Hi Simon.Han,

 

thanks for getting back to us.

 

Simon.Han wrote

Hi  R1D2  & RTouris,

I have checked your previous reply with others in this post.

For the KRACK problem, it has already been fixed, other V1 CPEs share the same software with the CPE210 V1, so you can try to upgrade and solve this problem.

 

Let's have a look at the TP-Link's German support site (I'm located in Germany, so I'll usually look for firmware on this site):

 

• Latest version for CPE210v1: TP_Pharos_V2.1.6_170908 (at least, one can see the firmware version from the filename, it's v2.1.6)
• Latest version for CPE510v1: TP_Pharos_V2.1.6_170908
• Latest version for WBS210v1: TP_Pharos_V2.1.6_170908
• Latest version for WBS510v1: TP_Pharos_V2.1.6_170908

 

Indeed, other V1 CPE's firmware does not fix KRACK nor does other V1 WBS' firmware.

 

@RTouris and me like to play around with Pharos devices even in our spare time, so we learned that Pharos firmware for almost all Pharos devices - be it version 1 or 2 - is compatible with each other Pharos device with the only exception being the CPE210v2/v3 models.

 

Thus, let's have a look at other CPE's/WBS' firmware versions:

 

• Latest version for CPE510v2: CPE510(EU)_V2_180117 (huh? what's this firmware version? Can't tell by title nor by the ZIP archive's name)
• Latest version for CPE510v3: CPE510(UN)_v3.0_20171228 (oops, newer hardware, but older firmware as the date in the title suggests?)
• Latest version for WBS210v2: WBS210(UN)_v2.0_20180202 (seems to be a newer version, but again: which one exactly is it?)
• Latest version for WBS510v2: WBS510(UN)_v2.0_20180202 (different name, same date, same firmware?)

 

Ok, we now have to unpack the v2 firmware too see its version number:

 

• CPE510(EU)_V2_180117 is firmware CPE510(EU)_2.0-up-ver2-1-11-P1[20180117-rel68885].
• CPE510(UN)_v3.0_20171228 is firmware CPE510(UN)_3.0-up-ver2-1-11-P1[20171228-rel72837]
• WBS210(UN)_v2.0_20180202 is firmware WBS210(UN)_2.0-up-ver2-1-12-P1[20180202-rel58819]
• WBS510(UN)_v2.0_20180202 is firmware WBS510(UN)_2.0-up-ver2-1-12-P1[20180202-rel58819]

 

The older CPE510v2 hardware uses release 68885 from January 2018, the newer CPE510v3 hardware uses release 72837 from December 2017.

This release naming scheme really looks wired to me, so it's probably best to not count on it.

 

Anyway, I did choose WBS210/WBS510 firmware for my CPE210v1, since it is v2.1.12 and both have the same release number, so no doubts left.

 

Now, CPE610 appeared on the german website as "Coming soon" only few days ago, so in Germany it is brand-new. Let's see what this offers:

 

• Latest version for CPE610v1: CPE610(UN)_v1.0_20180105 unpacks as CPE610(UN)_1.0-up-ver2-1-11-P2[20180105-rel34309]

 

Nothing new, since there already is v2.1.12 from WBS210 available, which works fine with CPE210, CP510, WBS210, WBS510 (all v1) and even with CPE610 (surprise).

 

But RTouris already gots a CPE610 and discovered (see post #13) that there is a newer firmware on TP-Link's Australian support site, namely CPE610(UN)_1.0-up-ver2-1-13-P1[20180327-rel54027]. And this firmware installs fine on CPE210v1, CPE510v1.1 and WBS210v1.2, too.

 

So here we have latest working firmware for all v1 models of CPE and WBS: it's v2.1.13. and of course, this includes the KRACK fixes.

 

Now the obvious questions: Why are firmware versions for v1 devices not updated if they work with the very same firmware version published for v2 devices? Why is v2.1.13 published on your Australien support site, but not on other country's support sites (it is still not available on the German support site)?

 

Regarding the firmware naming conventions: I don't want to sound harsh, but the firmware naming conventions look very chaotic to me. It could be so clear and easy if a meaningful and consistent naming scheme would be used for the firmware files (but note that all those versions listed below for v2 hardware also run fine on v1 hardware despite this hardware dependency in the listing created by Pharos Control):

 

 

 

Simon.Han wrote

For the problem #4: Fixed the problem that when the wireless interference is serious, the client may be not connected to the AP when the WPA/WPA2 encryption mode is enabled ,if you met similar cases or problems, please tell me in details and I can help analyz deeper, for the NEW FIRMWARE aspect, we will also try to push relative department to speed up.

