I just bought a Netgear WNR3500L, the software installed in the router does not appeal to me, my idea getting this router is because I want to intall DD-WRT, but the router is not accepting the file I downloaded from this web site, this is the error I am getting: Invalid file was provided, please enter again:(*.chk) I though was going to be a peace of cake installing DD-WRT as it is installing it in a Linksys router, are those linksys routers still the kings? Any idea folks?
Is this router, really, an open source router?
I called Netgear tech support, the guy who took the call I think he was in India, when I told him that I bought the router at Fry's Electronic, he asked if frys was my ISP, what? Then I told him that I need to load DD-WRT, he did know what DD-WRT was, wow! God bless Netgear tech support!
I think I found the answer to my proble which I don't like it, anyway, the firmware must have the extension the router is looking for: *.chk.
I say I don't like because I want to load the DD-WRT from the comunity, not the one that Netgear is developing, but I think after I load the first firmware, I will be able to load any firmware with the extension *.bin am I right?
Let's first make sure what router you have. Since there appears to be several models out there.
Run Telnet and once logged in enter "uname -a" and see if it shows you a 3500L, a 3500U, or something else.
Then go here. http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/down.php?path=downloads%2Fothers%2Feko%2F... and choose the correct "CHK" file that corresponds to your router.
After that you should be good to go to upgrade to whatever you want to.
Thank you for the reply, Brandon. It works like a charm. I just upgraded the router to latest and greatest DD-WRT firmware. I guess one needs to be familiar with the new toys!
How do you telnet into the WRT3500L?
When I attempt to run telnet and open 192.168.1.1 the telnet prompt never returns. Do you have to enable telnet on the default firmware?
Don't know about the original firmware but in DD-WRT you can turn it off.
You could try PUTTY and SSH. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
@raxxal - You want to find the version of DD-WRT you have? Just go to the status page of the router setup menu.
Brandon,
DD-WRT says that I have the 3500U/L, what does the U mean? The L is for Linux, right?
Sorry, maybe I didn't understand your original question.
I thought you meant what version of DD-WRT you are using. The reason it says U/L is because your DD-WRT version will work on either router.
You can SSH into the router and run "uname -a" if you want to see that info.
Basically WNR3500 comes in two flavors : WNR3500U and WNR3500L ... If DD-WRT says U/L it means that it supports both the above mentioned flavors of WNR3500 ...