Getting the Pineapple Tetra to work with Windows

[Pineapple_N00b]

Alright, I'll be that guy. I'm assuming this process is so easy that no doc was needed and I just missed something weird. You guys help me out and if we think a doc is needed, I agree to write it.

Unboxed the Tetra, and plugged up the y cable. Since the first step seems to be firmware related, I also plugged in the wall power.

Opened a browser (tried Chrome and Firefox) and went to 172.16.42.1:1471. No joy.

Verified that middle LED is solid blue, so I'm assuming unit is "booted".

Try again. No joy.

Tried the other micro USB port, same process. No joy.

Tried to connect up an ethernet cable. The video I found for the Mark V said it would hand out a DHCP address, but no joy. Hard coded myself as 172.16.42.2/24. No joy in the browser again. But I do notice a yellow/amber light. Progress? Don't know.

Tried pinging it (I don't know the product well enough yet to know if ICMP is on or off). No reply.

Turned on wireless adapter on my computer and I see a pineapple related SSID. Connect up, get to the unit through the browser, update the firmware, reboots. It advises turning off the wireless for security during setup. Well crap. Figure I have to not be afraid to play with this crap right? Turn it off (basically briefly hold down the reset button, instead of a long hold) and when it reboots, no wireless.

Go through the whole thing again.

I am plugged into the wall, I have tried the Y cable to both ports, and I have tried an ethernet cable. I don't seem to be able to get to this joker except through wireless.

No biggie, I'm sure I can SSH or telnet or something to it. Look through the forums and it appears there is SSH capability. Download Putty. Without more to go on, I leave Putty at default (more than happy to make changes if anyone has something like, "Oh it HAS to be SSH v1"). SSH to 172.16.42.1, timeout. No joy. I try to get to is serial. Like I would to console into a Cisco switch. No joy. No timeout, but no joy.

No ping, that may be expected, no SSH, no HTTP, but I have a feeling if I reset it and turn back on wifi, I'll get in. Can anyone help me get past this first little hurdle? Like I said, I'll doc it. I have to be missing something stupid. You guys have to realize that us Windows users need a little hand holding right? :)

Holler.

Oh yeah, one more thing. If I unplug the wall power, the lights go out. Maybe my USB ports are both bad?

Sorry guys, I'm just not sure yet how to troubleshoot this unit any more to tell you what is and isn't working. All I really notice is the LED is either on or off.

I just reset it and sure enough, I can get to it over wifi.

[sud0nick]

I'm glad you did a lot to troubleshoot and documented that here but I think you did too much. Simply plug the USB Y cable into your computer (assuming your USB ports aren't dead), wait a few minutes, and you should see a new network adapter appear on your system that says "Realtek USB FE Family Controller". You may need to disable your main internet connection at first to get to the Pineapple. What I mean is sometimes I can leave both my WiFi interface and the Pineapple interface on and still get to 172.16.42.1. At other times I have to disable my WiFi interface for Windows to understand I want to go to the 172.16 network and not my 192.168 network. From there you should be able to get into the web interface and set everything up normally.

[InfiniteDevelopment]

Alright, I'll be that guy. I'm assuming this process is so easy that no doc was needed and I just missed something weird. You guys help me out and if we think a doc is needed, I agree to write it.

Unboxed the Tetra, and plugged up the y cable. Since the first step seems to be firmware related, I also plugged in the wall power.

Opened a browser (tried Chrome and Firefox) and went to 172.16.42.1:1471. No joy.

Verified that middle LED is solid blue, so I'm assuming unit is "booted".

Try again. No joy.

Tried the other micro USB port, same process. No joy.

Tried to connect up an ethernet cable. The video I found for the Mark V said it would hand out a DHCP address, but no joy. Hard coded myself as 172.16.42.2/24. No joy in the browser again. But I do notice a yellow/amber light. Progress? Don't know.

Tried pinging it (I don't know the product well enough yet to know if ICMP is on or off). No reply.

Turned on wireless adapter on my computer and I see a pineapple related SSID. Connect up, get to the unit through the browser, update the firmware, reboots. It advises turning off the wireless for security during setup. Well crap. Figure I have to not be afraid to play with this crap right? Turn it off (basically briefly hold down the reset button, instead of a long hold) and when it reboots, no wireless.

Go through the whole thing again.

I am plugged into the wall, I have tried the Y cable to both ports, and I have tried an ethernet cable. I don't seem to be able to get to this joker except through wireless.

