Enabling SSH on the Fonera+
Introduction
The Fonera is a small device based on OpenWRT that allows you to distribute WiFi (HotSpot). To learn more, I invite you to visit the official website. In short, it is possible to play a bit more with the basic functions, which is why I tackled SSH access on this device.
Important: Any firmware modification can take 10 minutes to update. So don't reboot before that!
Prerequisites
- A web server
Apache will do fine... (on Mac: /Library/WebServer/Documents)
- Remember to turn off your firewall during the process
- Perl and the perl-Net-Telnet dependency:
Open cpan and do:
- Install fping:
or on Mac:
- This perl file redboot.pl to be placed in the root of your web server
- The firmware which is also to be placed in the root of your web server
- A direct network connection with the Fonera (via its WAN port, the black one)
- Configure your IP address to 192.168.1.254
Flashing with the New Firmware
Launch the redboot.pl script that you downloaded like this:
Once the connection is established, specify the Fonera's IP:
then type:
You should see something like this:
Wait until the flashing is complete. A quick reboot:
You should now have SSH access to your Fonera :-):
FAQ
The redboot script cannot find my Fonera
Make sure the POWER light is on. If not, unplug the Fonera for 10 seconds and then plug it back in!
FON_ATTENTION_PLEASE_CONNECT
When I scan the WiFi at home, I discover an unencrypted SSID called "FON_ATTENTION_PLEASE_CONNECT". This is a failed flashing. So you need to download the official firmware from the official site to restore the original firmware.
Connect to this signal and then type https://192.168.1.1. Now, upload the firmware and you will see something like this:
Updating personal config from FON
Just after flashing your Fonera+ will reset with factory default settings. You can verify this by going into your HTTP console on 192.168.10.1
To update your config, log on to www.fon.com, and access userzone. Select your router, and update WLAN private and public SSID names. If you don't want to change the name, please just change one letter, click on "update" button, and change again to the right name. For the private WLAN: change the WEP/WPA key encryption using the same method.
Fon.com servers will send the new config to your Fonera+. Wait a few minutes and check in your local HTTP console. You don't need to reboot.
Registered or not?
If your Fonera+ has been registered before the SSH-unlock, check on your local HTTP console status if all is OK. If the logo displayed is "your Fonera+ has not been registered", it is important to change this parameter to give access to users on your public WLAN.
To do this, open SSH console:
Reboot your Fonera+, connect again to your HTTP local console, and verify the change to the logo: "Your Fonera is registered OK"
Bandwidth, QoS, transfer rate
Once your Fonera+ is running, configured and registered, check your transfer rate on all ports!
Default settings in original FON firmware 1.1.1r1 are 1024kb/s for download and 128kb for upload (WAN port).
Adjust these settings to your ISP speed line, in this example 2048kbs for D/L and 256 kbs for U/L.
Reboot and perform a new speed transfer test on WLAN and LAN.
Disable FON QoS service (not recommended):