Netgear R7000

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Contents


[edit] Hardware Specifications

FCC ID PY313200233
Industry Canada ID 4054A-13200233
Power 12 VDC, 3.5 A
CPU / SoC Broadcom BCM4709A0 @1 GHz
CPU Architecture ARM Cortex A9 (2 cores)
Flash / RAM 128 MiB / 256 MiB @ 800Mhz
WI1 & WI2 chip Broadcom BCM4360
WI1/WI2 protocols an+ac / bgn
Wireless MIMO config 3x3:3
Antenna connector U.FL, RP-SMA
Ethernet & Switch Broadcom BCM4709A0
WAN / LAN ports 1 / 4 (up to 1 Gb/s)
USB ports 1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0
Serial 4-pin header, internal, 3.3V TTL
Pin layout: [3v3, GND, Tx, Rx]
Baud rate: 115200

[edit] Installation

 **WARNING**:  DO NOT 30-30-30 Broadcom ARM routers, you risk bricking them.

[edit] Prerequisites

See Firmware FAQ - Where Do I Download Firmware? on where to locate firmware files.

  1. Download the most recent factory-to-dd-wrt.chk file.

NOTE: Newer Netgear firmware (1.0.9.64_10.2.64 and newer) prevents GUI downgrades, preventing DD-WRT installation (K3_R7000, build from 9/23/18 file has a lower version number, 1.0.5*
that Netgear disallows). If the current release factory-to-ddwrt.chk file does not work, use this mod version which provides a larger version number (thanks to @jclehner)

[edit] Procedure

NOTE: It is recommended that you reset factory firmware prior to flashing, and that you do a reset after initial flash of DD-WRT.
NOTE: It is advised to use the latest beta build from https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/
 **WARNING**:  DO NOT 30-30-30 Broadcom ARM routers, you risk bricking them.

  1. Connect your computer to your router with an Ethernet cable.
  2. Open a web browser and enter routerlogin.net into the navigation bar.
    • A login page displays.
  3. Enter the router admin user name and password.
    • The default user name is admin. The password is the one you specified the first time you logged in. The user name and password are case-sensitive.
  4. Select ADVANCED > Administration.
    • Some models might use slightly different navigation, like Settings > Administration.
  5. Select Firmware Update or Router Update.
    • The label varies depending on your router.
  6. Click Choose File or Browse, then locate and select the previously downloaded factory-to-dd-wrt.chk file.
  7. Click the Upload button.
    • The firmware update starts and the router restarts. The firmware update process takes about two to five minutes.

     **CAUTION**: After you start the firmware update, do not try to go online, turn off the router, or do anything else to the router until it finishes restarting.

  8. When the router has finished completely rebooting, enter http://192.168.1.1 in the navigation bar of your browser.
    • You will be greeted by the DD-WRT change password screen.
  9. Enter the desired password twice; you may change the username, but the default username is root.
  10. Click "Change Password"
    • You will be greeted by the DD-WRT System Info page
  11. From there, you can navigate through all the tabs and configure as desired, clicking "Save" on each tab until you are finished.
  12. Once you are finished with configuration go to Services -> Services or Administration -> Management tab and click "Reboot Router".

[edit] Upgrading DD-WRT

[edit] Prerequisites

See Firmware FAQ - Where Do I Download Firmware? on where to locate firmware files.

  1. Download the most recent netgear-r7000-webflash.bin file.

[edit] Procedure

 **WARNING**:  DO NOT 30-30-30 Broadcom ARM routers, you risk bricking them.

  1. Connect your computer to your router with an Ethernet cable.
  2. Open a web browser and enter http://192.168.1.1 (or whatever IP you set in the webUI) into the navigation bar.
    • A login pop-up may display, depending on how you previously configured DD-WRT. If not, proceed to step 4.
  3. Enter the router admin user name and password.
    • The default user name is root. The password is the one you previously specified when changing the default password. The user name and password are case-sensitive.
  4. Select Administration -> Firmware Upgrade.
    • A login pop-up displays.
  5. Enter the router admin user name and password.
    • The default user name is root. The password is the one you previously specified when changing the default password. The user name and password are case-sensitive.
  6. Select Administration -> Firmware Upgrade.
  7. Select do not reset option next to "After flashing".
  8. Click Browse, then locate and select the previously downloaded netgear-r7000-webflash.bin file.
  9. Click the Upgrade button.
    • The firmware update starts and the router restarts. The firmware update process takes about two to five minutes.

     **CAUTION**: After you start the firmware update, do not try to go online, turn off the router, or do anything else to the router until it finishes restarting.

  10. When the router has finished completely rebooting, it should return you to the webUI or offer a "Click to proceed" button.
    • You will be greeted by the DD-WRT webUI.
    NOTE: Your web browser may hang, display unable to open page, etc. in the process of flashing or upgrading DD-WRT. This is NORMAL. Close the browser and open a new window or open a new tab and close the old tab and enter your router's IP address in the navigation bar and re-login if applicable.

[edit] De-bricking

See R7000 Bricked after update, please help, I'm desperate,
and also May have buggered my R7000 during reset..
which then references Netgear R6300v2 Advanced Debrick Notes By Sploit.
See also R7000 won't accept any firmware after flashing back to stock.
Also, nmrpflash can be used for de-bricking.
How do I upload firmware to my NETGEAR router using a TFTP client on Microsoft Windows?

