Problems with Gari the Hummingbird

Since the release of firmware 2.3.6.0 two months ago, we’ve received reports of a number of new problems. A few of these are quite serious and really need to be fixed soon. We’re considering releasing a very small update (which will probably be 2.3.6.1), containing just a handful of bugfixes, to get these issues fixed. After that, we’ll focus on getting a bigger release out, which should also be available for 2.0g again.

The following issues have been found and will (hopefully) be fixed in the bugfix release.

  • Configuration changes made through fon.com and Family & Friends accounts are not working. Due to an issue with the changed MAC addresses in the last update, the Fonera does not identify correctly with fon.com and no longer receives any configuration updates. We have found a fix for this issue, see ticket #620 for details and a preview of the fix.
  • Registration is broken. When you click the “Register” button in the dashboard, registration will not work. This issue is also caused by the changed MAC address. We have found a fix for this issue, see ticket #830 for details and a preview of the fix.
  • The message “Your internet is misconfigured” frequently appears when browsing the internet. Quite some users have been reporting this problem, but it is unclear what is causing it right now. We haven’t been able to reliably reproduce this problem, so we haven’t been able to fix this one either. If you are seeing this problem as well and want to help out debugging it, see ticket #669 for the latest status and instructions. Especially if you can (somewhat) reliably trigger the problem (by using some application, changing a setting, etc.) we would like to know.

70 Responses to “Problems with Gari the Hummingbird”

  1. Testers gezocht… Says:

    [...] 2.3.6.1 is in voorbereiding en zou het Registratie, FON.COM family&friends/RouterConfiguratie moeten oplossen. Je kunt nu [...]

  2. testinga Says:

    It would be good to add, the Transmission update as well, I just cant believe that it would be a huge amount of work. Please consider it. thanks

  3. tman Says:

    You could add also “Motion” as an official plugin ?

  4. ben10 Says:

    Oh yes, please. An updated transmission would be great! It doesn’t mean current versión doesn’t work well, but an updete would be appreciated.

    By the way, I’d like to point out how Fon’s communication strategy has improved lately. Keep the good work up.

  5. Matthijs Says:

    We’ve been getting a lot of requests for an updated Transmission, so it’s on our list. I’ll try to get that done for 2.3.7.0 though, so 2.3.6.1 gets critical bugfixes only. See ticket #564 to track the progress.

    As for the Motion plugin, I’ll see what we can do (though we’ll probably try to do some more bugfixing first).

  6. Josemi Says:

    If the release all this bugfixes and updated transmission it will be terrific.

    Greetings.

  7. cicciokio Says:

    So, the inability to connect devices that previously could easily connect is NOT a critical bugfix? (http://trac.fonosfera.org/fon-ng/ticket/540)

  8. Matthijs Says:

    It’s not on the list yet, but I agree that it’s something we should fix soon. I don’t think this should block the 2.3.6.1 release, but if we can get it fixed in time, it should be in. I’ll see if I can get a HTC Magic or Hero for testing :-)

  9. Marco J Says:

    I’l glad to see some activity. But I’m still waiting for the USB Hub -> 3G Dongle issue to get fixed…

  10. Matthijs Says:

    Regarding the HTC Magic & Hero issues, I’ve found a possible cause and workaround, see ticket #540 for more info.

    As for the 3G dongle & USB hub problems, we’re not quite sure what is causing those yet. There will almost certainly not be a fix for that in 2.3.6.1, but perhaps in the next one after that.

  11. Fredius Says:

    I would wish a couple of updates:
    1 – The media server.
    2 – To allow SAMBA access anonymous to USB hard disk

  12. Dennis Says:

    I would really like it if the current fixes would just make it to 2.3.6.1 and the next fix in 2.3.6.2 and then go focus on 2.3.7.0 ??

    also i wonder why, even in the DEV-version, all plugins/applications are already installed… (like twiiter, facebook, picasa, flickr, torrent, downloader, openvpn, QoS)
    I think it would be great if there would be less default plugins.. but be able to install it from the applications page

    maybe you could also check up on other download systems like nntp/usenet i found nntpgrab which should work, but this misses a webGUI to configure the system.

  13. Jack0 Says:

    The communication seems to be better now…….

  14. Jumy Elerossë Says:

    Can we know an aproximated release date?

