Has anyone had one of these that's gone "dead" but was really fixable?
I saw the mention of:
Anytime you turn off the airlink 430w via pulling the power cord, or a power outage, you wont be able to to access the setup page anymore. In fact, after turning off the power anytime or hitting the reset button, basically turns the router into a hunk of useless trash.
However, someone else did the original installation of dd-wrt for me, so obviously it was powered off when I got it. It's been working for many months (most of a year?). Now, when I power it on, the only thing I get is the power light.. nothing else.
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:50 Post subject: Detailed AR430W (DIR-300) flashing instructions that work.
As of this writing, the official instructions in the router database for flashing the AR430W don’t work. Many of the other instructions that I found assume that you know how to use Telnet, TFTP, Putty, etc, or that you're using a Linux PC. Following are detailed, step-by-step instructions for PC users like me who can follow instructions but aren’t very tech savvy.
Step-by-step instructions:
1) Turn on the PC that you’ll be using. It must have an Ethernet port and you’ll need an Ethernet cable.
2) Download the free Telnet application “PuttyTel” from the following website to your PC’s desktop or just do a web search for PuttyTel. You can use either Putty or PuttyTel. The difference is that PuttyTel only does TelNet, whereas Putty does TelNet & SSH. You only need TelNet for flashing your AR430W, so unless you have an immediate need for SSH, you should probably just download PuttyTel otherwise you’ll have to remember to put Putty into TelNet mode each time you use it (since SSH its default mode). FYI: Telnet lets you communicate with your AR430W through a command-line interface. (I.e. A black window with prompt, like an old-style DOS prompt.) http://www.putty.org
3) Download the free TFTP application PumpKIN from the following website to your PC’s desktop (or do a web search for PumpKIN), and install it. I tried another free TFTP application but it didn’t have the necessary flexibility. FYI: TFTP lets you transfer the necessary files to the AR430W. http://kin.klever.net/pumpkin/binaries
4) From the DD-WRT website directory for the AR430W, (see link below), download the following three files to your PC’s desktop: ar61.ram, ar61.rom, & linux.bin. (In that directory you’ll also see a webflash file called “ar430w_firmware.bin”. I’m not sure what “ar430w_firmware.bin” is for but I’m pretty sure that you can’t just flash it onto the AR430W from the AR430W’s original web interface because I think that the AR430W’s built-in firmware will reject it as an unauthorized firmware. However, once you do the following procedure to grant yourself root access to your AR430W, then I think you could use the webflash file to flash through the AR430W’s web interface if, for example, you had switched to another custom firmware and then wanted to switch back to this version of DD-WRT.) http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database
5) On your PC, turn off Windows firewall software or any other firewall software that you may be running. This is critical for TFTP to work. (Remember to turn it back on after you’ve flashed the AR430W.)
6) Change the IP address of your PC’s Ethernet port (which is probably on automatic DHCP) to 192.168.20.80, Subnet: 255.255.255.0, Gateway 0.0.0.0, Default server 192.168.20.80. If I remember correctly, on Windows XP you do this by going into the networking settings and clicking on the EtherNet adapter. In Windows 7, you go to “Control Panel, Network & Internet, Network Connections” and then double-click on your “Local Area Connection” icon for your PC’s Ethernet adapter. From there you click on “Properties” and then double-click on “Internet protocol version 4”. Then you select “Use the following IP address”. Then you input an “IP address” of 192.168.20.80, and a “Subnet mask” of 255.255.255.0. (FYI: When you’re done with this whole procedure, you’ll have to switch back to your original settings so you might want to write them down if necessary.)
7) Leave the power off to the AR430W, but use an Ethernet cable to connect the WAN port of the AR430W to the Ethernet port of your PC.
8) From your PC, start PumpKIN (which should now be in Start/Programs/Klever Group). The checkbox in the lower-right corner labeled “Server is running” should be checked.
9) In PumpKIN, select “Options”, and then under “Server” tab, set the “TFTP filesystem root (download path)” to be your PC’s desktop. Now you’ll be able to send those files from your desktop to the AR430W.
10) Start PuttyTel by double-clicking on its icon on your desktop icon.
11) In PuttyTel, under “host name or IP address” type 192.168.20.81” and under “Port” type 9000.
