Custom firmware build for R7800 v. 1.0.2.64SF

[Deleted member 22229]

Been using stock .62 since it was released and have never had this issue along with many others. Strange indeed.

 

[kokishin]

Ouch, add me to the tally. I also had this happen to me this past Tuesday night 3/19. Router crapped out and reset to Factory Defaults/factory SSID's. I re-set up all my settings, rebooted router, and it got wiped to Factory Defaults again. Tried a 3rd time, but this time only changed the SSID's. Rebooted router, and settings got erased again.

I flashed back to latest stock (1.0.2.62), changed SSIDs, rebooted, and it factory reset again. So it was also happening on the stock firmware.

Netgear deemed it a hardware issue. Bad flash memory. I just RMA'd it.

If you're still under warranty, I wouldn't risk anything and attempt to get an RMA

I presume you have to ship your 7800 back before they'll ship you a replacement?

I hope they send you a new one, not a refurb.

I called Netgear this morning and got a guy in India. I told him how the router lost it's config contents and reverted to out-of-the box factory defaults. He asked me if my 7800 was working now. I said yes and he refused to issue me an RMA. I live in San Jose and may go to Netgear HQ and get in their face about it.

 

[Mark M]

I presume you have to ship your 7800 back before they'll ship you a replacement?

I hope they send you a new one, not a refurb.

I called Netgear this morning and got a guy in India. I told him how the router lost it's config contents and reverted to out-of-the box factory defaults. He asked me if my 7800 was working now. I said yes and he refused to issue me an RMA. I live in San Jose and may go to Netgear HQ and get in their face about it.

I told the tech on phone each time the router reboots, it loses its config. Did some basic troubleshooting, but never gave me a problem in the end. I would call back again, some reps are just not knowledgeable.

Here are the 3 options attached in picture. I chose the Basic Swap Exchange, but I mildly regret it now. Shipping was $12 via USPS Priority Mail. I then realized the Advance Ground was $16.90 and they give you a prepaid shipping label. So worse case I would have only been out roughly $5. With Advance Ground, they need a CC number to cross ship you a new router.

 

[KidJoe]

I'm having a VPN issue that is similar to what NathanG explained in post 43 of this thread, but maybe not exactly the same.

On the VPN tab on the router... The TUN and TAP modes are both set as UDP, and service ports are set as default 12973 and 12974. I've tried setting "Clients will use this to access" as auto, all, and home only, along with after hitting apply, re-downloading the opvn file and importing it into the OpenVPN app on the phone...

With my android devices, when I connect via the OpenVPN app, I can use the browser to hit my router via IP or surf the net, and I connect to my PC's via Remote Desktop via IP, but when I use a file manager to do a LAN connection and specifify either the PC's IP or name, the android device can't access the shares. (Drop the VPN, connect via home wifi, fire up the same app and I can access the shares.)

It had worked in the past.

I have not had time to try my laptop, nor downgrading to the older router firmware.

 

[percy3]

Can anybody with affected router try the following command and provide results (output from the command)? Note it will wipe out your config/changes altogether.

mtd erase netgear

I presume you have to ship your 7800 back before they'll ship you a replacement?

I hope they send you a new one, not a refurb.

I called Netgear this morning and got a guy in India. I told him how the router lost it's config contents and reverted to out-of-the box factory defaults. He asked me if my 7800 was working now. I said yes and he refused to issue me an RMA. I live in San Jose and may go to Netgear HQ and get in their face about it.

 

[kokishin]

Can anybody with affected router try the following command and provide results (output from the command)? Note it will wipe out your config/changes altogether.

mtd erase netgear

Before I do it:
Why?
Can I restore my 7800 settings using my saved config file?

 

[percy3]

I didn't experience lost config issue but went through RMA because of NVRAM failure that I identified while trying to wipe out config using mtd erase netgear command.

That command erases NVRAM partition containing config files so yes, you are going to be able to restore saved config.

Before I do it:
Why?
Can I restore my 7800 settings using my saved config file?

 

[Voxel]

Just FYI: both of my R7800 still are OK, all settings are kept. Maybe really hardware issue. I did not erase my settings.

Voxel.

 

[Voxel]

Hi Voxel, I've been using your firmware and they've been great. Thank you for your builds.
I do have a VPN server issue with this build where my IOS devices connect, but cannot browse the web or communicate to any internal devices. I've tried regenerating the cert by entering "/etc/init.d/openvpn regenerate_cert_file" through telnet. I've also tried resetting to factory default and "mtd erase netgear". I reverted back to v1.0.2.63 and VPN is working fine on that build. Any ideas?

