More lab time

I spent another couple of hours this morning in our lab trying to test new firmware for our Blonder-Tongue Megaport Gateways and Outlets. We needed to upgrade the firmware on the outlets. To do so, you first login to the MPG using the BT management app, then select the upgrade option for the MPOs from a menu. Doing so pops up a dialog box prompting you for the file path on a TFTP server, from where it'll pull the firmware file and put it on the MPOs.

It appeared to work for one MPO but not the other. Rather than using the same app previously used to login to the MPG, to connect to an MPO to see what firmware it's running, you need to use a different program which does its communication on Layer 2. Unfortunately, I can't get that application to run on the Dell Latitude D600 I'm using. I've tried it using the onboard Broadcom Gig-E NIC, and an old 3Com PCMCIA 10/100 NIC. We also tried it on another Dell with a Broadcom Gig-E NIC, also without success. Both laptops are running XP Pro SP2, and I'm thinking that's the problem. Yet my boss was able to get the app to run on his Apple Powerbook running Windows 98 in a Virtual PC emulator. Arrgghh!

Maybe if we become a large enough customer for BT's MPGs/Os, we can get them to write a single app that will allow one to do the initial setup, ongoing config, and MPO upgrades. As it is now, initial setup needs to be done through a browser, then the two other Win32 apps are needed for ongoing maintenance. That's ridiculous.

Shortly after bagging it in the lab, I caught a train home. Judith had a professional development course tonight so I had to be home early to pick up the kids at 16:00.