12) About 5 seconds after the AR430W is powered on, and only for a duration of about 1 second, the AR430W’s boot code loader (“Redboot”) will be available to connect for a Telnet session, so you’ll have to be ready to quickly do the following. Line up your cursor over the “open” button, keep your eyes on the Ethernet port, and get your fingers set on the keyboard! Connect the power cord to your AR430W. After about 5 seconds (usually indicated by your PC’s Ethernet port light coming on) on PuttyTel, hit “Open” and then immediately hit “Ctrl-c” on your PC’s keyboard. If you got the timing right, in the black Telnet window, you’ll see a “RedBoot>” prompt. If not, unplug the power from the AR430W, go back to step 10, and try again until you get the “RedBoot>” prompt.
13) Once you get the “Redboot>” prompt, the rest of the instructions are straight-forward, but I’ll copy them below with some clarifications, as a one-stop repository for those of us who are less technically savvy. Note that you only have to type the bold-faced entries at the “Redboot>” prompt, the “DD-WRT prompt” or the “>>” prompt. The other text listed below shows what your AR430W will display in the TelNet window if you’ve entered the right command at the prompt. Note that the commands that have a “-l” in them (like “fis create –l”, “fis load –l”, or “ip address –l”) are dash-L, not dash-one. After issuing some of these commands (especially the ones where you’re loading code, it can take some time for the AR430W to respond. Don’t worry. Give it a few minutes if necessary. Check and double-check each command that you type before hitting “Enter”.
14) From the “RedBoot>” prompt type the commands in bold face type:
RedBoot> load ap61.ram
You’ll get a file upload access request from Pumpkin. Grant acces. Redboot will respond…
Using default protocol (TFTP)
Entry point: 0x800410bc, address range: 0x80041000-0x800680d8 RedBoot> go
15) There will be no response and no prompt because (I think) you’ve just replaced the “RedBoot” bootloader with the DD-WRT bootloader. Don’t worry. Close the PuttyTel Telnet session by clicking the red "X" in the upper right corner and confirm the close.
16) Change the IP address of your PC’s network card to 192.168.1.23, as you did in step 6 above.
17) Open a new PuttyTel session, this time using an IP address of 192.168.1.1, port 9000. Hit “Open”. You should see a “DD-WRT>” prompt. Important: While doing the following steps, DON’T unplug the Ethernet cable or the power cord. At the “DD-WRT>” prompt type:
DD-WRT> fconfig -i
Answer “y”, whenever asked, and accept all of the default settings provided at the prompt (including blank IP address) by hitting “Enter”.
DD-WRT> fconfig bootp false
bootp: Setting to false
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration - continue (y/n)? y ... Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
... Program from 0x80ff0000-0x81000000 at 0xbffe0000:
DD-WRT> fis init About to initialize [format] FLASH image system - continue (y/n)?y *** Initialize FLASH Image System
... Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
... Program from 0x807f0000-0x80800000 at 0xbffe0000:
DD-WRT> load -r -b %{FREEMEMLO} ap61.rom Using default protocol (TFTP)
Raw file loaded 0x80080000-0x800a8717, assumed entry at 0x80080000
DD-WRT> fis create -l 0x30000 -e 0xbfc00000 RedBoot An image named 'RedBoot' exists - continue (y/n)?y ... Erase from 0xbfc00000-0xbfc30000: ...
... Program from 0x80080000-0x800a8718 at 0xbfc00000: ...
... Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
... Program from 0x807f0000-0x80800000 at 0xbffe0000:
DD-WRT> reset
The AR430W will reboot and the new bootloader will wait for your Telnet connection.
18) In PuttyTel, under “host name or IP address” type 192.168.1.1” and under “Port” type 9000, and then hit “Open” to open a Telnet session. (You should get a “DD-WRT>” prompt in the black Telnet window.)
19) Keep in mind that that the “fis create” operations take several minutes to finish, so be patient. Don’t unplug the device. Give it at least 10 minutes if necessary.) At the “DD-WRT>” prompt type:
DD-WRT> load -r -b 0x80041000 linux.bin
Pumpkin will ask you to grant access. Do so. The transfer will take about 1 minute.
DD-WRT> fis create linux
It will take about 2 minutes for the prompt to appear.
In the next step, when you get the ">>"prompt, you'll hit the "Enter" key on your PC's keyboard after each line of text. The third line is blank so just hit "Enter".
DD-WRT> fconfig Run script at boot: true (Hit Enter key).
>>fis load -l linux
>>exec
>>
Hit Enter to accept each default setting offered at the prompt, and “y” when asked.