Thanks for you report. OpenVPN version is changed in 1.0.2.64SF. Maybe some incompatibility. I need a time to check this. Currently my ISP changed setting and now I do not have real IP (visible from outside) to check this immediately.

Voxel.

 

[routine]

You can't do just one of the suggestions. You have to optimize your router and client device fully while balancing that with how the rest of the network performs too. There is only so much you can do with WiFi. It begins by having the most stable signal with the least fluctuation and interference (whether from physical, software or other sources).

What I offered isn't comprehensive either, there may very well be more knobs to turn and dials to play with, with the specific firmware and hardware you have to. Experiment and share what you learn.

I did several tests. There are no interference problems. I solved with hnyman's LEDE builds.
I tried the masters but now with the build owrt1806-r7720 I had the best results. (with SQM/cake-pieceofcake.qos)
A+ A+ A+ in wireless mode. it's really AWESOME!! I'm really happy to finally play online without any freeze
it's all instant at last! amazing

 

[HellDiver]

Thanks for you report. OpenVPN version is changed in 1.0.2.64SF. Maybe some incompatibility. I need a time to check this. Currently my ISP changed setting and now I do not have real IP (visible from outside) to check this immediately.

I'm having issues with OpenVPN also, similar symptoms to NathanG, but I'm using the latest Windows client. I get a bit of traffic a few minutes after connecting, then minutes of no traffic, then a few seconds again, etc, etc.

Home connection (with the R7800) is a 80/20 VDSL connection, work is a 20/1 ADSL connection, formerly with the older firmware I was able to keep a 24/7 connection for months on end, and all internet traffic was routed across the VPN.

 

[ulaganath]

Been using stock .62 since it was released and have never had this issue along with many others. Strange indeed.

 

[ulaganath]

Am I missing any specific security fix from .62 to 64f

 

[percy3]

I guess you are talking about OpenVPN service. In that case use smartphone profile instead.

I'm having issues with OpenVPN also, similar symptoms to NathanG, but I'm using the latest Windows client. I get a bit of traffic a few minutes after connecting, then minutes of no traffic, then a few seconds again, etc, etc.

Home connection (with the R7800) is a 80/20 VDSL connection, work is a 20/1 ADSL connection, formerly with the older firmware I was able to keep a 24/7 connection for months on end, and all internet traffic was routed across the VPN.

 

[HellDiver]

Yes, the bit where I said "I'm having issues with OpenVPN" would let you know that's what I was talking about.

I'll give the Smartphone profile a go.

 

[Cidious]

Maybe this isn't the right place to ask this question but I'll give it a go anyway.

I have gotten myself a 3 second hand R7800 routers to replace my 3 R6300V2 units spread out around the house and my office. I always ran DD-WRT on the R6300V2s and had modified them with a fans and better cooling paste etc for more stable summer performance and an overclock. DD-WRT shows the temperature of the CPU and wireless chips by default which was very useful to me when I did the mods.

Now I'm running Voxel's firmware for the specific reason that I want more performance, especially NAS related performance. As I understand only Voxel his modified Netgear firmware supports hardware acceleration and is focussed on performance. Hence me not stepping over to DD-WRT, since I bought them mainly for better SAMBA performance.

The units are flawlessly doing their jobs but summer is comming and I do know they can run a bit hot. So I'm repasting/repadding the chips with better stuff and adding some better heatsinks with a small fan for the CPU. Also I have replaced the externa housing with an aluminum one and a small outlet fan.



Now comes my question. I would like to read out the temperature of the chips with the Voxel firmware but I haven't found a way to do it. Is there a simple way to read out the temperature sensors with the Voxel firmware?

 

[kokishin]

Can anybody with affected router try the following command and provide results (output from the command)? Note it will wipe out your config/changes altogether.

mtd erase netgear

I just executed the telnet command you provided. Please see the results below. I presumed the router would lose all config info after executing the command. But my 7800 seems unaffected. I did not restore the saved off config file. Again, my router seems unaffected from executing the command. Please advise.

=== LOGIN ===============================
Please enter your password,It's the same
with DUT login password
------------------------------------------
telnet password: xxxxxxxxxxx

=== IMPORTANT ============================
Use 'passwd' to set your login password
this will disable telnet and enable SSH
------------------------------------------


BusyBox v1.4.2 (2019-02-22 07:16:43 UTC) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.


