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Reset to factory on N900 by FTP
A couple years back or maybe a bit more, my N900 died. Rebooting, resetting did nothing. After some assistance either on here or by their support, I was told I should FTP into the router with the firmware, apply it and it should reset to factory. It did and since then, it was fine. Apparently, the same issue has returned. I have tried pushing in the back reset for 10 seconds but the device does not reboot. All I get is the flashing green power light. It is not supplying DHCP service or any wireless. I think it might by default have an IP so could possibly put a static IP address on my computer. Other than that, does anyone know the process to FTP into the router and put the firmware onto it? I thought I might be able to see old threads under my name but can't seem to find any. I was hoping to use that history.
I doubt if it was FTP. More likely to be TFTP:
How to upload firmware to a NETGEAR router using TFTP | Answer | NETGEAR Support
8 Replies
I doubt if it was FTP. More likely to be TFTP:
How to upload firmware to a NETGEAR router using TFTP | Answer | NETGEAR Support
Thanks, Michael. I understand the differences between the two but I wasn't really
sure what method was told to me last time so just posted it that way to make it
simple. I'll confirm later how everything works out.
So far no luck. I can update the firmware (says it's successful) but nothing changes on the router. Last time it worked easily enough so I'm guessing that something else must be going on here. I'll continue to play with it. I did purchase another router so this is not an urgent thing at the moment. I'll mark your suggestion as the accepted solution. Thanks for the help.
Another data point. I just tried reflashing after a "normal" power cycle.
The TFTP tool gives me a "Firmware was upgraded sucessfully!" message in that scenario too. So, for my N900 (in whatever state it is), it doesn't seem to matter if I hold the reset button in, for a sucessful reflash of the firmware...
If there are any of Netgear's engineers monitoring this site, is there another method to reflash the firmware? Like over the USB ports? Or can I open the case, and get to another internal re-flash method?
After reading your post, it is exactly what mine is doing. Not sure why the last time I had to upgrade the firmware after this sort of thing happened it worked OK. I don't recall using the tool to upgrade though, maybe that is the difference, not sure. When I get the urge to continue trying to figure it out, I'll see if things turn out differently. I did end up buying another router, since my wife works from home and internet access is critical.
So, I was able to reset the firmware,and mine works now! I didn't even have to go thru holding the reset button down. I just used the TFTP tool as I described above, after a normal power cycle.
It turns out I had downloaded the firmware for the WNDR4500v3, and I have the WNDR4500 model...
The problem was on the N900 page:
http://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-routers/WNDR4500.aspx?cid=wmt_netgear_organic
When you click on the "Get Support" link, it takes you to the WNDR4500v3 product support page. Which then has the link to the firmware, I downloaded.
Even though, that first product page only has the base number, WNDR4500, listed...
So, I feel like I was fooled... But I guess I should have read the downloaded firmware zip file name... It clearly has "WNDR4500v3" in the .zip file name.
Well, I hope you had the same problem and this helps you make yours work.
Well, I figured out my issue. I did have the correct firmware but my issue was just dumb recollection or something. Even though I got the message that the firmware upgrade was successful, I just retraced my steps. I was pointing to the correct folder location but I never actually selected the file in the folder (thinking the upgrade would search it for the updated firmware). This time, I went into the folder and selected the file and now it's acting like it should. Not sure why this has happened twice to me. I have my electronics connected to a UPS so it is not from any electrical surge. I will keep it as a spare and hope the Netgear model AC1200 I just purchased doesn't crap out like the N900 has done.
