alfa ap51 problems with dropping connection continually

[ispyisail]

Based on forum comments I don't think 1.4.0 was a very good version?

[ispyisail]

This is a good detailed example of setting up a gargoyle router

http://support.netgear.com/ci/fattach/g ... rewall.pdf

replace "VPN frewall" with "gargoyle router"

[leila]

hey thanks. i will look all that over
seems like i should try a different version anyway. maybe that will help.

do you know/tell us your subnets?

ummm kinda, what i get of it.

internet is...variable, it changes the exact numbers?
its like...99.x.x.x dont know exactly

and one is
10.0.1.x
255.255.255.0

and gargoyle router i have set it to either
192.168.4.x
255.255.255.0

10.0.1.88 (as a repeater)
255.255.255.0

i've tried it with different versions of 10.0.x.x and a few other things too.

[ispyisail]

What is you brand and model of DSL router?

[leila]

well i've done some more looking into this, and tried a bunch of stuff.
am away from home and trying this out on a different network entirely.

am fairly certain its not the router i am connecting to, or the subnets/ap/configuration...because i just connected to this one, and two other networks/different routers- same exact thing.

picks up and works and then drops every few minutes.

and exhausted all (or most) of the possibilities of static ip/dhcp/different addresses/even wired connection right to the router, and also directly wired to a...hub...or...a bridge i guess you call that.

all exactly the same, works and has internet, loads pages...
and then drops quickly, and picks back up after a few minutes.

so i flashed 1.2.5, but there was no wired option?
and i really wanted to try that. out here in the mountains theres no wireless signal till my friend gets their new router.

so i flashed 1.5.0
and just set it up and have it directly wired, with both static or dhcp. all exactly the same, works and then drops.

its possible that it has nothing to do with gargoyle, and my router is messed up....

is it weird to flash to many times?
maybe too...its just something in the original firmware, or something like this.

it seems to be resetting itself? or resetting the connection. the lights stay on, so not totally resetting.

ah idk.
that was my best try. now gotta stop messing with it, gives up again.

[ispyisail]

I could not find your router in supported devices at OpenWRT.

I suspect it might have a hardware watchdog timer like open-mesh.com OM1P

[leila]

yeah something like that. it keeps resetting.

well i just read a bunch about that and still dont get it.

is it the open wrt? thats...doing it?
maybe a different version/ddwrt?

or well, what i know is that i am tired of messing with it, and i dont get this stuff.

i suppose i could try to go back to the alfa firmware, though that wasnt working very good to begin with.

the weird thing is how it works at all, ALMOST...so it seems like its something simple, but what i just read was not that simple.

[leila]

and no its not listed as compatible.
theres hardly any info about it anywhere at all.

other alfa routers, and the later generation like this one is an "open mesh ap51", and all those routers that are like this one (accton , fonera, etc)
are listed in some of the compatibility lists for openwrt, or ddwrt

[jspeer]

I know the topic is a bit old, a bump was not intentional. I just ran into this today and got quite furious until I remembered about the hardware watchdog.

Your router is most likely not broken (unless you've trashed it since the last post). This is normal behaviour for this router.

The Alfa AP51 (also OM1P, WP3, Fonera2100) has a five minute hardware watchdog timer. This timer is bound to GPIO PIN 3. The watchdog resets that PIN to a LOW state after checking its current state. You must use software to bring this pin back to a HIGH state. If the state remains LOW, the watchdog assumes the system is unresponsive and restarts the hardware.

Using gpioctl, we can write a script that brings up the state every few minutes, telling the hardware watchdog that we are still alive. If we bring the state to HIGH every 3 minutes, the hardware watchdog should never reboot unless the kernel becomes unresponsive.

There you have it, a way keep that AP51 from the constant rebooting.

Credit goes to Darren Kitchen over at the Hak5 forums.

Run the following in a ssh session to patch your router.

Code: Select all

echo << EOF > /sbin/heartbeat.sh
#!/bin/sh

gpioctl outdir 3
gpioctl clear 3
sleep 1
gpioctl set 3
EOF
echo "*/3 * * * * /sbin/heartbeat.sh" >> /etc/crontabs/root
/etc/init.d/cron reload