WE826-T2 Kuwfi OEM firmware to GoldenOrb - about to replace firmware

[swagr]

Hello, I have WE836-T2 with the Quectel EP06 Modem currently connecting to AT&T soon to be changed to Verizon. The firmware is the factory OEM firmware as sold to me by Kuwfi. I am told by support at Kuwfi my firmware is upgradeable to one newer version but that it shouldn’t make much difference.

I have had countless issues with this firmware. I would have long ago abandoned the hardware in it’s entirety were it not for these forums exposing to me just how well the WE826 can actually perform if using a modern firmware. I am just about to bite the bullet and write the Golden Orb firmware, but given the routers precarious installation location I wanted to make sure I had the rough steps correct before I try to hit the reset button while balancing on a make shift step.

I am electing to skip the Kuwfi final firmware in favor of going directly to Golden Orb. Will this poses any problems to bypass the OEM and write your firmware immediately? I will not be logging into the Kuwfi firmware at all, as I believe trying to use their “upload firmware” feature is only a recipe for bricking the hardware? If I am correct I must absolutely use the boot loader. Is The boot loader is still an HTTP served set of administrative pages, and not like other firmware where I have had to set up a TFTP server and use Cisco or equivalent commands?

Once I have initially installed Golden Orb will it be okay to use the firmware update feature or perhaps even auto update features within Golden Orb to do future updates? Or is there something unique about the WE826-T2 that mandates using the boot loader from this point forward.

I noticed that it is suggested to static IP the address to the computer I will using to install the new firmware. Kuwfi also has instructions to do the same, however they have defaulted to a different local allocation than what Golden Orb is. I should not use the Kuwfi IP allocation and use the address allocation listed for Golden Orb?

I will be performing this using a ChromeBook, which I’m sure most of you are aware, do not have internal Ethernet on them. I purchased an ANKER USB 3 Ethernet hub, and until now assumed these were low level enough standards that drivers and such would just fall back on kernel support. I now see on the ANKER site there are MacOS, Windows, and Linux drivers. The Linux drivers of course won’t do any good for a ChromeBook. If the hub works and I’m able to load anything through tcp/ip on the Ethernet Port, should that suffice for this upgrade? It’s a significant pain to hunt down a laptop with built in networking, though if bricking is at risk, I’ll find a way to get ahold of a laptop.
URL to ANKER: https://www.anker.com/products/variant/ ... b/A7514041

Currently I am barely hanging on with the KuWfi firmware. It is barely configurable, has a logging ability that doesn’t work, and will get very confused if it determines signal strength to be less than 50% average. Even under the best of circumstances the longest uptime I have personally seen is 6 hours and some minutes. After that it freezes up and luckily, there’s some kind of watchdog and kickoff ability to auto reboot the device after which it comes up working for a handful of hours again.

Having never seen nor configured Golden Orb and guessing it will be a unique experience compared to the current firmware I am familiar with, how hard is it going to be to get back up and running? It need not be ideal at first. It is enough to gain a connection to the AT&T tower I was able to connect to before. I can slowly fine tune settings over time as I learn more about them.

Any other I information you think would be relevant is appreciated.

Thanks.

[MattB29]

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... I am just about to bite the bullet and write the Golden Orb firmware, but given the routers precarious installation location I wanted to make sure I had the rough steps correct before I try to hit the reset button while balancing on a make shift step.

...
Any other I information you think would be relevant is appreciated.

Thanks.

I am not sure if you are attempting to do a router firmware flash while balancing precariously in the air but if so I would advise against it. It would be better that you have the router on a table or bench in front of you. You also should have a computer or laptop with an ethernet connection to work from. I have doubts about an add on ethernet hub to a chromebook as working for the firmware install.

Most of your questions are addressed in the tutorial on the Forum for installing Golden Orb firmware using the reset method.

[gscheb]

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5

[swagr]

I am not sure if you are attempting to do a router firmware flash while balancing precariously in the air but if so I would advise against it. It would be better that you have the router on a table or bench in front of you. You also should have a computer or laptop with an ethernet connection to work from.

I am on a boat at a marina. There are very few places in the covered docks that do not move with the water and tides. I have the router, in an enclosure, up on a pole, that is around 15-18 feet up in the air. I am on the CA delta, which has river levels well below the operable land levels surrounding it by a good deal. To get to a position of line of site to any tower at low tide, I have to be above the rooftop over the docks and on one of the stationary poles that holds the docks in place. It’s a nightmare.

Before I had access to the stable mount I could determine network speeds based on the tides. Low tide meant bad connections and connection drops. High tide and I could get 50+ Mb/s.

The router is mounted and not going anywhere. I’ll have to climb up a ladder to get to it. Trouble is, pole is stationary, docks free float around the pole, ladder is on the dock, should prove fun.

I have doubts about an add on ethernet hub to a chromebook as working for the firmware install.

I have my doubts as well but it’s all I have readily Available to me at the moment. When choosing the usb Ethernet adapter I went with the one that seemed to just work, no drivers needed unless you need them I plugged it into the ChromeBook and after a few seconds I saw the lights on the Ethernet port cone alive. In chrome, the network settings for a new network interface popped up before my eyes, for Ethernet. It was connected and working. Trying to alter the connection in any way will fail but it works as it stands so far. I then plugged an old tp-link router lan port to Ethernet to USB adapter in and went to the router address. It tried to load it and found a redirect to some configure page. Chrome at this point was complaining so much about no ssl and other various security errors I closed up. I think I feel okay about it working. I can always back out before I start the firmware load if I feel it isn’t looking correct.

[MattB29]

I hope it works out for you safely. Make sure you have a person around to call the paramedics if not.