[Cybersy]

Hello,

Bought two WRT1200AC. Had some experience with flashing a WRT3200 (DD-WRT) and WRT54GL (tomato), so I have been pretty confident with this one.

Flashed with 'https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2017/08-29-2017-r33257/linksys-wrt1200acv2/factory-to-ddwrt.bin' first, followed by 'https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2017/08-29-2017-r33257/linksys-wrt1200acv2/ddwrt-linksys-wrt1200acv2-webflash.bin'.

Even did the 30-30-30 reset, although it might not have been necessary (I read somewhere). All worked fine and I started configuring. As a first step I changed the DNS (to NordVPN DNS) only, saved and applied. Since then i cannot access the router anymore at all. WiFi (dd-wrt) shows up occasionally only, LAN connection doesn't work, USB-TTL cable is not available.

The second router is untouched for now. Does it make sense to use the latest 2017-09-09 version now, although some slow WiFi performance has been reported? Or better switch to OpenWRT (anybody experience with V2 and OpenWRT)?

Will be thankful for any input or help from the community!

Best regards,

Cybersy

[spuriousoffspring]

Probably not bricked. Is the GUI page not loading correctly or is it 'unavailable'?

My quess is a DNS issue. If Nord is anything like ipVanish - you can only use their DNS Servers with the accompanying software.

I would switch to opposite partition and reconfigure. Either use Telnet / SSH or the power switch 3 cycle method.

Once you get back to setup use OpenDNS, Level3, Google DNS, etc until you get your VPN setup complete.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=287813

Also, I'm not sure if your intention was to immediately cover both partitions with DD-WRT, but just in case - check out the first and last page of the above topic.

Not only is a hard reset aka 30/30/30 unnecessary, but you can brick your newer routers.
A 20 second hold of the reset button while powered on is all you need.
The WRT54 is the only one of your routers that a hard reset applies to.

The Telnet / SSH command for learning the current partition is:
ubootenv get boot_part
(the result will be several lines concluded by a 1 or 2)

The Telnet / SSH command for switching partitions is:
ubootenv set boot_part (put 1 here if above returned a 2 or vice-versa)
reboot

Example: ubootenv set boot_part 2 will switch to partition #2 after reboot command is entered.

You can also use Telnet / SSH command as an alternative to the reset button:
erase nvram
reboot

[Cybersy]

Dear spuriousoffspring,

Thank you so much for your reply. Unfortunately I can neither ping (lan) the router, nor can I access the web-config. WiFi occasionally shows up but I cannot connect to it. TFTP didn't work as well😩.

BTW: This is what I started and first thing is to change the DNS they say https://support.nordvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/207619255-DD-WRT-router-setup (OpenVPN).

[spuriousoffspring]

Is it possible that the Nord DNS server address may be entered in the router ip?

Simple mistake, but easy to make. The only reason I ask is that's when your router's problems began.

Try pinging the DNS server's address.

[Cybersy]

Nope, I checked. It suddenly appeared again and I upgraded to latest DD-WRT (09/09/17 - 33342) and now it doesn't show up again. Seems that is shows up every hundredth time I reboot it. I still hope that it sometimes switches to the other partition but it's difficult to track, because the power led is constantly on, when WiFi does not show up, so I din't know when to switch for this three times on/off thing.

BTW, in DD-WRT I couldn't enable SSH (greyed out).

FRUSTRAAAAATING !

[spuriousoffspring]

I just power-cycled my router to count the time it takes for the power LED to begin flashing.
I have a WRT1900AC v1, but they should be very close.

It took 2-3 seconds from the time I flipped the switch to the 'on' position for the power LED to come back on and begin flashing.

Try counting to 3 before you turn your router 'off' each time - leaving it 'on' on the 3rd time.

Good luck!

[Cybersy]

Again, thank you very much! I am a step further. After a million reboots I was able to access the GUI and configured the VPN successfully.

Then I checked which partition I was on (2) and booted the other one. Since then I cannot boot anymore. Any idea???

Will go on trying but even I can make it happen (3 times on/off doesn't work at all), I think I will return the router and start all over with a new one.

BTW, everything worked seamlessly with the second router. Did not take more than five minutes and I am on DD-WRT and NordVPN is configured.

Thanks again (for now😊)!