Lifeboat

The lifeboat feature tries to boot an Internet Gate unit even if the contents of its flash memory (containing its firmware) is damaged, and thus it can't boot by itself.

If an Internet Gate manage to lit its RST after power-on but then fails to boot then the lifeboat might succeed bringing it back to life.

It is recommended to have a copy of the lifeboat stored on your PC in case you ever need it - and do not have access to Internet connection at that moment.

You can download the lifeboat from here.

Do like this to use the lifeboat on your Internet Gate:

1. Configure your PC to use a static IP address, like 192.168.0.5
2. Connect any of Ethernet ports ET1, ET2 or ET3 of your Internet Gate to your PC
3. Unzip the lifeboat file into a folder
4. Doubleclick on the tftpd32.exe¹⁾ icon in that folder. On Windows 7 you may have to right-click on the icon and select “Run as administrator”.
5. While holding SEL and ALT buttons pressed turn Internet Gate power on.
6. Keep SEL and ALT buttons pressed until RST and RS are lit in Internet Gate display, then release the buttons.
   After a few seconds your Internet Gate displays RST, then CFG RST.
   Then your Internet Gate displays “Lb” and a rotating bar. Now the firmware in the lifeboat is burned into your Internet Gate's flash memory. This process takes about 2 minutes to finish.
   After flash burn is finished your Internet Gate reboots. It displays RST, then CFG RST then HELLO. Now it is in normal state and ready to be used.
7. Close the Tftpd32 window

If your Internet Gate fails to show HELLO then restart from step 4 above again.

If the Internet Gate still refuses to start after repeated attempts then it is too damaged for the lifeboat to repair it. The flash memory or other hardware component of the Internet Gate may be damaged. Contact your reseller for information about how to repair your unit.

It might require an extra reset to factory defaults for the correct logotypes etc to appear.

You need to enter your settings again before starting to use the unit.

The lifeboat performs a reset to factory defaults to ensure there are no faulty configuration or damaged configuration area that restrains your Internet Gate from booting.
If you do not whish to reset your Internet Gate to factory defaults you can try loading the lifeboat without such a reset.
In such case only press the ALT button in steps 5 and 6 above - do not press the SEL button.
Though a lifeboat without reset to factory defaults might work in many cases, it will not work in some others.

The lifeboat works through the unit's bootloader attempting to load a special formated file using DHCP/TFTP. The TFTPD32 program included in the lifeboat is such a suitable DHCP/TFTP server. You may however use any DHCP/TFTP server as long as it is configured to download the flash.bin file to units with MAC address 00:03:FC:00:03:FC.