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June 5, 2010 09:52 PM
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tc21931

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Been using OpenWRT (x-wrt actually) for about three years now, and I would love to have it on this router.  OpenWRT.org indicates it is not supported currently on this router.  Has anyone any comments regarding state of support?

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Comments 1-11 of 11 | Latest Comment

June 7, 2010 11:47 AM

We do have a version of OpenWRT that has been recently posted and compiled specifically for the WNR3500L:

http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/20258/OpenWRT-for-NETGEAR-WNR3500L-Kamik...

Peter Redmer
Administrator
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June 8, 2010 3:12 AM

Thanks for the reply. I actually downloaded this, and it installed fine, but access to the interface is extremely slow; each page takes more than a minute to load. Very disappointing. Even more disappointing is the fact that I cannot figure out how to go back to the original firmware.

I've tried to tftp the firmware to the router, and the file never transferred, even though it appeared that I could connect, both with tftp and atftp. I was able to ssh to the router, and hoped to somehow use mtd to get the original firmware back, but no luck so far. I would greatly appreciate any ideas, as I don't really wish to crack the router and use your debricking method.

June 8, 2010 3:57 PM

Strange, I didn't experience any speed issues when flipping through pages in the UI. I would wait to see what other community members are experiencing; maybe someone knows of a fix.

Peter Redmer
Administrator
Blog | Twitter

June 10, 2010 12:48 AM

Well, it turned out to be quite the ordeal. Every page of the ui appeared to be present, but pages either were extremely slow to load (most took at least a minute or longer), loaded with corrupted content (loss of styles), or just timed out. At first I suspected that the flash was incomplete because of the corrupted pages, but the pages occasionally appeared as expected, but merely loaded extremely slowly.

I tried to use the upgrade utility to replace the firmware, but I could never get the file to upload through the ui. As mentioned before, I couldn't use ftp or tftp to upload new firmware either. Very frustrating. Ultimately I set up apache on my desktop (running Kubuntu), and added the dd-wrt firmware to my www folder, ssh'd to the router, and then used wget to transfer the file to /tmp.

Then I was able to use mtd to replace the openwrt firmware with the dd-wrt one. I would much prefer openwrt, though, so I will continue to check here. I personally don't have the skills to help significantly with development, but I would be happy to answer what I can about my experience if a developer or tester has any questions.

June 17, 2010 1:13 AM

I am not experiencing any such issue. Could you please try once more with built-in OpenWRT firmware ? Which web browser are you using and what is its version ?

July 15, 2010 9:36 AM

Can I ask why the patching for this has not been submitted upstream to the OpenWRT community? I'd like to be able to make some modifications to this for use with some one-off packages but unless I can take this from a base build of OpenWRT I'm going to spend more time than I can afford finding out waht you did or didn't modify.

July 26, 2010 4:36 AM

Daaelarius said: Can I ask why the patching for this has not been submitted upstream to the OpenWRT community? I'd like to be able to make some modifications to this for use with some one-off packages but unless I can take this from a base build of OpenWRT I'm going to spend more time than I can afford finding out waht you did or didn't modify.
+1 for that.

April 2, 2011 3:33 PM

OK, this is really sad. I bought this router because it supposedly supported installing alternative firmware. But really, it doesn't, it just supports this weird rebuilt versions of alternative firmware, which is often old versions of upstream and partially broken. In effect, what is offered is the ability to install forked versions of alternative firmwares. Not what I wanted.

If the WNR3500L actually supported alternative firmwares, there wouldn't be this weird red-tape hoop-jumping needed. In reality, if I want to run the latest OpenWRT and have everything work, the answer is: I can't. NETGEAR's marketing of the WNR3500L is a misleading, to say the least. I hope the "secret sauce" was worth all this protection, NETGEAR.

August 8, 2011 2:26 PM

Jesse: I totally agree with you, I feel having been mislead just like you on the "L" part :-(.
I installed the 8.09.2 version, and it feels disappointing: WPA works not very well (some clients get disconnected all the time), there are bugs in the web interface ("<?"'s replaced by "<%"'s), errors in the log file when reloading wireless, ssh being forwarded from wan to router etc.
I think I'm going back to the stock fw

October 21, 2011 11:03 AM

Actually the version of OpenWRT still does't work correctly?
So is better use DD-WRT?

Thanks

December 16, 2011 4:47 PM

Is there any plan on getting official openwrt support?

It's concerning that Netgear claims that wnr3500l is supported by openwrt, while at the same time openwrt emphasises that it is NOT supported: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wnr3500l

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Back to Top | Comments 1-11 of 11 | Latest Comment

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