This text describes a method to allow the Aironet 630 Access Point to run the Aironet 640 Access Point/Bridge firmware. This process (with the firmware named within) WILL ONLY WORK for the AP1000's -- the firmware will NOT work for AP2000's (which also happened to use the AP630/BR640 marketing names). Please, don't try this if you own a 630-2400. This document is freely distributeable, so long as all of the text herein is reproduced with each copy, or redistribution. Questions? Comments? Direct them to: xam wi2600 org If you're wondering as to thos texts up-to-dateness, or validity, view: http://www.wi2600.org/mediawhore/nf0/wireless/docs/ARLAN --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lets get to it! What you'll need: -Firmware images from the Aironet 630 firmware, back to the release of 2.39 -Firmware images of the Aironet 640 bridges, back to the relase of 2.39 Fortunately for you, we've got them here: http://www.wi2600.org/mediawhore/nf0/wireless/firmware/ARLAN Grab all the images (.img) and stash them somewhere localy for a bit. Next, you need to determine the way you wish to upgrade your AP630. Of the many ways one can stuff new firmware into the bridges, FTP or local XMODEM/ZMODEM are the only methods which seem to exist throughout the various revisions of the firmware. I will focus on FTP, since it's the method I used with the most success. Within your radio, you'll need 'write' access first. If you don't have this (lost password), you're semi-screwed. Last I checked, the AP/BR 630/640 radios are "end of lifed" as far as Cisco is concerned. Why's that matter? Becuase there is no way I know of (or anyone I've asked) to recover the password, or to drop the bridge back to defaults once the write password is lost. This of course assumes you have console, telnet, or http access to the AP630. If using telnet or console, you will probably find it nice to enable ANSI opperation within the AP. The worse-than-vt100 text gets old quickly. Next, since we're going to do our upgrade via FTP, navigate through the menus to the "diagnostics" menu, then to the "load" menu. The option labeled "Ftp" is of course the one we want. Type appropriate option #. You will then see something like this, with a different firmare ver. Aironet BR1000E V5.26 Diagnostics Load Ftp Menu 640_Loft Option Value Description 1 - Get - Load a firmware/config file 2 - Put - Send a firmware file 3 - Config - Send a configuration file 4 - Dest [ 010.000.000.001 ] - Host IP address 5 - Username [ "lostxam" ] - Host username 6 - Password - Host password 7 - Filename [ "BRV50J.IMG" ] - Host filename Enter an option number or name, "=" main menu, previous menu Dest= your FTP server Username= duh Password= non-echoed/non-confirmed password to send to FTP server Filename= name of firmware image to load; needs to be in root of the ftp users home dir. This is a truly basic FTP client. Regarding IP settings.. It's best to have your FTP server on the SAME subnet as the AP's IP stack is. Why? When you drop back to 2.39 (the initial rev), the bridge doesn't appear to 'understand' what a default gateway is. If you start this upgrade over the public internet, you'll be high-and- dry once you downrev the bridge -- make a note of this! Once all that important information is set, proceed to hit "Get" to start the process. But wait; we haven't yet talked about what firmware sets to flash yet! Whats the big deal here? The big deal is this: firmware versions for legacy Aironet gear seem to be cumulative in nature. This is why you needed to gab all of the firmware versions. Desribed here is the list, and best order the author has found to flash the radio, and in esence, make a 630 functionally a 640. Regardless of what 630 version you're starting with (you will most likely encounter 3.3p), drop to 3.2a: So, if you kept all the file names the same, and placed them right in the root of a users FTP homedir, use the following images to down-rev your 630 back to 2.39. use "630v32a.img" then "arlan239.img" Now, time to move over to the 640 firmware. w00t! Start with: 640v239.img After you get this image (640v239) to load, BE SURE to reset the AP back to DEFAULTS. This seems to be a needed step, so as to ensure as new firmware is placed on the bridge, older, and possibly wrong variable locations are not going to contain anything from the 630 firmware. That's in the Diag menu, under Defaults. You'll lose all the IP configs, and console configs (ANSI menus), FYI. Then load: 640v33.img, 640v33s.img, brdsv42c.img, brv50j.img, and finaly brv526.img This last image was released shortly before the units were officaly END OF LIFE'd by Cisco. With that, you'll be on current 640 BRIDGE- CAPABLE firmware. Enjoy!