  15. vas Says:

    Hi

    what is the status of the wifi-client feature?. It was removed in gari (2.3.6). There is a plan for include in the next release 2.3.7

  16. Tibi Says:

    You work hard on fonera 2g but i don’t see any new firmware maybe i chosed the wrong router, it is unstable and last firmware was a long time ago. I think it’s time to sell it and buy a Linksys or a Cisco.

  17. Ben Says:

    i am using a 3G Dongle (Option Icon 505/Vodafone Germany) and i have the “Your Internet is misconfigured” redirect after 1 day everything is working. Next Day redirect.

  18. Akuma Says:

    There’s also a BIG BUG that affects to the Fonera and other routers based on DD-WRT and OpenWRT. It’s the DNS rebinding

    I hope you made the proper modifications to the Fonera.

    http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/07/millions-of-soho-routers-vulnerable-to-new-version-of-old-attack.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

  19. Matthijs Says:

    Thanks for your suggestions, we’ll keep them in mind for the next releases.

    As for the release date, I’d like to give an approximation, but it highly depends on when we manage to get a fix for the internet connection issue. I’ll start preparing the 2.3.6.1 release somewhere this week, hopefully we can find a proper fix for the connection issue in the coming weeks.

    As for the wifi-client feature, that has proven to be very unstable. We’re considering re-adding that in the DEV version of 2.3.7, to get some testing and see if we can make it stable.

    As for the DNS rebinding bug, it’s an older technique that is really a weakness in the entire DNS / Web system. If I understand the problem correctly (the article is a bit vague), the best place to fix the actual problem is probably in the browser, but the article you linked claims to circumvent browser protections.

    To reduce the impact of the problem, one should make sure the router password is not a default password. The Fonera enforces this by making you change the password when you first connect, so the Fonera should be safe. However, you should remember to change the password of your internet modem / router as well!

  20. David Says:

    other time…
    July 8th, 2010 by Matthijs

  21. Jos Thomassen Says:

    Thanks for all the efforts ! I am looking forward to the improvements in the firmware ! With some adjustments this 2.0n router will be really very nice !

    Oh and a practical question; the next firmware update will be installed automatically right ?

    Jos

  22. Matthijs Says:

    The firmware will not be installed automatically, but we will probably put an “upgrade’ item in the applications list again, yes.

  23. Jos Thomassen Says:

    Matthijs thanks for your quick reply !

    Aha I thought the Fonera 2.0n updated automatically by phoning home… so it’s not. Good to know ! I’ll keep that in mind.

    Groetjes Jos

  24. Jack0 Says:

    “Matthijs Says:
    The firmware will not be installed automatically, but we will probably put an “upgrade’ item in the applications list again, yes.”

    It would be a great idea, if there are upgrades………..

  25. Matthijs Says:

    It seems we have found a solution for the misconfigured internet problem. The solution is currently tested by a few users (see http://trac.fonosfera.org/fon-ng/ticket/669#comment:39 if you want to test it as well). If it works out, we’ll probably start the release process somewhere next week or the week after.

  26. dodolu Says:

    rather than add new feature. i think it better be a reliable router with all the feature this router had. it’s kind of frustating to find out the router always unable to route traffic with error “Your internet is misconfigured”(not a problem if i use bridge mode), or the external drive always dismounted. right now i can’t plug my external without loss wifi connectivity(no signal, brigde mode). I can’t download from rapidshare because i can’t add my premium acc to my router.

  27. jos meijer Says:

    hi,
    I disagree with your decision to continuously push forward the 3G/hub-bug.
    If you sell a Fonera and state it can connect through a 3G dongle, then it should.
    As all functions that make a fonera more interesting than a regular router ask the use of storage you just have to connect a harddisk.
    Well, how do I do that if I have just one USB port and if a hub doesn’t work?
    So please reconsider your priorities…

    Jos Meijer,
    satisfied user of a Tenda 3G/N router
    (but who would rather use his Fonera)

  28. jos meijer Says:

    by the way,

    if you want to reliably reproduce the “internet misconfigured” message popping up at regular intervals, use a 3G connection, and move around a little.
    I had it every time the 3G connection was weak or missing, that is dozens of times a day.

  29. Jumy Elerossë Says:

    The problem with the usb-dongles is finally solved at: forum.fon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=39&start=0

    The problem is that the connection is a quite slow yet, and sometimes appears the page of unconfigured connection.

