Amiga WIFI NetGear M401

[rabidgerry]

Bizarrely may have gotten somewhere with this card last night.

I was able to create a guest network on my home network and turn of security (this isn't going to be a permanent thing) so this (I think) got me around the security issue of WPA2 only.

However it can't find an IP. So I made one up and that got me through the next steps where I had to put in default gateway which is my router and DNS servers which it says are wrong (despite being the same servers as my phone and my PC) but I was still able to get to the point where I saved setting to config file and then get Miami at least saying it was online. I dunno whether it really is or not because I didn't see it on my router and the IP I gave it, when I pinged from my PC came up with host unreachable and actually showed me my PCs IP address instead.

Oh and then when I launched Aweb I couldn't do a god dam thing since everything is HTTPS:// and it didn't like that at all.

Any advice for this situation?

[crazyc]

I set mine with static ips on my home network and in miami (well now roadshow) and try to access aminet which should be fine.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by crazyc

I set mine with static ips on my home network and in miami (well now roadshow) and try to access aminet which should be fine.

Should I get rid of Miami then?

I think I am only allowed one static IP from my provider. Oh correction, I just checked and I can't get one from Virgin media, have to contact their business department apparently

To obtain a Static IP address you will need to contact the Virgin Media Business department. This department will discuss the options of opening a business account and then we will be able to provide you with a Static IP address.

And I aint about to do that.

[crazyc]

Oh no I didn't mean from Virgin. I have the superhub in modem mode and use my own router to deal with the LAN. Most of my devices have static ips on the 192.168.0.x range.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by crazyc

Oh no I didn't mean from Virgin. I have the superhub in modem mode and use my own router to deal with the LAN. Most of my devices have static ips on the 192.168.0.x range.

I see.

Just wondering should I have DHCP enabled? Currently mine is not.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5...e/td-p/4446260

From this I get the impression I can assign an IP to a device, but this isn't my specialist subject

[ncafferkey]

Yes, you can assign a static private IP to your card as described in that link. The previous information about contacting their business department is referring to your router's public IP. You can assign whatever IPs you like on your home network as those are not visible to the outside world.

cardpatch and cardreset usually solve the reset bug, but I think you can be unlucky with certain combinations of motherboard and PCMCIA card.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Amiga4000

Hi there rabidgerry, yes, you must update the firmware on the card to support WPA2. I flashed mine with an old Thinkpad 600 / Win98 laptop. Any old laptop with a 16bit PCMCIA slot with Win98 or XP will do the trick. You can still get the firmware update and flash tool on the net. Don't chuck the card, they work just sooooooo well I would never use another. Try to find someone to flash it for you! Bought two of them as a matter of fact (1 for a spare) 10 years ago, brand new in the box for $20. I thought it was funny that around 2015 people caught on that they were great for Amiga and started shilling them $50.00+ on ebay. Good luck!

I got an adapter for my Windows 10 PC and it detects the card however I can't do shit all because I don't seem to be able to install the linkys driver.

Also I don't suppose you know where I can get the firmware update and tool from? I have had a look and all links to these things are dead.

I'd be making progress if I could get a driver installed I feel but it may be fighting a losing battle here.

[Amiga4000]

Howdy rabidgerry..... Ahhh, it's made by Netgear... here's a link to the firmware and drivers at Netgear's support page. It looks like you can flash it with Win XP or 95/98 (I see one driver states Win 95 only but I did use 98 - I don't remember how I did that now) and Redhat Linux. Hope this helps.

https://www.netgear.com/support/prod....aspx#download

[rabidgerry]

Aha! Fantastic! Why couldn't I find this? I also red something earlier saying to use linksys WPC driver so I can use winupdate to flash the NetGear so not actually sure if I need that driver or not. It's the winupdate tool I can't find or the correct firmware.

see this tutorial with ancient links.

https://bytemyvdu.wordpress.com/2012...ivers-wpawpa2/

My plan is to run Windows XP virtual (Windows XP mode is proper title) and try and do it all through that. I jus need the correct firmware for WPA2 and this WinUpdate tool which seem to be found nowhere or links are dead.

[Amiga4000]

Hey there rabidgerry, did you download the WinXP version 2.6 successfully from the provided link?



If so, unzip it to a folder (on your desktop), navigate to the Firmware Update folder and run Setup.exe. That will install the "WinUpdate" tool for the firmware upgrade. V2.6 will flash the card for WPA2. I guess just follow the instructions from there during the flash process. During some point you might have to change the update directory for you OS in the upacked folders... not sure. I remember it was all self explanitory and quit simple when I did it 10 years ago though. Good luck!

