[CharlesS]

Okay, I have a LinkSys wireless 802.11g router. Its firmware is version 1.02.1. Of course, now that the final version of the 802.11g spec is available, LinkSys has posted a firmware update to version 1.30.1 on their website.

Okay, so why not update? Well, here's the catch - I've got AppleTalk networking and AT printing working perfectly over the wireless network, and, as many people on here will probably remember from a few months ago, there are a legion of people that swear up and down that AppleTalk absolutely does not work over wireless on a LinkSys router. Of course, others claim that AppleTalk is encapsulated in TCP/IP, so it should work with anything, but others say that it absolutely hasn't worked for them in their own experience.

So basically, since AppleTalk is working for me where for most people it doesn't, I'm a bit afraid to touch the firmware and risk destroying this delicate balance of nature. So, I was wondering if anyone has a LinkSys 802.11g router (WRT54G) which has been updated to the latest 1.30.1 firmware, and if so, if you could maybe try an AppleTalk connection over wireless with either two computers or one computer and a printer and let me know if it works so that I could update with peace of mind. If someone is able to do this, I will be greatly appreciative.

Thanks,
Charles

[John Strung]

You can share files using AppleTalk over TCP/IP with any wireless router, but that requires at least OS 9. Where you run into problems is if you are trying to use classic Appletalk with OS 8.6 or older, which does not support AppleTalk over TCP/IP.

As far as printing goes, are you sure you are printing using AppleTalk and not using LPR? Again, it is classic AppleTalk printing that causes problems with some wireless routers, but if you use LPR printing (addressing the printer by an IP number rather than an AppleTalk address) you should have no problems.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by John Strung:
You can share files using AppleTalk over TCP/IP with any wireless router, but that requires at least OS 9. Where you run into problems is if you are trying to use classic Appletalk with OS 8.6 or older, which does not support AppleTalk over TCP/IP.

As far as printing goes, are you sure you are printing using AppleTalk and not using LPR? Again, it is classic AppleTalk printing that causes problems with some wireless routers, but if you use LPR printing (addressing the printer by an IP number rather than an AppleTalk address) you should have no problems.

It's a LaserWriter IIg. According to Mactracker, this printer model was introduced in October 1991 and discontinued in October 1993. AFAIK it supports AppleTalk only and not LPR, and chronologically it predates OS 9 (and even OS 8) by quite a good span of time. Ancient stuff, but it gets the job done. And I'm able to print to it from a laptop over wireless. Don't ask me how - it just works. But I'm scared to update my router's firmware because of the prospect of losing this...

[ghporter]

Here's what to do:

First, pour over the release notes for the new firmware. If there is anything that's new that you NEED, or anything FIXED that wasn't working for you AND YOU NEED, then you'll want to at least try the update. If not, don't even think about updating the firmware.

If you want to try the update, first write down every single setting in the router's setup, whether or not it's a default. I don't know of any Linksys routers that allow you to save their configurations, so writing them down is the only way to go. Note that firmware updates usually also set the admin password to the factory default as well.

Now, download and save the current firmware version. You can usually find a long history of firmware on Linksys' FTP server. Finally, download and save the new version.

At this point you can go ahead with the update. When it has successfully finished, apply all of your settings and then thoroughly test the router to see if you can do what you want with it. If ANYTHING you used to be able to do is broken, recheck your settings very carefully, try rebooting or resetting the router, and finally fall back to the older firmware (see why I said to save the current version?).