Red Box Firmware V1.16 Released

We are proud to announce release of firmware version 1.16, for the Red Box wireless router and bandwidth optimiser. Please update as soon as possible.

The new firmware files and upgrade instructions can be found here:

Bug Fix

  • We noticed that very occasionally it's possible to get the firewall into a broken/invalid state. The requirements to achieve this seem to be that you use the wifi bat to connect to a wifi network and whilst it's connecting (seconds) you unplug the wifi bat, or the network apparently goes away. This can leave the firewall in an inconsistent state and a reboot was required. This should have been a very rare situation. The problem is resolved with this release.

New Features:

  • Main thing you may notice is an update to the main website "theme". It now looks larger and cleaner on phones/tablets and it should be much easier to read and click on the various firewall options.
  • The Iridium dialup timeout is now altered. We track in-progress TCP connections (eg a mail download) and automatically lengthen timeouts if something is in progress, and shorten the timeouts if the link appears to be idle. In many cases this means we have only a 5 second timeout on the link going idle, but we should be much more resilient against accidental call drops if there is flaky satellite signal.
  • Another big improvement is that firewall modes 3 & 4 now allow you to reach the "router" on that internet connection via HTTP. What this means is that Inmarsat FBB and Iridium Pilot users can reach the main control box screen *safely* - this allows you to easily check data usage, start stop connections, check diagnostics, etc, but without risking an open internet connection!
  • We added a process to examine the router on any new wired internet connection (ie devices plugged in via a cable) and make a guess as to what the device is. Upshot of this is that Inmarsat FBB, Pilot, Lars Thrane LT-3100, etc will be automatically named as such in the Red-Box "Connect to Internet" page.
  • We support the Lars Thrane LT-3100 Iridium terminal! This is a super new terminal from the creators of the original Thrane Iridium terminals. Quick plug: they moved the Iridium terminal outside the boat, so antenna cable lengths are not a concern, it's got a super easy to use screen with nice big buttons, lovely external handset and with this version of the Red-Box firmware you can also use it for internet data simply by connecting the ethernet cable!
  • We support the new Thuraya XT Pro and Dual
  • Wifi devices are now started dynamically - this shouldn't be noticable to end users, but it means slightly faster bootups and greater ruggedness against missing/broken hardware
  • More rugged boot time code for corner cases of massive numbers of devices, eg multiple 4G devices being probed at bootup, plus satellite modems.