[HamWAN PSDR] Metal 5SHPn firmware 6.12 is current (addendum)

[Bart Kus]

There's some confusion here, so allow me to clear it up.

What Mike's talking about is a utility called Netinstall 
(http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Netinstall) that allows recovery 
of truly crashed devices.  "Truly crashed" means that RouterOS is not 
booting.  It doesn't scan for devices, it just serves as a PXE server, 
and it's up to the devices to request a PXE boot.  The code that 
controls PXE booting is in a different part of flash than the RouterOS 
itself, and does not depend on RouterOS.

Winbox can indeed use a layer 2 protocol (called mac-winbox), and it can 
also use IP (layer 3).  Which protocol it uses depends on the address 
(MAC vs IP) you tell it to connect to.  However, it doesn't provide the 
PXE flashing capability.  If RouterOS is truly crashed, Winbox won't work.

Another layer 2 protocol is mac-telnet.  This is configured as a 
separate service from mac-winbox on RouterOS.  Recently we had a case 
where mac-telnet was inaccessible (was not configured to listen on any 
interfaces) but mac-winbox was set to its default of listening on all 
interfaces.  We were able to regain control of the router by using the 
alternative layer 2 protocol.

In Dean's case, we don't know what he means by "dead".  It could be that 
the ethernet link is up and IP just stopped working.  He can try the 2 
MAC protocols.  If those fail, he can try the Netinstall recovery.

--Bart


On 5/4/2014 9:40 AM, Kenny Richards wrote:
> The Winbox application allows the Layer2 connection....
>
>
> On Sun, May 4, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Mike Culver <mculver at extencia.com 
> <mailto:mculver at extencia.com>> wrote:
>
>     Can't find the cheat sheet; however I also thought that I bricked
>     my unit. Was able to connect to it and re-flash.; if memory serves
>     me correctly it was with software that scanned for a Mac address
>     and connected via Layer 2.
>
>     Hopefully someone here remembers how to do this, or better yet can
>     point you to instructions on the manufacturer's website.
>
>     Mike
>     WA9QHP
>
>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: PSDR [mailto:psdr-bounces at hamwan.org
>     <mailto:psdr-bounces at hamwan.org>] On Behalf Of Dean Gibson AE7Q
>     Sent: Sunday, May 4, 2014 1:44 AM
>     To: Puget Sound Data Ring
>     Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Metal 5SHPn firmware 6.12 is current
>     (addendum)
>
>     Well, this did not end well.
>
>     As you can see from Nigel's SNMP data for my site, right after I
>     installed firmware v6.12 at 9pm, my wireless signal strength
>     dropped by about 10dB.  In other respects, everything seems to
>     work, and I at first I thought perhaps it was the rain.  However,
>     we've had rain on and off all day, and as you can see from Nigel's
>     site, the signal strength was fairly uniform until the very sudden
>     drop at 9pm.
>
>     Reboots did not solve the problem, so I reverted to v6.10 using
>     the "downgrade" command line option.  That did not improve the
>     signal strength, so I upgraded back to v6.12.  I checked all the
>     configuration settings, and everything looked normal.  Data
>     transfer through the radio worked fine.
>
>     So, I decided to reset the configuration (using the command line)
>     to make sure nothing had changed.  I'd done that a couple times a
>     month ago, with no ill effects.
>
>     However, this time it appears to have "bricked" the radio.
>
>     It draws about 160ma (about the value from a week ago, when I
>     first measured it).  There is no light on the side of the unit,
>     and the Ethernet port is dead.
>
>     I'm going to bed.  Sunday morning I will go out onto the roof and
>     attempt to reset the unit via the pinhole.
>
>     I hope this is not indicative of MikroTik quality.  I'm glad the
>     thing is not up on a tower ...
>
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>
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