HOWTO: Upgrading the Firmware on your Nokia M1122 / MW1122

It’s a frightening prospect, knowingly starting a process which you KNOW could result in you losing you beloved connection to the Internet – but when you’ve got an old, old Nokia MW1122 which needs a firmware update, it’s just one of those things which needs to be done. After all, if it all goes pear-shaped, you may just be able to get away with getting a nicer, newer modem and separating out your Wireless Access point

And so it came to pass that I decided it was high time to update my firmware and I have a few of the guys at work who are waiting on the results of my attempt before doing the same to theirs – hence this HOWTO of sorts.

I have a Nokia MW1122 which I use for both my DSL access and, with a C110 card, to provide my wireless network. I’m doing some of the standard pinholing things to let ‘stuff’ through to my network and, as my home network grows in complexity, I’m finding the modem is limiting my ability to provide the kind of control I’m now needing. I’ve also heard (and can now confirm) that the latest firmware exposes more of the modem/routers functionality for your networking pleasure… hence this update 🙂

In the beginning:
Now, being a cautious lad, I took screen shots of all of the pertinent pages of the web interface. This meant that if I lost my settings for whatever reason, I could just re-enter all my pinholes and rules and stuff from the hard copy.

Prior to the update, the modem was running:
SW appl. Version: Gx1x2210.R09

Getting the files, and a few clues:
I did a bunch of googling before I started on this, as did a colleague from work, who was flicking me through links via IM in support of the ‘Rob the Guinea Pig’ theory.
The Internet is an interesting place, and – with a couple of cross checks, you can sort the wheat from the chaff and, applying this process, I gathered enough information to do my upgrade. The interesting thing is, it appears that New Zealand is one of the few places in the world with any degree of Nokia Nokia M1122 / MW1122 modem market penetration (mainly due to Telecom picking them up on the cheap and providing them as pretty much the only option for DSL modems for the first few years of ‘broadband’ in New Zealand.
In terms of places to hunt for info, I would recommend the Waikato Linux Users Group site, paying close attention to their WiKi and also the New Zealand ADSL mailing list
Now I *do* have all the pertinent files and stuff archived in case they disappear into the ether, but make an effort to grab the ones from the WLUG site as the documentation there is probably going to stay a lot more upto date than this page will.

Getting Ready:
If you have the same experience as I did, you will need:

• The latest firmware file [ Gx1x2230.R04 ]
• A stable network connection
• A Telnet Client
• A TFTP server
• The ‘Admin’ password to your modem
• Some good Karma

There are a few TFTP servers available for no cost (with a bit of googling) the WLUG site also has one amongst its files – I ended up using one from SolarWinds.net.
PuTTy is a great client which I use for SSH, Telnet and generally frightening my network, you can use whatever Telnet client spins your wheels – I just figured you may appreciate a recommendation 😉

The fun trick for young players will be finding the admin password to your modem. Now you can buy some non-Telecom modems so if you’re doing this upgrade I’ll assume you do in fact own the modem and it’s not an ex-rental/Telecom owned unit. If it is then you will need to do some digging to get the admin password – it is out there, but I can’t help you by telling you what it is – sorry.

Make sure you’re all configured and ready to go, next up we’re going to do the update

Updating the Firmware:

• Start your TFTP server running and pointed to a directory containing the firmware file [ Gx1x2230.R04 was the latest at the time of writing ]
• Start your Telnet client and point it to the Nokia M[W]1122, you will be prompted for your username and password. It is important that you use an ADMINISTRATIVE login (‘admin’ or ‘Telecom’ are defaults for the Nokia, but in saying that, I’ve also read that the username is moot if the admin password is presented – I didn’t bother confirming this so YMMV) as a non-admin login will be unable to run the ‘copy’ command which is coming up next.

login-id: admin
password: *********

MW1122>copy tftp:/[THE IP ADDRESS OF YOUR TFTP SERVER]/Gx1x2230.R04 image.exe

• The file will start copying down to your modem at this point – it takes a while (5 minutes for me via my 802.11b connection) then you will see

blocks received 1778
transfer status SUCCESSFUL

Congratulations, you’re over the hard stuff – at this point, it is safe to take one last look at your internet connection, cross everything that will cross, say a prayer and then do a FULL restart from the web interface of your modem.

If all went well, your surfing away happily and your Nokia will now read:
SW appl. version: Gx1x2230.R04

You’re on your own from here on out – good luck, give things a few minutes and then try accessing the internet

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