Back Up Settings on Truemobile 2300?

Very interesting -- I also have multiple 2300s (just two), and it was the bridging that made the settings disappear.  Before adding the bridge, the router was rock solid.  Seems like bridging inserts some ugly instability into the unit...

It would be nice if Dell would provide a firmware update that allows for backup of the 2300. I know that Netgear and a couple of others have this.

No, There is no option on the 2300 to backup your settings. I've lost settings also, mainly while trying to setup a 3 system bridge. I never had a problem with the previous firmware, but the latest version is a bit buggy.

One thing that I've been very careful about is unplugging the box to reset it. Sometimes all of the lights except the power light will come on, and stay on for up to 2 minutes. I would think something got hung up, and pull the power again.. this was usually how I'd loose my settings. If you wait for a couple of minutes more, the system MAY come up, and your settings will still be there. Note that I said MAY. I have 9 2300s, and I've had to rebuild each of them at least once so far.

On the plus side, I know the setup procedures by heart now. I'll be thinking twice before buying any more of them unless Dell gets off their asses long enough to provide decent documentation and better config options.

Brian 

Agreed. Since the fine folks at Dell can't seem to get decent documentation about how to bridge, everyone is attempting to use different setting to get it to work. I think that's why the machine "reboots".  I know I tried multiple variations of MAC addresses before figuring out which need to be in there.. even using just 2 routers.

Brian

Maybe you can take a quick gander at my settings to see if they're similar to yours?  Here's my setup:

2300 set as Router

     - Bridging enabled in Advanced Wireless.  Slot #1 has the AP's LAN MAC.  Slot #2 is left blank but fills itself with 00 after saving.
     - In both b & g mode.

2300 set as AP

     - Bridging enabled in Advanced Wireless.  Slot #1 has the Router's LAN MAC.  Slot #2 is left blank but fills itself with 00 after saving.
     - In both b & g mode.
     - DHCP is turned off.
     - Gateway is set to off (so the AP will search for the router).

The SSID is the same for both; channel is set to 10 for both.  I turn everything off.  Then I turn the AP on, wait thirty seconds.  Then I turn the router on, and in about 2 minutes, on the Status page, I see "TrueMobile 2300" in the DHCP page.

But the connection between the router and the AP is not very reliable...I have to reboot everything about three times a week...in that exact order.  If I turn the router on first, forget it -- it doesn't ever work.

Message Edited by sjwoo on 07-20-2004 04:30 PM

The way that I got the 2 AP bridge to work was to make sure the settings (SSID, channel, IP, Admin username/pass, WEP key (Forget about Tkip/AES.. could never make it work)) are the same. I haven't tested with the broadcast turned off, but I will shortly.

AP with internet is the Gateway, the other AP is in Acess Point mode. The Gateway uses the WAN MAC address of the other AP's, and the other AP's use the LAN Mac of the Gateway.

Placement is very important between the units. Place the bridged AP at a place where your laptop shows at least a Good connection to the Gateway. It makes sense.. if you have a Low connection to the Gateway from a certain point, putting a bridged AP there won't allow it to pass data to the gateway any better than your laptop would with the same connection.

I have noticed that it takes a little while for the AP's to start talking, but I've never had a problem with leaving the gateway on while I positioned the bridged AP.

Brian