DD-WRT on a Netgear WNR-2000v2

I stopped by a Goodwill store the other day on a whim. I happened upon a Netgear WNR-2000v2. A quick search on the phone showed it was DD-WRT compatible. And it was only 99 cents! Not really. It was $1.99. Which is pretty much free in my book. 

Once I got it home and plugged in, though, nada. Then I looked at the power supply. 9V 200mA. For a device that requires 12V 1A. Huh. So was that why it was at Goodwill? Sucks if someone just mixed up a plug. I wonder where the 9V device ended up? After the smoke got out. I was able to scavenge the exact power supply I needed from another $2, 4 port wired router I found a few months ago at another thrift shop. And that's how I got a $4 router. Perfect!

Anyway, there are some tricks with the flashing of the router. It took me a bunch of tries, and I managed to brick it a couple of times. Here is what ended up working along with some notes about what caused my problems.

Important links:

• DD-WRT page for WNR-2000v2: http://www.DD-WRT.com/site/support/router-database
• DD-WRT WNR-2000v2 wiki: http://www.DD-WRT.com/wiki/index.php/Netgear_WNR2000V2
• peacock thread for Broadcom based routers: http://www.DD-WRT.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=51486
• DD-WRT forum post about WNR-2000v2: http://www.DD-WRT.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=72269&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
• DD-WRT forum post for unbricking WNR-2000v2: http://www.DD-WRT.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=81013
• One of my posts on unbricking other routers. See step 5, in particular: http://chickenlinux.blogspot.com/2014/09/revert-DD-WRT-to-other-firmware-on.html
• Older DD-WRT firmware images: http://dd-wrt.com/site/support/other-downloads?path=others%2Feko%2FBrainSlayer-V24-preSP2%2F

Based on the DD-WRT WNR-2000v2 wiki, the router has limited RAM, so you have to pay attention to the size of the firmware image you are installing. You will need images that are LESS THAN 3.4 MB. NOTE: The main DD-WRT WNR-2000v2 page has a link to a file that is too large for this router. You will brick it. It is easy enough to recover, but it's not necessarily for the faint of heart.

The wiki page has a corrected, yet older link for the .chk firmware required for the initial flash. You have to find the subsequent .bin image. I used the same build as the .chk for reliability with the initial flashing. The latest firmware from r18777 is here: 18774.chk and 18774.bin. The wiki states that 18777 is the last that won't brick the router.

The process for updating the firmware is as follows:

1. Connect to the router with a network cable and make sure your computer is set up with the right network address.
2. Update the router with the .chk version of the DD-WRT firmware using the standard web interface.
3. Let the router sit for 5 minutes after it appears it to have finished.
4. Do a 30-30-30 reset (hold the reset button for 30 seconds while the router is on, turn off the router for 30 seconds while still holding the reset button, power on the router and continue holding the reset button for 30 seconds).
5. Power the router off and on (I always have to do this twice to get it to boot up, no matter the firmware).
6. Set your computer's network address to 192.168.1.x (x needs to be some number higher than 1).
7. Point your browser to 192.168.1.1
8. You will need to set up an admin user (name and password).
9. Configure your router.

If something goes wrong, and your router is bricked, follow the steps here and here to get it unbricked. I had to do this a few times. I haven't tried it on Windows, but it's a trivial process with Linux.

Reverting openwrt to stock firmware

I'm still battling with what I want to do with my extra router (Netgear WNDR4000). Openwrt was not quite what I was hoping, and I know I need to learn a little more about networking to get it to bridge connections like I want. So I decided to go back to dd-wrt to get it set up again and then have access to the resulting config files as a basis.

The migration didn't go as well/smoothly as I had hoped. I got the firmware replaced following these steps:

From http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Upgrade_from_openwrt
Upgrade From Openwrt
I had a linksys WRT54GS version 2 router that I wanted to upgrade from openwrt to dd-wrt. I could not find any documentation on how to do this. So I created this page just in case anyone else needed to do this. Replace your firware image referenced below with the correct image for you router.

1. secure shell or telnet into the router running openwrt
2. cd /tmp
3. wget http://internet_path_to_your_firmware
4. mtd -r write your_firmware

This sort of bricked my router. It would boot enough to ping, but nothing else was accessible. I managed to use atftp to load the stock Netgear firmware, and that worked. To do that I performed the following steps:

1. Download correct firmware from your router vendor for your router.

2. Run the following command from a Linux command prompt:

atftp --option "mode octet" --option "timeout 180" --verbose --trace --put --local-file router_firmware 192.168.1.1

3. Let it sit 5 or 10 minutes

4. Reboot

Then I was able to use the standard interface to load the dd-wrt initial conversion .chk file. After that, I upgraded to the mega firmware image for my router.

Revert dd-wrt to other firmware on Netgear WNDR4000

I have been trying to convert my WNDR4000 router from dd-wrt to openwrt. I have been struggling with how to get this to work. I couldn't get the Netgear tftp instructions to function correctly (didn't seem to find the router). I finally stumbled on the following, which I used to get me to openwrt.

From: dd-wrt.com

Read: TFTP
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/TFTP_flash
and look at the WNDR3300 wiki:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Netgear_WNDR3300#Reverting_.2F_recovery_tftp_mode

The basic process is this:
1.) Download the latest Netgear Firmware ver.1.0.0.82 to your home folder
http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/WNDR4000-V1.0.0.82_8.0.71.chk

2.) Set static IP on wired PC (ip:192.168.1.10 mask:255.255.255.0 gw:192.168.1.1)

3.) Do a 30/30/30 and set the password on http interface when finished

4.)
$ telnet -l root 192.168.1.1
# erase linux
# reboot

5.) On a linux desktop using atftp
$ atftp --option "mode octet" --option "timeout 180" --verbose --trace --put --local-file ~/WNDR4000-V1.0.0.82_8.0.71.chk 192.168.1.1

6.) Wait 5-10 min & the router is ok
Reboot router, Clear browser cache and return Static IP on computer to DHCP.

7.)
$ telnet -l root 192.168.1.1
#passwd


Step 7. enables the ssh daemon and allows package installation.