  30. Matthijs Says:

    Regarding the 3G & USB hub issue, we haven’t been able to reproduce this issue yet (though admittedly we have been focussing on the issues for 2.3.6.1 instead). This issue will be high on the agenda soon, though.

    As for reproducing the orange page as you say: If the internet connection is actually down (because your 3G connection is missing), the orange page is supposed to appear. This is the meaning of the page (though the message might need updating to “your internet connection is down” instead of “misconfigured”).

    The actual bug regarding the orange page concerns the page appearing when the internet connection is still running fine (or perhaps when it only has a very short glitch that you wouldn’t otherwise notice).

    The usb-dongle issue Jumy mentions seems to be an issue supporting a specific dongle, not the 3g + usb hub problem as you might suspect.

  31. Jumy Elerossë Says:

    Sorry Matthijs, I thought that the solution for the usb dongles were similar for all them…

    And the fix for the orange page works perfectly, I tried it yesterday :D

    Thanks you very much!

  32. Anto M Says:

    when it is released the firmware update?

  33. joluis Says:

    In the 3G connections the modem they lose the connection and retry connection often. The screen goes orange continuously and it is quite annoying.

    Another problem is that the browser’s cache stores the page orange and then you have to empty the history to retrieve the right direction.

    An option in the configuration page of the fonera to remove this message would be fine.

  34. Jumy Elerossë Says:

    joluis:

    Try to press [Ctrl] + [F5] to reload your browser without using the cache.

  35. Miguel Says:

    Hi,

    any news on the delivery date?

    Soon?

  36. David Says:

    Hi,

    any news on the delivery date?

    Soon?

  37. Matthijs Says:

    Hi folks,

    we’re currently working on getting a 2.3.6.1 RC1 release built, which will be tested by a few (invited) people. We’re also working to get a little more automation in the releases (i.e., less handwork), so the build isn’t complete yet.

    After that, if there are no major problems with the RC, I expect to build the final image somewhere at the end of next week, or the start of the week after. In the meanwhile, we’ll resume work on 2.3.7.0 with the main goal of supporting 2.0g again.

  38. Jos Meijer Says:

    hi,
    I just posted likewise on a Dutch list, but I’ll repeat it here:
    I happily volunteer to beta-test any new firmware with (an attempt to) fix the 3G/hub bug.
    Anyway, I have no trouble at all to reproduce it, with any combination of 3 modems en 2 hubs ;-)

    greetings Jos Meijer

  39. Matthijs Says:

    2.3.6.1 will not fix the 3G / hub bug (we haven’t figured that one out yet and I still need to get a 3G modem to reproduce the problem). I have added you to the CC list of http://trac.fonosfera.org/fon-ng/ticket/428 to keep you updated, though.

  40. Marco J Says:

    I can also volunteer to reproduce and test for the 3G / hub bug. I’ve been a beta tester for a previous release, so it wont be a problem at all.

  41. Jack0 Says:

    Please~Please dear Santa Claus. Bring me a fon 2203 with a working
    and implementet:

    Mediaserver-Mediaserver-Mediaserver-Mediaserver-Mediaserver.

  42. Santa Says:

    Ho, ho, ho!!!… Keep waiting

  43. t031 Says:

    Guess we are all eagerly awaiting news. Don’t tell me you went on vacation with all this half done….

  44. Matthijs Says:

    Nope, I’m still here. But we’re having a bit of trouble with the build on our special buildbot, so the RC isn’t there yet…

  45. t031 Says:

    Appreciate your effort Matthijs, and I have to say I rather wait a little longer than having to put up with a unfinished firmware again.

  46. wouter Says:

    I’m glad I have sold my expensive F2N in 2009.
    In the meanwhile, promised features don’t exist.
    http://www.fon.com/en/product/fonera2nCompare
    And even basic functions for each wireless device, like wireless surfing without anyone message of ‘bad internet configuration’ aren’t working.

  47. Jack0 Says:

    I was glad, if i had done the same. But now i have a 2g and a 2n and the promised features…. I have to wait.
    I just want to have a mediaserver and a storage device on my router.

  48. Jack0 Says:

    If i would find an easy to use instruction for openwrt i would install it on my 2g and 2n.

  49. Paulo Lino Says:

    Hi,

    How much longer will it take for you to provide 2.3.6.1?

    Best regards,
    PJ

  50. Matthijs Says:

    Just a short update: We’ve started testing 2.3.6.1 last week and things look good so far. I hope to get the final version out early next week.

