April 15, 2010 4:01 AM

By firmware upgrade you can change from tomato to any other firmware including netgear.

April 16, 2010 7:37 PM updated: April 16, 2010 7:37 PM

Did you try using a DD-WRT BIN firmware file?

http://placeshiftingenthusiasts.com/

April 18, 2010 4:53 AM

I don't blame you for going back to the original Netgear firmware.

June 23, 2010 2:06 PM updated: June 23, 2010 2:06 PM

I asked on the Netgear forum and was rudely informed that Linux users are on their own. Take the money and run ... sigh.

When I sort out the proper way to back out of Tomato back to DD-WRT and then to the original Netgear OS so that the Parental Controls may be implemented I will post those steps here.

Unless someone else who has done so will step-up and provide that information.

NOTE: No MS versions of windows are to be used in the solution. MS is *not* open source and should not be necessary for *anything* on an open source product.

June 25, 2010 12:25 AM

Tomato, OpenWRT, Original Netgear firmware accept chk file for firmware upgrade. If you tell us which firmware are you using now where you are facing firmware upgrade problem then it will be easier for us to help you.

June 25, 2010 10:55 AM

You think you need parental control:-)

Parental Control using OpenDNS is nothing but a placebo. It's DNS based which is nonsense. For example you want to surf to a site that is not allowed by OpenDNS, all you have to is use a proxy, for example: http://www.zend2.com/

I bet it takes longer to setup opendns than for your kids to find a way around it.

The only thing that really helps is either content filtering or block everything and then have a whitelist with sites they are allowed to surf.

Or the method I would prefer is to setup a transparent proxy and tell them, that you will check from time to time which urls the called:-)

June 28, 2010 9:56 PM updated: June 28, 2010 10:09 PM

In the never-ending saga of "nothing ever goes smoothly with routers" I went here:
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12964 and downloaded this:
WNR3500L Firmware Version 1.0.2.26 (the .CHK file)

I went into Tomato and selected Upgrade, Browsed to the file location, and selected it.

The Upgrade started then failed saying that the Firmware from Netgear has an "Invalid Header".

Could there be something wrong with the Netgear firmware?

Or is it that Tomato will not "Upgrade" using a Netgear .CHK file?

Or ????

EDIT: I downloaded the firmware again, just in case the first may have been corrupted somehow, and ran it again - same result "Invalid Header".

Help, please?
I really hoped to get this done this evening during computer downtime ...

Thanks!

June 29, 2010 12:49 AM

I am not sure about this particular version of Tomato, but usually tomato supports .chk file format for firmware upgrade. You can try with other firmwares those are available in this site.

June 29, 2010 9:17 AM

Just tried "NETGEAR WNR3500L Original Firmware 1.0.0.74_1" from this Forum and the same failure.

This begins to remind me of the old Apple/Mac software where it was more voodoo than science. Their support people would say "Try loading it in a different order." And you would ask "Which order?" And they would say "No one knows, just try different orders and hopefully one of them will work." Sigh.

So, it's back to the dark-ages of hardwire upgrades?

I already wasted $20. because the non-"L" WNR3500 was wrongly advertised as open source and lost money selling mine to get an "L". Now I am to spend $20. on a cable I may use one time because the software upgrade process is a random guessing game? :-(

June 29, 2010 6:31 PM updated: June 29, 2010 6:32 PM

The "Special File for Initial Flashing" a special .chk version of DD-WRT which can be flashed from the stock firmware.

I looked back at the stock firmware file you are trying to load and it's a rather old version. There is a newer version in Downloads Section of this forum which they list as "Original Firmware" for the WNR3500L. Just go to Downloads->Original FW and it will take you to the download link. I'm wondering if that could be your problem. Or it could just be that this particular version of Tomato just won't take a .chk files.

June 30, 2010 2:06 AM

edoc said: I am using the latest version of Tomato as of a couple of weeks ago: tomato-K26USB-1.27.9045MIPSR2-beta11 I need the Parental Controls so have no choice but to roll-back out of Tomato.

I want to try the same firmware that you are using. Send me the link from where I can get that firmware.

July 1, 2010 3:18 AM

Thanks for the link. I will test the firmware.

July 8, 2010 8:06 AM updated: July 8, 2010 8:11 AM

OpenDNS is an excellent parental control solution. You just need to sign up for an account and configure your router's DNS settings. You can then select the different levels of protection you want. The filtering will apply to everything behind your public IP address.

The Netgear/openDNS parental controls are the exact same thing with one difference. The filtering and settings are based on your router's MAC address and not the public IP address. With a standard OpenDNS account all settings apply to everyone behind your IP address.

The Netgear solution works perfectly for me because computers behind my ISP's IP address are in a private network. If I make changes using the standard OpenDNS,they will apply to everyone behind my ISP's public IP address. I tried that once and got a lot of hate mail from some of my ISP's customers.

Using the Netgear/OpenDNS parental controls, the settings only apply to my private network. I use the factory firmware on the main WNDR3700 router for that reason and Tomato on the WNR3500L configured as a switch/access point. I haven't found a better parental control solution for my setup.