 

As for the problem fixed by #4 please refer to @RTouris' posts from September 2018 here: https://community.tp-link.com/en/business/forum/topic/150249 and from December 2018 here: https://community.tp-link.com/en/business/forum/topic/150805.

 

We would love to help you in testing firmware v2.1.14 on our CPE510s v1 to see wether it fixes the problems reported by @RTouris and probably a problem with instable connections on a CPE510 to CPE510 encrypted connection at the site of one of my customers since upgraded to v2.1.6.

 

Simon.Han wrote

And for the spectrum analysis of CPE210 and WBS210, can you please tell me which hardware version and software version you are testing? I can figure it out. 

 

I tested on CPE210v1.0 and reported this bug to TP-Link many times in the past, in fact since I upgraded to v1.3.3 somewhen in 2016.

 

As a forum member from the South Americas stated in the old forum, he did request from TP-Link a change of the frequency band on the CPE210 spectrum analyzer because he uses Test Mode in his country. So the spectrum analyzer was changed to look like the following picture (starting with v1.3.3, still the same layout in v2.1.13):

 

 

However, in the EU only frequencies from 2412 MHz to 2472 MHz are allowed (green arrows inserted by me to highlight relevant channels if an EU country is selected).

 

Now, can you identify the spectrum of channel 2 or channel 7 in this chart? I can't. So the spectrum analyzer has become quite useless on CPE210.

 

Compare this with the WBS210v1 spectrum analyzer (also the same firmware v2.1.13 running). I'm sure one can identify each channel very easily, since the grid directly relates to the channels:

 

 

Why not at least show a selection box like it appears in the CPE510 running v2.1.13? It's already in the firmware!

 

 

 

 

An even better solution would be the display selection in relation to the frequency band for a given country. If one selects an EU country or buys an EU-branded version, why not restrict the frequency range of the spectrum analyzer to the frequencies allowed in the EU, resp. other regions? For the channel selection on the Wireless Settings page you do exactly this already, so it could be easily done with the spectrum analyzer, too.

 

 

A final note: this all are suggestions for improvement of the product and should be seen as such, not as criticism.

If we would not like your products, we would not care about improvements. 

 

Dear Simon.Han, 

 

thanks for your reply.

 

Simon.Han wrote
1.For the firmware version and upgrade:
As you mentioned, some devices share the same firmware, but they are not upgraded completely to all regions and all suitable versions.
For this case, we will check with our relative engineer to make sure all the compatible devices can share the latest firmware in all regions.

But not all the devices share the same firmware

 

I see. At the moment, I have only v1 devices on stock (for various reasons, mainly b/c of the two Ethernet ports of the CPEs). As far as I know, region code is stored in the ART partition of those devices, not in the firmware, so even UN firmware adapts to EU rules. But I did not test with v2/v3 devices yet.

 

2.For the firmware naming:
Normally we suggest our customers refer to the firmware version by the date listed in the name of the firmware zip file.

 

Yes, but as you see in my post, for v1 devices the latest official firmware version is 2.1.6 dated from 09/2017, i.e. without the KRACK fix (which was fixed in 2.1.11). Thus, I did use v2 firmware for those devices (BTW, similar with TL-SG105E/108E switches or T1500G-10PS, where firmware for newer HW versions installs fine on earlier HW, too).

 

3.For the fix of problem#4:
During your test or daily use, if you find anything abnormal about this fix or other things, please kindly let me know, I can help on it.

 

Only problem is that I have no v2.1.14 (yet). This is what RTouris asked for in the first place: please release v2.1.14 for other Pharos devices, too (not only CPE210v2/v3). We even would be willing to test beta versions of v2.1.14.

 

4.For the Spectrum Analysis:
Your suggestion is pretty good and meaningful, we will try hard to see if we can modify the Spectrum Analysis function on all of our versions and devices, but that may take some time.

 

Thank you! Much appreciated. The spectrum analyzer is an important helper tool and very useful for deployment of the CPEs.

 

Wish you and the TP-Link staff a happy new year 新年快樂, also for the Chinese new year 春節 starting on February, 5th!