jprknight

Thought I would come back on this one and add airdrop-ng is also in included in backtrack 4 RC1.

I just had to come back and post. After leaving my Fon as not much more than a brick for a couple of weeks I can back to it and started the whole flash thing again. This time I was able to ping and use open tftp from Windows 7, whetheras previously it was a no show. Very strange. Anyway one thing is for sure. The serial port is pretty much essential for someone like me. :) Flash fon, f*ck with all manner of settings, flash fon... etc etc.

I think it was a lot to do with Windows 7 as well. I closed down my AV & Windows Firewall. Went through and stopped as many services as I could which I thought were relevant, but still the fon could not ping the tftp host. So it was a great relief when back track just worked. I have a new found respect for linux today :)

Hi all, So I order the cable as per Digininja's fon serial cable page and and hey presto redboot. Interestingly Open TFTP Server on Windows 7 gave me no end of pain. The built in TFTP within backtrack worked first time. Picture of my now working pl2303 custom made USB to Serial cable. Lesson learned, there are different serial cables out there. Play it say and go with DigiNinja's example. Then again I am probably the only person on this board stupid enough to try out a different cable in the first place. http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/8560/im...01008261058.jpg Thanks to everyone for their help, I am now up and running, and sharing my internet to all my new friends. :) jprknight

Thanks for the info. Sorry I got stuck on the project page which did not include a download link. Thanks again, j

Hi all, I have been looking around for a place to get airdrop-ng and it seems there is none? Is this true or does someone have a link? Thanks, jprknight

Ok guys I have ordered one up. So hopefully by mid next week I should be seeing some redboot.

I know tell me about it. Ok I am going to order one of those puppies up. I thought it looks very much like the cable you have in your serial cable page.

Hey Sparda, Thanks for suggesting this, unfortunately I would not know where to begin with this process. I think my cable is completely wrong. jprknight

Hi Guys, I have put the positive on transmit and the ground on ground an I get a negative intication. Reversing the multimeter connectors and I get 5v. So it looks like the pl2303 cable I bought is not good for Fon work. I have found this on ebay: http://tinyurl.com/2epv52n is this the kind of cable anyone has used before, or should I go buy something else? Thanks, jprknight

Hi Emeryth - Yes I have checked the voltage on my ground cable from the fon connector to the connector which is plugged into my serial cable. Looks ok. The USB - Serial cable I have bought from ebay is here: http://tinyurl.com/2w5g267 Has anyone else been able to use one of these cables successfully? It is described as a USB to serial rs-232 db-9 adapter cable. It echoes back input when I connect Rx and Tx; at this point I am in doubt wether the cable is giving me proper ground. The only thing which makes me think it does is the fact I only get garbage characters when I connect it. Without the ground I get no output when the fon boots from putty connected into the com port.

Just fired up my Windows XP desktop and got the same results. I had thought perhaps Windows 7 was interupting the process even though I have tried running as administrator. hmm.

Tried out the various standard values I found, none of which made things better.

Yeah I just read on some random website garbage is most commonly caused by the wrong baud rate, perhaps the manufacturer has decided to change this? Is there a list of standard values to try out? hmm google.

I have just connected one cable from the Tx on the Fon to the Rx on the serial cable, along with the ground and I get garbage as in my previous post. If I power on without the ground or power on the ground shortly after powering up the fon I get nothing.

Ok I seem to be making progress. 1. plug in the serial connector. 2. power the fon. 3. Connect the usb end of my serial-usb cable into my laptop. 4. connect to com4 with putty. I now see: Léô{˵¿§¿¿sac¿5¿5=9/£åë ¿u59-#1¿;!!¿9-#¿¿59!#7¿¥¿5#5Cy¿!¿=;!ëCÿCÿCÿCÿCÿ»ÿ­ÿ«ÓÓ !¿3-¿'!=7¿¥;¿¿'!=75ë«ÓÓ !¿1!¿åës=-'=35¿'!=75£ëåëg!!)-#1¿3!;!=¿9!#3-1¿7==£££¿3!#7¿=¿!335¿=3åë[55¿;!#¿q_ma¿åë[5=7-#1¿3'=/¿3=¿!¿=;9=5£££¿ Cÿ is me pressing enter to try and make the thing work. I have read in other posts this kind of thing would hint a ground problem. So I got my multimeter again and tested the cable from the connection on my fon to the connection on the back of my db9 connector and it is good. I have also tested with the waiting a couple of seconds and i still end up with garbage instead of real text. Any thoughts?

ok thanks. I am going to carry on playing over the weekend. I will try the latest driver from prolific.

I sure do. I think these are the defaults in Putty anyhow. I also have the flow control set to none. Sparda was previously talking about different types of serial cables. Do you know of anyway to confirm the ground pin?

I just booted up the Fon+ with nothing attached and the myplace wirelesss network came up. Connected to the web interface and all looks good. Lights on and everything normal. So I know I have not fried the board in my attempts thus far.

Hi guys, Thanks for your suggestions. I only have the one serial cable which I bought on ebay. I have just put a mobo jumper on pins 2 and 3 and sure enough I get my input echoed back to me 100%. So I now know I have the correct serial cable and I believe I have my cables wired into my serial port in the right configuration. Here is my wiring setup http://yfrog.com/mrimg00017201008200925j does it look correct? My black cable is ground, which I have in pin 5 on the serial cable, running through my switch and onto the left most connector on the Fon board. White is Rx and goes from pin 2 on the serial cable to the second from the left on the Fon board. Red is Tx and goes from pin 3 on the serial cable to the third from the left on the Fon board. Having said all of this I am still struggling to get a connection. I have left off the ground for a couple of seconds. Let the Fon boot and then connect the serial. I have also left off the ground waiting for the start out the output, but nothing comes. I think at this point I must have missed something pretty small, but big enough to stop the whole shotting match. Anymore suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks, jprknight.

Just went over the cables I have made and the switch with my multimeter and they are all ok.

Hi all, I feel like a complete idiot. I have just bought a Fon+ and a pl2303 serial to USB cable. I have then put together the three cables from the board to a rs232 female connector with a switch on the ground line. No matter how many times I have tried I cannot get a connection to the device through any com port, using Putty. I have installed the drivers for the pl2303, and as I plug it into each USB port it is recognised as a different com port number. I have only tried Windows 7 so far. Anyone have any experiences with windows 7 and this particular task? Thanks, jprknight

Does anyone have a diagram of the pins I should connect Rx, Tx, ground to on a db9 connector? I want to use the pl2303 as this seems the cheapest and easiest way. However I am open to suggestions if anyone else has another serial/USB cable solution in mind. Answered my own question here: http://www.aggsoft.com/rs232-pinout-cable/...al-port-db9.htm 2 RXD Receive Data 3 TXD Transmit Data 5 GND System Ground

Yeah I have seen some people do this. Thanks DN. :)

Hey, I have been reading and looking all over peoples solutions to this problem. The most interesting is connecting the Rx and Tx before power-on and then shortly after power-on then connecting the ground cable. Has anyone just left the connectors all on, closed their fon so no more fiddling, and then been able to connect in via the serial connection? Thanks, jprknight