No biggie, I'm sure I can SSH or telnet or something to it. Look through the forums and it appears there is SSH capability. Download Putty. Without more to go on, I leave Putty at default (more than happy to make changes if anyone has something like, "Oh it HAS to be SSH v1"). SSH to 172.16.42.1, timeout. No joy. I try to get to is serial. Like I would to console into a Cisco switch. No joy. No timeout, but no joy.

No ping, that may be expected, no SSH, no HTTP, but I have a feeling if I reset it and turn back on wifi, I'll get in. Can anyone help me get past this first little hurdle? Like I said, I'll doc it. I have to be missing something stupid. You guys have to realize that us Windows users need a little hand holding right? :)

Holler.

Oh yeah, one more thing. If I unplug the wall power, the lights go out. Maybe my USB ports are both bad?

Sorry guys, I'm just not sure yet how to troubleshoot this unit any more to tell you what is and isn't working. All I really notice is the LED is either on or off.

I just reset it and sure enough, I can get to it over wifi.

Hey thats a weird bug you have there. If you are connected via USB and AC then you disconnect AC and USB is all that remains, the blue light should still light up.

The fact that you aren't getting a route to the gui(172.16.41.1) and the pineapple isnt staying powered when unplugged lends me to think you want to either check your USB 3.0 ports or your pineapple USB port for damage and power consumption.

Edited February 17, 2016 by InfiniteDevelopment

[xrad]

Are you sure you set your Tetra adapter to IPv4 172.16.42.42 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 8.8.8.8? Make sure to share your Internet adapter first,

https://hak5.org/episodes/pineapple-university/windows-internet-connection-sharing-wifi-pineapple-mark-v-pineapple-university

Edited February 17, 2016 by xrad

[InfiniteDevelopment]

Are you sure you set your Tetra adapter to IPv4 172.16.42.42 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 8.8.8.8? Make sure to share your Internet adapter first,

https://hak5.org/episodes/pineapple-university/windows-internet-connection-sharing-wifi-pineapple-mark-v-pineapple-university

Yes xrad I have done all of that except the gateway 8.8.8.8 thing. I think I am using 192.168.1.254 or .0.254 should I change to 8.8.8.8?

[xrad]

It's worth a shot......I don't know for sure.... I always use 8.8.8.8

[InfiniteDevelopment]

It's worth a shot......I don't know for sure.... I always use 8.8.8.8

Gonna give it a shot once I leave the corporate chicken coop lol. Thanks xrad! I will let you know how it works out.

[xrad]

Good luck

[Pineapple_N00b]

>> Simply plug the USB Y cable into your computer (assuming your USB ports aren't dead), wait a few minutes, and you should

>> see a new network adapter appear on your system that says "Realtek USB FE Family Controller".

Unfortunately, I don't. And I just tried it again. I plug in the USB cable and no lights. Wait for 2 minutes, still no lights. Plug in wall power and lights almost immediately. Maybe hardware? I'll write in I guess.

>> Are you sure you set your Tetra adapter to IPv4 172.16.42.42 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 8.8.8.8?

I couldn't tell if that was directed at me (the OP) or Infinite Development. If me, then no. I can't get to it to set it. So right now, it is factory new basically. I have to admit though, if I was hard coding things, I would have the gateway somewhere on the same subnet. After I posted this, I saw that the gateway for the Tetra was .42. I tried to make my PC 172.16.42.42/24 and make the gateway .1 (the Tetra device). That didn't help either. I beginning to lean hardware. I just don't have enough experience to really troubleshoot it and be 100%.

If no one else has anything, I think I'll see about returning it. Thanks though.

[xrad]

>> Simply plug the USB Y cable into your computer (assuming your USB ports aren't dead), wait a few minutes, and you should

>> see a new network adapter appear on your system that says "Realtek USB FE Family Controller".

Unfortunately, I don't. And I just tried it again. I plug in the USB cable and no lights. Wait for 2 minutes, still no lights. Plug in wall power and lights almost immediately. Maybe hardware? I'll write in I guess.

>> Are you sure you set your Tetra adapter to IPv4 172.16.42.42 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 8.8.8.8?

