RAX120 - Firmware 1.2.8.40 update caused a loss in ability to login to admin portal via any method

[maverickrohan]

I have a: https://www.netgear.com/support/product/rax120

Timeline:

1. After it got the latest FW (1.2.8.40): https://kb.netgear.com/000065166 
2. I have been unable to login to its admin portal via www.routerlogin.net or 192.168.1.1
3. It only shows ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED ... 
4. I proceeded to do everything here: https://kb.netgear.com/27199/I-can-t-access-my-router-what-do-I-do nothing worked, in fact when I did the last thing which was Factory Reset the Router. 
5. It reset and shows up with the two default networks NETGEAR90 and NETGEAR90-5G and I am able to connect to them via Wi-Fi and/or Ethernet but no matter what now it does not even connect to the Internet via my modem
6. Now, instead of showing ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED it shows "invalid request" with a black background if you try to open any page.

I have Windows, Linux & macOS computers, it does not matter which I connect via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, nothing works.

I even tried all these methods to try and downgrade or re-push firmware, but none work as the Router is not really bricked:
https://youtu.be/_OYNEZuyId0 (Does not work at all)

https://youtu.be/hXhMgQS5k1o (Tried this on both Windows and Linux, the router detects a firmware being pushed but times out)

https://youtu.be/c40x4avo8GU (Did not try this yet as I have not bought the Serial Jig)

Any further suggestions or others who ran into the same issue?

[maverickrohan · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

After almost 18+ hours of dedicated time trying to fix the issue, I have found a solution and it is unique to the hardware of this device and requires an equally unique sequence of operation for tftp to work. Also, no matter what I tried, I could not get nmrpflash to work.

Source: https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/netgear/netgear_rax120_nighthawk_ax12

Reason for the issue: The reason why only the solution mentioned above works is because my router was never bricked, it was working but I had lost access to the web interface + new devices faced authentication issues.

Steps from source:

Below is the method to unbrick without TTL access (most of the instructions on the internet ddon't work for this device, including the ones on Netgear's website).

Assume using a linux pc for unbrick, and tftp client is already installed:

1. Connect PC to router's lan with cable, set static ip as 192.168.1.10
2. Download the stock firmware to PC, save as 1.img in the working dir
3. Run in terminal:

   tftp 192.168.1.1
   >binary
   >put  1.img  (don't presss ENTER now, for this line)

4. Power off the device, hold the RESET button, power on device, keep RESET holding all the time
5. After holding for about 20~30s, the device's power LED enters into a fast blinking status(and if you ping 192.168.1.1 in another terminal you start to get response). Release the RESET button.
6. Press ENTER button in the tftp.
7. Wait for transfer to finish(there is no message indicating tftp is working during transfering, but use ifconfig you can see traffic going out at a few MB/s). After transfer is done, you will see success message from tftp.
8. Wait for the device to auto reboot.
9. (Optional) Do a reset of the router in the normal way, after device already starts up.

This method doesn't require the device in an already bricked status. It's confirmed working on RAX120v2, it's also known to work on RAX70.

Solution is to use the method in the link above but loading v1.2.8.40 (latest as of June 2023) or v1.2.3.28 (last know good version) did not fix the WebUI lock out ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED issue.

I had to downgrade it to v1.0.0.64, get access back to the Web UI and then upgrade back to v1.2.8.40

Here are some screenshots:

[DarrenM]

Have you done a factory reset on the router?

[maverickrohan]

Yes, like 6-7x times ... see #4&5 above.

I was working on this from 6:30PM to 4:30AM 2 nights ago and ruined my following day. 

[DarrenM]

If you have a pc connected to the router you could find the default gateway with this tutorial and then use that IP address in your web browser and see if that will bring up the GUI. https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgebase/finding-your-default-gateway#:~:text=In%20the%20Command%2... 

[maverickrohan]

🙂 

You know I am way past that, I clearly know what the default gateway is if I am using TFTP & nmrpflash to try and load previous versions of the firmware. The address for the router is 192.168.1.1 and I can ping it successfully. 

[FURRYe38]

Has a 30-30-30 reset been performed on the router? 

