Sounds like faulty. You'd better provide a screenshot. What's the hardware verison of your W8960N?

Its version 4.Will provide screenshot when I get home.

Instead of a screenshot I'll just type what the page says, this is when I goto 192.168.1.1.

Update Software
Step 1: Obtain an updated software image from your ISP
Step 2: Enter the path to the image file location in the box below or click the "Browse" button to locate the image file.
Step 3: Click the "Update Software" button once to upload the new image file.
NOTE: The update process takes about 2 minutes to complete, and your DSL Router will reboot.
Sofware File Name: [Choose File Button] No file chosen.
[Update Software Button]

This is all I get on a page by itself. The form gets processed by upload.cgi, seen in the page source of the page.

I will get back to you on what happens when I try it with the original firmware.

And on trying the firmware, no matter which one I use it comes back with:

DSL Router Software Upgrade
Image uploading failed. The selected file contains an illegal image.
[Back button]

So, I don't know what firmware it wants and I can't hard reset it no more or get to the admin interface, the page that is being served is upload.html, any ideas what the default page is called in case I can browse directly to that?

Also, I had to manually set my IP address up as DHCP is not working. The only light on the router is the power one and the LAN one I'm connected to, nothing else is lit up.

I'm lost in this thread too many informations for me.
Firstly, do you have access to your router settings by internet browser? What kind of model W8960N do you have (hardware version)? You have to search on the router box.

No access to router settings via browser. It goes straight to that update software page (upload.html). I even tried telnet with no luck.

TD-W8960N Ver 4.0 taken straight from the bottom of the router.

Reset button on the back of router has no effect at all, doesn't even make the lights flash.

It seems it's at a stage before factory defaults but I am not sure yet. If I can get it working again, that would be great. As right now, it's pretty much just a switch/hub.

This person here reported the same issue but did not seem to get any help. I did a search on the wording, and it seems pretty generic for all updating software pages the difference on my working TD-W8960N is that it provides a link to TP-Link to get the firmware while this one is requesting an ISP firmware.

I may have a fix but need to test some things out before I report back. Tests failed, apparently this is some special recovery mode that I got myself into but can't get myself out of.

What kind of operating system do you have?

Operating system seems to be irrelevant?

Anyways I run Linux (Mint and Fedora) and can run Windows 7 or 8.1 if it's needed.

Can you check IP addressing after plugged in your computer (for example screen from ipconfig /all)?

Hi jimasek,

There's no DHCP available in this rescue/recovery mode so I had to manually configure my computers network settings. The routers default IP was still 192.168.1.1 though.

I was able to modify the latest firmware [TD-W8960N_V4_140228] and get it to flash. No idea whether it's solved the problem or bricked my router, still going through it.

I have noticed the WiFi light going now as well as the WiFi button to switch it off working.
DHCP still not going.
ADSL not plugged in so no idea if that's going yet.

Want to try a go at hard reset now, but not till I try other things out first.