Ahh, did I just brick my AR670W?
I tried to flash with the "airlink-factory-webflash.bin" file over firefox on Ubuntu Linux. Then, I tried to restart the router, but my computer cannot find network. A 30/30/30 hard reset later, my computer found network, but the PC's IP address is the ISP's IP, as supposed to 192.168.1.100, and typing 192.168.1.1 in the browser yields nothing. Turning on/off the router again results in my computer not finding network, and another 30/30/30 hard reset results in my computer not knowing a router is there, i.e. the PC's IP is the ISP's IP.
I screwed up, didn't I?
Nah, you DIDN'T screw up, the Build 13064 is screwed up. Do NOT use Build 13064 on the Airlink.
It's not readily obvious to the newcomers using the Airlink670w that there is a better Build 13069 lurking on page 23 because that particular build doesn't have a discernible number attached to its download file.
It's sure a nerve-wracking feeling when you suspect a Flash process may have gone awry!
Fortunately, there is an easy way to recover on the 670w.
(Updated: To recover on the Airlink, read lethalfang's two posts on page 34.)
Then use DD-WRT Build 13069.
Or go back to the original Airlink firmware v1.01. Your choice.
And the DD-WRT dev crew is still COOL in my book for doing great work here.
Last edited by bbb_forever on Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:03 am; edited 7 times in total
Since people are having trouble downloading build 13069. I uploaded both the airlink-factory-webflash.bin and ar670w-ddwrt-webflash-13069.bin in a zip file. You need to flash with the factory one first and then the other if you are moving from the original firmware to dd-wrt.
Hellbore..I sent you a PM. Please check it.. I have questions I rather ask in private to not clutter this topic.
But now all of a sudden I am getting Gateway errors. Its fixed when I troubleshoot but it happens every 5 to 30 minutes and somewhat annoying..any ideas?
Now I notice in the router anything that mentions a gateway is 0.0.0.0
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:44 am Post subject: Repeater Bridge
I can't seem to get the Repeater Bridge to work. I have 2xAR670w and a Netgear Wireless N router. I got it to work on my Netgear Router. But, I am trying to use 1 AR670w as AP and the 2nd as a Repeater Bridge. I can't get the Site Survey to work either. It shows I have a rate of 300Mb/s. I don't see the MAC address of the Repeater Bridge on the AP router. Can anyone help me? I am using the build 13069 on both AR670w routers.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:09 am Post subject: Re: Repeater Bridge
goofilookin wrote:
I can't seem to get the Repeater Bridge to work. I have 2xAR670w and a Netgear Wireless N router. I got it to work on my Netgear Router. But, I am trying to use 1 AR670w as AP and the 2nd as a Repeater Bridge. I can't get the Site Survey to work either. It shows I have a rate of 300Mb/s. I don't see the MAC address of the Repeater Bridge on the AP router. Can anyone help me? I am using the build 13069 on both AR670w routers.
Goofi:
I think I have the setup you are trying to do, and mine is working.
I have 2 ar670w where one is an AP and the other is a repeater bridge.
Let me tell you some stuff I did that made it work.
First problem I ran into was both routers had the same wireless MAC address. To make repeater bridge work I had to get on one of the routers and go to Setup, MAC Address Clone, and put in a different mac under Clone Wireless MAC.
Second thing I did was on the 2nd router (to be repeater bridge) I made sure it had its own different private IP, not the same as the AP. Initially both the AP and repeater were set to use 192.168.1.1 (under Setup, Basic Setup, Router IP, Local IP Address). I changed the repeater to be 192.168.1.2 and left the router on 192.168.1.1. This was mostly for convenience sake so that once everything was working with the repeater bridge, I could get to each router separately to change settings. Along the same lines, I made sure the 2 routers had different names (under setup, basic setup, optional settings, router name). This was so when I was connected to them I could tell for sure which router I was configuring.
Anyway after doing those steps I simply made sure both routers had the same wireless SSID, channel, and wireless security settings, then on the 2nd router I changed Wireless Mode to Repeater Bridge. Then I added a virtual interface with a different SSID to the repeater bridge, just to have more options for wireless clients.
Once I rebooted the repeater bridge, it automatically connected to the AP and worked from then on. I never did the step where it says to go into site survey etc. It worked without doing that.
Now, another thing I noticed is that I could add virtual wireless networks to the repeater bridge, with different wireless security settings, BUT I could only add virtual networks to the AP if they used the same wireless security. Adding a new virtual network on a new SSID with some other security settings would cause the repeater bridge to NOT be able to connect to the AP any more. Sounds strange but that's what happened.
Anyway good luck, I think I'm doing what you are trying to do, and it works good, so it's possible!
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:31 pm Post subject: Poor wireless performance
I picked up an AR670W, with factory firmware, I was seeing poor wireless performance. So I upgraded to DD-WRT build 13069 and am still seeing poor wireless performance.
Comparing the AR670W to my old ZyXEL X550 router with QCheck TCP/IP Throughput 1000KB data size
Wired LAN to Thinkpad X61t (802.11G) - AR670W 5-8MBps
Wired LAN to Netgear WN111 (802.11N) - AR670W 1-6MBps
Wired LAN to Thinkpad X61t - ZyXEL X550 10-14MBps
Wired LAN to Netgear WN111 - ZyXEL X550 13-14MBps
X550 router has an Atheros chipset, X61t has an Intel chipset (I think), WN111 has a Marvell TopDog chipset.
