Hi everyone,

We have just released the latest Firmware revision for the MNWAPB. It is available from the Minitar download page and here - http://www.minitar.com/downloads/MNWAPB_2_53.zip

Changelog below.

1. Work done to stabalise the unit when it's configured in bridge modes with WEP and under less-than-optimal conditions (i.e. long distance or noisy links).
2. Fix to a web interface bug that caused issues setting the DHCP Pool Range
3. Clone-MAC feature added to the Station-Infrastructure Mode
4. Resolution available for missing channel options.

And as always can people please remember to Factory Default your unit after upgrading the firmware. This is the cleanest way todo things

The major point is the last issue. If you have a unit that currently only allows you to select channels 1 through 11 instead of the valid Australian range 1 through 13 then please email mark@minitar.com for instructions on how to use this new firmware to enable the correct channels.

Any questions, let us know.

Thanks,
Minitar Support Team.

Does the serial console work again? - that would be really handy!

Thanks

my Wep station inf locked up again SM

Funnily enough mine just did as well - it took much longer this time for me though so the changes have done some good. The engineer's will continue to investigate.

S.

Funny,,, mine was quicker then normal

wait till you add WEP it will lock up good need to do a complete reset and start over a gain -very anoying

-seem to be a common thing with the minitar APs as i have 2 plus a MN54G4R and its even worse

I have no lockup issues like this with my MN54G4R - and the MNWAPB issue only occurs when WEP is being used over the bridge.

It's an issue only when the MNWAPB is under less-than-optimal conditions as well (i.e. you can site them 5-10 meters apart and they will never crash) which is pushing the issue towards the CPU usage required to work in such environments.

It's being investigated.

S.

Hi I have just purchased the Minitar AP and works okay so far... As you requested my unit came as a 2.39 version and I upgraded it to the latest firmware (2.53 I think?) Anyway I only have the 11 channels so I would appreciate if you can email me the hack to have the full 14 (13) channels...

Regards
Ismael
Sakina Technologies
ij@sakina.com

I have just upgrade the latest firmware dated 25/8/04, but I cannot access the web management page again.

Did you reset to factory after performing the flash?
SB

Have you tried accessing it on it's original address as if needs be the unit will factory reset itself during the flash back to 192.168.2.1

S.

This quote above is not in the transcripts above however it was in a moderators report???

Guys just so you know the moderators report is for reporting swearing and non-minitar related information...not to get the attention of us. We try as best as we can to provide as much support on the forums as possible and we always attempt to give everyone an answer, so please don't us it for getting our attention.

As for an answer to this... reset for 10 second to make sure the 5 sec factory reset has been accomplished. Make sure your Network card has an IP assigned to it as the DHCP server in the AP is off by default. You will need to assign it into the range of 192.168.2.*

SB

Well last night in station Inf mode with wep she lockedup being only ~10mtr mark away sending large file 2.53

Direct LOS 10 meters or walls involved ?

S.

Another intresting thing i am finding tonight is after a while the minitar dosnt want to pass data over the bridge (as in)


normal pc-----AP>>>>>>>minitar station inf----PC 2
Data can get as far as the minitar admin page on the "minitar station inf" BUT not to the pc behind it (pc2)..

While as in time or while as in amounts of data do you think ?

S.

well i left it going 3 days and seams to be time releated, like it goes to sleep,
but when i go to pc2 and go BACKwards it wakes up,
I THINK

Not sure if your on the list but we are having a developers meeting this weekend on Saturday at 1am AEST (as most people are in Europe on the development team), if your keen to drop by. Stability is one of the things we are discussing.

irc.austnet.org #rt2400

S.

Unit/s still need to be reset every other day when working in Bridge Point to Point mode (WEP disabled).

Will I have to wait for the next firmware revision to get more stable operation?

John,

What is the distance between your MNWAPB's ? Have you tried a different channel ?

S.

Thanks for your reply. The distance is about 300 meters. Directional antenna (12 dBi) one end and original antenna the other. Using channel 11. Haven't tried any other channel.

Can you suggest any tools for monitoring signal strength?

Best tool for monitoring signal strength is to have a laptop with Netstumbler in my experience hooked up to your antenna.

S.

Thanks.

Could Minitar be releasing a PC card with an antenna extension any time soon?

If not could you suggest a model/maker?

No plans at this stage im afraid - and the only cards I have seen are ones that don't come with the extension and have been modded to attach one.

S.

I have two Cabletron cards here with antenna jacks on them
they are rebadged orinoco's.

Since it seems that the minitar mnwapb is the same as the edimax ew-7206apb, and the hawking hwba11, is it safe to assume that the firmwares are similar? I see that the latest firmware from hawking is 2.49. The latest firmware from minitar is 2.53, and the latest firmware from edimax is 2.59.

I actually just loaded minitar 2.53 fw onto a hawking hwba11. I then loaded edimax fw 2.59. All work just fine, and I noticed that minitar fw 2.53 and edimax fw 2.59 both have the exact same web based configuration.

They are both similar to the hawking fw web based config, except that hawking adds graphics and their brand name to the web based config. minitar and edimax have a 'generic' look.

So is it safe to assume that edimax fw 2.59 has more 'fixes' than minitar fw 2.53?

Bob C

No it is not.

Sometimes we receive some of these firmwares and we also reject them based on testing.

Some of the configuration changes from other manufacturers may cause your MNWAPB to fail too. If you do flash with another manufacturers firmware

1. You may kill the unit.

2. You will not be supported.

3. We release firmware after extensive testing. If yo do flash to another manufacturers code you may find some options are different and also we cannot guarentee that the firmware will work.

SB

Thankyou for the information.

I look forward to testing the 2.53 minitar firmware, as well as the edimax 2.59 firmware.

Bob C

Hi,
Is there something you know about the firmware versions 2.59 that minitar decided to not release... that you can share?
Thanks,
Bob C

Our firmware is different to the Edimax firmware. Not every Edimax release lines up with a Minitar release. The version numbers between the two don't even always line up.

If we have a new firmware to release it will be on our website.

S.

The current firmware seems pretty stable... however the latest OEM firmware fixes the PPPOE passthru problem. I found the release notes.

2.59: 2004.12.16
Fixed:
-
- The current setting’s structure of MAC filter overwrite others.
It can’t connect the server with PPPoE protocol in STA.

Bob C