I couldn't tell if that was directed at me (the OP) or Infinite Development. If me, then no. I can't get to it to set it. So right now, it is factory new basically. I have to admit though, if I was hard coding things, I would have the gateway somewhere on the same subnet. After I posted this, I saw that the gateway for the Tetra was .42. I tried to make my PC 172.16.42.42/24 and make the gateway .1 (the Tetra device). That didn't help either. I beginning to lean hardware. I just don't have enough experience to really troubleshoot it and be 100%.

If no one else has anything, I think I'll see about returning it. Thanks though.

It was for you, watch the full video, you should connect if you follow it

https://hak5.org/episodes/pineapple-university/windows-internet-connection-sharing-wifi-pineapple-mark-v-pineapple-university

[Darren Kitchen]

>> Simply plug the USB Y cable into your computer (assuming your USB ports aren't dead), wait a few minutes, and you should

>> see a new network adapter appear on your system that says "Realtek USB FE Family Controller".

Unfortunately, I don't. And I just tried it again. I plug in the USB cable and no lights. Wait for 2 minutes, still no lights. Plug in wall power and lights almost immediately. Maybe hardware? I'll write in I guess.

>> Are you sure you set your Tetra adapter to IPv4 172.16.42.42 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 8.8.8.8?

I couldn't tell if that was directed at me (the OP) or Infinite Development. If me, then no. I can't get to it to set it. So right now, it is factory new basically. I have to admit though, if I was hard coding things, I would have the gateway somewhere on the same subnet. After I posted this, I saw that the gateway for the Tetra was .42. I tried to make my PC 172.16.42.42/24 and make the gateway .1 (the Tetra device). That didn't help either. I beginning to lean hardware. I just don't have enough experience to really troubleshoot it and be 100%.

If no one else has anything, I think I'll see about returning it. Thanks though.

Sounds like your computer isn't offering enough power over the USB port for the TETRA. Try either of the following:

- Plug power into the TETRA from the wall adapter

- Plug a USB cable between your PC and the ETH port on the TETRA

- A new USB Ethernet adapter will appear (run lsusb and you'll see the Realtek)

- You'll notice a new Ethernet interface when you run ifconfig -a (e.g. eth1)

- When the TETRA finishes booting, you should receive an IP address in the 172.16.42.x range on that interface.

- If it does not, assign one manually (e.g. ifconfig eth1 172.16.42.42 netmask 255.255.255.0 up) *where eth1 == your TETRA interface

- From there you should be able to ping the device and navigate to the web UI at http://172.16.42.1:1471

- If your computer has additional USB ports, you can use them in conjunction with the supplied USB Y cables to supply the TETRA with additional power over both ETH and UART micro USB ports.

- If all else fails, plug the TETRA into the wall power and connect to it over WiFi. You'll notice an AP with the SSID "Pineapple_XXXX" where XXXX == the last two octets of your MAC wlan0 address.

[Pineapple_N00b]

xrad:

Unfortunately, this video starts past the point where I am broken. I can't see the adapter to browse to it or share it. I went ahead and watched the video and I don't know if I just have a different version of Windows or what, but I don't have what he has in the video. At about 2:40 or so, I have a checkmark but no dropdown whatsoever. Unfortunately, this seems to be more on a "once you are connected, here's how to get it out to the internet" video. My issue is that I can't get connected. Not over an ethernet cable and not over the USB cable. Only wirelessly.

Darren:

Honor sir. I'll reply line by line and make me red.

- Plug power into the TETRA from the wall adapter (That is indeed what I did per the above note. It was the only way I saw lights. However, with the USB cable connected and the pineapple plugged into the wall, I still do not get served an IP address or get a new adapter. And even if I connect through an ethernet cable and hard code myself on the 172.16.42.X/24 range (as .2 and .42 both), I cannot ping the device, SSH to the device, or browse to the device.)

- Plug a USB cable between your PC and the ETH port on the TETRA (Correct I did that as well.)

- A new USB Ethernet adapter will appear (run lsusb and you'll see the Realtek) (This is where we disagree. :) I never see a new device come up. lsusb seems to be a Linux command, but I never see anything new in Device Manager or Network and Sharing Center.)

- You'll notice a new Ethernet interface when you run ifconfig -a (e.g. eth1) (No sir. Not in Network and Sharing and not with ipconfig.)

- When the TETRA finishes booting, you should receive an IP address in the 172.16.42.x range on that interface. (Sadly, no.)

