random notes

ok - I have so so SO much to learn


aparently this runs busyBox 1.0 (embeded linus). get to it with sh

cat /proc/cpuinfo
system type : RTA1320
processor : 0
cpu model : BCM6338 V1.0
BogoMIPS : 238.38
wait instruction : no
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 32
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : no
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

which is really weird because this is an RTA1335 (but i think i remember that rta1320 is the same thing without the 4 port switch) and I was sure the chipset was a BCM6335. I wonder if there's a difference

Also
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=426366&p=6
not sure if this is for 1335 but it looks like it would work

SNTP

I can't seem to get this to work from the CLI. Works fine from the web interface.

first of all here's the syntax:
sntp -s server [ -s server2 ] -t "timezone"
disable
date
zones
sntp --help

And here's the list of zones:

Timezones supported:
International Date Line West
Midway Island, Samoa
Hawaii
Alaska
Pacific Time, Tijuana
Arizona
Chihuahua, La Paz, Mazatlan
Mountain Time
Central America
Central Time
Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey
Saskatchewan
Bogota, Lima, Quito
Eastern Time
Indiana
Atlantic Time
Caracas, La Paz
Santiago
Newfoundland
Brasilia
Buenos Aires, Georgetown
Greenland
Mid-Atlantic
Azores
Cape Verde Is.
Casablanca, Monrovia
Greenwich Mean Time: Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague
Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris
Sarajevo, Skopje, Warsaw, Zagreb
West Central Africa
Athens, Istanbul, Minsk
Bucharest
Cairo
Harare, Pretoria
Helsinki, Kyiv, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius
Jerusalem
Baghdad
Kuwait, Riyadh
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd
Nairobi
Tehran
Abu Dhabi, Muscat
Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan
Kabul
Ekaterinburg
Islamabad, Karachi, Tashkent
Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi
Kathmandu
Almaty, Novosibirsk
Astana, Dhaka
Sri Jayawardenepura
Rangoon
Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
Krasnoyarsk
Beijing, Chongquing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
Irkutsk, Ulaan Bataar
Kuala Lumpur, Singapore
Perth
Taipei
Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo
Seoul
Yakutsk
Adelaide
Darwin
Brisbane
Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Guam, Port Moresby
Hobart
Vladivostok
Magadan, Solomon Is., New Caledonia
Auckland, Wellington
Fiji, Kamchatka, Marshall Is.

Now here's my problem:
I issue the command:
sntp -s msltime.irl.cri.nz -t "Auckland, Wellington"

And get the response:

app: sntp -s msltime.irl.cri.nz -t "Auckland, Wellington" &
###NTP --the time we got=Fri Apr 14 12:42:05 2006

then I
> save

now try getting the current date:

>sntp date
Sat Jan 3 17:12:52 1970

Weird. Ok - I then configured via the web interface. That seems to work and "stick" (retrieved the xml config backup and it's there). But when I go back to the CLI I still get told that it's Jan 3 1970. That's not even the uptime (currently uptime is 02:17:15:23)

CLI Syntax

Going through the help syntax on the Dynalink RTA1335

• ?, help - displays this list
• logout - logs out (obvious)
  
• reboot - reloads the router. It also displays some info which could be handy. More on this in another post
  
• adsl - starts and stops the adsl interface (I think)
  
• atm - not sure. Start/stop PPPoA maybe?
  
• brctl - used to set up, maintain, and inspect the ethernet bridge configuration in the linux kernel.- ref
  
• cat - displays the file contents
  
• df - disk free
  
• dumpcfg - I think this creates an xml file (to screen) of the current config.
  
• echo - prints arguments to standard out
  
• ifconfig - configure hte interfaces
  
• kill - kill a process. OK - it's real job is to send a signal to a process ... in practice it is used to kill 'em
  
• arp - manipulate the arp cache
  
• defaultgateway - configure/display the default route
  
• dhcpserver - configure the dhcp server - a pretty basic server really. But does the job (note for next time - dhcpserver show locked up
  
• dns - configure static dns entries
  
• lan - not sure - seems to be similar to ifconfig
  
• passwd - change password for admin. Syntax help also indicates "user" and 'support" but i can't seem to change those
  
• ppp - bring up or down a ppp connection
  
• remoteaccess - allow remote access into the router adminfor admin. Configurable by port but primarily http, telnet, tftp, ping. theres some aspects of the syntax that bothers me - seems to cope with frame relay - well PVC's anyway. Does ATM (as in PPPoA) have PVC's? I don't know ATM.
  
• localaccess - sets which ways you can locally access the router
  
• restoredefault - by the look of it, the router is reset to the factory default. Could be handy
  
• route - configure static routes
  
• save - saves the config data to flash
  
• swversion - shows the version of firmware
  
• wan - configures the WAN interface
  
• ping - pings
  
• ps - shows processes
  
• pwd - prints the current working directory. and until i can figure out how to change directory this is always "/"
  
• sntp - synchronises with an NTP server
  
• sysinfo - general systems info
  
• tftp - transfer files to/from tftp server

Starting off

I've just got a broadband connection with slingshot where they gave me a Dynalink RTA1335 DSL router/switch (4 port). As I teach some networking papers at Otago Polytechnic I thought I should get to know this wee thing. Before anyone jumps in - while I teach networking up to CCNA, level I make no guru claims I am NOT a CCIE. any pointers or advice would be appreciated.

Some immediate problems are that apparently the firmware 3.02.02.07 has a problem with P2P sessions. Not that I use them much - but occasionally they are handy.

Dynalink can't give me an ETA on a fix - and seemed to be unaware of the issue. Which I don't believe for a second. I also asked about any doc giving syntax reference for the CLI and was told it didn't exist. Might follow that up a bit here.

Some initial points:

• Manufactured by Askey in Taiwan, and uses a Broadcom 6348 chipset. (source)
  
• Runs a version of MontaVista embedded linux with a 2.4 kernel. (source)

Some defaults:

• User/pass: admin/admin and user/?
• IP: 192.168.1.1

I'm pretty sure I didn't add the user "user" but can see it from the CLI with "cat /etc/passwd". I might change that passwd.