  51. Oscar Says:

    Looking forward to a media server like Boxee, a jdownloader download manager and an irc server. Maybe I am asking too much. Okay can’t wait to see what next week unleash.

  52. Andrea Says:

    I am not very satisfied of the stability of my fonera 2n, of the bugs it have and the lack of updates during the last months.
    But I want to be trusting on you… I’ll give you all the time you ask, and hope to see various bug fixing first and new features soon. As others have asked before, an updated transmission, a mediaserver, if possible a jdownloader application too.

    Keep working hard on it, ok? I want to believe in fon… I hope to see some news soon…

  53. simon Says:

    I have only seen the “Your internet..” when my cousin had connected his pc to the fonera. We were playing via LAN for some days, and while surfing, we got kicked out of the ´net for no reason at all. He is using Vista 64, I use win7 64..
    I use my fonera for several months now, no Problems at all; (i only use it for surfing, i gave up on the extra features some while ago..) I regularly connect to it with my iphone, my pc, even my reciever and playstation. No “your internet… ” screen. Only my cousin´s pc made it appear unregularly. Perhaps a vista-thing? Or perhaps my cousins´ pc tried to establish too many connections and made the router crash due to overload.. i don´t know.

    Since you are digging into the problem : good luck with fixing it. Hope to hear of some some improvements in the near future.

  54. burton Says:

    1 week = 2 months…

  55. Berndt Liljeroth Says:

    How close is it to a new firmware?
    I really like this router, but some small bugs make it hard to use (sometimes impossible).

  56. Josemi Says:

    It might be released today if everything goes well :)

  57. Anto M Says:

    maybe we should hope for tomorrow…

  58. Berndt Liljeroth Says:

    If everything goes well….

  59. Josemi Says:

    @Berndt Liljeroth
    Just clarify you that the firmware is ready since some hours ago.But there is a problem related to the upload to the download server, it will be released and announced here as soon as possible.

    Greetings.

  60. Anto M Says:

    Well !! I hope have been resolved many bugs.
    what ‘s new in the new firmware you know?
    thanks

  61. JoepieNL Says:

    Fantastic; I can’t wait ! A problem related to the upload to the downloadserver … ? Out of space ?

  62. Josemi Says:

    @Anto M

    I didn´t test the final build yet, but yes a previous one.

    I can say you that (unless in my point of view), this will be the better release since the Fonera 2.0g launch.Because it fixes the most important router-funtionality bugs.Although I have a preliminar complete changelog, I will say you that you can see (some) of the improvements here: http://j.mp/c3ENwz

    @JoepieNL

    Not, isn´t out of space problem :-P

    Best regards,
    Josemi

  63. Matthijs Says:

    Thanks for keeping people updated, Josemi, I got a bit occupied by real life :-)

    Anyway, the upload isn’t broken, but there’s a lot of people on vacation, so it’s a bit hard to find someone with access _and_ a working VPN connection right now. I don’t have access myself. So, I can’t give any definitive answer, but if Iurgi manages to find a different internet connection he can upload them. I hope for tomorrow :-)

  64. JoepieNL Says:

    Oh brother…. bureaucrazy…

    no work tomorrow; ideal moment for experimenting; nowhere to download haha.

    Alright we’ll be patient once again but seriously; put a link to the flippin file on this page and many like me will be very happily toying around with the upgraded firmware. You can upload to ehhh 100 different free rapidshareclones for free… oh wait: protocol….. shoot !

    A pity though. We’ve waited so long already.

  65. T031 Says:

    terrific, the perfect example why the Spanish economy is going to hell…
    Everyone on vacation and they leave the only one who is actually working and dedicated without upload authorization. Well done FON well done!!!!
    I feel you Matthijs.

  66. Anto M Says:

    I can’t wait!
    can you upload it on megaupload for a test? xD

  67. Josemi Says:

    Anto M, it has been alredy released.See the blog home page ;-)

  68. Anto M Says:

    ooh thanks Josemi!!!
    I start work =)

  69. GG Says:

    I installed the Beta 2.3.7.0 and now twitter works like a charm!! Well done :) All the other functionalities are working as well!!

  70. Ton Says:

    Fonera now at half a meter of Laptop.
    Only N.
    WLan speed 3-4.5 MBps and not stable.
    Lan speed 10-10.5 MBps.
    When will there be an update?

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