Netgear WGT634u File transfer limit

machunter46 · August 06, 2006, 11:05:38 AM

Has PETERU officially given up on overcoming the ICEBOX1 file transfer size limitation? Haven't heard anything about this in a long time.

yanis · August 28, 2006, 06:23:24 PM

I'd be happy with a final 'official' answer as well..

Cheers,

Brendan.

peteru · August 28, 2006, 10:32:24 PM

At one stage I had a beta in testing, but it turned out that it was causing problems about 3% of the time. Since I am the type of person that will not accept a less stable firmware in order to introduce new features, I decided not to release the update. The product works as originally intended.

I have not given up on enhancing the wgt634u based IceBox, but I don't have time right now. It would take a few days of full-time work and given the current workload, I'm unlikely to have those few days for at least 6-9 months. On the plus side, all the source code to the firmware and tools has been released, so any reasonably skilled person can step up to the challenge.

yanis · August 29, 2006, 02:32:36 PM

Quote from: peteru on August 28, 2006, 10:32:24 PM
At one stage I had a beta in testing, but it turned out that it was causing problems about 3% of the time. Since I am the type of person that will not accept a less stable firmware in order to introduce new features, I decided not to release the update. The product works as originally intended.

I can well understand - doubly so that at the time you would have been expected to support it, including that ~3% user base who would most likely be unhappy. :)

QuoteI have not given up on enhancing the wgt634u based IceBox, but I don't have time right now. It would take a few days of full-time work and given the current workload, I'm unlikely to have those few days for at least 6-9 months. On the plus side, all the source code to the firmware and tools has been released, so any reasonably skilled person can step up to the challenge.

Just to confirm - the current source code does allow for a complete build? I've been tempted to see if increasing the cgi file transfer limit to ~6gb would cause CGI/ browser issues on large file transfers but am not sure if the code released is able to allow a full working image to be built. It may not be possible to cram the topfield ftp daemon in the image, but the CGI script(s) might be fair game. :)

peteru · August 29, 2006, 05:35:07 PM

Everything required to build a completely new firmware image has been released. This also includes tools to generate flash images that can be used by the original Netgear firmware to convert the device.

There is no way you are going to be able to just tweak the config and increase the limit to 6GB. The current transfer method uses a RAM disk as temporary holding area and the limit has been set accordingly.

If you are happy to hack things, you should be able to mount an SMB share from the wgt634u, then copy directly to that share, thus removing any size limits. Other alternative is to whack on ftpd-topfield, although in the past there have been problems with it. The wgt634u IceBox firmware has loads of room to add more software - I've had grand plans for it, but then Netgear pulled the plug on the hardware :'(

srto2 · August 29, 2006, 06:42:46 PM

Shame on you PeterU. Some of us (sob!) contributed to your WGT634U enhancement fund a year ago.

Sigh...

Anyway, I'm taking advantage of the latest (generous) ICEbox II offer, so no real drama.

Keep up the good work,

Regards,
Rob Garratt

peteru · August 30, 2006, 12:25:28 AM

Shame on Netgear for dropping the platform. If they have not done that, there would have been no need to start all over again. Instead of building IceBox2 from scratch, I could have invested the effort on improving the original IceBox.

Netgear Australia were pretty pissed off with the parent company when the wgt634u was dumped, but they could not do anything to reverse the decision, short of placing an order for 10,000 units.

chameil · September 14, 2006, 01:23:57 AM

Quote from: peteru on August 29, 2006, 05:35:07 PM
If you are happy to hack things, you should be able to mount an SMB share from the wgt634u, then copy directly to that share, thus removing any size limits. Other alternative is to whack on ftpd-topfield, although in the past there have been problems with it. The wgt634u IceBox firmware has loads of room to add more software - I've had grand plans for it, but then Netgear pulled the plug on the hardware :'(

Any chance you could email me details how to do this, i'm a bit of a newbie with linux and don't know how to add ftpd-topfiled to the WGT...

Alternatively, are you interested in making available your "beta" version of firmware? As long as it doesn't corrupt the HDD or my WGT, I could live with a 3% failure rate... :P

Michael

peteru · September 14, 2006, 03:23:57 PM

As a first step, you would need to build some hardware, including soldering surface mount ICs, so that you can get a serial debug cable connected to the WGT634U. Without that, you run a risk of bricking the box with no way of recovering.

All the source code you need to make your own firmware has been released, however I do not have time to run classes on how to make use of it.

chameil · November 23, 2007, 12:52:12 AM

Solution Found, and it doesn't involve a serial cable or even a LAN cable!

www.hubrat.com/topfield

Many thanks to Hubrat (of the Topfield Australia Forums) who went to the trouble of putting together the above guide...

I gave up on this long ago, as i couldn't get in through PUTTY... Matthew's guide (and the root password!) are all that anyone should need!

FYI, i use FTP client to download files via wireless, data rate is about 500KB/s ! (or 1GB is around 25-30 mins)