[rabidgerry]

I was following this tutorial you see and it said not to use the netgear stuff.

https://bytemyvdu.wordpress.com/2012...ivers-wpawpa2/

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Amiga4000

Hey there rabidgerry, did you download the WinXP version 2.6 successfully from the provided link?



If so, unzip it to a folder (on your desktop), navigate to the Firmware Update folder and run Setup.exe. That will install the "WinUpdate" tool for the firmware upgrade. V2.6 will flash the card for WPA2. I guess just follow the instructions from there during the flash process. During some point you might have to change the update directory for you OS in the upacked folders... not sure. I remember it was all self explanitory and quit simple when I did it 10 years ago though. Good luck!

Ok so downloaded the the drivers from the link but I have an issue.

After much trials an tribulations would you believe I have reached the point where I got a cheap PCI/pcmcia adapter and installed XP on a partition of my old Windows 7 mechanical drive. And then some more trials and tribulations but currently I am at the point where the XP install recognises the NetGear card. It even detects my home WIFI. However when I flash it is states this.



So I don't understand as I thought the firmware was v2.6?

[rabidgerry]

Does anyone else have this firmware for these wifi cards? It seems it is impossoble to find. I must have tried about 4-5 different downloads and not one of them are WPA2 and non of the firmware upgrade executables work properly. I have the correct setup XP and pcmcia adapter but just nothing works other than installing the driver (of which there are many) just no firmwares seem to be the right ones.

The firmware from netgear isn't the latest either judging by the hex files I have seen on this tutorial https://bytemyvdu.wordpress.com/2012...ivers-wpawpa2/

[Amiga4000]

Sheeeesh that is odd! The only other thing I could do to help is go back to my download archives and locate the software I actually used to flash my card. That might take a couple of days with Christmas here though. I never even knew that there was software for XP to flash the card until recently and that made me a little suspicious when I first saw it as an XP solution was not available for years. I'm not sure how old those XP files are.



My actual files are for Win98 and worked perfect 10 years ago. Maybe have patience and I'll get them to you in a few days....


Sorry for your troubles... However, Happy Holidays!

[rabidgerry]

I'd appreciate that but it seems this firmware is gone. I managed to get some links working. Check this!

http://junsun.net/linux/intersil-prism/

However nothing on this site actually works to take you to the correct firmware. Seem it is gone from history. The guy does have this but nothing is downloadable.

http://junsun.net/linux/intersil-prism/firmware/

1.7.1 I believe is the correct one.

Merry Christmas, and don't go any trouble my man

[Amiga4000]

Well, it might be gone from the internet but I have it (somewhere!)

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Amiga4000

Well, it might be gone from the internet but I have it (somewhere!)

So I appear to have got my hands on the hexadecimal files, however now I can't get the u[date tool to work.

There are two versions I seem to have. One came with the NetGear drivers etc and when I install it and try and run it says something like its only for upgrading to whatever number of firmware. There is no way for me to select the exact hex files.

Then the other version of the Winupdate tool doesn't even execute. It flashes like for a split second before closing.

Any ideas?

[rabidgerry]

Not even going to pretend I know where I got this particular WinUpdate executable from, but it was different from all those zipped in the various versions of NetGear and Linksys WPC v2.5 and v2.6 zip driver sets/utilities I had in my possession. Anyways I intalled this particular one I had, and I then was able to select the hex files and attempt a firmware flash.

It didn't work.

I was on the Linksys driver at this point like all the tutorials seems to suggest. I decided to go back to the NetGear MA401 driver and then try the tool again.

No errors this time and straight into what seems like a Flashed Firmware procedure. And I also get this when I check for verification in the tool which seems to be the correct firmware I need and indeed the one I selected using those hex files.



Anyways I have no idea if this is going to work on my Amiga but I can safely say there is no where in Windows XP to select anything other than WEP encryption so I have no way to test it right now. As far as I know I should be able to run it on XP now but for some reason I cannot.

[rabidgerry]

Despite the supposedly successful update of the firmware, I am not able to connect to the internet using the MA401.

I will go as far as saying the card is working as when I am using it plugged into the XP installation, it picks up my home WIFI. I just can't connect as it's still only allowing WEP.

Just about ready to smash everything up and set fire to it all

[powrslave]

I put a zip for you in the Zone, don't know if it will help. Good Luck