Author Topic: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update  (Read 5678 times)

tommiy

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WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« on: December 29, 2012, 05:44:31 PM »

My wireless router is currently running User Friendly version 1.77.

 

 

I noticed that it keeps dropping wireless and it unstable. I then decided to look for a firmware upgrade for the router. I clicked the download link on the upgrade page. This takes me to the buffalo US site where I see that firmware version 1.78 is available and supposedly addresses the unstable wireless problems. I down load the firmware as per the link from the router. However, when I try and install the firmware through the upgrade I get an error relating to the firmware being invalid.

 

I've read through the forums and it appears that the firmware is locked to particular regions. So I assume I need an Australian version of 1.78 User Friendly firmware. However if I go to the Australian site http://buffalo.jp/support_ap/support/products/wzr_hp_ag300h.html there is only version 1.77. Accordin to the US site 1.78 was released back in August 2012. After 4 months I'd expect that version 1.78 would be available to Australian customers to address and fix the issues defined in the 1.78 release notes. Can someone from Buffalo forward me a working version of 1.78 for Australia?? I simply can not live wth the instability the router has at present and would expect that a firmware upgrade that addresses serious stability issues would have been available in all regions. Why also does my download link take me to the US site if I need to use australian firmware only?


davo

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2012, 06:52:28 PM »
How about contacting austrialian support directly? There are US forums.
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tommiy

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2012, 10:08:45 PM »

There is only one forum worldwide. Its not a US only forum. All other Bufallo site direct you to this forum.

 

Outside of that there is individual importers who provide local support for Buffalo. These groups simply take whats made available for each region and publish it. They are 3rd party companies and can not create or alter binary images of firmware. Irrespectively of this fact, I've also contacted the asia pack 3rd party for support requesting if they can request an asiapac release.

 

Given the previous responses to most of the region locked frmware issues on the forum I'm not really expecting a response as such and am looking for alternative mechanisms to load the 1.78 firmware.

 

Thanks


drmemory

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2012, 11:57:49 AM »

I went to several Buffalotech sites and did not see any sites directing customers to the USA/Canada forums. Would you let me know which sites you are seeing that direct to the USA/Canada forums? I will ask Buffalotech Australia to update their download section.


tommiy

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2012, 02:45:40 PM »

You are corrcect if you go to the individual Buffalo regions themselves. Seems that there is no support forum in these regions directly available. If I had of known 2 years ago when I purchased this that there was no support in asiapac then I would probably not have even purchased the device. The actual asiapac company stated as providing support has not responded. Probably taking a long holiday.

 

However, given that the firmware is region locked, then the link on the firmware update page on the router itself should direct you to the region page responsible for the firmware. At present the link on the modem to download firmware directs me to the US site to obtain the firmware from. The only way you find out that there are separate regions and that the firmware is not supported across these regions is to go searching on the net.

 

So, it would appear that potentially I'm stuck with a router that has an identified issues with wireless instability and no avenue of rectification except to make phone calls to a 3rd party that can not change or alter anything.

 

Guess its time to go open WRT to fix what would have appeared to be such a simple issue for Buffalo to rectify on their product. I've learnt a few things through this exchange regarding the quality of support for these products. Thanks


drmemory

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2012, 03:19:23 PM »

Though this is a USA/Canada support forum, we will try to help every customer to the best of our ability - we may not have the same products as other regions, but often we do.  If you are having issues with another region not having the firmware you need, I am the person that will contact that region and request the downloads be updated. I've already sent a request to the person in charge of the Australian region, to update the WZR-HP-AG300H download page with 1.78, which addressed a variety of issues of connectivity.


tommiy

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2012, 04:51:19 PM »

Thanks for initiating that request. However, given that the firmware has been available for over 4 months, and it clearly states that it rectifies stablity issues, I would have thought that the corrections would have been available for all regions. Your response seems to imply that it has been made available to them however they have not proceeded to make it available to customers who have purchased these Buffalo products.

 

I'll try OpenWRT and see if that works. In Asutralia most businesses are closed until at least next week and some even the week after that.

 

Thanks for the response.


drmemory

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2012, 04:59:13 PM »

You are welcome. I am not implying anything about other regions, as I do not know how they operate. I do have contact information for most regions and can assist when needed. However, I don't spend much time checking on other region's download sites, except when a customer brings it to my attention. My USA duties keep me very busy.


tommiy

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2012, 06:07:53 PM »

Thanks again.

 

Open WRT loaded now and working and measuring its performance and stability. If that does not work out onto WRT but noticed it had several issues as well that I just want to avoid.

 


tommiy

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2013, 04:53:44 PM »

Thought I would try one last time last night with version 1.77 firmware available from the au site. Loaded that and all looked fine. As the kids had gone to bed etc there was very few wireless devices connected to the router. I woke up this morning and the 2.4G wireless signal was showing disconnected on my laptop. I tried the 5G band and was surprised to find that it waas still functioning. So its only the 2.4G band that seems to be having issues. If I use SSID to look at the wireless signal I can see that the router is configured for 40M bandwidth on channels 7 and 11. However, the interesting part is that the extension channel is being switched on for 2 seconds and then its turned off for approximately 5 seconds. The signal continues to cycle like this indefintely. If I return to the wireless config page and reapply the settings the extension channel becomes stable and the wireless becomes reusable again.

 

 

I've done this 3 times this morning. Unfortunately not all my devices are capable of working on the 5G band. There is no real detail in the logs of what is causing this. The only thing I can see is that everything worked finr from 11pm till about 5am this morning where one of my set top boxes sent a DHCP request, the router responded with a DHCP Offer and then the set top with a request again and this repeated over 50 times so I can only assume that the wireless signal has dropped in one direction (router out) and the set top can not recieve the offer. After that the family got up and new requests for DHCP at 2.4G get the same sequence of responses.

 

At present I'm working on trying to detect how the router itself can tell when this has occurred and then to write a script for it to reset itself rather than a human needing to be around to undertake this task. I've telnetted into the router via enabling the telnet port to do this. Any insight you can give would be appreciated. Thanks


tommiy

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Invalid Firmware update
« Reply #10 on: January 01, 2013, 06:39:27 PM »

Given the fact that I'm now looking into the cause of the issue rather than trying to resolve it with a firmware update I'm going to start a new Thread. Hope that is OK.