Attention Linksys AM300 Owners - Half-Bridge Issue Resolved

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Attention Linksys AM300 Owners - Half-Bridge Issue Resolved

matt1553

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#19132 6-Feb-2008 14:58

Just a quick message to let you all know that the issue that we discussed in this thread has finally been resolved.
Linksys released a firmware update on 4/2/2008 (Version 1.19.04) that lists "Resolves issue with LAN Subnet when using PPP Half Bridge" as one of the improvements made to the firmware. You can get the update here. I've been running the new firmware for a couple of hours now and it seems to be working well.

When running the modem in half-bridge mode I would suggest a lease interval of 5 minutes for the DHCP server. This ensures that if your public IP adress changes you'll be without internet for a maximum of 2.5 minutes.

tonyhughes

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#108912 6-Feb-2008 15:20

i popped a note at the top of that other thread to say its resolved, and linking here.

SamF

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#109062 7-Feb-2008 12:11

Finally!!!

Thanks for putting that note up on the original thread Tony. Do you think that you could make one last post on the thread so that all those subscribing to the thread get a notification (not everyone gets updates via the main forum)?

Cheers.

matt1553

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#109201 7-Feb-2008 23:48

SamF: Finally!!!

My thoughts exactly! I'm not entirely sure, but I think that my correspondence with Linksys may have helped to get the fix. As posted at the end of the old thread, I got my Dynalink RTA1320 fixed. Having a working modem, I decided I had a bit of bargaining power.
I got worked up into a bit of an angry rage and called the Linksys help desk on 18/1/2008 (Looking back, I feel sorry for the tech I spoke to). Here's how the conversation went:
Tech: Hi, welcome to Linksys tech support I'm (can't remember name) with badge ID (can't remember number).
Me: Hey, this is Matt and I'm calling in regards to case number 071116-013901.
Tech: Thanks Matt, I'll look that up now.
Tech: Ok, how can I help?
Me: I'd like to know what the status of the firmware update I've requested is.
Tech: Firmware update? I'll just check that now.
(Annoying hold music for another 3 minutes, doing wonders for my already good mood.)
Tech: Are you still there? Our network engineers are aware of the problem you have raised, but no fix is currently being worked on.
Me:

(Now at boiling point and the anger clearly coming through in my voice) That's the same answer I got last time. Is this call being recorded?
Tech: No, but I am taking notes.
Me: Write this down - "The effort being made to fix this problem is not good enough. The required fix should be relatively simple. You have know about this problem for 2 months now. I have called numerous times and have gotten nowhere. I know of at least 10 others experiencing the same problem. I once viewed this company in high esteem, having purchased other Linksys products, but that view has been significantly tarnished because of this current issue. [Bluff] I am the owner of a large computer parts company. After this experience I am seriously considering not stocking Linksys products due to their lack of sufficient after sales support.[/Bluff] I am giving you 1 month from the time of this call, being 3 months from you having first been notified of this problem, to produce a fix. If a fix is not available after 18/2/2008, then I will be returning my AM300 modem for a full refund due to it being defective. I will also be encouraging others I know of experiencing the same problem to take the same action. As well as this, I will tell other people not to purchase Linksys products due to their lack of customer support. I hope you accept this challenge and attempt to fix what was once a good reputation."
Me: Did you get all of that?
Tech: (Hurried typing in background) Yes. Please let me apologize for...
Me: (Still fuming, I hung up the phone and cut the guy off.)
I feel sorry for him, but fast forward just over two weeks (within the time frame I game him), and a fix has appeared that solves the problem

I'm still not 100% happy with Linksys, but they have earned back some respect for finally fixing the problem.
Key lesson learned: Always purchase devices that have alternative open source software available for them. It tends to do a better job, sh!t gets fixed in a timely manner when it matters to someone, and you always have the option to take matters (the code) into your own hands

Trkstr

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#109289 8-Feb-2008 14:33

If there are still anybody either apprehensive of doing a firmware upgrade, or not wanting to do a firmware upgrade, i have managed to get my AM300 with the old firmware to work with a new WRT54G on Xnet broadband.

(now i don't know what half-bridging is so please feel free to tell me i'm full of crap)

The setup i have is:

- AM300 connects to internet and has DHCP enabled, connected to WRT54G through one of the 4 ports on the switch
- WRT54G has DHCP disabled

this seems to have worked for me for a while

Ragnor

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#114041 2-Mar-2008 03:50

Firmware upgrades are not anything to be apprenhensive about imo.

What you're doing is not half bridge, you're going through NAT twice.

When half bridge is enabled the modem is invisible, it creates a valid adsl connection then passes it off to your router/gateway. Basically you bypasses the crappy firewall and QoS on these consumer modems and offload the raw connection to something better suited to the job like: smoothwall, ipcop, monowall, WRT54GL w/ custom firmware etc.

Anyway thanks for the heads up Tony.

Pity it took them like 8 months to address the issue, way too late for me. I've been using a Dynalink RTA1320 that I picked up on Trademe for $35. Almost every ISP gives out RTA1320's as the free entry level dsl modem when signing up so every week there's at least 10+ for sale on trademe heh.

Athlonite

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#114503 4-Mar-2008 02:43

speaking of the RTA1320 (which i also use ) how do you find it for heat issues mine always overheats and locks up i have now cut away the top and fitted a HSF for better cooling and haven't had a sigle lock up since. now if i could only fix the attenuation problems with it and actualy Orcon stopped giving them out due to poor life span due to heat issues ( this is my third one ) they now give out a speedstream 4200 as standard sigle pc use funny thing is using this modem dropped my 55db attenuation by 5db and the snr went from 18.6db to 12.1db but when i switched back to the rta1320 they stayed put at 50db att 12.1db snr now thats queer i tells ya this rta1320 is ore dodgy than month old chicken nuggets

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coffeebaron

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#114782 5-Mar-2008 09:38

See this post too:
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=65&topicid=19874

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