WNR3500L Potential Problems with SSID and USB

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to share my experience flashing a Netgear WNR3500L for the benefit of the community. The router is within its 14 day return policy and is being returned, so I realize this post will of minimal value since I can't do any additional troubleshooting but I figured it was still good to post the experience rather than letting these potential issues go unreported.

Some details: Router purchased from Staples. Box said WNR3500L, unit said "WNR3500U/WNR3500L" - There was no version number.

Heres my story.

1) Powered up the router using netgear firmware, worked great. SSID broadcasting, all is well.
2) Flashed to DD-WRT using the "Netgear WNR3500L Firmware: Special File for initial flashing" (dd-wrt.v24-13309_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-WNR3500L.chk) - No issues, booted into dd-wrt.
3) Flashed to the version supporting USB "Netgear WNR3500L Firmware: Standard_USB_FTP" (dd-wrt.v24-13309_NEWD-2_K2.6_std_usb_ftp.bin) - No issues on the flash.
4) Really struggled getting SSID to broadcast. SSID was set, tried changing channels, broadcast mode (mixed, BG, etc) and only after a hard reset (not 30-30-30) did it start broadcasting its SSID.
5) Turned on the options for USB Support, router rebooted
6) Came back with orange power light and unconnectable. 30-30-30 reset got me back to standard DD-WRT Firmware without USB Support.
7) Before even trying USB again, I noticed the SSID not broadcasting "problem" had returned
8 ) Decided to try Tomato firmware, used a wired connection to upload tomato firmware for router (from www.myopenrouter.com)
9) Router reported upload completed and rebooted, power light was orangle.
10) Hard Resets, 30-30-30 resets did nothing. Was occassionally getting back pings with TTY=100
11) Spent 2 hours (really) trying to tftp firmware to the router. No success, probably tried 100 times. Maybe I couldn't get the timing right, or maybe it was beyond that and needed more serious recovery.

Maybe I just had a dud, or did something wrong above, but for me this was a pretty serious headache. Returning the router tonight, will probably not exchange and instead go the refund route and wait for the Buffalo devices with DD-WRT built in before trying another router.