Hello,

I upgraded to v4 about 2 months ago and had updated the key. Then two days ago I log in through winbox and it says i have 24 hours to upgrade my key. I tried to update it in the pop up window but it kept failing. I also wasn't able to contact support fast enough to get a new key so that it didn't lock down. So the problem I am having now is that I cannot connect through the serial port to get netinstall to work. Nothing seems to come up on the hyperterminal screen when I reboot the routerboard and I have tried it with, and without, hardware flow control. I cannot seem to see the router with winbox by trying to see the mac address, or by putting in the old IP address. I would really appreciate any help at all with this, as this router is in a very important location. Thank you very much in advance for anything you can do for me.

James

RouterBoot is the first stage of booting and doesn't require a license. It is like the BIOS of a PC and is also referred to as firmware or bootloader. If you don't see anything on the serial port then either it might have become corrupted or you might have a bad baud rate setting, serial cable, etc.

You need a working RouterBoot before you can install RouterOS with NetInstall.

Have you tested your serial setup on another RouterBoard to make sure it is not a cable or baud rate issue?

You can get the firmware file on www.routerboard.com. Select the RouterBoard and you will see the firmware file to download.

Here is a wiki page that talks about uploading a new bootloader.

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Bootloader_upgrade

As a last resort, you can use the xmodem method. I have done this to bring a few RouterBoards back to life.

Good luck,

Tom

Thank you for the information. What is the baud rate I should be using? It is possible that I have the wrong cable as it was hard to find one on xmas =/. Thank you again for everything.

James

The default is 115200 baud.

Thank you for the information. What is the baud rate I should be using? It is possible that I have the wrong cable as it was hard to find one on xmas =/. Thank you again for everything.

James

The default for most RouterBoards is 115K; the RB230 default is 9600. The baud rate can be changed in RouterBoot. I would try 115K first and 9600 second as those are the two most common standards. You don't need any flow control.

The cable is a crossover cable. The cable I use is a Cisco rollover cable with DB9 adapter. They are common and easy to find since Cisco ships one of these cables with every router and switch. There are many clones of this cable made in China.

The cable looks like this:

http://www.roc-noc.com/product.php?prod ... t=8&page=1

Good luck,

Tom