[MLB-WIRELESS] SVEC FD1811 (aka WLAP) Firmware

[Fenn Bailey]

I had a bit of a play with these (with Jamie's assistance) and basically ran
into exactly the same problem.
 
You can see a bit of a summary here:
http://melbourne.wireless.org.au/wiki/?SVECWLAP
 
By the looks of it, your findings should be added to this. 
 
One of the major issues is that they don't _appear_ to implement standard
TFTP - it looks like a slightly whacky variant, which doesn't speak well for
it fully implementing TFTP (eg: GET as well as PUT).
 
The main hurdle is finding a working copy of the firmware. I don't know if
you found the same thing, but the ethernet port appears to completely die
when you flash them with Linksys firmware, which makes further TFTP flashing
somewhat difficult. However, the linksys USB client appears to flash it
fine.
 
The best bet that I can think of is reverse-engineering the USB interface to
it (I imagine it would be quite simple) and seeing if you can read the
firmware out this way. I have had success doing this sort of thing with DSL
modems in the past (albeit via serial ports), but the principle is much the
same.
 
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to fiddle with this at the moment, but
if anyone knows of good USB sniffing software, or a good way to do this - it
would be most appreciated.
 
Cheers,
 
    Fenn.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au
[mailto:owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au] On Behalf Of Dan Flett
Sent: Wednesday, 30 April 2003 10:52 AM
To: Melbourne Wireless
Subject: [MLB-WIRELESS] SVEC FD1811 (aka WLAP) Firmware


Hi all,
 
I have a SVEC FD1811 AP which is rather sick since I flashed it with Linksys
firmware.  So to try to nurse it back to health I've been trying to find any
firmware which will make it work again.  I've noticed that the SVEC FD1811
has many twin (ie rebadged) brothers sold by different suppliers.  But none
of them offer a firmware download.  The SVEC AP, like many other APs out
there (including the Linsys WAP11 v1) uses the Atmel AT76c510 chipset.
Today I think I found an important difference between the SVEC and most
other 510-based APs.
 
I found this site:
 
http://www.toptrend.com.tw/Technical%20support%20for%20WLAN-1.htm
 
As far as I can tell, Toptrend write the firmware for the Atmel 510-based
APs.  Most of them have Intersil radio chipsets in them.  I guessed this by
looking at the firmware version number on the page above.  But the SVEC
FD1811 (and I assume, all of the rebadged SOHO-WLAPs out there) use RFMD
radio chipsets.  The version number of the firmware listed on Toptrend's
site is the same as what is in my other, still working SVEC AP: V0.0.1.16
 
So can anyone suggest how I might get a hold of this firmware?  It isn't
available for download anywhere.  SVEC won't send it out.  I'm goint to
email Toptrend and see if they'll send it to me.  Jamie Moir and I have
tried to extract the good firmware out of a working SVEC AP using TFTP but
with no success. That's not to say it isn't possible though.  Is anyone
willing to devote a bit of time to tinker with my malfunctioning AP?
 
Dan

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