Netgear WNR2000v3

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(DD-WRT Support for WNR2000v3)
 
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Note: There is a WNR2000v4 variant of this router in the market, this does not support DD-WRT. Note: There is a WNR2000v4 variant of this router in the market, this does not support DD-WRT.
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 +[https://web.archive.org/web/20120413005622/http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=84263| Here is the original archived DD-WRT support forum which has the initial support announcement/details]
== What builds can I use? == == What builds can I use? ==

Current revision

This wiki entry has been created to compile all the WNR2000v3 information into one place. The original support thread for the WNR2000v3 in the DD-WRT forums was removed a while ago and it had a lot of information which is now being asked in forum posts quite frequently.

Contents

[edit] DD-WRT Support for WNR2000v3

The WNR2000v3 is technically supported by DD-WRT but there are a few caveats (noted below). As general advice, I would not advise anyone to purchase this router for use with DD-WRT. It lacks key features like decent flash space (limited features), RAM and gigabit Ethernet which don't make it a great candidate. However if you still want to flash DD-WRT on the WNR2000v3, continue reading.

Note: There is a WNR2000v4 variant of this router in the market, this does not support DD-WRT.

Here is the original archived DD-WRT support forum which has the initial support announcement/details

[edit] What builds can I use?

The flash space of the WNR2000v3 is 4 MB however due to partitioning of the flash chip by Netgear you actually don't get the full space, in fact you actually only get 3648 kB (3735552 bytes). It is very important to keep this mind as builds larger than this will brick the router as the firmware cannot fit into the available flash space. Build 18777 is a confirmed working build that generally works. A lot of builds after 18777 are not suitable for flashing due to the space limitations. Its been reported that build 26446 also works as the filesize has been reduced. See Where do I download firmware? for links. Note the max file size above.

[edit] Flashing Instructions

[edit] Going from stock firmware

If you are flashing your WNR2000v3 unit for the first time, it will obviously have the stock Netgear firmware on it. If this is the case you will be required to flash two DD-WRT firmware files. One will be what is called an initial flash, this will basically setup your WNR2000v3 to accept DD-WRT with a small subset of the firmware, it is compiled as a .img as this is the firmware extension the WNR2000v3 will accept, the other will be a .bin which is for the final flash to put DD-WRT on your WNR2000v3 properly.

Do the usual steps prior to any firmware update on a router:

  • Static IP
  • Reset to default settings
  • Connected via Ethernet (Your wired interface should have a static IP)
    • IP Address: 192.168.1.8 (can be anything within 192.168.1.x)
    • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
    • Gateway: 192.168.1.1
  1. Go to ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/2012/07-20-12-r18777/netgear-wnr2000v3/ and grab either the North America (NA) or World Wide (WW) .img file depending on your routers origin, followed by the webflash.bin
  2. Navigate to the Firmware update page
  3. Select the .img file appropriate for your situation as discussed above and begin the flash. It will take about 5 mins to complete. Your router will reboot automatically. Do not touch at all at this time.
  4. After 5 minutes you should see the DD-WRT interface. Bear in mind you should wait at least 2 minutes even if you see the DD-WRT interface. This is because NVRAM variables may still be being built, though the flash looks like its complete.
    1. If not, you've probably had a bad flash, you will need to follow the recovery instructions, outlined in the reverting section below
    2. If the router refused the firmware file, your WNR2000v3 probably has newer Netgear firmware on it, you'll need to downgrade the stock firmware to an older version, see the info above.
  5. Do a 30/30/30 reset and wait for the router to come back again. Now set a username and password to get into the interface
  6. Navigate to the firmware upgrade page and now select the webflash.bin file, again wait 5 minutes and do not touch the router.
  7. After 5 minutes you should see the set username and password screen again, 30/30/30 reset your unit one last time, once it comes back up again, set a username and password and then configure as required.

[edit] Netgear's patch to prevent custom firmware

Netgear have been putting patches in more recent versions of the official Netgear WNR2000v3 firmware (and indeed other units) to prevent you from loading anything non Netgear on your unit. Sneaky. Basically what Netgear have done (albeit, queitly) is detect the initital DD-WRT .img firmware file that is required before flashing DD-WRT fully. This basically stops you from loading DD-WRT on your unit.

However, this was done more recently, but was not originally present on the first few stock firmware versions. Hence you can bypass this by actually downgrading your stock firmware version prior to doing anything DD-WRT related. The "Reverting" section on this page explains how to put your router into recovery mode. You will need to do this and flash an older version of the stock firmware via TFTP.

You cannot simply downgrade the firmware using the Netgear web interface, it will immeditately detect your attempts to flash an older version.

You can find the older versions of the stock firmware here:

http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/en/product/WNR2000v3

I'd recommend you TFTP flash either:

  • Firmware Version 1.1.1.58 (NA and WW Users)
  • Firmware Version 1.0.1.26 (NA and WW Users)

These are fairly older versions of the stock firmware which aren't patched. Anything after this may or may not have it. The patch is certainly present in the most recent version, but it is not exactly clear where it was introduced.

Note: The firmware files are in .zip archives. You will need to extract the firmware .img from the archive before using them.

[edit] Wireless MAC Address problems

After flashing DD-WRT you might find the Wireless MAC address seems to keep changing each time the router is booted. This becomes a problem when trying to do repeater functions e.g. Repeater Bridge. A workaround to this is to enable MAC Address Cloning, this seems to provide a fix to allow the virtual AP created to connect to the main AP.

[edit] Reverting/Recovery Mode

If you messed something up (bricked it) on your WNR2000v3, or just want to revert back to the original stock Netgear firmware.

Disconnect all cables except the power cable and the ethernet cable to you computer from the router. You have to use a cable (ethernet) connection for this. Turn off your router and turn it on again while holding the reset button in. Hold it in till the power light blinks green. The router's DHCP server has been stopped, so you will have to set a static IP in order to connect to the router. I won't go through that here, but you can look at how to do this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkdCTRvd6mk.

TFTP flashing on Windows (instructions adaptable for other operating systems):

When reverting or recovering a router its always best practice to flash the original firmware. For the WNR200v3 you can find the stock firmware here:

http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/en/product/WNR2000v3

Note: The firmware files are in .zip archives. You will need to extract the firmware .img from the archive before using them.

Download a version of the stock firmware, I'd recommend you use an older version, as newer versions have patches preventing DD-WRT from being flashed. (If you don't want to use DD-WRT ignore this statement). Download the firmware and save it to an easy location the C:/ drive or your own home/user directory is a good place. 

  1. Open cmd (Command Prompt) and switch into the directory you saved the orginal firmware in (use cd C:\.... to switch into the exact location) 
  2. Now we're going to use TFTP to send the tirmware to the router. The general syntax of TFTP via command line is: TFTP [-i] host [GET | PUT] source [target] 
  3. So the command will be something like: tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT wnr2000v3-V1.0.1.26.img

Your filename may differ if you downloaded a newer firmware version of the stock firmware

Use the appropriate filename for the [target] so it matches your settings and run the TFTP command. Let the router sit and do its thing for 5 minutes. It's going to restart automatically when it's finished, don't touch it at all during this time.

While these TFTP instructions are for Windows, as its command line they can be adapted for Mac OSX, Linux or any other Unix OS fairly easily.