SMC Networks → New firmware - USR8000-02 / SMC Barricade 7004BR

Good morning:

I'm awfully sorry to bother you all with hardware as old (and obscure) as a USR8000-02 router (actually a 7004BR OEM'd by Amit) but it's what I have been able to find (used, mint shape and inexpensive) that had a serial port for dial-up connections, a deal-breaker option at this time for me.

After buying it, it surprised me to read a good deal of negative stuff about it on the web, the most frequent being:

1. redials all by itself even if set not to (true)
2. firmware 2.7 is unstable and hangs, losing all the router's settings in the process (true).

I can confirm that both these issues are present in the v2.5 and the v2.7 (last available) firmwares, so the USR TS solution of a FW update is *not* a solution.

A relatively easy but annoying method of coping with the hang-up problem is to restore the settings (after a reset) using a back-up *.bin file.

But these problems still subsist.

Searching the web I read about firmware from other routers made by the same OEM (Amit, like the SMC 7004BR or Eusso UIS1400-A) that would work well with the USR8000-02.

Searching this site I came across this 2003 post by Rotsen':

»Firmware 1.96h3 for AMIT HiP-400E / SMC 7004BR

and this other 2008 post by 'badcrc0':

»Need 1.93 firmware for SMC 7004BR

... who very generously posted a set of FW files for the forum to DL. My thanks to him. =-)

But alas, I have not been able to solve the firmware upgrade block. The 192.168.123.254/sysinfo.htm page shows that my R-Data string still reads USR002, no matter *what* I do.

I have tried 'all' of the methods described in the posts and even though using TFTP to upload the firmware versions seems to go well, the end result is that my firmware stays at the existing version.

It seems to be a fact that the Amit 1.95 firmware set a boundary for the cross-brand utilization of ulterior versions of the firmware, which is why in order to use the latest 1.96h firmware it is necessary to downgrade to a pre-1.95 version.

The SMC page for the 7004BR firmware upgrades says that to upgrade from 1.94a to 1.96h2 you should load 1.95c first.

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The Eusso FAQ page for the UIS1400A routers says:

Q01: I have upgrade firmware 1.96h3 successfully. However, it still shows the Firmware version as 1.93?

The UIS1400-A has an inconvenient of upgrade frimware process. There are three generations of this models firmware: (1G, 2G, 3G).

Firmware before v1.95 is 2G.
Firmware after v1.95 is 3G.
1G can not upgrade to 3G directly.

If user need upgrade from v1.93 to 1.96 he need to upgrade from v1.93 to v1.95, then upgrade from v1.95 to v1.96

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From looking at the version string in the sysinfo.htm page, I have noticed that the USR firmware v2.5 shows the '196c' and v2.5 shows the '196j9' strings near the end.

It would seem that these two versions are the equivalent of the 1.96c and 196j versions of the Amit firmware and that as such, they are post-1.95 and are upgrade blocked firmware.

But I have been unable to downgrade, either with TFTP or with the *.exe files.

I'm stumped but I'm sure there is a way.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

CIV

Maybe you could use the same method I used for my SMC. That is, locate an older USR firmware and hex edit the bin file at the nearest address to what I mentioned in my post and change USR002 to Winnie, then use the method I described to upgrade from there.

It sounds like you're doing the same thing I did originally, which is a mistake. Trying various firmwares and methods doesn't work until you get Winnie in the R-Data. Find an old firmware that works, hex edit Winnie into it, upgrade, and everything will work. Just make sure you hex edit the right USR002, it most likely appears in several places in the file, I risked trashing my router and found the correct address.

Hello:

Thanks for taking the time to write back.
Much appreciated. =-)I neglected to especifically mention that I did try your method. First with the edited 1.93P SMC bin file and then using a modified v2.5 and v2.7 USR *.bin files.Quite so. Even the oldest USR FW I have seen (v1.25, for the USR8000, not the 8000-02/03) has R-Data inside it. In this particular case it says USR001 instead of USR002.

Versions 2.5 and 2.7 seem to be 1.96x modified versions of the original Amit deal.

The /sysinfo.htm page in the 2.7 version I'm using now has this version string:

573D.4B35.56DD/10D9+378C+0007@Pingu 196j9 $301

The 2.5 version says 1.96c.

I'll try to see what I can do but I have not heard of any USR8000-02 users getting this done, only USR8000 who probably had v1.0 FW.

Some (all?) of the *.exe files used to upgrade have (without going into crash mode) a PW field: I wonder if there's a PW inside them to allow by-passing the R-Data in the installed FW.

I say this because when in crash mode the PW field is not there.

I'll have a go at it again, hopefully I will not trash my USR.

Once again, thanks for writing.

Best regards,

CIV