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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2014-07-21 16:06, Dean Gibson AE7Q
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:53CD9CF6.2020303@ae7q.com" type="cite">
On 2014-07-21 11:26, Tom Hayward wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">This is a great deal for anyone who needs
a HamWAN client. Resurrecting the modem is probably a 10
minutes job, and these Poynting antennas are sold out
everywhere.
<br>
<br>
Tom KD7LXL
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Thanks for the info about NetInstall, but when I hold the reset
button on the 5SHPn, it stops flashing after about 15 seconds,
which according to the documentation is the supposed
acknowledgment that it is going to search for NetInstall for a PXE
boot.
<br>
<br>
NetInstall has the PXE server enabled, but never sees the 5SHPn.
<br>
<br>
Yes, $120 is a good deal for the package.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Having not received any offers for my "great deal", I began to
wonder why the 5SHPn clearly is decoding pressing the reset button
(by its flashing pattern), but then not interrogating "NetInstall"
for the PXE boot. So, I decided to read up on PXE boot (NOT on the
MicroTik site).<br>
<br>
I discovered that the "normal" PXE protocol starts out using DHCP,
but I was never seeing the result of a DHCP-assigned IP address (and
of course no response to access via the MAC address). So, I decided
to go look in my DHCP server logs. I saw (and expected)
DHCPDISCOVER / DHCPOFFER sequences prior to the failure, but after
the failure, I was surprised to see BOOTREQUEST / BOOTREPLY
sequences (with the appropriate IP address!) when trying to PXE
boot. BOOTREQUEST / BOOTREPLY sequences are part of the old BOOTP
protocol (before DHCP was invented).<br>
<br>
According to Wikipedia, <b>PXE normally uses DHCP, but the 5SHPn is
using the old BOOTP protocol for PXE</b>. Since DHCP servers
normally respond (for compatibility purposes) to BOOTP requests as
well as DHCP requests, it appeared that my DHCP server was
responding to the 5SHPn before the MikroTik "NetInstall" could, and
since the former was not configured to send the 5SHPn a boot file,
nothing happened.<br>
<br>
So, I temporarily disabled my DHCP servers, and voila! NetInstall
laboriously (meaning very slowly) installed a new copy of the
firmware. I did my usual reconfiguration script, and I was up and
running, albeit with the 8dB loss.<br>
<br>
The first two instances of the 8dB drop were rather sudden, but the
latest drop occurred over a period of about two weeks, which made me
suspect vegetation growth as well as a problem with the 5SHP. So, I
decided to engage in another antenna aiming session, and that seems
to have recovered about 5dB of the drop.<br>
<br>
Bart: <font color="#3333ff">"/interface wireless monitor 0"</font>
shows <font color="#3333ff">"band: 5ghz-n-5mhz"</font>. I presume
that means I'm using a 5MHz link?<br>
<br>
<br>
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