Finding an unknown local IP address?

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They all thought I somehow defragged wrong or ran scan disk wrong, I was like..WTF!!!

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Next to the defrag checkbox, did you checkoff the "Crash Harddrive Tomorrow" option? ;)

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My next suggestion would be to open the router up and making sure the reset button is working.

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Good idea. After close inspection, if the button had a loose button housing leg connection on the board, this would find it.
But alas, the button is working according to the flashing front LEDs.

Your other suggestion is good, deep six-ing a bad router/switch after informing the client of my findings.

In this case though, I really need to find the IP address? Any thoughts along this line?

:)

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I think the client might be wondering if he should replace me with someone who knows how to enter an unknown router. Ouch.

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I know THAT feeling. Is he really willing to spend a couple of hundred dollars (or more) in consulting fees to avoid replacing a $60 router/switch?

What a cheap busturd!

;)

Ok, maybe I'm just spinning my wheels here, but let's step back at look at what we have here.

We have a router ( a WRT54G with a built in firewall ) being used as a switch.
Acting as a switch, it needs no additional IP. You are looking for the Administrative IP address to get into the Web-based utility of the router.

When you did the nmap scan, how did you do it?
Since you are looking for a web utility did you scan a LARGE range ( maybe all ) of IP addresses only looking for port 80 open? ( or SuperScan if it is easier? )
Looking for only the one port should really speed things up, and target what you are looking for.
( remember, you are going to connect through one of the four switch ports to do it, not through the Internet port. It may have been set up so as not to be administered remotely, or using a different port if so doing. Also, since it was being used as a switch, they could have set up any IP address for this, but I would probably stick with private addresses at first. )

I know this is a real stretch, but reading the WRT54G User Guide it describes how to connect it to another router. It says to change the other router's default IP, but maybe they changed this one to the suggested new IP instead ( that of 192.168.2.1 ).

Funny, but I read something somewhere that made a reference to resetting the router using the reset switch, then using the assigned IP address to access the web-utility, implying that maybe an assigned address would not be reset to factory defaults. I can't seem to find it again, but a firmware upgrade should reset any assigned address.

My only other thought, if all else fails, before tossing it, connect only two boxes to it. Connect one box to one of the switch ports with an address of the local subnet. Connect another PC with a static public address to the Internet port, then try to trace route from the switch port PC to the Internet port PC.

If this does not work, try setting the Switch Port PC to a static address, that of static IP Address: 192.168.1.50 and Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0. and try it again. ( and/or use this pc to upgrade, or replace, the firmware. )
This address, 192.168.1.50 and Subnet Mask:255.255.255.0. is suggested to be used to update the router's firmware if the router gets locked up, like during a failed firmware update.

As eluded to by others, it is probably cheaper to just toss this thing then do all this work, especially since someone else who installed it failed to document it properly, but hey, life is full of challenges.

Think you're still going to have to be able to access the webconfig to update the firmware.

:(

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Think you're still going to have to be able to access the webconfig to update the firmware.

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I would make the same assumption.

However, the User Guide specifically stated to use this IP address ( referenced more then once ) if the router was locked ( as in failed upgrade. )

So I am also assuming that this is a magic IP address.

Never had the need, so I have never tired it. Thought it was worth the mention.

Drunk and sleepy, bedtime for me.

Scan for tftp. That's they way firmware is uploaded. It may be functional even though the web interface isn't. If you get a tftp repseonse from it it will give you the IP but more importantly, it will allow you to do a firmware upgrade which might fix your web interface issue...

But this is all an awful lot on work for a few dollars worth of switch.

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Originally posted here by IKnowNot
Ok, maybe I'm just spinning my wheels here, but let's step back at look at what we have here.

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Stepping back and getting a *bigger* picture of the situation is really what is needed.

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When you did the nmap scan, how did you do it?

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Performed it according to instructions as directed by this thread by scanning the local subnet.
;)

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Since you are looking for a web utility did you scan a LARGE range ( maybe all ) of IP addresses only looking for port 80 open? ( or SuperScan if it is easier? )

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Could you describe how large a range to scan and which port? Using say SuperScan.

I feel if we added Tigershark's first post (where he really bit into the subject) with your post
we might solve this problem.

Just scan 192.168.1.1-192.168.255.255 for port 69 and 80 open :). If it's the same thing when you have the router by itself then it wouldn't be an issue with conflicting IP's of the routers. But perhaps it's something like IKnowNot was saying with something gone wrong. Have you tried the magic IP address?

It really sounds like this device has been updated to a non-standard firmware. The one way to tell if a device is running a different firmware is to watch the lights when starting the device.

For instance OpenWRT firmware causes the DMZ light to come on, and stay on for 1 minute during boot up. Are the lights on the front doing anything weird?

You could also connect an RS232 connector to the serial pinouts on the router, although I don't think you want to go this far.

When you reset the router how long are you holding the reset button for? There is a 10 second reset, and a 30 second reset. The 10 second reset pulls the firmware from NVRAM and will load a custom firmware. The hard reset at 30 seconds should put it back to the factory specs. Other than that I also found this on the sveasoft website:



FOR COMPLETELY DEAD WRT54G's ONLY!!!

Apparently you can force a dead unit to reset itself and accept a tftp upload by shorting pins 15-16 on the Intel flash chip when powering up.

These pins are the ones near the LED with the white stencil marks on a WRT54G V2 unit.

On a 1.1 unit you need to count the pins.

PLEASE TRY ALL OTHER MEANS BEFORE OPENING YOUR BOX AND VOIDING THE WARRANTY!
References:
http://www.sveasoft.com/modules/phpB...opic.php?t=853
http://www.sveasoft.com/modules/phpB...opic.php?t=964

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Mohaughn,

I have to give you some points because, although I know about the pin 15-16 reset of this device, you took the trouble to look it up and post it. GRATS! (and you got the info from the right source, or the horses' mouth as it were)

This reset procedure can indeed "unbrick" the brick, at least on the WRT54G.

h3r3tic also has a portion of the right plan, as did TigerShark and IKnowNot. Wish I could mesh all three posts together which I cannot.

Anyways, a more important post will follow.


Thanks to everyone!