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Obi202 firmware can't be downloaded from sticky post anymore

Started by Eilou, June 29, 2013, 02:16:47 AM

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Eilou

Been researching ATAs in preparation of buying one (for the first time). Have heard good things about Obihai; right now the Obi202 looks like what I'd be going for among Obi products.

One thing is disturbing, however. In preparation of the purchase, I went out and looked at the firmware support for products I am considering buying from different vendors. For a product that has good feedback from the advanced-user community, firmware support for the Obi does not look good compared to competing products.

Right now, if I go to the "Update for OBi100, OBi110 (Jan 24) - OBi202/OBi302 (Jan 24)" sticky post at the top of this subforum, there is a link to "OBi202 & OBi302 Models: (link to the firmware)". One big problem. Clicking that link takes you to a blank page: "The requested URL /firmware/OBi202-3-0-1-3741.fw was not found on this server. Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) Server at www.obihai.com Port 80.

The other link on that post--"OBi100 & OBi110 Models"--does have a downloadable firmware. Not for the 202 I'm interested in, however.

As per looking around, I see that even if that link worked, its not the latest firmware. Instead, you have to download the latest firmware through either an "ObiTalk" account or otherwise, right to the ATA itself over the internet. Which isn't acceptable here; besides having another security layer open when doing that, there is no changelog you can access.

Heck, even the last firmware for the Obi202 (v3741) that can no longer be downloaded from the sticky post has no changelog. Again, totally unlike competing products I am considering. Which are the the Cisco SPA122 (much maligned, yes, but which has a downloadable-from-web firmware from the end of May) and the Grandstream HT502.

Also very problematic (and which is preventing me from buying the Obihai right now) is that there is no link to any older firmware (thanks to that broken link mentioned above), as the other vendors have. Which means that if I am forced to rely on downloaded-straight-to-the-ATA firmware for the Obi, if one of the updates is buggy or causes issues, I can't roll it back. Which is a total red flag here.

So...is there any manually downloadable (and installable) firmware available for the Obi202?

Ostracus

They could have withdrawn it if they're technical issues with that particular  firmware. Companies do that now and then.

QBZappy

 Eilou ,

Welcome.

Quote from: Eilou on June 29, 2013, 02:16:47 AM
Heck, even the last firmware for the Obi202 (v3741) that can no longer be downloaded from the sticky post has no changelog.

I never understood that myself. Believe it or not, the snippets of a change log that you currently see are as a result of users griping about this a long time ago. Obihai succumbed to shame or felt obligated to to it.  It was always a leap of faith every time we downloaded a new firmware. Like any good habit, it seems that keeping it up is next to impossible. What are the possible reasons for not documenting a change log? It seems like all established companies do so. I can speculate if it is for competitive reasons that they don't want anyone to reverse engineer their approach to integrate a Goolge Talk client into their device? Who knows.

Reasons to maintain a change log:
1) Respect for the users
2) Selling the features of the product

Obihai may be working hard behind the scenes resolving user issues, however when addressing their user base directly they have completely abandoned any pretense at looking like they care about legitimate user needs. This is likely as a result of negligence on the part of the marketing team behind obihai.

If others feel that an 'up to date' change log is an expected part of the ongoing customer service when purchasing an obhai device, this might be your opportunity to say so. Let's see how obihai handles this request.


Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

Eilou

Quote from: Ostracus on June 29, 2013, 04:40:29 AM
They could have withdrawn it if they're technical issues with that particular  firmware. Companies do that now and then.

Yes, but so what? That web link (no longer available) is not the latest 202 firmware in any case, so its irrelevant. If they were having "technical issues" with it, they could have put up a known good version for download.

Quote from: QBZappy on June 29, 2013, 05:44:16 AM
If others feel that an 'up to date' change log is an expected part of the ongoing customer service when purchasing an obhai device, this might be your opportunity to say so. Let's see how obihai handles this request.

Thanks very much for your reply. And yes, I'm saying so  :).

There is no reason for not releasing changelogs/release notes for firmware updates. Other than not wanting to pay devs/marketing to do it. They (and other proprietary hardware makers) don't release detailed technical data, so "competition" reasons are invalid. Everyone else manages to release changelogs for firmware.

But that's of secondary importance here. What's critical is as mentioned in my first post: if one of the various pushed-to-the-ATA-via-Obitalk firmware updates is buggy, there is no way at all to roll back to an earlier version. That's preventing my purchase of the 202.

So hopefully someone from Obi or otherwise can let me/us know if there is somewhere to download a working, earlier version of firmware for the 202.

ianobi

+1

We have a right to know what changes are being made to our OBi devices before opting for or against an update to firmware.

This is a question of Obihai showing respect for all of their customers - this is not just a few techy forum members having a moan.

There is also a good business case to be made for Obihai improving their public communications - as Eilou points out, he may not become an Obihai customer due to this issue.

CoalMinerRetired

I don't disagree with the above comments.

These are the latest two firmware URLs (3932 is the latest for the 202), and both work:

http://www.obihai.com/firmware/OBi202-3-0-1-3878.fw
http://www.obihai.com/firmware/OBi202-3-0-1-3932.fw

The URLs for Obi202 firmware 3741 and 3647, the versions 'two prior' to the above listed, do not work.

Eilou

Quote from: CoalMinerRetired on June 29, 2013, 08:53:17 AM
These are the latest two firmware URLs (3932 is the latest for the 202), and both work:

http://www.obihai.com/firmware/OBi202-3-0-1-3878.fw
http://www.obihai.com/firmware/OBi202-3-0-1-3932.fw

The URLs for Obi202 firmware 3741 and 3647, the versions 'two prior' to the above listed, do not work.

Thanks CoalMinerRetired.

Better than nothing I suppose. And very surprising that Obihai doesn't make those links commonly available.

But it doesn't help general users who may not see this particular post. And doesn't help those who like release notes along with firmware upgrades. Also doesn't help those who run into issues after upgrading/downgrading to those firmware versions (3932 is apparently the latest).

For ATAs often considered to be "the best" hardware out there, these firmware/firmware release note availability issues are a major turn off here. Oh well.

giqcass

I archive any Firmware update I happen to see.  If a desperate need should ever arrive I have the following firmwares for the OBi202.   Unfortunately there aren't a lot of release notes.  I don't personally think we will need any of them but better safe then sorry.

OBi202-3-0-0-3184M.fw
OBi202-3-0-0-3375.fw
OBi202-3-0-0-3397.fw
OBi202-3-0-0-3460.fw
OBi202-3-0-1-3585.fw
OBi202-3-0-1-3647.fw
OBi202-3-0-1-3722.fw
OBi202-3-0-1-3741.fw
OBi202-3-0-1-3878.fw
OBi202-3-0-1-3932.fw
Long live our new ObiLords!