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NWR04B: Documentation, Take 2

29 Mar 2005

I've started to post information on the Network Everywhere NWR04B recovered from the wiki here. Pretty rough at the moment, but I'm working on it. If you've contributed something to the wiki and would like your name in credits in the revived pages, please let me know.

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14 Comments

From: Saint Aardvark
03-April-2005-00:01:11

No idea, I'm afraid...did you try "admin" or your router password? Anyone else?

From: eric
03-April-2005-11:32:40

Hey, i just picked up an nwr04b for $14 at futureshop (pricematch heehee... gotta love
it). I want to set it up as a wireless access point so i don't have to run rj45 cables
three floors downstairs. Unfortunately, the nwr04b doesn't seem to natively support
an access point mode. Do you know where i could get firmware that could hack this
functionality in? Or better yet the firmware code and an SDK-ish thing so i could attempt
to add it in? I have very little experience programming for non-PC devices though (but
at least a decade and many many projects of C++ programming on PC). Any help you could
give would be much appreciated!

From: Saint Aardvark
03-April-2005-14:04:45

Hi Eric -- there are a few different firmwares that work for this thing; see this page for links to firmware from Runtop, Repotec and Lanware. No idea if any of them offer AP functionality, but at the very least they're supposed to increase reliability. Read the reviews there for gotchas, and let me know if you have anything to add.

No idea where you might get an SDK. You could try emailing the companies and see if they can help you, but I wouldn't count on it.

Hopefully, this is the sort of thing that could be added when and if I get Linux running on it. (What is AP mode, anyhow? I haven't played w/wireless much, so I'm still learning all this.)

From: Pepse
04-April-2005-08:02:16

Eric, just turn off DHCP on the router and plug whatever you want into the 4 switch ports (nothing in the internet port). It will bridge your switch ports with the wireless and you will have your nwr04b in 'AP' mode.

From: eric
04-April-2005-20:17:16

AP mode allows the router to be used only to add wireless capabilities to an existing network instead of using it for internet connection sharing as well. However, i want to use it for a slightly modified version of AP mode... My network already has a wireless router (set up as an access point), so i want the nwr04b to pick up my existing wireless signal, and distribute it to another small network... ie: i'm too lazy to run several hundred feet of cable around doorways and stairs and things, and i want to add more computers to my network (and get them internet access) by connecting the nwr04b to my existing network wirelessly. I'm pretty sure the hardware itself supports something like that (since it can obviously transmit and receive, and i can disable SSID broadcasting and all), but the firmware just seems to be specific to the 'router' task.

Anyway, thanks a lot for all your help! I'll check out those other firmwares and see if they give me the functionality i desire.

From: Andrew
06-April-2005-19:34:04

Hello! Good to see the site being updated again. I might add a little bit of haphazard information on the topic of recovering from a lousy batch of firmware here...

Since I had (seemingly) cooked my NWR04B (the lights on the front would flash on and off once per second for any connected inputs) and didn't want to butcher the serial port "addon" (which I know I would've), I was looking into getting a Linksys WRT54G, and more importantly I was looking into how one might recover from a bad flash on that router. I came across this page (http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/redhat/wrt54g_revival.html) which provided some inspiration. Of course, the exact same thing didn't work on the NWR04B, but grounding a certain pin on it memory chip did.

I used a cheap wire from and old electronics kit I regularly pillage for various needs, taped one end to one of the screws holding down the wireless PCMCIA card, and one by one, I tried grounding a pin on the memory chip (the one that has a sticker on it) and powering it on and looking for any changes (couldn't get deader, right?). Eventually, one of the pins caused a change - the red "diag" light came on and blinked regularly, and the connection light for the ethernet port I had plugged in came on and stayed constant. I was able to hop over to http://192.168.1.1 and give it my firmware of choice (I fed it the Lanware firmware, and it's been going nonstop for about a month now!). I was a little too amazed with the fact that it was working to record everything properly, but I do believe that it was pin 17 on the chip that I grounded.

Mind you, I may have fat-fingered a dual grounding of pins 16/17 or 17/18, but it shouldn't take more than a couple tried to find out for sure. Just to be a little more imprecise: if memory serves, around pin 14, the visible traces on the board stop, and then there is one pin ~around~ pin 17 that has a trace, and then one that doesn't, and then a whole lot that do. The pin I was focusing on is the one that had a trace and was surrounded by pins that didn't have traces, and I ~think~ that was pin 17. Vague enough? If I could find a high res picture of the area on the board, I'd gladly show, but I don't have a camera, and I'm not going to break this router again trying silly things.

The pin is ~somewhere~ around here:
http://img181.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img181&image=runtoprecovery24yp.png

The recovery page that should be accessible if you get the router in diag mode looks like this:
http://img57.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img57&image=runtoprecovery1mu.gif

Definately a rebranded runtop! And yes, my clock was accurate in that pic. Getting up at 8:00 AM sucked that day.

BTW: on the opposite side of the chip, about a third of the way down starting on the side closest to the PCMCIA card, there's a neat little pin that give a spark when grounded and resets the router. I did that a few times (oooh - sparks!), but it doesn't seem to have caused any damage. Heh. :D

From: Saint Aardvark
06-April-2005-19:55:40

Wow! Thanks for the info, Andrew -- that's great! Thanks for posting the info here. I never thought of trying that.

I'll update the NWR04B page shortly. Is it okay if I grab your photos? I'm assuming they won't be on ImageShack forever...

From: Andrew
07-April-2005-10:20:34

Absolutely - I'm only using Imageshack right now because I managed to completely stuff my regular webspace with various useless pictures. Whoops. :)

From: mike
08-November-2005-10:14:34

Just turn dhcp off and plug your rj45 into one of the wan ports, then it will be a wirless hub.

From: Saint Aardvark
09-April-2005-12:34:40

Cool -- thanks, Andrew.

From: Jim
14-April-2005-14:38:41

Hello.

My router has completely stopped working. First I noticed it getting hot over the power transistors, and I aleviated some of that by drilling some vent holes. One day it just stopped working altogether. I have been following this forum for awhile now and tried everything to get it back to life. It was purchased for $19 and I have spent $400 more of my time and energy in attempts to revive it. The network card has been taken out of it, and placed into a chopped up TOKEN RING pcmcia case. A little crude, but it works. I downloaded the drivers from runtop.com.tw. The wr1114 drivers actually download as wr1113 and work perfectly. They even come with a setup for a configuration utility.
As for the router.. it is now landfill. All is not lost, I have lived and learned. You get what you pay for.
Thanks for listening.

Jim

From: Joe
17-April-2005-09:05:50

Eric, what you are looking for is a wireless ethernet bridge. Not many access points will give you this functionality, especially without linux. The cheapest I've seen a wireless ethernet bridge is about $60-70.

From: adrian
18-April-2006-18:41:23

has andrew's technique worked for someone, i was trying it, but couldn't get it to work. i would ground 1 pin and turn it on, then try to connect to the router by 192.168.1.1 , then off, then repeat with the next pin,...

From: Managed Resistance
31-March-2005-21:36:16

Hi:

I have a question regarding the Network Everywhere NWR04B router. I have noticed that this particular router has port 23 (telnet) open on IP addresses 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.5.1. Whenever I establish a telnet connection to these IP's, I am prompted for a password. Not a username and password, but just a password.

Do you know what the password is to login on these IP addresses?

Any help would be appreciated.

You can reach me at you@cogeco.ca

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