I took a functioning RB411AH off of a roof and changed the mini-PCI wireless card. When I powered up the device (using POE, as I always have), the board fully powered up with POE, but I noticed that the network switch it was plugged into was not getting a light. I can log into the console via serial port and see that there are no errors being reported. Ether1 is enabled and has an IP address but can not be pinged. If I plug the board into a DIFFERENT switch, for some reason it gets a light on that switch and the right light on the ether1 port of the board turns solid amber (and strangely stays solid amber indefinitely, even after unplugging the ethernet cable…) but I still cannot communicate with the board over the network.
Here are some troubleshooting steps I have tried thus far:
Powered the board with power direct to the board (not POE) and tested the ethernet port - same result
Tried every combination of crossover cables and straight through ethernet cables (in case there was some strange cabling configuration going to the roof where the Routerboard was originally functioning that I was failing to recreate)
Reset RouterOS to its default configuration
Upgraded Routerboot firmware
Can anyone offer any suggestions as to why the ethernet port is behaving this way after simply removing it from it’s functioning location and replacing it’s mini-pci wireless card?
You say it has a Ip address but cannot be pinged, what is the IP address and can you ping from the 411 to the switch,
what ip range are you using for 411 and the network, If you have reset then default ip of 192.168.88.1/24 will be on the ethernet port if applied if not you will have 0.0.0.0 which cannot be pinged?
The IP address is now set to the default of 192.168.88.1/24 after resetting to default configuration. I can not ping either direction, that is, from the RB411AH to a network device on the same IP network via serial console, or from a computer on the same IP network to the RB411AH.
I have not tried winbox, but I’m assuming that it won’t work considering it isn’t even giving a light on my ethernet switch and I can’t ping to or from the NIC.
Any other ideas on what may have caused this or things to try to get it functioning again?
What ip range is being used on your network, that is your pc + switch, etc - if its for example 192.168.0.1 range then you will not be able to ping the 411 on 192.168.88.1
I just tried the Winbox utility. I tried to the IP address and the mac address of the RB’s NIC. No luck.
I have set a computer’s NIC to use 192.168.88.99/24 so it will be on the same network as the RB411AH. I tried running through my switch with no other devices connected (the switch does not show a connection as it should) and I tried connecting my computer to the RB411AH directly with a crossover cable (the computer reports that the network cable is unplugged). All this time, the right light on the RB’s NIC remains solid amber, even when the ethernet cable is unplugged from it.
If there is no link light then you apparently don’t even have Layer 1 connectivity. Try a different port on the router. But long story short is that it is more than likely faulty. If under warranty send back. If not someone may be able to fix it for you (your supplier).
At this point, I think you are right about it being faulty. It’s not under warranty, so I will try to find a replacement. I’m just amazed that it went out after working on a roof for over a year just from carefully replacing the wireless card and booting it up in my office. My fear is now that this will happen again with the next one I purchase.