Linksys firmware upgrade
 

Trying to find a way to update the firmware on my Linksys WET11v2 wireless bridge. It appears that the only thing Linksys provides is an .exe file. Apparently at one time, you could download the code.bin file but that no longer seems to be an option. May be the Cisco influence.

Has anyone been able to find a way to do this? I've tried to call their tech support but "all lines are busy".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I used the instructions here to upgrade mine last time.

http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=202 Seems to be the download for what you are looking for. I chose "Other" under OS's to get to it.

Drop the .exe file on stuffit expander. You should see the code.bin file somewhere in the folder that gets created.

You can use MacTFTP to upload the file.

http://www.mactechnologies.com/pages/downld.html

Thanks very much. I had tried this approach earlier but the suggestion I had read elsewhere said to change the suffix from .exe to .zip. This resulted in the files not being unstuffed.

Dropping just the downloaded .exe onto Stuffit Expander showed the .bin file. I'll use tftp to load it into the bridge and see if it works.

I hope this will fix my problems with the v2 version of this product. I have an original WET11 that works great but the second version of the product has been problematic.

Regards,
Mark G.

No go here. Tried everything in this post without any luck what so ever. Did anyone have success updating their WET 11?

Are you sure. When I drop the .exe. file on Stuffit Expander 7.0.3 it fails with an error.

Chris

Further news: I updated Stuffit Expander to 8.0.2 and it worked for extracting the bin file from WET11_Upgrade_v207_FCC.exe. whereas it hadn't worked on version 7.x.x. The name of the extracted file shows up as WET11v2_v207F_build81.bin.

On the other hand, it won't upload to the WET11. When I use MacTFTP, I get a message that says: Error. No error code. When using tftp from the terminal I get an error code 2 but haven't yet discovered what that means.

I'll post an update if I make any progress.

Mark G.

I haven't installed Stuffit 8. Can you put the decoded .bin file in your iDisk for me?

Chris

By the way, here is a list of tftp error codes:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk64...80093f14.shtml

Chris

Chris,

Decoded files are there (mr_toad).

WET11_v154(0513)FCC.bin is for the previous version of the bridge.

WET11v2_v207F_build81.bin is for the -B or version 2.

I have both and just attempted to update the older bridge with the v154 code. It fails the same way: MacTFTP with "Error: No error code" and regular tftp with error code 2. I have cleared the passwords on both bridges.

Let me know if you have any luck.

Mark

Thanks Mark,

I got those two files.

Then I connected to the WET11 via ethernet to my Powerbook (usually the Powerbook is wireless) and I gave the Powerbook a manual IP address.

Using tftp from the terminal, I got error code 2 also. I'll keep working and let you know what I discover. Virtual PC is also an option for me. I'll let you know about that too.

Chris

I'm stumped for now. Virtual PC wouldn't work either. Then updater runs, but says it can't find the WET11, even though I can ping it, and I can get the configuration pages with Internet Explorer.

The easiest way to do the upgrade will probably be to take the WET11 and the Windows updater software to a friend's house (or work) and just do it on his PC.

Chris

Thanks for trying Virtual PC. That'll save me the trouble of installing and updating it. If I get a chance tomorrow I'll try the tech support line.

I wouldn't go to all this trouble buy my bridge isn't working that well and I thought I might as well get the latest firmware level on it since that's the first question they'll ask when calling support.

Mark,

It's possible, I suppose, that the client OS could make a difference. I run Windows 95 with Virtual PC. If you have a newer Windows OS, you might give it a try.

Chris

I have VPC 5.04 with Windoze 98 on one machine and I tried to update the WET11 via that route. The program launched OK and when I entered the password and hit "Update" it came back about 10 seconds later with a dialog box that said "Invalid Password".

I called Linksys support, explained my problem to someone who eventually said to stay on the line while they transferred my call. Of course the call was dropped during the transfer and even though I had given them my phone number, I never got a call back.

On the good news front, I disabled WEP on my snow base station and the WET11(s) and the connection is significantly more reliable although I still get a lot of receive packet errors (>20%).

