure it from scratch.

Settings are not retained between major firmware releases (i.e. 2.x to
3.x). I don't recall if it cleared the settings (reset to default) or
if I had to do it manually. As a matter of habit, I always reset a
router to default after each firmware update (unless the instructions
claim that the settings are retained).

>Is this a known problem? Is there a workaround (installing an intermediate
>upgrade, for example)? I've got about a dozen more WAP54Gs I'd like to
>upgrade, and swapping them all out would be a pain.

Could you explain what you mean by "swapping them out"? If you have a
large number of these, just prepare an upgraded access point, load the
desired settings, and replace the access point with the pre-loaded
upgraded access point. Don't bother trying to do field upgrades.

Also, note that reloading previously saved settings (config.dat)
doesn't work between radically different firmware updates.

Incidentally, the subject should really be
"WAP54G settings go away with firmware upgrade."
The upgrade was apparently successful. Only the settings were lost.
--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 14:52:25 -0400, Robert Coe <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
<(E-Mail Removed)>:

>The other day I upgraded the firmware on one of my Linksys WAP54G access
>points from 2.08 to 3.04. I did it remotely from a PC in another building. All
>went well until the upgrade was declared complete, whereupon the access point
>became totally unresponsive. It continued to serve wireless clients, but could
>not be managed. Even manually rebooting didn't help. I finally had to swap it
>out, reset it to factory settings, and reconfigure it from scratch. (The
>upgrade did "take"; the displayed firmware level is now 3.04.)
>
>Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I did the same thing to another WAP54G
>over the weekend, from home. Now I can't contact that one either, so I guess
>I'll have to swap it out tomorrow and reconfigure it from scratch.
>
>Is this a known problem? Is there a workaround (installing an intermediate
>upgrade, for example)? I've got about a dozen more WAP54Gs I'd like to
>upgrade, and swapping them all out would be a pain.

1. Never ever upgrade firmware over wireless. Use wired.
2. Always always save settings before any upgrade.
3. It's a good idea to reset the router to factory defaults after
upgrade, and then load the saved settings.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_How_To>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 05:01:03 GMT, Jeff Liebermann
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
<(E-Mail Removed)>:

>Also, note that reloading previously saved settings (config.dat)
>doesn't work between radically different firmware updates.

Depends on the brand (and model) -- well engineered products (e.g.,
SonicWALL) can be restored that way.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_How_To>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

From the way you've described the situation it seems clear the firmware
upgrades between the two depend upon different configuration data. That's
inconvenient, to say the least, but at least it's not a permanent failure
issue. Best to get a spare, configure it as desired and physically swap the
units in the field instead of trying to do an in-place, over-network
upgrade. It would be nice if they'd warn you of this possibility, does the
README give any clue?

On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 07:13:37 -0400, "Bill Kearney" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
: From the way you've described the situation it seems clear the firmware
: upgrades between the two depend upon different configuration data. That's
: inconvenient, to say the least, but at least it's not a permanent failure
: issue. Best to get a spare, configure it as desired and physically swap the
: units in the field instead of trying to do an in-place, over-network
: upgrade.

Well, yeah, so it seems. But most of those access points are in inconvenient
locations, and swapping them out is a pain. After all, not having to do that
is why you want to manage such devices remotely. Let's just say that my
opinion of Linksys hasn't gone up as a result of this experience.

: It would be nice if they'd warn you of this possibility, does the
: README give any clue?

I'm too lazy to look it up, but I think not. I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed.

Robert Coe <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>most of those access points are in inconvenient
>locations, and swapping them out is a pain

Would it be possible to do a factory reset on them in software before
upgrading them, and then reconfigure them after the upgrade?

You'd have to make sure they'd still fit your existing subnet and not
collide after the reset, but it might be easier than swapping them
out.

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 07:00:17 -0400, William P.N. Smith
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: Robert Coe <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: >most of those access points are in inconvenient
: >locations, and swapping them out is a pain
:
: Would it be possible to do a factory reset on them in software before
: upgrading them, and then reconfigure them after the upgrade?
:
: You'd have to make sure they'd still fit your existing subnet and not
: collide after the reset, but it might be easier than swapping them
: out.

If I did the factory reset first, I would not be able to talk to them again.

BTW, contrary to what somebody said earlier, it's not the case that doing the
upgrade reset the router to factory specs. It merely made it unusable until I
reset to factory specs and reconfigured.