However, I took a a very long and winding path to get to this point, so I wanted to share it with others to perhaps save them the time I already wasted.
In order to rescue the router, I discovered it is critical to get the router to the recovery mode correctly! In order to do this, I first did the 30/30/30 reset, then restarted the router and once again held the reset button until the power LED flashed green. (I had only been holding it until it flashed yellow...) Once the router was in recovery mode, I was able to successfully flash v17201, v17967, v17990, v18000, v18007, and v18024 (all available via FTP) to the router following your TFTP instructions (manually setting IP to 192.168.1.2, pinging the router at 192.168.1.1 to confirm it's receiving connections, installing the TFTP Server, running the TFTP server while flashing the router, etc).
HOWEVER, when logging into any builds greater than v17201, I noticed something missing - namely, any settings at all related to the wireless! DD-WRT is definitely installed, because you can log into it, but there are no options for setting up the wireless at all in these subsequent builds. The "Wireless" tab is completely missing, and there is no reference at all to ath0 or ath1 anywhere.
So, for what it's worth, I can confirm that v17201 can be flashed to the WNDR3700 v2, but it appears that subsequent builds don't work (they install, but no wireless!). I'll admit that I may have done something wrong, but as long as I have a working router I'm happy for now.
Has anybody else had any success flashing a build greater than v17201 (namely v18007 or 18024) to the WNDR3700 v2? (And by success, I mean that your wireless actually works and can be configured, not just that it can be flashed successfully and logged into, but does not contain any options for wireless and is not functioning as a wireless access point...)
EDIT: Looks like my "no wireless tab" is a known issue with builds greater than v17201...if only I had read http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=148866 previously. Oh well, v17201 is working well for now, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 19:49 Post subject: OpenVPN on WNDR3700v2???
Hi,
Has anyone got the OpenVPN working on the v17201 build? I agree that this is the last build that is stable enough to be of any practical use for the WNDR 3700v2.
I have configured the VPN server on the v17201 build but can't get clients to connect... If you look at the running processes via Telnet it doesn't look like the openVPN server daemon is running when activated in the GUI???
I have also had a few issues with port forwarding of UDP ports on the same build... Can anyone confirm these issues or know what the cause maybe?
Otherwise I agree with what jrf2027 say in the previous post...
I'm looking to update to the most recent stable build on my 3700 v2. What would be a good upgrade path? Back in June 2011 when I installed DD-WRT on this router, this was the only build that I could get to work correctly. Whenever I would try to upgrade (at the time) to the more recent build, it would error out and I would have to start all over. Yes, even with setting factory defaults.
I want another v1 as a backup, but it seems the only thing being sold is the v2. The 3800 is the v2 enhanced, with non-blinking LED(s), as is the 4500. Guess I'll have to wait until Netgear gets its act together before I purchase another Netgear router.
Anybody check out the ASUS RT-N56U Black Diamond Dual-Band Gigabit Wireless-N Router Users on SmallNetBuilder don't seem to like it.
I own both the wndr3700v1 and the rt-n56u. There is currently no support for the N56U router by dd-wrt and the stock firmware released by Asus is VERY subpar, down right buggy and horrible.
There is currently a Russian group that releases a modded version of the N56U firmware that fixes a lot of bugs, but is still buggy for me. (I use Skype video conferencing daily and whenever I've used the N56U my camera and sound is constantly grainy and horrible, which doesn't happen on my 3700v1)
Another downside might be that there isn't separate front LED's for each ethernet connection, so if you want to see if a connection is up on a certain port you have to have the router facing sideways, which makes it so you can't view the front LED's at all.
So IMO the N56U isn't really up to par with the 3700. Maybe if Asus actually supported the router properly or DD-WRT actually decided to work on it, it might of turned out better. But to me personally, the front LED's are a deal breaker, the router may look sleek, but you sacrifice look for functionality, which if you couple that with Asus' support for the router, isn't saying much :/
Joined: 24 Dec 2011 Posts: 35 Location: New Orleans, LA, USA
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 21:21 Post subject:
d4ftpuNK wrote:
So IMO the N56U isn't really up to par with the 3700. Maybe if Asus actually supported the router properly or DD-WRT actually decided to work on it, it might of turned out better. But to me personally, the front LED's are a deal breaker, the router may look sleek, but you sacrifice look for functionality, which if you couple that with Asus' support for the router, isn't saying much :/
Thanks d4ftpuNK . . . You have confirmed what I have gleaned through other resources.
Netgear’s ‘new’ standard for routers (WNDR3800, 4000, and 4500) is no blinking lights. According to support personnel, this was adopted based on a focus group who decided that LED(s), showing packet activity, disturbs their quality of sleep. For me, this is the ultimate deal breaker. I have been in the Netgear camp for quite some time, but am looking for another company that produces a quality router, and doesn’t cater to the novice who sees ‘blinking’ LED(s) as a nuisance. Obviously, Asus is not the company I am looking for. _________________ Best regards,
Nat Ray
______________________
Cox Communications > SB6120 DOCSIS 3.0 > WNDR3700v1 (2) *AP via Wired Backbone* > Ooma Telo / D-Link DGS-1024D > NeoTV-550 (3)
** Qosmio-X505 ** DD-WRT v24-sp2 (12/14/11) std. Build 18007 Optimize your network: Disable IPv6 . . . Post responsibly . . .
‘Quality trumps Quantity’
I have used dd-wrt for my old Linksys wrt54g router so I am not a total noob.
I just picked up a used wndr3700v1 router and am considering loading dd-wrt.
The 3700v1 will have the latest factory firmware already loaded and working. My question is:
1)Is it necessary to run TFTP? Why not just load the dd-wrt FW via the netgear software that accepts the img file. Then I could do the reset, etc.
2)I started downloading the latest .img files and there is no rime or reason to the releases. I have 2 downloads of the factory_na file one is smaller then the other. Why in the world are download files not named with reference to release number.
Just seems to be a lot of directions to load a new image file to a router.
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 14:12 Post subject: Can see my port forward now
Nat, Ray here from the WNDR4500 link. I had to remember my old DD-WRT password from when I was working with the old Linksys a couple years ago....
I managed to get the port forward working on my WNDR3700 by switching my server over from port 80 to a different number. So I have port forward set up to send requests on 80 to the server ip at the new internal port. Not sure why it won't forward 80 to 80 but at least it works for now.
I'm now running 18024 on my WNDR3700v1... seems to be stable so far (~1.5 days). I moved to this from 17201 since port-forwarding wasn't working on that one.
I'm now looking for SNMP, but I do not see anywhere in the web GUI to enable it. Am I blind?
Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 4:56 Post subject: Running r17201 on wndr3700v2
Everytime I go to update port triggering using any browser and save settings the browser will crash and I can't access router for a couple minutes. Anybody else having this issue?
Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 18:06 Post subject: Re: Running r17201 on wndr3700v2
viking123 wrote:
Everytime I go to update port triggering using any browser and save settings the browser will crash and I can't access router for a couple minutes. Anybody else having this issue?
I confirmed on wndr3700v2 I can only enter up to 3 port triggering ranges. I use port triggering for different voip, xbox. Haven't tested entry of port forwarding but I prefer triggering cause your not tied to specific clients. I have r17201 installed. I need to add QOS entries as well. I currently use wrt54gl and have no issues but was looking to utilize this V2 beast for dual transmitters. As I understand anything above this 17201 will cause wireless tab to disappear. No thanks. Is there an MOD I can implement to get around this forwarding issue for V2 without having to go to next FW.