[edit] Links And Further Reading

Some generic DD-WRT documentation is applicable to the R7000, but much is outdated and little refers to ARM builds.

<Kong> has written some documentation relevant to his builds [now via archive.org]:

See Also: Kong R7000 Configuration Best Practices or Working Solutions

[edit] Performance

Netgear r7000 employs various NAT Acceleration techniques in order to facilitate faster downlink speeds. Without them gigabit speeds on WAN port would be impossible with 1Ghz dual core CPU.

Stock Netgear firmware implements Broadcom's proprietary CTF (Cut Through Forwarding), it comes as a binary blob, no one outside of Broadcom knows how it operates.

SFE is an open source answer to CTF. It is not as efficient as CTF; however it can be updated and has no reliance on Broadcom. SFE accelerated NAT was added to DD-WRT in build 08-03-2017-r33006 (kernel 3.10+), which Kong tested at 900 Mb/s throughput (download and upload).

Both options are available from Setup -> Basic Setup menu. NOTE: After a factory clean or initial boot after flash, perform a reboot for the options to show up. Additionally, after settings is set, perform one last router reboot for the settings to be read on module load.

Additionally ddwrt implemented Broadcom's Flow Acceleration, this utilizes hardware in the Broadcom chip to facilitate level 2 NAT acceleration.

SFE: Options are [Off, SFE, CTF] provide Level 1 NAT Acceleration. They help overcome physical limitations of the router.
Flow Acceleration: Options are [Off, CTF, CTF&FA] provide Level 2 NAT Acceleration. They help overcome data layer limitations of the router.

NOTE: Services like speedtest.net are not a good representation for throttling due to CPU. In many cases where speedtest.net will show full Gigabit speeds, once download of 10GB+ files is initialized the CPU will be saturated and speed will slow down. A more representative test is to initiate a large download (for example a 20GB+ game on Steam or Epic stores). Or a Torrent download of a large Linux ISO. In all cases ensure that the download is capable of maxing out your bandwidth.

The dual core ARM CPU runs at 1Ghz. It is saturated when load exceeds 2.0

Sample benchmark of 2 minute download on Steam with various configurations on 300Megabit connection:

Acceleration CTF+FA Megabit CPU Load Extrapolated to 1 Gigabit*
All Off Off 300 0.80 (40%) 2.67 (133%) Throttled**
SFE Off 300 0.45 (22.5%) 1.5 (75%)
CTF Off 300 0.03 (2%) 0.10 (5%)
Off FA+CTF 300 1.0 (50%) 3.33 (167%) Throttled**
SFE FA+CTF 300 0.40 (20%) 1.33 (67%)
CTF FA+CTF 300 0.05 (3%) 0.17 (8%)

*Extrapolation does not account for overhead. Therefore is likely to represent base case scenario.
**Throttled means it is unlikely to reach 1 Gigabit speeds with these settings.


Conclusion: It is advisable to select SFE and FA+CTF in most cases (due to updates and ipv6 compatibility); however, CTF and FA+CTF is also a good option. Note of caution with using CTF (from the SFE section) is that it could have issues with ipv6, as well as potential issues due to being a static blob that never gets updated. As DD-WRT kernels get updated the CTF blob may break compatibility. It is advisable to monitor the router for any stability issues if using CTF and FA+CTF.


Temperatures: r7000 appears to fare better when air gapped on the bottom. Rubber feet on the bottom do not provide enough elevation for best cooling. While temperatures are heavily dependent on individual environments, as a sample it was observed that when sitting horizontally on a wooden shelf CPU was idling at around 75C. Once router was air gapped on the bottom (2 cm) and hung vertically temperatures dropped to 64C in the same environment. Generally temperatures under 80C are considered to be normal.


Stability: There have been observations of poor stability with ddwrt on r7000 (observed with builds from June 2022). Various users reported kernel crashes and reboots within a week or two of uptime. It is possible that the issue is with SFE/CTF, but without them gigabit speeds are impossible. Until ddwrt stability improves there are 3 solutions:

1) Load older (pre 2022) builds until a stable build is found.

2) Disable CTF/SFE and observe stability (uptime of 1 month + without crashes is considered stable). This is only advisable with connections up to 500 Megabit, faster connections may get throttled.

3) Load alternate firmware. FreshTomato, as of build 2022.3 supports CTF (Advanced -> Miscellaneous) and has been tested to have multi month uptime without any issues. This is likely due to FreshTomato utilizing same linux kernel as Netgear, which is more compatible with CTF.

PLEASE REFER TO THE FOLLOWING THREAD ON THIS ISSUE Discussion of this entry

[edit] Features

  • Linux kernel 4.4.302-st40
  • Supports CPU overclocking: 1200MHz and 1400MHz possible (be very cautious)
  • OpenVPN and PPTP VPN server support
  • Ad blocking with Privoxy
  • Other: lighttpd + php


[edit] Disable LEDs

Disable lights at boot: go to Administration>Commands, paste the code below and click Save Startup Script.

for i in 2 3 8 9 12 13 17 18 ; do gpio enable $i ; done
for i in 14 15 ; do gpio disable $i ; done
et robowr 0x0 0x18 0x1ff
et robowr 0x0 0x18 0x0
et robowr 0x0 0x1a 0x0