Serial Cable Firmware Upgrade Written by koevoet Saturday, 10 November 2007 TERMS OF USE: THIS TUTORIAL IS INTENDED FOR

THEORETICAL USE ONLY, USE ON PRODUCTION SYSTEMS MAY VIOLATE YOUR ISP's TERMS OF SERVICE. THEORYSHARE TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. THIS SOFTWARE IS INTENDED FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY AND MAY BE ILLEGAL IF USED IMPROPORLY. USERS ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS. This tutorial describes the process of assembing and using a serial cable to change the firmware on SB4100 & SB4200 cable modems. This will not work on the SB5100 Series.

Modifying the firmware via the serial cable method

1. Firstly make sure youre modem requires using this method , as certain firmware can be changed using sbRider in the cable modification kit obtainable in the Download section of www.theoryshare.com . 2. Secondly you will require something like this:

it is called a Max233 serial adapter, you can either buy one online or make it yourself (you had better be good at soldering). I am not going to list the parts needed as

everyone should have a search engine on there computers, (Dont be lazy, do some research). 3. Now once you have the above mentioned item you are going to need the respective vxWorks.st file for your modem (sb4100 or sb4200). This is also available in the cable modification kit. 4. The pins for the max233 are as follows PIN 1: TX

PIN 2: RX PIN 3: POWER (-) PIN 4: POWER (+) from left to right 5. These pins will attach to the following points on your modem : Sb4100:

SB4200:

6. You will also need a program called Boot.exe, which you can find here: http://www.tcniso.net/Nav/Tutorials/EthernetBoot/FB_Partial_0B.rar , once you have the program Boot.exe you have to make a folder name it what ever you like and copy boot.exe and the relevant copy of the vxWorks.st file into this folder. 7. Open HyperTerminal on your computer and create a new connection name it anything now in the settings you should set your bit rate to 38400 the rest remains the same

, save this connection. 8. Go to the network connections on your computer and change the settings to this :

9. Now make sure your coax cable is not connected to the modem, connect the max233, double click on the boot.exe icon in the folder you created, it should say the date and time and boot server started. Now open hyper terminal and then connect your power cable, you will see hyper terminal start to read the modem, quickly press 2 on your keyboard to stop the boot process. 10. On the top of hyper terminal it says transfer ,click on that and then click on send a text file insert this : 2 enetBcm(0,0)admin:/opt/vwMIPS_1_0_1_fcs/target/config/sb4200/vxWorks.st h=192.168.100.10 e=192.168.100.1 u=jmcqueen pw=rickey7 f=0x8 tn=SB4200 o=bs1 save this in word pad first . 11. Just alter the modem references depending on the modem ,

if its a sb4100 just change it and save it again 12.Once that has been done you should see something like this :

13. Now go to 192.168.100.1 and you should see something like this :

14.

The rest kind of explains itself ..Enjoy