Netgear WNR2000v5

[BigJug]

Hello all, I've been given a Netgear router and would like to repurpose it. The router is the WNR2000v5.

Now here are the details, this router is not a retail version, it was previously used with the cable companies home monitoring service.

When defaulting the router, the login is some weird IP starting with 172. I would like to know if there is a way to change this ip back to a regular login IP of 192 permanently. Secondly, it will NOT accept a firmware upgrade. I'm currently running 1.0.0.20, and from what I can find there is a newer firmware ending with .42. Whenever I upload this f/w, the router displays an error saying incorrect firmware file. How could/would I update the f/w?

Thanks

 

[Internet Man]

The latest firmware for the WNR2000v5 is 1.0.0.64. If that also fails then your router likely has an ISP-specific firmware and you'd need to do some hacking to get it to convert to retail Netgear firmware. Maybe search for information relating to the burnboardid tool used to convert other Netgear routers.

You might have better luck flashing with OpenWrt firmware: https://github.com/lede-project/source/pull/1256

 

[BigJug]

Thank you for your reply, I thought it might have some custom firmware on it due to the 172 address, but wasn't sure where to look. I am not familiar with running/installing third party firmware such as OpenWRT, but I have heard good things. Do you have any more info or instructions on how to load this firmware? or how to "hack" the router to get retail firmware back onto it? Thanks again

 

[BigJug]

A lot of the info on git hub went right over my head.... I did download tftp2 and multiple firmwares and followed the instructions and a you tube vid showing how to change the IPV4 settings of my network adapter, and then flash the f/w by holding the reset and powering up the router... it actually did run through the progress bar and said firmware updated successfully, but alas, it did not actually update... it stays on version 20.

 

[Internet Man]

Unfortunately I don't have any experience with this device or that process so I can't provide any additional guidance beyond what's on the link I included above. Do you happen to know anyone who might have the right kind of tech experience to help?

 

[Easy Rhino]

I have a wnr2000v3 at home. Each "v" of the hardware has a totally different cpu, might as well be different products. These are pretty old you know. (Mine has a weird issue where even when plugged in with ethernet I only get 20mbps speed.)

here's a link to netgear's official firmware. I would give it a shot again, just due to security fixes:
https://www.netgear.com/support/product/WNR2000v5#Firmware Version 1.0.0.64

the 172 address might be semi normal, just a "class b" address block.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network#Private_IPv4_address_spaces

class A starts at 10.0.0.0 and the netmask is 255.0.0.0
class B starts at 172.16.0.0 and the netmask is 255.240.0.0
Class C starts at 192.168.0.0 and the netmask is 255.255.255.0 and is probably what you're used to.

 

[BigJug]

Agreed that this router is very old. I had it sitting in a closet, and was cleaning up and thought I would play with it for a bit. I've tried to update the firmware more times that I'd like to admit - and it has never worked.

I followed some instructions from Internet Man on Github about properly resetting (holding the reset and powering on) and then using a third party program to try and load the firmware. I was actually able to get it to finally upload the f/w, and it gave me the "upload successful" message, but after every reboot, it would say it still had the old firmware. I'm positive this firmware is a "custom" firmware installed by the ISP and not an official f/w from Netgear - therefore no support, no way to properly update. My router still works fine, but again, I can't update anything from it. It once again is sitting in my closet, likely not to see the light of day until I find further use for it.

Thanks though!