Next time I have 30-45 minutes to burn, I'll try the support line again.

I have used OS X to update firmware on a Linksys BEFSR41wired router and a BEFW11S4 wireless 4 port router by Linksys. Extracting code.bin with stuffit expander and using TFTP client worked great. I guess there is something unique about the WET11 that keeps this from working.

I followed a bunch of these links, just for info as I don't have any linksys gear.

The MacTFTP instructions for the Linksys said, "If needed, change the last three letters of the download file from "exe" to "zip". Based on earlier comments, I would surmise that older versions of stuffit won't handle the .exe as is.

But it sounds like you have additional problems. Good Luck!

Well, I finally broke down and went, hat in hand, to a fellow Mac user who also has a PC. The update program ran fine on Win2K and now my bridge has the latest firmware.

Even with the update it doesn't run nearly as well as the previous generation WET11 sitting right next to it.

Mark

Thanks for the info. I'll probably do the same thing this week. I have a PC friend one block over.

Chris

Hey! I went to my friend's house tonight to do the firmware upgrade. It went exactly like it did when I tried it under Virtual PC. A dialog popped up saying "No WET11 Detected."

Naturally, I was shocked. I was using a real PC this time. What's going on?

Well, it turned out that my friend's Norton firewall was preventing the firmware update utility from talking to the WET11. Once we opened the firewall to this, everything went very well.

Now I realize that my OS X firewall was probably the reason I couldn't do the upgrade from Virtual PC. I'm not in the mood to try to run the updater again, but when they bump the version beyond 2.07 I will definitely give Virtual PC a chance again--with my OS X firewall turned off.

Chris

Well, firmware version 2.08 is out for the WET11, and as promised, I tried the update using Virtual PC with the OS X firewall turned off. It worked perfectly! Here are the details...

1) I connected the WET11 to my Powerbook using an ethernet cable
2) I gave my Powerbook and the WET11 static IP addresses
3) I turned OFF the OS X firewall (I think this is the key)
4) I launched Virtual PC and turned on VPC's Virtual Switch
5) I booted a Windows 98 image and assigned it a static IP address on the same network as the other devices. I had to reboot Windows 98 to get the network changes to take effect.

Then I ran the WET11 updater. I entered the IP address of the WET11 and it's admin password. The update ran perfectly.

Chris

WET11 Firmware update
 

I should have posted this a couple weeks ago but I was also successful in updating the WET11 with 2.08 via Virtual PC (5.04 with Windows 98). I had to hit the update button a few times but after three or four times the update took. Don't remember if I had the firewall on or not.

The bridge runs a little better but it is still not nearly as reliable as the original Linksys version that sits right next to it.

Thanks for the update Chris.

Mark

Yes. Don't know why, but I had to hit the update button twice.

Chris

Also, now that I'm running 2.08, I get about 60% signal quality rather than what I used to get--40%. According to the readme they made some general improvements to the wireless capability. This must be the reason for the better signal.

Chris

WET11 signal strength
 

Chris,

What are you using to measure the signal strength? I'm having a bad time getting a solid connection and it would be interesting to see what the WET11 thinks the signal looks like.

Regards,
Mark

The signal quality is displayed on the Status page of the WET11 web interface.

Chris

thanks for having this discussion. I just got a VoIP router for Vonage service and had to get the new linksys VoIP router to work with the existing linksys Befsr41 AND another downline netgear router. I was getting a finnicky connection on my wife's OS 9 machine - everything else worked. I needed to upgrade the BEFSR41 firmware, but like you guys have discussed, Linksys barely even acknowledges that Macs exist.

mclbruce was right on point by suggesting MacTFTP. It worked like a charm. Thanks to you all.

Finally got the !@#$% firmware update to go after hooking the WET11 up to my Thinkpad via ethernet (laptop ip 192.168.1.1/router ip 192.168.1.1), turning off Windows Firewall & ZoneAlarm, and then rebooting the Thinkpad with the WET11 connected. Worked on the first try after never working before the reboot.