RT-AC1900U Firmware flashing failed - red wan light - cannot connect to router

[Bernard]

Hello, i messed up my router and need help fixing it...

The RT-AC1900U was delivered yesterday and i tried flashing freshtomato firmware on it.
I've been following insturctions from freshtomatos website as seen here under the asus section,

firmware_basics_procedures [FreshTomato Wiki]

wiki.freshtomato.org

1, switched modem to bridge mode and connected the router to it via ethernet cable using the wan port
2, in the browser connected to 192.168.1.1 to access the webinterface, and as per FT's insturctions disabled DHCB
3, in administration settings i went to firmware update and selected the correct file for my specific model
freshtomato-RT-AC1900U-ARM-2023.4-AIO-64K.zip (ofc before firmware update extracted the archive)
i've downloaded this firmware here https://freshtomato.org/downloads/freshtomato-arm/2023/2023.4/K26ARM/
5, FT's instructions show a successful firmware flash as the next step, however not for me - invalid firmware upload, upgrade unsuccessful...
6, i tried it again but the result was the same
Now this became messed up, i powered of the router and tried doing a hard reset as per asus official instructions.
The reset method via wps works as i can see the lights flash and the router reboots, also the resuce mode works because i can see the power led pulsing.
However none of this matters because after each reset i'm unable to connect to the router no matter what.
The official asus firmware restoration tool that must be used with rescuemode does not work, after 30 seconds it respons,
"the wirelessrouter is not in resuce mode" BUT IT IS because i can see the led pulsing...
Connecting to 192.168.1.1 loads for few seconds, then returns "unable to connect", i tried it both via ethernet and wan port.
both router.asus.com and 192.168.0.1 fail to load instantly while the 1.1 adress does load but then times out or whatever goes wrong i cant say.
Pinging the 1.1 adress while connected to ethernet seemed to work while when i tried that via wan only one of four packets went through.
I've disabled all firewalls to ensure no connections are blocked, however none of what i tried worked and i'm out of ideas now.
The problem is with the wan-port, the led is red. All other leds are blue.
Resetting the router via reset button or wps button does work, the device reboots and all leds light up for a moment,
then they turn off again and after loading a minute or so the 2.4G and 5G aswell as power led's are constantly blue, but...
the wan led is flickering blue and then turns red.
Atleast 8 times i did the reset, wan led is still red.
What do i do? Is the device hard bricked?

 

[Bernard]

Added additional photos

 

[Tech9]

The problem is with the wan-port, the led is red. All other leds are blue.

On your pictures - you have nothing connected to the WAN port.

 

[bennor]

As already suggested, have you connected broadband (or upstream Ethernet) to the router's WAN port? Not having anything connected to the WAN port will typcially cause the WAN indicator to not show blue.

When using the Asus Firmware Restoration tool, and you are having trouble accessing the router. Did you manually change the IP address/subnet mask of the computer you are using to flash the router prior to attempting to use the tool or access the router after recovery firmware flash?
[Wireless Router] How to use Rescue Mode (Firmware Restoration)?
Set the PC's IP address and subnet to the following (per above link):

IP address: 192.168.1.10
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Also from the above link:

3. Why can't I enter router setting pgae after successfully updating firmware by the Firmware Restoration?

First, please check whether your TCP/IPv4 setting properties is set as [Obtain IP address automatically] & [Obtain DSN server address automatically].

If the problem still occurs after completing the setting, we suggest you that push the RESET button.

If that doesn't work either, please follow the preceding steps to update firmware again by using Firmware Restoration in the Rescue mode.

 

[Bernard]

On your pictures - you have nothing connected to the WAN port.

Doesn't matter.... as explained above i tried both wan port and ethernet port.

 

[Bernard]

As already suggested, have you connected broadband (or upstream Ethernet) to the router's WAN port? Not having anything connected to the WAN port will typcially cause the WAN indicator to not show blue.

When using the Asus Firmware Restoration tool, and you are having trouble accessing the router. Did you manually change the IP address/subnet mask of the computer you are using to flash the router prior to attempting to use the tool or access the router after recovery firmware flash?
[Wireless Router] How to use Rescue Mode (Firmware Restoration)?
Set the PC's IP address and subnet to the following (per above link):

IP address: 192.168.1.10
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Also from the above link:

No i did not prior to flashing change the network adapter settings.
However i did this when trying to use the recovery mode of the router.
I've set the adapter to use,
IP address: 192.168.1.10
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

As i said connection to the router does not work neither via ethernet nor wan while using these settings.