__ __ _ _
\ \ / /__| | ___ ___ _ __ ___ ___ | |_ ___
\ \ /\ / / _ \ |/ __/ _ \| '_ ` _ \ / _ \ | __/ _ \
\ V V / __/ | (_| (_) | | | | | | __/ | || (_) |
\_/\_/ \___|_|\___\___/|_| |_| |_|\___| \__\___/

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| \ | (_) __ _| |__ | |_| |__ __ ___ _| | _| |
| \| | |/ _` | '_ \| __| '_ \ / _` \ \ /\ / / |/ / |
| |\ | | (_| | | | | |_| | | | (_| |\ V V /| <|_|
|_| \_|_|\__, |_| |_|\__|_| |_|\__,_| \_/\_/ |_|\_(_)
|___/

root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$ mtd erase netgear
Unlocking netgear ...
Erasing netgear ...
root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$

 

[percy3]

You need kamoj add-on for that.

Maybe this isn't the right place to ask this question but I'll give it a go anyway.

I have gotten myself a 3 second hand R7800 routers to replace my 3 R6300V2 units spread out around the house and my office. I always ran DD-WRT on the R6300V2s and had modified them with a fans and better cooling paste etc for more stable summer performance and an overclock. DD-WRT shows the temperature of the CPU and wireless chips by default which was very useful to me when I did the mods.

Now I'm running Voxel's firmware for the specific reason that I want more performance, especially NAS related performance. As I understand only Voxel his modified Netgear firmware supports hardware acceleration and is focussed on performance. Hence me not stepping over to DD-WRT, since I bought them mainly for better SAMBA performance.

The units are flawlessly doing their jobs but summer is comming and I do know they can run a bit hot. So I'm repasting/repadding the chips with better stuff and adding some better heatsinks with a small fan for the CPU. Also I have replaced the externa housing with an aluminum one and a small outlet fan.

View attachment 16709 View attachment 16710 View attachment 16711

Now comes my question. I would like to read out the temperature of the chips with the Voxel firmware but I haven't found a way to do it. Is there a simple way to read out the temperature sensors with the Voxel firmware?

 

[percy3]

1. You don't have the same nvram problem my router was experiencing.
2. Have you rebooted router after erase command?

I just executed the telnet command you provided. Please see the results below. I presumed the router would lose all config info after executing the command. But my 7800 seems unaffected. I did not restore the saved off config file. Again, my router seems unaffected from executing the command. Please advise.

=== LOGIN ===============================
Please enter your password,It's the same
with DUT login password
------------------------------------------
telnet password: xxxxxxxxxxx

=== IMPORTANT ============================
Use 'passwd' to set your login password
this will disable telnet and enable SSH
------------------------------------------


BusyBox v1.4.2 (2019-02-22 07:16:43 UTC) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.


__ __ _ _
\ \ / /__| | ___ ___ _ __ ___ ___ | |_ ___
\ \ /\ / / _ \ |/ __/ _ \| '_ ` _ \ / _ \ | __/ _ \
\ V V / __/ | (_| (_) | | | | | | __/ | || (_) |
\_/\_/ \___|_|\___\___/|_| |_| |_|\___| \__\___/

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| \ | (_) __ _| |__ | |_| |__ __ ___ _| | _| |
| \| | |/ _` | '_ \| __| '_ \ / _` \ \ /\ / / |/ / |
| |\ | | (_| | | | | |_| | | | (_| |\ V V /| <|_|
|_| \_|_|\__, |_| |_|\__|_| |_|\__,_| \_/\_/ |_|\_(_)
|___/

root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$ mtd erase netgear
Unlocking netgear ...
Erasing netgear ...
root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$

 

[kokishin]

1. You don't have the same nvram problem my router was experiencing.
2. Have you rebooted router after erase command?

I ran the tenet command again:
root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$ mtd erase netgear
Unlocking netgear ...
Erasing netgear ...
root@R7800:/$
root@R7800:/$

Did not lose the 7800's internal config settings. I then rebooted the router using the reboot button found in Advanced Home - Router Information. (IOW, a soft reboot). 7800 rebooted with all internal config settings intact. Erasing the nvram did not cause the router to lose its config settings. I did not need to reload the saved off config file.

Is this what you expected presuming the nvram was not defective?

EDIT: I just powered cycled the 7800. It rebooted with all internal configuration intact.