Dog shit luck!

Today is Selangor holiday, went to pasar with mum and my niece, had my favorite meehoon soup there, and went back around 11am something.

My internet was still in that half working condition, unable to access some web sites, and can't login to MSN. Damn, by that time, I was certain it's my router modem fault, which caused by the new firmware I updated. With nothing better to do, again, I started to working on all the settings in the web interface of my router, hoping to solve the problem.

After an hour of trials and errors, it seemed nothing much I can do with this firmware, I have to accept the fact that it's not working, at least for me. With no other choice, I turned to the Solwise's router firmware. After flashed, the familiar web interface displayed once again when login to the router. I tried to load the websites that I was not able to get in when using the RouterTech's firmware. Great, everything seemed back to normal, I can access them as well as login to MSN messenger. Suddenly, this stubborn and greedy thought came to my mine: "Probably now if I flashed back to the RouterTech's firmware, it will work too?" Thinking of if it couldn't work also, I can still use back this working Solwise's firmware, I flashed my router, again.

Did I succeed? No, I still can't access some websites and can't login using that stupid MSN messenger. So, I guess that's bye bye to this great firmware. For the 3rd time today, I updated my router's firmware again. Hhmmm... why the login page still the orange, yellowish RouterTech's layout? Dang, why was it still remained the same firmware? I was sure the flashing process was successful! OK, OK, maybe some glitches, flash again should clear things up, so I flashed, and flashed, and flashed! 3 times in a row, but I still getting this bugger page! I was started to get frustrated, I turned to an application that is found on the RouterTech forum, developed by the router chip maker, Texas Instrument, the TI Remote Application, a Windows program that interacts directly to the router, which has options to update the router's firmware, settings, etc.

This app has quite confusing UI, I tried to setup the environment again, but nothing happened. Without any info and help, I was on trials and errors again. My frustration had reached a new high, with clouded mind, I just simply chose a firmware file that came along with this app, which I was not exactly sure whether it's working for my router or not. And suddenly the program collapsed, showing the Windows exception message. My heart dropped along with it, I went to check the router, all lights were on, OMFG! I screwed the damn router! I tried to switch off and on again, same. Fortunately I can still access the router with that TI Remote Application, but now I was getting this "Flash erase failed" message! Wow, did I somehow screwed the flash memory?? I tried and tried and tried, the switch network function was still there coz I can access my sis's PC, just that the router and modem function totally gone due to corrupted firmware.

"I screwed up, now no choice but to buy a new router and modem. The Linksys combo Chean just bought is my first choice. But dang, gonna spend few hundred bucks again!" This was what in my mind over and over again at that time. I was tired and frustrated, I just stopped everything and went to play a few hours game. Hahaha! After that, I decided to try one more time. First, I accidentally uploaded the settings I backup when I first tried to flash the firmware, then I was like what the heck, try the RouterTech firmware and see. To my surprise, I didn't get the "Flash erase failed" message, it proceeded with the erase and flashing process. Successful! My eyes almost popped out when I saw this, and quickly went to check the modem, restart it, oh yeah, everything back to normal!

I was so glad!

Somemore with bonus, now I am using the RouterTech 3rd party firmware with enhanced features + I was able to access all websites and MSN again, everything is working fine now! HOORAY!!

P/S: Probably I will write a step by step firmware upgrade guide for the Aztech 600ER router modem later...