Re: Reset to factory on N900 by FTP

michont · ‎2017-03-20

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.

michaelkenward · ‎2017-03-21

I doubt if it was FTP. More likely to be TFTP:

How to upload firmware to a NETGEAR router using TFTP | Answer | NETGEAR Support

View solution in original post

michaelkenward · ‎2017-03-21

I doubt if it was FTP. More likely to be TFTP:

How to upload firmware to a NETGEAR router using TFTP | Answer | NETGEAR Support

michont · ‎2017-03-21

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.

michont · ‎2017-03-22

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.

shepohio · ‎2017-03-22

Hi michont,

My N900 just died/locked-up yesterday too... Weird coincidence...?

Anyway, I've tried all the steps you have: Power cycle, rebooting, reseting, trying to get to www.routerlogin.net(.com) --> "Connection timeout"... Nothing worked.

Then I found your post, and it gave me hope i could reset my router. I tried the steps in the link provided from Michael (thanks michael!). Like you, I'm unable to get that to work either. Interestingly, I do get the "Firmware was upgraded sucessfully!" message. However the LEDS didn't follow the described steps. My LED's diverge at step 9.

Here's what I observed:

Step 9) When it says the Power LED should go from solid orange to flashing orange, I never see it go to flashing orange. However, right after turning power on and the Power LED turns orange, I see several of the other LED's flash (Internet, LAN 1-4) on for about 2 sec. NOTE: This is the same sequence I see if I turn power on without holding down the reset button. However, the Power LED will stay orange as long as I hold the reset button in. Without holding the reset button, the "normal" power on cycle takes 26 seconds before the Power LED will switch from orange to a flashing green.

Step 10) Again, I never saw the Power LED switch to flashing orange, and subsequently never to flashing green (as described in Step 10), when I hold the reset button in. However, about 10 seconds (ie 10 LED blinks) after turning power on, the same "other" LED's (Internet, LAN 1-4) flashed on again, for about 2 seconds. I took this to be the equivalent of the "Count at least 10 flashing green LED and release the reset button." in Step 10. So, I released the reset button, upon which the other LED's (Internet, LAN 1-4) flashed again for 2 sec. Then it took ~34 sec. for the Power LED to change from solid orange to flashing green. (little bit longer than a "normal" power on). It was after that I tried to keep following the steps...

Step 11) This ran for me.

Step 12) I got the "Firmware was upgraded sucessfully!" message

Step 13) At this step, I never see "...the Power LED will turn green and the wireless LEDs are both lit". Despite getting a "successful" firmware upgrade message.

Also, I tried this several times, and got the same "sucessful" message from TFTP. So I'm sure I was following the steps as I've described here.

Let me know if you get the same results or different.

shepohio · ‎2017-03-22

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?

michont · ‎2017-03-22

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.

shepohio · ‎2017-03-22

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.

michont · ‎2017-03-23

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.