Bricked Motorola WE800G

I managed to turn my moto WE800G bridge into a brick trying to install DD-WRT. After running a NVRAM reset I now cannot ping it or telnet to it. IPs of 192.168.30.1, 192.168.1.1, and 192.168.2.1 won't respond. Any others it might be, or is there a way to determine its IP if I can't get it to respond to ping?

Thanks

Dave

Reply to
Dave
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"Dave" hath wroth:

Did you install the correct version of DD-WRT? What version did you try to install?

It's 192.168.1.1. The WE800G is a problem in that it doesn't want to go into the "failsafe" mode very easily. Once in the failsafe mode, you can use TFTP to upload the firmware. See:

for a clue as to how to pound on the reset button in order to recover. I suggest you start continuous pings with the PC to see when it responds. ping 192.168.1.1 -t

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Jeff: I loaded white Russian RC6? Following the wiki exactly I get response to the pings just twice a few seconds after power up. I attempt to activate telnet during the 2 seconds of ping response but am not successful.

I see I get the 1 or 2 ping responses whether the reset is being pressed or not. Perhaps I just don't understand the phrase "Only starting the repeated pressing of the reset button as soon as the device is connected to the mains will help you into the failsafe mode." I don't deem to get any different response whether the reset is repeatedly pressed or not.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

"Dave" hath wroth:

It's on for about 3 seconds. There's the quick and the dead (bricked). You gotta be quick.

As far as I know, the WE800G is NOT supported by DD-WRT. The WR850G is supported. However, the WE800G is supported by OpenWRT:

By pounding on the reset button, at exactly the right moment, you can theoretically get it to respond to pings also continuously. I've never tired it with the WE800G. I also don't think it's necessary.

Perhaps you should try something a bit different. Setup a TFTP upload. If you bricked it, it's probably the wrong firmware, but you're on your own for identifying it. The usual goof is to download it via ftp using ASCII instead of BINARY.

Meanwhile, if you can catch the router exactly when it's responding to the pings, you can start a TFTP upload and reload the firmware. Get out the stopwatch and time exactly how long it takes for the first ping to respond. You'll need this number for the next step.

This TFTP procedure is for a Buffalo router, but it seems to work with everything I've tried (Linksys, Asus). Hit the "enter" key on the TFTP upload just after the ping start delay you measured in the previous step. You might have to try it a few times, but I'm fairly sure it will work.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Jeff: I appreciate the detailed replies. I've tried all suggestions and believe I have a very modern looking paper weight on my hands. I knew the risks going in but had to try it anyway.

I may try a few more kinks some day but am done for now.

Much appreciation!

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Jeff: Actually I've been able to TFTP easily once I learned the TRICK! The WE800G v2 always boots with an IP of 192.168.30.1 and then changes to

192.168.1.1 after bootup completes. Therefore one must ping AND TFTP to 192.168.30.1 immediately after powering up. TFTP will NOT work to 192.168.1.1.

OK, so now I have an unbricked Motorola WE800G which accepts several different versions of OpenWrt but is still unusable, at least for me. Only the RC4 ot earlier versions will get past the original "password change failure". ALL the RC6 versions will NOT get past the password problem.

Unfortunately the RC4 version apparently does NOT have a web interface to get into bridge with browser. Telnet of course no longer works after the RC4 version accepts the password changes, SO.... how the heck do I DO anything with this box?

I'm running XP or VISTA and have no clue as to SSH, so now what coaches?

Thanks for all the help!!

Dave

Reply to
Dave

You can get SSH on Windoze boxes with PuTTY

formatting link
Larry

Reply to
Larry Finger

"Dave" hath wroth:

Yech. I didn't know that. I found it documented in the troubleshooting info of all places:

but nowhere else.

No problem.

RC4 requires and SSH login, not telnet. It's a security thing as telnet is sniffable (and hackable). Larry Finger suggested PuTTY which is also what I use.

Be prepared for an ordeal if you've never created or dealt with public/private SSH keys and key generators.

There are several GUI's for OpenWRT.

See FAQ 2.13.

I also found:

which looks ancient. No clue if it works.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Jeff Liebermann hath wroth:

Are you sure it works like that? The default IP address for the WE800G is 192.168.30.1. It stays there after bootup if you do NOT flash it with some other firmware. If you do flash it, then it assumes the default IP address from the firmware which is usually

192.168.1.1.

I lied. It's also documented in the User Guide.

This old OpenWRT "bug" report is rather interesting: RC5: WE800G failsafe mode does not work.

It's been fixed but some rather interesting info appears in places.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Jeff et al: One step forward..... LOL. Now for my next trick. I have RC6 micro WE800G OpenWRT loaded and see the GUIs in Jeff's post.. They say to download using IPKG install..... The problem is.. my bridge is not connected to my internet. It has an address of 192.168.1.1 and my Netgear router running on Wildblue is dealing 196.168.0.2x addresses. Therefore I cannot access the internet thru my Moto bridge. I can download the ipk packages to my laptop, my laptop talks to the MOTO, but how do I install the package to the Moto from my laptop?

Thanks again!

Dave

Reply to
Dave

"Dave" hath wroth:

Too many routers. You have two or maybe three routers in your mess.

First, unplug your Netgear whatever router and bury it somewhere. You don't need it.

I think (i.e. not sure) that WeirdBlew dispenses a single routeable IP address. Therefore, the WAN interface of your WE800G should look like: DHCP The LAN IP layout of the WE800G should be something like: IP = 192.168.1.1 NM = 255.255.255.0 DHCP range = 192.168.1.100 -> 192.168.1.139 You should then be able to access the internet. Once that works, try ipkg again.

Ummm.... ftp?

Although the instructions are to install ftp using ipkg, I think ftpd comes with RC9.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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