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I have a HP Wireless Access Point 420 (J8131A) and I am facing the problem that its admin interface uses either an ActiveX plugin or a JAR file - I'm not sure because none of browsers on none of my machines can load it.

Even on Windows + Internet Explorer, having turned off any and all security settings, I can't get the admin menu to load. And without an admin menu, well, it's mostly a paper weight.

Can you give me any tips on how to progress from here? I'd like to avoid ditching the unit but I realize it may be the only option. Your comments are much appreciated!

Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
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  • Just a shot in the dark, but did you try to open the *Developer Tools* in IE with F12 or from the settings menu? From there you should be able to set a *Document mode* in the upper right of the *Developer Tools* . That should set IE to an older or newer version. – Thomas Mar 04 '18 at 18:12
  • I did go to F12 and found some navigation hints, but not enough to operate the device. I'll try again and test that *Document mode,* then report back. – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Mar 04 '18 at 18:16
  • I found a Linksys for €5 so I am not going to pursue this further. Thanks for the inputs! – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Mar 07 '18 at 18:49

2 Answers2

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I work for HP, but on the printer side, so the networking equipment is not my area and I'm not speaking in any official capacity here :)- but I was wondering if you'd thought of trying to telnet in to the unit. The instructions are here:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/59906005-e1.pdf

and telnet interface is described on page 3-8.

For windows 10 you might need to activate telnet:

Open “Control Panel“. Open “Programs“. Select the “Turn Windows features on or off ” option. Check the “Telnet Client” box. Click “OK“. A box will appear that says “Windows features” and “Searching for required files“.When complete, the Telnet client should be installed in Windows.

good luck!

Zac67
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John Nash
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I was having the same problem and I was able to setup the device using telnet over an ethernet cable plugged into the device. Unfortunately, the end result was a very slow WiFi connection, but besides that it's working great. Here are my notes:

HP Procurve 420 manual: http://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/59906005-e3.pdf

Steps to configure:

  • I reset the device by holding down the reset button for 5 seconds. I plugged in an ethernet cable connected to my modem. This results in the device trying to get a network config by DHCP over the network cable. the default admin credentials (from the guide) are user="admin", pass="" (i.e. blank).

  • I figured out the HP Procurve IP by trial and error: I logged into the modem's web interface and looked at the device table and tried the higher IPs because I assumed they would be more recently allocated. The HP Procurve was at 192.168.0.10.

  • The web UI at http(no s!)://192.168.0.10 is broken, some kind of Javascript problem i think. And i vaguely remember from years ago that even if you get into the settings you have Java applet problems ...

  • I connected to the device by telnet -- nmap showed that port 23 was open, but the user guide must also mention telnet. It's some kind of weird HP command line interface. The 'help' command is helpful. The basic approach is to type part of a command, tab complete to end of word, then type '?' to get a list of possible next tokens. By default, the WiFi antenna is turned off, and one SSID is configured, with no security.

  • First I setup an SSID called "examplenet". The '?' command lists all the commands. To get to the main WiFi menu, enter

    $ configure
$ interface wireless g

    Get current state:

     $ show

    Then go to the SSID specific settings for the first ssid (we'll rename it to "examplenet")

    $ show ssid-list
$ ssid index 1
$ show
$ ssid-name examplenet

  • Then I setup the security. List the possible security suite choices with

    $ security-suite ?

    Then select WPA2 PSK AES (TKIP is also supported, but is less secure; security-suite 1 is "open"/"no security")

    $ security-suite 8 WPA2

    Set the password to "topsecret" with

    $ wps-preshared-key ASCII topsecret

  • Enable the SSID if necessary (but I think it was already enabled; see top of "show" output to be sure)

    $ enable

  • Then I had to actually turn on the antenna, which is a different step. I found this confusing, but the device supports 8 SSIDs, so perhaps it makes sense that actually enabling the antenna is a separate step, on a different menu, independent of all the SSID specific settings? In any case, return to the "interface wireless g" general settings with

    $ end
$ show

    I might have set the radio-mode to 802.11b+g with the "radio-mode" setting, but I think that was default.

    Finally, I turned on the antenna with the completely unintuitive command

    $ no shutdown

After this everything worked! But unfortunately it's very slow: although it says I'm connecting at 54Mbps using 802.11g (and I used the "speed 54" to force 54Mbps mode, but no help), but using speedtest.net I'm only seeing 13Mbps up and 19Mbps down, whereas if I just plug the ethernet cable that's going into the HP Procurve directly into my laptop, my speedtest numbers go up to 212Mbps up and 230Mbps down. But at least the WiFi signal is strong :)

ntc2
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