Arch Linux

test1000

Member

Registered: 2005-04-03

Posts: 834

Can a firmware upgrade on a router make it not work on linux?

Hi, I'm thinking of updating my dir-655 router http://support.dlink.com/products/view. … =DIR%2D655 to the newest firmware for more performance(now using 1.02) but are worrying that if i update the firmware it might not work with linux anymore. Is this an unfounded worry? Is "routers doesn't have to be supported by linux" a truth? Tell me how does this work...

---

KISS = "It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience." - Albert Einstein

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Can a firmware upgrade on a router make it not work on linux?

I'm going to assume you connect to the router via either wired or wireless ethernet, so if it's working now, it will work after a successful firmware upgrade.

TheDoctor

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2005-06-28

Posts: 63

Website

Re: Can a firmware upgrade on a router make it not work on linux?

Hi, I'm thinking of updating my dir-655 router http://support.dlink.com/products/view. … =DIR%2D655 to the newest firmware for more performance(now using 1.02) but are worrying that if i update the firmware it might not work with linux anymore. Is this an unfounded worry? Is "routers doesn't have to be supported by linux" a truth? Tell me how does this work...

For the most part, routers do not need to be supported by linux.  As with everything else, there are always exceptions and caveats.  Because standards are generally left rather open to interpretation, there is the possibility that the firmware upgrade can cause issues, but this is a very slim chance, especially with something as well documented as a linux TCP/IP stack.  Basically, everything talks TCP/IP.  Your router, your windows box, your linux box, whatever you have networked.  The mechanics of converting things into TCP/IP are handled by each computer.  That's why routers don't need to support linux. Routers support TCP/IP and so does linux.  They speak a common language. 

Once you get into very large networks with lots of different equipment, intelligent switches, lots of network cards from different manufacturers, multiple operating systems, print servers, USB network servers, etc, then there is a greater chance that they might not all behave properly, and things such as a firmware upgrade can cause issues, but even that is rare.  I've been doing networking for close to 15 years, and I can count on one hand how many times things such as firmware upgrades and adding new equipment have caused network outages or strange behavior.

test1000

Member

Registered: 2005-04-03

Posts: 834

Re: Can a firmware upgrade on a router make it not work on linux?

Well, i suppose linux still supported it(as i still had LAN, just not WLAN), but i found that the norwegian internetprovider Get(it's crap) wouldn't work after i upgraded the router. The guy in the shop also said that another router which i was originally going to buy, Get didn't support. So i suppose the firmware upgrade made the router into "another" router which Get couldn't support...

I had to go and switch the router with another router of the same type with a lower firmware version to get it to work again...

so moral of story: don't use get if you have a choice(i didn't)

Last edited by test1000 (2007-10-08 12:10:01)

---

KISS = "It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience." - Albert Einstein