PCA Forums

Trying to solve an intermittant connectiveity problem with the new router and after FINALLY being able to log into their site to try to upgrade their software (called firmware), on the 2nd part of the upgrade I loose the connection (just dies) and so it botches its upgrade. It now no longer works at all. I'm presently bypassing it and I've e-mailed their tech support but at the moment, I'm less than thrilled
No settings changed on any of my PCs so that's not it. I've tryed resetting, rebooting yet nothing helps.
Why can't a guy just buy something that works decent right out of the box? Shouldn't be too hard.

SMC's routers are usually pretty good.

Anyway, since the firmware update failed you'll probably have to send it back. If it's still under 30 days from purchase, exchange it at the store.

Call tech support first. There's a trick to resetting the SMC - they've walked me through it before - that might allow you to re-install the firmware. There's a couple of pins you have to jumper on the serial port.

If I don't get an e-mail response from them today, it'll have to wait until tomorrow night as I get to work late tonight and their tech support won't still be opened by 9pm cst.

uh, why don't ya just call them. was 24/7 phone suppport last I checked. been awhile tho. Maybe they changed that.

It still is and I was on hold listening to a zillion pre-recorded messages for over 45 minutes last night until I gave up. Maybe I'll have better luck tonight?

There is a good SMC router forum over at [url]http://www.dslreports.com,[/url] you could surf that while you are on hold.

From tech support via e-mail:

Set your computer up with a static IP address in the same range as the
router. You would set the ip address subnet mask and gateway. the ip
address would be something like 192.168.2.5 and the subnet mask would be
255.255.255.0 and the gateway would be 192.168.2.1 and then once this is
done then you will have to reboot your computer. once you have done that
log in to the barricade and it will entter a recovery mode. Once it enters
that mode use the same firmware that you used when the unit crashed. once
this is done you can set your computer back to the origonal settings and
you should be all set.


Update: Doing what "I think" they're saying (?), I go into TCP/IP properties where I can manually set those lines but it still go online that way so I'm now back on hold (I'd say POOR technical support, not impressed)








The problem here wasn't the router either as I had to once again reboot the cable modem (no router, one PC) so it's something with the cable modem or RR. So.....once I get the router working maybe RR can tell me what's REALLY wrong here

Update: Called RR,
RR says everything's looking OK from their end so they're sending a tech over on 1/5.

A guy finally answered the phone and after acknowledging that it couldn't respond to an IP renew dos command, said that I'll get a new one to replace it with.

I assume that it died conpletely (or at least not easily recovered) after trying to upgrade the software (called firmware) but I have to wonder how rare that is to them? I'd now hesitate to attempt that in the future with its replacement.

It's unfortunate too that I killed what was probably a perfectly good device being that my connection still died today with it bypassed, so I'm thinking that I'll get a replacement cable modem when the RR tech comes out.

Although I havent had one problem with connectivity in weeks and my new replacement router (arrived 2 days ago) running the latest firmware too hasn't missed a beat, I didn't cancel the appointment I made before to have a RR tech arrive as that's what the RR guy suggested over the phone then.
So today this cute RR chick shows up and said that if it's now working fine, there's nothing that she can really determine and doubted that the cable modem would work intermittently but said that a few weeks ago RR was having IP address problems in the area and that was probably why I was having problems then. Now, why no one at RR could have simply told me that in the first place over the phone is beyond me but I'll bet that that was my only problem in the first place.

DOH!

Well, I "probably" somehow needed the experience anyway or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it