Tp-link Easy Smart Configuration Utility Download Mac

admin

I recently decided to upgrade my network. With the proliferation of the internet of things IoT, I’ve become concerned about the security (or lack thereof) of these devices. In a recent Security Now podcast Steve Gibson mentioned the idea of using multiple Wifi routers to segregate your network. I quickly dismissed this approach due to the nightmare of having to manage multiple wifi routers and for a lack of robust options this would give. I decided to instead move from an unmanaged network infrastructure to a managed switch environment with VLANs. At the time Amazon was offering the TP-LINK 8 port easy smart routers at dirt cheap prices so I bought several for my home network. The routers have been a great addition, however the one thing I was less than happy about was the management software was a) not web based and b) Windows only. My first stab at running this software on my Mac was to use wineskin to install the software. The software installs and ran but my problem was I couldn’t see any text, unless I specifically clicked on an entry and then the text would appear but it was very faded and hard to read. Google turned up a great blog entry on running the software natively on linux with the need to do some firewall port forwarding to see the switches. Come to find out, the exe on windows is actually a java jar file in disguise. The blog post has instructions on using ipchains, which of course Mac OS X does not have, instead one must use the PF firewall. After some man page reading I came up with a solution to use the TP-Link software natively on my mac.

Mac os x 10.8 download free. This guide is for connecting to v1 of the router. Several people have said that v2 of the router contains a built-in web interface for making these changes. You can tell what version you have by looking at the sticker on the router (usually on the bottom it will say either v1 or v2)

  • First if you don’t already have Java installed…install it from the Java site. (If you don’t already have Java installed, and don’t need it I would highly recommend that you remove the web plugin and just keep the rest of the Java install intact. The plugin can be found at /Library/Internet Plug-ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin. Removing it will make your computer safer but still give you the ability to run Java applications locally on your computer.)
  • Next create a file that contains the PF firewall forwarding rules (I just did this on my desktop) called tplink.
  • Type in the following string:
  • The interface is the network connection your are using ( this is found by opening up /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and typing in ifconfig -a) and looking for the active interface. On *most* systems it will be something like en1 or en0.
  • The ip is the address that that interface has assigned usually something like 192.168.x.x
  • Next create a new file called pf.conf (again on your desktop) and add the following text:
  • Now back in Terminal type in sudo pfctl -f /Users/your_user_name/Desktop/pf.conf -e
  • If you did everything correctly you’ll see some text on screen with the last line saying pf enabled.
  • Again from the terminal type in java -jar /path to the Easy Smart Configuration Utility.exe file if you don’t have a Windows box to get the executable here: Easy Smart Configuration Utility.jar
  • The TP-Link app should open. Usually it finds nothing on the first try. Just click Refresh and you should now see your switch(es) on the network.
  • You can now follow along with the manual TP-Link provides to modify the switches. A couple things to note, by default you have to be on the same subnet with the switches to modify them (You can get around this with some VLAN magic). Second my connection seems to time out to the switches after 30 seconds or so. You’ll get a Timeout, no response from agent error. Just click ok and try your action again and you’ll reconnect and be able to make changes.

Update 2016-05-12 – Both files have to have a carriage return at the end of each line otherwise the commands will fail

Here are the two sample files (replace the appropriate placeholders with your info)

tplink (SHA512 – b8b85d6a547eb97b3392521714f7dbff17a87caef0606ab958da79920cae4a1711ee703ee843679e2ad1c6b522cb7de946cd77e32d024b6bb9c64c741d38027b)

TP-Link’s success as a provider of network solutions has been built on its relationship and unrivalled commitment to its partners. For Value-added Resellers (VARs) and System Integrators (SIs) looking for access to even better deals and tailored support, TP-Link has designed the TP-Link Partner Program to help grow business.

UPDATE: It seems that starting with hardware version 2, these switches have an actual web interface.Too sad my ones are version 1. 😢

Frankly, I didn't expect it and I was somewhat disappointed when I found out that the TP-Link TL-SG108E Easy Smart Switch (and its little brother TL-SG105E) cannot be configured via web browser. And I was even more disappointed when I found out that, even though Linux and MacOS were listed on the retail box, the configuration tool Easy Smart Configuration Utility runs on Windows only. And they mean it! When started in a Windows VM, the utility does not see any switches.

So the devices are rather cheap for a smart switch, but they still come with a price: no web interface.

However, thanks to somehelp in the interwebs, I was finally able to run the Configuration Utility on Fedora Linux. It's not that easy, though.

Before we start, please be aware that this is a hack! I don't know if running the Configuration Utility on Linux comes with side effects to the switch configuration and security. Maybe the switch can even suffer permanent damage that way. So use it at your own risk!

WirelessMac

Running the Configuration Utility on Linux

The good news is: The Easy Smart Configuration Utility is written in JavaFX, so it runs on Linux even without Wine! First you need to download the utility from the TP-Link home page. It is a zip file containing an exe file. Unfortunately you have to run the exe file on a Windows machine to unpack it. I promise this is the only time you will actually need Windows. After that, you will find a file called Easy Smart Configuration Utility.exe in the installation directory. This is the only file we will need. Copy it to your Linux machine, and while you're at it, also rename it from .exe to .jar. Yes, it's just a Java archive file!

In a next step, you need to download and install the official Oracle Java on your Linux machine. OpenJDK will not be sufficient, as it does not contain JavaFX (yet).

When you are done, you should be able to start the Easy Smart Configuration Utility with this command:

However, it does not find any switches. This is because the software discovers the switches via UDP broadcast, but unfortunately the interface is bound to the local IP address instead of any address, as it is required on Linux. We need to tweak the firewall..

https://omggogreen.netlify.app/mac-os-x-105-powerpc-g5-download.html. If your system is running firewalld (e.g. on Fedora), execute these lines to add a firewall rule (and replace $your_ip with your local IP address):

Tp-link Easy Smart Configuration Utility Download Mac

If your system is running iptables, you need to execute these lines:

Now hit the Refresh button on the Configuration Utility, and your switches should finally appear. The GUI is still a little ugly with the input elements being too tall, but that is rather a cosmetical issue.

Firmware Upgrades

Firmware updates still failed with a strange error, and the switch needing to be powered off and on again. To successfully perform a firmware upgrade, I had to do these steps:

  • Connect the switch directly to the computer, and disconnect everything else from the switch.
  • Shut down NetworkManager (systemctl stop NetworkManager).
  • Set up the ethernet interface manually (e.g. ifconfig em0 192.168.0.2 up, it must be in the same subnet as your switch).
  • Invoke the iptables command from above again (use the IP address from the step above as $your_ip).

After that, firmware updates finally succeeded, too.

Strange enough, the firmware image is transported to the switch via HTTP. It appears that there actually is a HTTP server running on the switch. An ASCII dump of the firmware file also reveals some HTML forms, so it seems like the switch is technically able to be configured via web frontend, but the feature has been disabled. Maybe it will be possible in a future firmware version, but I rather think it is a political decision to make people buy the more expensive TL-SG2008 smart switches.