A serial connection is a good idea on these particular devices. 

I looked at the configuration on my router and see that I had disabled the vlan related configs.  I don't remember specifically, but I seem to recall they're wrong and cause the networking on the device to fail. 

Here is what I commented out:

#config 'switch_vlan' 'eth0_0'
#    option 'device' 'eth0'
#    option 'vlan' '0'
#    option 'ports' '1 2 3 4 5'

#config 'switch_vlan' 'eth0_1'
#    option 'device' 'eth0'
#    option 'vlan' '1'
#    option 'ports' '0 5'

I've got another of these routers that I'm going to fire up within the next few days.  I'll see if the standard Backfire image works right off the bad after disabling the vlan configs.

FYI...
Its a PHR-4 connector housing, and you need the contacts which go in it...
you would also need some wire/ribbon cable...

you need to order these parts for the serial connector...
http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/353281 … phr-4.html
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea … -2148-1-ND

References... which helped in finding this information...

http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/q … erial.html
My Fiskars Stainless Steel Ruler and the internet...

Hey guys, I was wondering if the dilemma of getting Backfire working on this router was solved?  It sounds like maybe it needs to be compiled on a Linux desktop (maybe 32bit) and that the pre-compiled binaries aren't working? 

I have a somewhat unique situation.  I am trying to get a 3rd party BCM 4321 wireless mini-pci card working in this router.  I don't need anything fancy, just vanilla router stuff (including whatever add-ins I need for good wireless security, i.e. WPA/WPA2). I am used to a nice'n'easy web interface (a la DD WRT) so any tips you guys can give on getting this beast working (which kmods to use, if any, for instance) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

When I first got this router I installed DDWRT and it worked fine.  Only the wireless card didn't work.  So if you've replaced the mini-pci card you should be okay.

Regarding Backfire, it probably has the same issue as Kamikaze... the vlans aren't setup correctly.  So it probably assigns the default 192.168.1.1 address to a non-existent interface.  The solution is to either:
a. use a 3.3V TTY cable to manually fix
b. create or obtain an image with the fix, upgrade if necessary.

If you don't know how to create the image you can always use the one I'm hosting on my box.net account.  This image is Kamikaze not Backfire... but I suspect you'll be able to upgrade without issue.

It's about time for another project on a F5D8230-4 V1002.

I've been considering 11n cards of late, and think I found one that will work that isn't too gawd-awful expensive:

Sparklan WMIA-199N Mini-PCI Card 802.11a/g/n

Just ordered one today, should be shipped (and man, did I get _gouged_ on shipping for a mini-pci card!) within the next few days.  What I liked about that particular card is that it utilizes 3 antennae and has dual radios (Atheros AR9160 & AR9106).  It was ~$67 including shipping.

Something I noticed when looking through the mini-pci cards at Pasadena Networks was the current draw on some of the cards was somewhat high, which stands to reason on more powerful cards.  Looking at the power supply I have on the Belkin now that wouldn't have worked out very well, as it is only rated at 1 amp.  The Sparklan is rated at 600 mA at full TX/RX, as opposed to a Ubiquiti SR71-A, which draws 1.25A in certain configurations.  600 mA might be too much, too, don't know.  I'm not sure what the processor power utilization is.  Eh, we'll find out soon enough, I suppose.  I haven't checked to see what the draw is on the Atheros card is I have installed on a F5D8230 now.

I also picked up three U.fl to RP-TNC female pigtails, and three 2.4 / 4.9 / 5.8 GHz Tri Band Rubber Duck antennae for this little project.  The antennae are only rated at  3 dBi @2.4 GHz, 5 dBi @ 5 GHz for gain, which isn't terribly high, but the equipment with which they will communicate will be in relatively close proximity, so that really shouldn't be an issue.  The pigtails and antennae totaled out to be $68.

That leaves me $135 into this little project as it stands.  I spent about $22 on the second F5D8230 I bought last year, and there will be some small miscellaneous costs in adding a serial port.  The total on the project will be somewhere around $160, perhaps a bit more.  I might go with a serial - bluetooth converter for the serial interface.  I ordered a few of those boards. 

I won't use the existing antennae on the Belkin as those are only for the 2.4Ghz band.  Rubber duck antennae for the 5Ghz band aren't especially common, or at least that didn't appear to be the case in my searches.  It took a bit of time to find something suitable. 

I like this platform as the board/sheetmetal enclosure are fairly robust, and it allows enough room to install just about any mini-pci card I would want to install.  The only drawback is the 10/100 switch, as opposed to a gigabit switch.  In time I'll consider relegating this to solely a WIFI device, and buy a router/switch for that duty.

I'll post some pictures once I get it set up.

I thought I would add that I'm not going to be following up on the module for the 2.6 kernel for the Airgo card that comes with the F5D8230-4 V1002 (as if the time since I mentioned I wanted to work on it wasn't enough indication).  I worked on it for a bit, but as I recall, I found that there was a considerable difference in how the 2.6 kernel handles wireless versus the 2.4 kernel.  I can't recall the details, but it would have taken me a long time.  I don't write code at that level, but have done some work along those lines.  I probably could have come up with something that worked, but not very well.  There's enough fully functioning gear out there that I couldn't see any point in trying to resurrect that card, although I will say that Airgo card seemed to have a pretty good reputation, especially for how early it came out (somewhere around 2004 IIRC).

I just picked up a F5D8230-4 V1002 for $7 USD. What I want to do is use it as one end of a WiFi bridge or extension with a F5D7230-4 V6002. (Also bought for $7 USD.)

Plain crazy that this fancy unit doesn't have support for WDS in the firmware. There's a wireless_bridge.html and (apparently non-functional) settings hidden in an older EU version firmware. Apparently Belkin was planning on updating it to support WDS then decided not to.

What I don't want to do is start lobbing lots of money at this. Instead of changing the Mini PCI card I could just go find another F5D7230-4.

I'm still using my V1002! 

Looking back, I'm sure the reason I had problems connecting to the device previously was the VLANs on the switch side of the AP weren't set up correctly.  If I had a connection on the serial port initially way back in '09, I'd have seen that then.

Either way, replacing the pre-N card and compiling a custom OpenWRT image has worked out very well. 

But, although it's performing very well, it's getting old.  Considering the AP first appeared in ~'03, it's getting very old.  I'm getting to the point of which I have too much gigabit equipment here and that little bitty switch obviously doesn't help that cause.  Might buy a small managed switch and fire up the Belkin on that, but I also have OpenWRT installed on a Ubiquiti NanoStation2, which is about as stable as anything I've dealt with up to this point. 

Then again, that is also only 'G'.  I've been watching a bug report on OpenWRT regarding Atheros 'N' cards that affects a OpenWRT install I have on another Belkin F5D8230 I have as I experienced the same problem.  Could just buy a non-Atheros card I suppose.  But I'd still have a situation where I'm not using gigabit connections for my network.  My network is small, don't do file transfers often and honestly it's not really an issue for the most part.  I use VMs almost exclusively. 

Eh, the Belkin might yet live.  Although it might be time to look for a new project, too.  I'd like to find a board that has a conventional miniPCI slot like that one.