5.4 Flashing Your Access Point

One feature that is not immediately apparent in the Java Configurator is located in the drop-down File menu: Upload New Base Station Firmware . This feature is also available in the Orinoco configuration software for Windows and in the Apple AirPort software for Mac OS X, as well as in the FreeBase software mentioned earlier.

However, a neat hack that the Java configurator and FreeBase allow is the uploading of firmware to a device that does not explicitly match the firmware in question.

For example, the original Apple AirPort and the Orinoco RG-1000 are identical hardware, so you can flash either unit with the firmware image of the other. You can also flash both of these models and the Orinoco RG-1100 with the Orinoco AP-500 or AP-1000 firmware (which is quite a feature upgrade because it supports bridging, protocol filtering, RADIUS, and many other advanced configuration options).

To flash the firmware, you need the firmware images. The Orinoco CLI proxy software comes with binary ( .bin ) firmware images for the AP-500 and AP-1000. The Orinoco AP Manager software for Windows comes with these images, as well as the RG-1000 and RG-1100 images. It is available from http://www.proxim.com/support/all/orinoco/software/dl2002_orinoco_ap_75.html.

Apple has built its firmware updates into the executables for its AirPort updater software. If you're a Mac-head, you can use ResEdit to remove the binary firmware from the executable. However, we won't go into that here. There is a non-Apple web page available that provides binary firmware images for the various AirPort versions: http://www.icir.org/fenner/airport. Use these images at your own risk. For more information on creative ways to flash an access point, see Chapter 6.