I tried several different antenna orientations on the 670W and couldn't get it any better (though I was able to get it worse). X61t was actually showing better signal strength w/670W, 5-bars, vs 4-bars with the X550. WN111 is in the basement and was fluctuating 1-2 bars with the 670W, but 2-3 bars with the X550. I don't have actual signal strength numbers because the X550 doesn't have that feature.
I was surprised that an N router connected to an N client would have much worse throughput than my G router connected to the same N client. Is there anything I can tweak that might help, or is the Ralink radio just not that great compared to Atheros? All my DD-WRT settings were stock except for WAN configuration stuff and I'm using WPA2 Mixed Personal AES (same as I had been using on my X550). Would better antennas help? They're just 2dBi on the 670W, but my X550 has 4dBi antennas. _________________ Shawn
Try this, on the ar670w change your wireless security mode to WPA2-PSK with AES encryption. OR try setting it to open (no security at all).
On my Thinkpad I can't get a fast connection unless I use one of these 2 security modes. Not sure if it's something odd about the router or my wireless card.
Before, I was using WPA-PSK with TKIP encryption and my connection would not go higher than about 1 MBits/sec.
Also may I ask, what program are you using to measure speed?
Since people are having trouble downloading build 13069. I uploaded both the airlink-factory-webflash.bin and ar670w-ddwrt-webflash-13069.bin in a zip file. You need to flash with the factory one first and then the other if you are moving from the original firmware to dd-wrt.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:57 pm Post subject: Re: Build 13069
robertc07 wrote:
Does anyone have a direct link to the Build 13069 download? Thanks!
Still don't understand why brainslayer doesn't just go ahead and put build 13069 on the router database and save people the confusion. Why leave the current broken version there lol...
Maybe it's a test to force people to come find the forum haha... They will think they bricked their router and only by coming here can they find the solution.
That wouldn't bother me if there was a "search" function to search only within one thread. That would be nice.
I can't complain though because dd-wrt is so much fun. THANK YOU BRAINSLAYER!! You are the best!
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:53 am Post subject: Re: Repeater Bridge
goofilookin wrote:
I can't seem to get the Repeater Bridge to work. I have 2xAR670w and a Netgear Wireless N router. I got it to work on my Netgear Router. But, I am trying to use 1 AR670w as AP and the 2nd as a Repeater Bridge. I can't get the Site Survey to work either. It shows I have a rate of 300Mb/s. I don't see the MAC address of the Repeater Bridge on the AP router. Can anyone help me? I am using the build 13069 on both AR670w routers.
Actual behavior:
- When Wireless Mode = AP (Access Point), save and apply settings, Site Survey works correctly (for me). I can see a list of all my neighbors' SSIDs.
- When Wireless Mode = Repeater Bridge, Site Survey stops functioning.
I'm not sure of what the expected behavior should be, It's just something I've observed. Maybe Site Survey is NOT suppose to work in Repeater Bridge mode because it's probably for individual wireless "clients" to join an AP.
I, too, am trying to get this Repeater Bridge working between two 670w routers with DDWRT Build 13069.
So far, it's been trickier than I expected, even with Hellbore's nice write-up of how he did it.
So I'm still trying to get it to work.
Last edited by bbb_forever on Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:24 am; edited 2 times in total
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:15 am Post subject: Re: Repeater Bridge
Hellbore wrote:
Anyway after doing those steps I simply made sure both routers had the same wireless SSID, channel, and wireless security settings, then on the 2nd router I changed Wireless Mode to Repeater Bridge.
Those settings could significantly affect whether or not the Repeater Bridge will connect to the AP.
So I want to try whatever settings you've got them to work on.
Last edited by bbb_forever on Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:47 am; edited 1 time in total
Since people are having trouble downloading build 13069. I uploaded both the airlink-factory-webflash.bin and ar670w-ddwrt-webflash-13069.bin in a zip file. You need to flash with the factory one first and then the other if you are moving from the original firmware to dd-wrt.
Thanks. Sorry, I don't have all day to try and figure out what page someone put a link to a download on. It would be nice if sash or brainslayer would update the DD-WRT site to actually have this download instead of one that is giving so many people a headache. Maybe if I add to the confusion, more people will ask for this to be done!
For DNS server numbers, find and substitute your ISP's DNS server numbers if you want to access the Internet from the client subnet. Or copy the Gateway number to your Local DNS number.
The main AP router cannot pick-up or will NOT auto-connect to the Repeater Mode router, or vice versa.
But that's okay because I rather see the Client-Bridge Mode functionality working first.
---------------------
Feature Request for Brainslayer or Eko:
Can Client-Bridge Mode functionality be added to this router, Airlink AR670W ?
That would be more useful so that all the computers can see and browse all the other computers, and do streaming media, gaming, file sharing, etc, without having to use Port Forwarding or NAT.
Last edited by bbb_forever on Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:53 pm; edited 2 times in total