- If it does not, assign one manually (e.g. ifconfig eth1 172.16.42.42 netmask 255.255.255.0 up) *where eth1 == your TETRA interface (I don't have a Tetra interface, but I did try this with my wired ethernet interface. No joy.)

- From there you should be able to ping the device and navigate to the web UI at http://172.16.42.1:1471 (But alas, no.)

- If your computer has additional USB ports, you can use them in conjunction with the supplied USB Y cables to supply the TETRA with additional power over both ETH and UART micro USB ports. (I have to admit, I have not tried both USB cables at once as I have grown fond of my keyboard and mouse, but again, I have it plugged in and I'm cool with that. If by plugging it in, I could then see the device, I'd deal. But plugged into wall power and using either one of the provided USB cables, I cannot connect to the device.)

- If all else fails, plug the TETRA into the wall power and connect to it over WiFi. You'll notice an AP with the SSID "Pineapple_XXXX" where XXXX == the last two octets of your MAC wlan0 address. (Correct, that's what I said I did above. This seems to be the only way I can connect to the device. However, the device warns me repeatedly not to do this and if I can't get to the device via the USB port, I'd like to solve it. The device doesn't seem to be behaving in the way that anyone expects. If the issue was power, I'd agree 100% that my USB ports are not providing the power needed. However, with a wall plug and lights, I fell like I should be able to connect a USB cable up and access the device. If not, I have either misconfigured something (which is pretty much how it came out of the box as I can't really get to it to make too many change) or something is broke and I'd like to get a working unit.

I can connect to the device wirelessly, so I know it is up, but not over the USB cable, so I am nervous that something is broken.

[TYTechnolust]

pineapple-n00b: post a screenshot of your ipconfig after you connect the pineapple to the wall and the USB/ETH cable between your PC and pineapple

[Pineapple_N00b]

Oddly enough, I changed USB ports and Y cables and today the lights at least come on with just the Y cable, so progress.

However, still, before the unit is plugged in.

C:\Users\pineapple_n00b>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 3:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::4912:8a51:f48d:4f3%5

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.7

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:9d38:90d7:4a3:2615:3f57:fdf8

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::4a3:2615:3f57:fdf8%4

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::

Tunnel adapter isatap.Belkin:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin

I waited 5 minutes exactly. The light had gone from yellow/amber to blue flashing to blue solid.

C:\Users\pineapple_n00b>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 3:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::4912:8a51:f48d:4f3%5

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.7

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:9d38:90d7:4a3:2615:3f57:fdf8

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::4a3:2615:3f57:fdf8%4

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::

Tunnel adapter isatap.Belkin:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin

Going to try to connect it to a laptop in a second. I'll update.

[TYTechnolust]

What is the label of the port use are using on the TETRA itself, while using the Y cable?

[Pineapple_N00b]

I have tried both, but it is currently the Eth. See my next post though! :)

[Pineapple_N00b]

Alright guys, success! If you don't care about the "how". then skip to the "Conclusion" section.

I took the pineapple device and plugged it into a laptop that I had and it behaved exactly as expected. It installed correctly, there was a new adapter. I could ping it. I could browse to it. Just easy as pie. Plug it back into the desktop and no lights again.

So it is something with my desktop or with Windows 8.1. Unfortunately, at this point I was a little frustrated and stopped testing step by step, so I'm not 100% but it was a combination of one of these three things.

I played with cables, power, USB ports, blah. And then I found a thread on the board by snice1 that concerned the Windows drivers. I thought maybe something happened and the driver got farkled. So I downloaded and installed new drivers. Still no lights. I thought, "How would I handle it if something else has screwed up drivers?" I'd go into Device Manager and delete the device and restart and let Windows re-install the drivers. But I couldn't ever find this device. However, under Network Devices in Device Manager, there was something that just said "Other devices". I saw cell phones, "USB devices", "ADC devices", etc. I figured, what do I have to lose and just deleted every device under there. I unplugged the pineapple and rebooted my desktop. Windows comes up and I plug in the pineapple and suddenly I have lights, it installs, it works.

Conclusion:

I re-installed drivers, deleted any questionable devices in Device Manager and restarted the desktop (not my first restart in this process) and the device installed. Now it works with JUST the USB cable.

Just really odd overall. Best guess, something happened during the original driver installation and it was caught in a state where it didn't operate correctly but it didn't know it needed to reinstall. So deleting the device, giving it new drivers and a reboot got things fixed. But man, the behavior (no power lights) just seemed to emulate hardware issues.

