Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, Steel, notfred

 
just brew it!
Administrator
Topic Author
Posts: 54500
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 10:51 pm
Location: Somewhere, having a beer

Stupid Linksys router!

Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:27 am

So last night I was trying to figure out whether my loss of Internet connectivity was due to a problem on my end (it wasn't), and in the process of doing so I happened to notice that the timestamps on all of the log entries in my Linksys BEFSX41 router were incorrect. So I went hunting for a way to set the time in the router configuration screens... and there is none!

After a little digging on the DSLReports.com forums, I concluded that

1) The router does not allow you to set its internal clock manually.

2) The router's clock is supposed to set itself automatically, by accessing an NTP (network time protocol) server. However, the IP address of the NTP server is hard-coded into the firmware, and points at an NTP server somewhere in f*cking Taiwan!

3) The NTP server whose address is hard-coded into the firmware doesn't exist anymore.

4) Linksys has been aware of the issue with the hard-coded NTP server for some time (months), but still has not fixed their firmware.

F*cking moronic Linksys firmware engineers! My previous router (a Netgear) had much better firmware, but the hardware died an untimely death (exploding capacitors). :evil:

I think my next router will be a self-build, using a spare Linux box. :roll:
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
blitzy
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1844
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2004 6:27 pm
Location: New Zealand

Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:43 am

wow, that sounds like a really stupid way of automatically configuring time... actually, the idea of automatically configuring time is pretty stupid in itself because its always reliant on something else for reference... and then on top of that you would need to manually specify your timezone for it to be correct anyway

i find things like that really annoying... i mean, the guys who program the firmware are supposedly professionals... but even I have more common sense than them! :x

manual config options are generally a must IMO
 
just brew it!
Administrator
Topic Author
Posts: 54500
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 10:51 pm
Location: Somewhere, having a beer

Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:50 am

blitzy wrote:
wow, that sounds like a really stupid way of automatically configuring time... actually, the idea of automatically configuring time is pretty stupid in itself because its always reliant on something else for reference... and then on top of that you would need to manually specify your timezone for it to be correct anyway

Yup, I was really scratching my head over the fact that they provide a way to manually set the time zone, but not the time itself! Having an option to configure it for automatic updates via NTP (with a configurable server address) would be a good thing; that's what my old Netgear let you do. Hard-coding the IP address of some random NTP server halfway around the world is absolutely idiotic.

i find things like that really annoying... i mean, the guys who program the firmware are supposedly professionals... but even I have more common sense than them! :x

manual config options are generally a must IMO

I agree 110%!

(And having worked with many supposed "professionals" in the telecom industry, I guess I have to say I am not terribly surprised that sh*t like this happens... but it still pisses me off!)
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
nerdrage
Graphmaster Gerbil
Posts: 1314
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:49 pm
Location: Raleigh, NC

Re: Stupid Linksys router!

Fri Apr 23, 2004 9:11 am

just brew it! wrote:
I think my next router will be a self-build, using a spare Linux box. :roll:

I did exactly that, using IPCop and an old Pentium 133 machine... it works GREAT, and is highly configurable (and it allows you to choose your own NTP server :))
Just DO it! :wink:
 
Captain Ned
Global Moderator
Posts: 28704
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: Vermont, USA

Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:36 am

JBI:

I have the same router and have been able to fix this issue with a modified firmware I got from here:

http://home.cinci.rr.com/tgourley/BEFSX41NTPServerUpdater/

The updater built into the firmware won't work; you'll need to use the tFTP proggy the linked page discusses.

HTH
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
just brew it!
Administrator
Topic Author
Posts: 54500
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 10:51 pm
Location: Somewhere, having a beer

Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:44 am

Captain Ned,

Yes, I managed to find the hacked firmware too. It was linked from the DSLReports.com thread I was reading.

Thanks anyway!
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On