alsg wrote

@Sarmad,

Many thanks buddy, found your posting and it really work. So happy that I can extend the "life' of this router although I have already switched to other router for day-to-day usage.

One question on step 5, why is there a need to flash the original firmware after reboot?

By flashing orginal firmware you will be flashing v3 firmware as well as "v3 U-boot" to your device. Which will give your device updated U-boot kernel (which usually includes bug fixes, performance fixes etc), as well as the ease of updating your router with later v3 firmwares (including u-boot) to come through its web/GUI interface.

Hence eliminating any need of special attention from user end. (i.e. as in, need to strip the u-boot first or taking help from any open source firmware or using tftp recovery mode etc)

Hope it helps.

Regards,
Sarmad
Pakistan.

Thanks guys for the clarification.

I'm not sure whether it's due to the browser I use but before I re-flash the firmware with U-Boot, I can't seem to get pass the Quick Setup which keep prompting whenever I access the router webUI.

Another 2 questions, does this meant the router is "stuck" at V3 firmware, ie. not possible to downgrade to V2 via the webUI? And does anyone know the password to access to remote SSH shell?

alsg wrote

I'm not sure whether it's due to the browser I use but before I re-flash the firmware with U-Boot, I can't seem to get pass the Quick Setup which keep prompting whenever I access the router webUI.

For my experiment I used IE11 browser (integrated in MS Win 8.1 by default) & it all went as a breeze. I hope you have already tried the basic troubleshooting steps. (i.e. giving router a 30/30/30 sec reset, clearing your browser cache/cookies etc.)

What if you actually setup the router with some basic settings then save them & give it a reboot/restart?
Login back check if your settings are still there, if yes then proceed to firmware upgrade webpage.

{If nothing else works & you feel the need to change the web browser then (for a MS Windows machine) I will recommend Maxthon.exe portable version. Portable as you can simply delete it once you are done with it}

Let me know how it works out.

Another 2 questions, does this meant the router is "stuck" at V3 firmware, ie. not possible to downgrade to V2 via the webUI?

No, as the web UI will always check the authenticity of the firmware file [& generally speaking, its with good reason] it will not allow you to go back to V2.

For going back to V2 firmware:

During my testing I did actually check this scenario as well & succeeded.
If I remember correctly, for my case (while my router was running on V3 firmware) I was unable to use TP-Link's tftp recovery mode to go back to V2 firmware.
[ caution: for tftp method always use U-Boot stripped firmware file]

Hence the only option left was to use open source router platform to go back to V2 firmware, by following the same guide as before but of course this time using a U-Boot stripped V2 firmware file instead of V3 firmware. [& this worked easily]

And does anyone know the password to access to remote SSH shell?

If you mean SSH shell password for official TP-Link firmware then the absolute answer is NO. I believe that SSH sell access is disabled in all of TP-Link's official firmware releases.

Regards,
Sarmad
Pakistan.

Where do you, guys, get the stripped firmware for v3? Or do you make it yourself?

sarmad06 wrote

For my experiment I used IE11 browser (integrated in MS Win 8.1 by default) & it all went as a breeze. I hope you have already tried the basic troubleshooting steps. (i.e. giving router a 30/30/30 sec reset, clearing your browser cache/cookies etc.)

What if you actually setup the router with some basic settings then save them & give it a reboot/restart?
Login back check if your settings are still there, if yes then proceed to firmware upgrade webpage.

{If nothing else works & you feel the need to change the web browser then (for a MS Windows machine) I will recommend Maxthon.exe portable version. Portable as you can simply delete it once you are done with it}

Let me know how it works out.

At that point in time, I didn't think of doing the 30/30/30 reset but did perform reset to factory default as well as clearing the browser cache. I even switched from FF to IE and the end result is still the same. But not to worry, after doing a flash with V3 firmware containing the U-Boot, the problem seem to resolved by itself.

If you mean SSH shell password for official TP-Link firmware then the absolute answer is NO. I believe that SSH sell access is disabled in all of TP-Link's official firmware releases.

That's what I thought after one of my earlier posting regarding this matter. But surprising, SSH shell access is enabled in V3 just that it doesn't accept the admin password.

Toff wrote

Where do you, guys, get the stripped firmware for v3? Or do you make it yourself?

Yes, have to made it yourself. Just search for it in OpenWRT for the how-to, it's simply using the dd command to strip out the U-Boot section.

PM me if you need a copy.

Forget about the SSH shell access, I don't think it was implemented correctly as it keep showing this error message "server refused to allocate pty".

For those who have upgraded their v2 to v3 do you encounter issue with the WAN port? In my case, the router has difficulty in getting IP address whenever it has been rebooted or gone through a power cycle. The workaround it to unplug/plug the WAN cable connected to the modem (mine is an ONT). Initially I thought it could be issue with the cable but it turn out to be firmware related. Why I know, because I downgraded back to v2 firmware and the problem is resolved.

Working good for me, no problem with it.

wwenigma wrote

Working good for me, no problem with it.

May I know what kind of broadband connection you're having?