Got lucky I guess. Now on to Wifi U and learning.

I'd love to see a little video or thread about troubleshooting these things. Not knowing if it was pingable, SSH'able, telnetable, port scannable, etc., trying to troubleshoot a "the lights won't even come on" issue was time consuming and hit or miss. The best you can find is a thread on here where people are kind of discussing what the lights might mean. But if the lights aren't on, the device is kind of blackbox to the user.

Thanks evrybody for the help and thanks for going down the rabbit hole with me.

[commdogg]

I was having some similar issues with windows ICS.

Windows 10 kept assigning another subnet to the Tetra Facing adaptor when ICS was enabled (looks like it acts as a full software router now with DHCP services, etc enabled on the adaptor). I had to go in and change it back to the static pineapple subnet.

Also McAfee on the windows host was screwing with ICS hard. I had to disable it.

I still haven't figure out how to make it play with the firewall on.

SUMMARY: changing the network setting back to what they are supposed to be after enabling ICS and disabling the host firewall got me working.

[Pineapple_N00b]

One last thing also, in case anyone rolls across this thread. I've just moved to Miami, so lots of friends coming down and hanging out. Last night I was out with a friend and got a call from a 415 area code. Probably a headhunter or something and I'm a little torqued that he would bug me at like 9 o'clock on a Saturday. But hey, he's in California and I'm in Miami, so it's like 6 there. I reject it.

I get home and listen to voicemail, "Hey, this is Darren Kitchen from Hak5. I saw your were having a little trouble and I wanted to help you out by walking through things with you. I'll call back on Monday." If you're wondering if you'll get support, how many times does the main guy call you up to walk you through the process personally? Pretty tight guys. Pretty tight.

[doppleganger]

I'm having a similar issue as the OP.

I'm trying to connect to Ethernet over USB via the micro port, and powering the Tetra with the included Y-Cable.I can't seem to get network connectivity, and I think it may be because Win 10 is changing my default network configuration when I enable sharing for the Tetra. LED's are good to go, so I don't believe there's a power issue.I was able to get the NANO up and running without an issue through ICS, but I didn't get the popup that Windows is changing my network config...

When I leave things as Windows configures them, I lose access to the Tetra through the web UI. When I change everything back to the recommended settings, I can access the web UI, but I still have no outside connection. I tried updating the default route using both eth0 and eth1 (I'm not sure which one the micro USB Ethernet is), and still no joy. I'm able to get it going with a LAN connection, but I'd like to be able to handle this task with just a USB cable if possible.

Screenshots are below. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Purrball]

First screenshot, your subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0

​

After you enable ICS and it sets the adapter IP to 192.168.*.* as in screenshot 2, you'll have to go back in and set it to the correct IP and DNS which should be similar to what you have for #1, with a fixed subnet as my previous comment. Also add in 8.8.8.8 for Preferred DNS.

​

​

​Windows 10 is really wonky and I have to enable / disable ICS often, and reconfigure everything. Best method I've found is to enable ICS on the adapter, then go and configure the IP on the Pineapple adapter. If it doesn't stick, I disable ICS reenable and set the proper IP info again. Often it takes a refresh to stick... not sure why.

​

I'm having a similar issue as the OP.

I'm trying to connect to Ethernet over USB via the micro port, and powering the Tetra with the included Y-Cable.I can't seem to get network connectivity, and I think it may be because Win 10 is changing my default network configuration when I enable sharing for the Tetra. LED's are good to go, so I don't believe there's a power issue.I was able to get the NANO up and running without an issue through ICS, but I didn't get the popup that Windows is changing my network config...

When I leave things as Windows configures them, I lose access to the Tetra through the web UI. When I change everything back to the recommended settings, I can access the web UI, but I still have no outside connection. I tried updating the default route using both eth0 and eth1 (I'm not sure which one the micro USB Ethernet is), and still no joy. I'm able to get it going with a LAN connection, but I'd like to be able to handle this task with just a USB cable if possible.

Screenshots are below. Any help is greatly appreciated.

1.JPG

3.JPG

7.JPG

9.JPG

Edited May 16, 2016 by purrball

[doppleganger]

Thanks Purrball. I think youre advice took care of it, but I'm definitely up and running now. I also installed the drivers for the USB over Ethernet again. Haven't had an issue at all since. And I agree - it's been taking a refresh to stick.

Thanks again \m/