Two routers - 1 working, 1 not

jimnbene · EVDO Newbie Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 2

I have an active Sprint AC595 Air Card that works fine in my laptop.

I purchased 2 WRT54G3G-ST routers off ebay from separate sellers (got great deals on both). First one arrived as an "open box" brand new item as described by the seller and confirmed by an email after the arrival. It has the 2.00.9 firmware.

It the Power LED will does come on solid after 10 to 20 seconds and then the blue LED will flash and the GUI will show the card is trying to connect. However, it fails to connect, but does attempt again to connect.

I thought that perhaps I should load the 2.01.12 firmware. After doing this, with the AC595 in the slot, the Power LED will never stop flashing. If I do not have the AC595 in the slot, the Power LED will stop flashing.

I then received the second WRT54G3G-ST from the other seller. I decided to just try out the unit before checking anything out .. I put the AC595 in the slot, connected the CAT/5 cable and plugged in the power. The Power LED went solid and the blue LED started to flash, then the blue LED when solid and the laptop was connected just fine. I decided to determine which firmware this working router had ... it has 2.00.4! and yet I have read various places in this forum that the 2.00.4 firmware did not support the AC595 card. Guess you could fool me, since I have had no problem with this second router running that firmware.

So, I have a couple of questions I hope someone might be able to answer:

1. Does anybody have the 2.00.4 firmware? I realize that it is old, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I don't know that that would help, but I sure would like to try the router that currently has 2.00.9 (I reloaded when the 2.01.12 firmware didn't seem to help).

2. Could anybody venture a guess what might be the problem with router? I suspect that there is a issue with NVRAM and all I might need to do that is clear the NVRAM.

3. Does a reset clear the NVRAM? If so, then I have tried every method of reset that I have read and none of that seemed to help.

I will appreciate any answers that anyone might be able to offer. I am a noobie in this forum and EVDO cards, but not a noobie to computers or networking or even EVDO ... I have a PALM Treo 700P that I regularly have used to do PAM with the laptop using PDANet.

Thanks for all answers, suggestions or speculation in advance.

Jim Alexander
Bay Point, CA

itb44 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 31 Jan 2008 Posts: 16

Which rev of firmware do you have on the AC595? You should upgrade to the Rev.A firmware on that card if you have not done so already.

I don't have the 2.00.4, just 3 or 4 later versions. It is possible to extract it from the router, but takes some work (e.g., JTAG). [EDIT: Come to think of it, there might be an easier way using OpenWRT since the first reflash using the Linksys utility may not overwrite the original, but I'm uncertain.]

If updating the card firmware doesn't let it work with the router's stock 2.00.9 firmware, I'd recommend jumping to OpenWRT. EVDO-wizard posted a bin for r75 that's flashable using the stock linksys upgrade button. That version of OpenWRT worked fine with my updated AC595, where the 2.00.9 did not (but symptoms were different than yours).

EDIT: A reset does NOT clear the NVRAM, AFAIK. If you load OpenWRT, I think you can then clear it during a subsequent upgrade, or at least by using BusyBox.

itb44 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 31 Jan 2008 Posts: 16

RangerW posted in another thread:

jimnbene · EVDO Newbie Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 2

Thanks for the encouragement.

I have certainly considered the OpenWRT firmware. I did read the threads on it and checked out the various options. I appreciate the suggestion for the r75 firmware. It did look like that was the option to use with the LinkSys web load.

On the Air Card, it is a brand new card just ordered from Sprint by my office. I know that it had just come from Sprint because I got the whole package handed to me .. that doesn't mean the firmware on the card is the most current, but I did use the Sprint Connection Manager and I thought that I updated the firmware ... however, I had been given a temporary card just before this came it (S720 Merlin which I tried to keep) and perhaps that was the card that I updated the firmware on.

I will work on the router tomorrow as I left it at my office when I left tonight. I will post what happens after the load of r75.