DD-WRT> reset
The unit should now boot DD-WRT, and you should be able to access it from a web browser at 192.168.1.1. (Username: “root” and password “admin”)
Don’t forget to reset your PC’s Ethernet port to its original settings—mostly likely automatically obtaining IP address. (i.e. Undo what you did in step #6.)
And don't forget to turn on your PC's firewall software if you turned it off.
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 5:47 Post subject: To clarify the step to get the redboot from ar430w
I spent a few hours to try to get the redboot prompt. Finally, I realized my rj45 cable connction was wrong. One end goes to your PC/laptop or Linux, the other end must be connected to the ar430W on the WAN port.
Absolutely not the ethernet ports on the ar430w.
using putty to telnet to ip 192.168.20.81 via port 9000 after set your pc/laptop ip address as 192.168.20.80 (from control panel,network and sharing center, clik connections, properties, highlight tcp/ipv4, properties, set to 192.168.20.80 for use the following ip adress)
You must also start the tftpsrv.exe so that the ap61.ram and ap61.rom can be pushed to the ar430w via telnet above. (They, putty and tftpsrv.exe, must be from the same folder as well as all others.)
I have 14896 flashed, and then I used the web UI to upload the ar430w-firmware.bin file, and it accepts the file, but when the router restarts it never comes up.
I used the method above using putty/tftp to restore to 14896.
Are there different versions of the AR430w hardware, that are not compatible with the newer firmware?
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 0:50 Post subject: my flashing results
Hello forum visitors. I thought it might be of some help to someone if I shared my experience while flashing DD-WRT to my AR430W router. First, I decided to choose the stable version (V24 SP1 build 10020) of the software. As it turned out, for some reason after flashing that software, my router went into a loop of some sort rebooting every so often, which posed a different problem for me that I will discuss later. I used RazzMaTazz’s instructions (on page 25) as the files have changed from brandon30x’s instructions (on page 1). I did do a couple of modifications to them. By the way, GREAT instructions RazzMaTazz… Thank You.
I started with the stable version and as I said my router began looping; I no longer could get into RedBoot. I couldn’t figure out how to get back in to try something else, until I read something somewhere else on the DD-WRT forum (thanks to DNA for the idea) about access to the router during a problem. What I did was to run a looping ping against 192.168.1.1 on the WAN port (ping –t 192.168.1.1). When it started to answer (it would answer for only a few pings), I would click the open button on puttytel (used this one instead of putty) and I would easily get the DD-WRT> prompt. I would start at the “fconfig –i” line of the instructions. I tried to load the “stable” version 2 or 3 times thinking I had a bad load, but decided to move on. I then went to the “v24 pre SP2 [Beta] Build: 14896”. I downloaded the ap61.ram file, ap61.rom file, and linux.bin file from this version of the build thinking that they may be connected. I did not reload the ap61.ram file as I couldn’t get the RedBoot prompt. I started from the “config –i” command step and finally achieved SUCCESS .
The only thing I would add to RazzMaTazz’s instructions is that you have to reapply the “ip_address –h 192.168.1.23” command after each “reset” command, prior to downloading a file.
I am wondering if someone has loaded the last version (v24 PreSP2 [Beta] build 21061) and how it was loaded… via ftp or using the router’s web interface. The new version is quite a bit smaller, 3.43 MB versus 3.57 MB for the older version, and does it add some WOW things. I don’t want to brick my router since it is now a super router that works.
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:31 Post subject: Airlink101 AR420W
Hi, I 've got this old airlink101 unit and I have confirmed that it is using the same Atheros chip like the AR430W.
I'd like to try flashing with dd-wrt but got lost reading all 25 pages with at times conflicting info about linux, redboot, putty, telnet, etc.
I have to admit all this is beyond my knowledge so it will be unwise to attempt anything even for ...fun.
I did realize though that the latest build 21061 there is a webflash image: ar430w-firmware.bin
Does webflash mean that I can upload this f/w via the ar420w webpage interface?
If yes that would be great, if not, is there any way to confirm what are the step by step instructions to do so using windows 7 professional.
Thank you very much!
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Aug 2, 2014 - EDIT: Never mind, I have the answer, I tried myself, with a router I had laying around that I could afford losing, so I went ahead and without "bricking" anything, it does not work. E.g. loading ar430w-firmware.bin from the webpage interface of AR420W and executing the f/w upgrade, results in a "out of memory message" message, I restarted the router everything was as before, no functionality lost or added.
Now if anyone wants to provide clear and confirmed steps how to load dd-wrt to the AR420/430W router, please do so, it will be highly appreciated.
