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amason09
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Wrted NB5PLUS4W for BXWiFi, but no wireless!
- 2009/08/18 06:50
#1
Hey all,

I recently replaced my ageing Netcomm NB5PLUS4W (it kept crashing under load) with a newer NB6PLUS4W. I'd thought of messing with the old router by trying to put OpenWrt on it to act as a router between my wireless ADSL router in the kitchen and my wired network in the computer room, and as a testbed for running a VPN server over a wireless network (for my previous question).

However, while I can flash it successfully (with a little fiddling around with the mtd block values), it doesn't recognise the onboard wireless. What's more is that it doesn't seem to be a MiniPCI card of any kind, so swapping it out is out of the question.

From what I can ascertain when I tried to run RouterTech firmware (and succeeded without being able to connect to the Internet), the router has a TI AR7WRD SoC with a TNET1350A wireless chipset.

I've heard that open source support for the TNET1350A chipset is sparse at best. Any ideas?

TIA
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neobyte
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Re:Wrted NB5PLUS4W for BXWiFi, but no wireless!
- 2009/08/18 11:55
#2
OPenwrt has support for the chipset
http://www.openwrt.org/

No sure if they have the firmware fro your netcomm model but it's worth a look.
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amason09
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Re:Wrted NB5PLUS4W for BXWiFi, but no wireless!
- 2009/08/20 08:30
#3
neobyte wrote:
OPenwrt has support for the chipset
http://www.openwrt.org/

No sure if they have the firmware fro your netcomm model but it's worth a look.

That's what I've been using. There isn't a firmware specifically for the NB5PLUS4W but the standard AR7 firmware runs fine - sans WiFi as I said.

In any case, it picks up the chipset, but there's no mac80211 wrapper in the stable firmware to turn it into an interface.

I've tried building from the latest snapshots with the same amount of success - building the open source 802.11 wrapper included has also ended in tears.

Of the other third-party firmwares out there, RouterTech is basically a revamped version of what I replaced with OpenWrt, DD-WRT doesn't support the AR7 platform (it's also got a proprietary backing and it's security is managed by idiots).

In any case, I've logged a ticket regarding the epic build fail of the mac80211 wrapper.

I would like to make use of this router, but without wireless capabilities it's basically a smart switch.
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