 

[Bernard]

+

FT's instructions clearly state "NEVER flash firmware over wan", doesn't matter anyway since the connections to the router isn't even established in the first place.

 

[ColinTaylor]

+

FT's instructions clearly state "NEVER flash firmware over wan", doesn't matter anyway since the connections to the router isn't even established in the first place.

That's not what people were saying. They were saying that the red WAN light was caused by you not having anything connected to the WAN port. Nobody was suggesting that you connect your computer to the WAN port.

 

[wouterv]

A silly suggestion: given the number of LED's that are on, the router doesn't seems to be dead.
Set your computer TCP/IPv4 to automatically obtain an IP address and connect it to a LAN port of the router.
Determine if the computer does get an IP address (out of the router), if so: what address and what is given as Default Gateway.
If the computer got an address, the Default Gateway address is the IP address of the router: try to access that address in a web browser.

 

[Bernard]

That's not what people were saying. They were saying that the red WAN light was caused by you not having anything connected to the WAN port. Nobody was suggesting that you connect your computer to the WAN port.

Then i misunderstood what they said.

I tried,
connecting pc to router with ethernet port
connecting pc to router with wan port port
connecting pc to modem via ethernet while modem being connected to router via wan
none works. wan led is always red.
always meaning also includes when the ethernet cable is inserted into wan port it is still red.
besides, recovery instructions from asus say to use only power cable and ethernet port, all other ports must be empty for the recovery process to work correctly.

 

[Bernard]

A silly suggestion: given the number of LED's that are on, the router doesn't seems to be dead.
Set your computer TCP/IPv4 to automatically obtain an IP address and connect it to a LAN port of the router.
Determine if the computer does get an IP address (out of the router), if so: what address and what is given as Default Gateway.
If the computer got an address, the Default Gateway address is the IP address of the router: try to access that address in a web browser.

It might be in a bricked state..
How do i determine if the computer gets an IP address from the router and which one it is? And how do i find out the gateway?
I don't think it will automatically change my adapter settings, will it?

 

[Tech9]

The problem here is you started doing something with no idea what are you doing and your very basic knowledge is preventing you to troubleshoot. Your router is working, the WAN is red because it’s not configured after the factory reset. As simple as that.

 

[bennor]

It might be in a bricked state..
How do i determine if the computer gets an IP address from the router and which one it is? And how do i find out the gateway?
I don't think it will automatically change my adapter settings, will it?

It likely isn't in a bricked state. If you don't know how to find the computer's network adapter DHCP setting, it's IP address, it's subnet mask, and it's gateway values then perform an internet search and start learning. For example if using windows:

How to View Network Adapter Details in Windows

Need more information about your network cards? Learn how to view network adapter details in Windows using multiple methods.

www.maketecheasier.com

Check your network connection status - Microsoft Support

Check your network connection status in Windows.

support.microsoft.com

If using Windows 11 look under Hardware and Connection Properties.

 

[wouterv]

It might be in a bricked state..
How do i determine if the computer gets an IP address from the router and which one it is? And how do i find out the gateway?
I don't think it will automatically change my adapter settings, will it?

I agree with the previous replies that you seems to lack knowledge and should never have tried to load third party firmware.
Well here some short instructions:
On a Windows PC:

1. Hit the Windows key + R
2. The Run dialog shall appear, type after Open: cmd
3. Hit ENTER or click OK
4. This shall open a Command Window
5. In the Command Window type: ipconfig
6. Hit ENTER

An overview shall appear of network adapter settings, look after the line "Ethernet Adapter"
It may show you something like this:
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.138
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

192.168.1.138 is the IP address my laptop got.
192.168.1.1 is the Default Gateway address, which is the Router IP address.

Copy the screenshot of your Command Window result here.

 

[Bernard]

So if the WAN is red because it's not configured how do i configure it
Searching the web about a red wan port for this device gives very little info, especially asus official support is useless because none of their methods work
I know how to change networkadapter settings, just forgot about ipconfing since i barely ever had to use it before
Might be that i don't know much about routers and networking, but i sure know i preffer a privacy friendly FOSS router over some propietary spyware BS

I called the seller of the device and looked at asus official support site, neither of them was competent enough to give me a basic reminder as ipconfig, what a joke.
Sent the router back already... maybe openWRT will come in handy over FT.

 

[wouterv]

Tomato has like all WRT based router software versions a WAN section you can configure with at least WAN type and so on.
Search for "asus red wan led" gives me numerous hits.
And about ASUS and ipconfig: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/114068
Anyway thanks for asking support and all the best in your further searches for even better support.