Enable Telnet to Change Region on RAX70

[Ilias83]

Hello,
I'm from Greece and recently bought a second hand RAX70.
Unfortunately the Region is locked to China even though the router box clearly says RAX70-100EUS.

(I thought that it was made for EU)

Reading the forum I found out that in order to change Region you have to enable Telnet.

This is also something that cannot be done from /debug.htm so I try to figure out another way to enable telnet on my Router.

I've tried NTE http://www.antinode.info/nte/index.html and telnet-enable2.exe https://github.com/bkerler/netgear_telnet using Windows (Win11). 

I also tried running telnet-enable.py from CMD using python3.

Then I tried the same from Ubuntu 22.04.

I always get an error mentioning '2'

On Windows: '2' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

On Linux: 2: command not found

Can anyone please help me?

 

[Ilias83 · Accepted solution]

I finally got it to work.

I enabled Telnet and changed Region to Europe!

Now I have the 4804MHz option!

I managed to do it with Firmware Version 1.0.10.110 running the code I found here:

https://github.com/bkerler/netgear_telnet

I run the:

python3 telnet-enable.py [IP] [MAC] [user] "[password]"

Double quotes instead of single quotes in readme file might made the trick.

Many thanks to Bjoern Kerler!

[schumaku]

Have an eye on http://www.antinode.info/ftp/nte/nte-07/ ... especially the readme ... which shows how to call nte with some (==the right) parameters like MAC address, the password, ...

VMS forever @antinode 8-)

[microchip8]

Telnet has been removed from the firmware long time ago. It's a black box now.

[Kitsap]

As an option to try, flash the oldest firmware you can download from this site.  There is a chance it was distributed before Netgear depreciated telnet.

If you try this option, please report back with your results.

I have not seen any third party firmware for the RAX70.  You might dig deeper on the internet.

[Ilias83]

@schumaku Thank you very much. This '2' error was a password problem (I used a randomly created 16 symbol password) As soon as I changed the password to a more simple one the error message disappeared.
When I run nte m=(mac_addr) n=(ip_addr) u=admin p=password I get the following message:

nte: FAIL. No ACK message received.

@microchip8 unfortunately I know.

@Kitsap Firmware Version 1.0.1.68 is the oldest out there and there is no telnet option. I'm pretty sure that I saw the enable telnet option when I first installed the fw 1.0.1.68 but the /debug.htm page refreshed as soon as in checked the box and I never saw this option again. I tried to install fw 1.0.1.68 again and again with no luck.

[Ilias83 · Accepted solution]

I finally got it to work.

I enabled Telnet and changed Region to Europe!

Now I have the 4804MHz option!

I managed to do it with Firmware Version 1.0.10.110 running the code I found here:

https://github.com/bkerler/netgear_telnet

I run the:

python3 telnet-enable.py [IP] [MAC] [user] "[password]"

Double quotes instead of single quotes in readme file might made the trick.

Many thanks to Bjoern Kerler!

[Danc90]

Nice one. Were you able to see the second wifi network after enabling 4800mbps? 

My RAX70 was region locked to Australia. I flashed version V1.0.1.68 (initial firmware) from the support page. This enabled me to select region on the Wireless Setup page and a few other options such as open vpn. I changed region to Europe and then I was able to select 4800mbps on the second 5ghz. It successfully changes settings but I can't connect to that network. I then updated to the latest firmware V1.0.15.146 and all the options were still available, but no luck seeing the second 5ghz SSID.

[plemans]

Someone managed it with a RAXE500 so it might be possible 

Re: RAXE500 region lock - NETGEAR Communities

[Ilias83]

@Danc90 you are right. I had Smart Connect Enabled and I didn't noticed. You can select 4803Mbps but only on DFS channels. In my area I'm pretty sure that there are radars for military use nearby. This might be a possible explanation why I have no SSID on 5G-2. Unfortunately (non DFS)  channels above 149 are not available at all.

@plemans I've already made it as I explain on post #5. 

[schumaku]

@Ilias83 @Danc90 

With a router not configured for Smart Connect (so no single SSID for neither the 2.4 GHz nor any of the two undoubtedly available 5 GHz networks, I would expect to see individual SSIDs (Network Names), individual channel selections, and individual security settings for each of the three three radios. All the screenshots (I assume we have screenshots posted  from Australia [with a Europe setting] and from Greece [Europe] regulatory domain) appear to show only one set - tis leaves the impression bit your RAX70 are still appear to be configured for Smart Connect. Same behavior if doing a factory reset - just curious? 

[michaelkenward]

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@schumaku wrote:

- tis leaves the impression bit your RAX70 are still appear to be configured for Smart Connect. Same behavior if doing a factory reset - just curious? 

---

Good question. These days, Smart Connect is likely to be enabled by default. So, it will still be there after a reset.

[schumaku]

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@michaelkenward wrote:

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@schumaku wrote:

- tis leaves the impression bit your RAX70 are still appear to be configured for Smart Connect. Same behavior if doing a factory reset - just curious? 

---

Good question. These days, Smart Connect is likely to be enabled by default. So, it will still be there after a reset.

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According to the screenshots, Smart Connect is not enabled. Thus asking.

[Danc90]

Update: Make sure to reboot after changing region and speed. It took 5-10 mins and the SSID of 5ghz-2 finally appeared. I am now getting 2402/2402Mbps (Europe region, 4800Mbps mode, 128DFS) on some devices, up from previous 1200/1200Mps (Australia region, 2400Mbps mode). Currently using Firmware Version 1.0.5.108.

@schumaku  Smart Connect is off by default. I have left it disabled. I left out the screenshot of 5ghz-1. All three radios have options.

[schumaku]

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@Danc90 wrote:

Update: Make sure to reboot after changing region and speed. It took 5-10 mins and the SSID of 5ghz-2 finally appeared. I am now getting 2402/2402Mbps (Europe region, 4800Mbps mode, 128DFS) on some devices, up from previous 1200/1200Mps (Australia region, 2400Mbps mode).

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Great! Still try to understand and explain the readers here why Netgear can not make the 480x Mbps mode available for Australia (and Canada). There is no continuous 5 GHz channel range available in the regulations - the most obvious limitation is in the notch for Channels 120...128. This does very likely prohibit operating the system on 160 MHz bandwidth  To reach 2402/2402Mbps max on just 80 MHz, one would need to use 4x4 clients - there are not many "out there". The popular and reliable Inhell AX and BE modules are 2x2 only.

For my part, I'm just a "tire kicker" here in the consumer router section, more in Netgear SMB networking, and a co-editor of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels. 

Regards,

-Kurt

Zurich, Switzerland

[Ilias83]

I was about to report the same.

I reset everything to default this morning. Stock setting for 5G-2 was to 2401 Mbps Mode and Channel 100 (DFS). When I changed to 4803 Mbps Mode the 5G-2 SSID disappeared and came back after approximately 10 mins.

By the way yesterday after 5 years of use my R7800 5GHz network also disappeared and I got a message that a radar was detected...