My RAX120 was updated and hasn't not seen this kind of issue after FW was updated...

[maverickrohan]

Yes, multiple times. 

It still results in

"ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED"

when you try to reach 192.168.1.1 which is the default gateway.

[FURRYe38]

Last resort would be to try this to load FW using TFTP:

https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP
Need to press the reset button for 30 seconds then release, then it send to PUT the command and upload the FW. 
Make sure you enable tftp: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-tftp-windows-10
Video walk through using a tftp client. Use the built in one for windows 10 though. the video is more of an example of how its done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXhMgQS5k1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9DLrLQrpaw
I had a problem on a Windows 10 PC where this didn't work to use TFTP, so I switched to a Windows 7 PC and the TFTP worked.
Mac TFTP: https://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0001247

Try nmrpflash:
https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash

If any of this fails, would need to contact NG support. 

[maverickrohan]

I am not sure why people are posting replies with things I have already tried in my first post.

I have already tried TFTP, TFTPD32, TFTPD64, NMRPFLASH (with tons of different options), I always end up with this:

sudo nmrpflash -i eno1 -F firmware -f RAXOLD.img -a 192.168.1.1 -A 192.168.1.10 -p 69 -m 08:36:c9:20:e1:49 -B -t 10000 -T 10000 -vvv
Temporarily disabling NetworkManager on interface.
Waiting for Ethernet connection (Ctrl-C to skip).
Adding 192.168.1.10 to interface eno1.
Advertising NMRP server on eno1 ... -
Received configuration request from 08:36:c9:20:e1:49.
Sending configuration: 192.168.1.1/24.
Received upload request: filename 'firmware'.
Using remote filename 'firmware'.
Uploading RAXOLD.img ... << WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
<< WRQ(firmware, octet)
Timeout while waiting for ACK(0)/OACK.

[maverickrohan · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

After almost 18+ hours of dedicated time trying to fix the issue, I have found a solution and it is unique to the hardware of this device and requires an equally unique sequence of operation for tftp to work. Also, no matter what I tried, I could not get nmrpflash to work.

Source: https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/netgear/netgear_rax120_nighthawk_ax12

Reason for the issue: The reason why only the solution mentioned above works is because my router was never bricked, it was working but I had lost access to the web interface + new devices faced authentication issues.

Steps from source:

Below is the method to unbrick without TTL access (most of the instructions on the internet ddon't work for this device, including the ones on Netgear's website).

Assume using a linux pc for unbrick, and tftp client is already installed:

1. Connect PC to router's lan with cable, set static ip as 192.168.1.10
2. Download the stock firmware to PC, save as 1.img in the working dir
3. Run in terminal:

   tftp 192.168.1.1
   >binary
   >put  1.img  (don't presss ENTER now, for this line)

4. Power off the device, hold the RESET button, power on device, keep RESET holding all the time
5. After holding for about 20~30s, the device's power LED enters into a fast blinking status(and if you ping 192.168.1.1 in another terminal you start to get response). Release the RESET button.
6. Press ENTER button in the tftp.
7. Wait for transfer to finish(there is no message indicating tftp is working during transfering, but use ifconfig you can see traffic going out at a few MB/s). After transfer is done, you will see success message from tftp.
8. Wait for the device to auto reboot.
9. (Optional) Do a reset of the router in the normal way, after device already starts up.

This method doesn't require the device in an already bricked status. It's confirmed working on RAX120v2, it's also known to work on RAX70.

Solution is to use the method in the link above but loading v1.2.8.40 (latest as of June 2023) or v1.2.3.28 (last know good version) did not fix the WebUI lock out ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED issue.

I had to downgrade it to v1.0.0.64, get access back to the Web UI and then upgrade back to v1.2.8.40

Here are some screenshots:

[FURRYe38]

Glad you figured it out and got it working. Thanks for the details. 

Be sure to save off a back up configuration to file for safe keeping. Saves time if a reset is needed.
https://kb.netgear.com/24231/How-do-I-back-up-the-router-configuration-settings-on-my-Nighthawk-rout...
Enjoy. 📡