How-to: updating the firmware (need comments)

[GerardNL]

REMARK: THIS IS A DRAFT VERSION. PLEASE COMMENT AND CORRECT ME WHERE NEEDED.
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Thanks due to the comments below, this document has been edited a few times. Please keep these comments comming
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It took me a while to find out how to upgrade the firmware on our router. Maybe it was all obvious to others, but for a WL-700gE newbie, these steps may help.

Please note that during the upgrade you may not be able to use your router for a little while. So before you upgrade your router, read the text below and download the manuals or software in advance.

1. First of all, check the current firmware version on your router.

Follow these steps:
a. Open a new browser window and go to http://192.168.1.1 (or whatever IP address your router is running on)
b. Logon to your router
c. Click on "Configuration"
d. Click on "Advanced Settings" (top of the screen)
e. Click on "System Setup" (right bottom of the screen)
f. Click on "Firmware Upgrade" (right bottom of the screen)

The screen that is now appearing is showing the model of your router and the firmware version.

When I wrote this how-to (16 September 2006) the most recent version was 1.0.4.6

2. Now check on the ASUS web site to see if there is a more current version.

Go to: http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us

Click on the tab labelled "Drivers" and a list of current and recent Firmware versions appears.

Look at the version and descriptions. If you are already running the most current version, then there is nothing to do, but if there is a more current version, download it.

ASUS also offer the complete source code for the router in this list, but if you are not planning on writing your own router OS, skip those files. The file you want to download is less then 20MB!

This is the link to the 1.0.4.6 version on the ASUS website:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wir...700gE_1046.zip

Now you need to be a little patient. I have never gotten a fast download speed from the ASUS site, so downloading the 20MB may take 30 min or so.

Once you have the zip file on your hard drive, you'll need to extract the only file from this zip file. This file is most likely called something like "WL700gE_1.x.y.z.nas" (where x, y and z are the version of firmware). Save this file somewhere and remember the location since you'll need it in a minute.

3. Now return to the firmware page.

If you don't have this window open anymore, then follow the same steps as in "1" in this how-to.

Click on the "Browse" button and select the file you have downloaded earlier and press then press the button "Upgrade".

You now get a warning/confirmation pop-up, select "Yes" and the upgrade starts.

Wait for about 5 minutes while the firmware is upgraded.

After 5 minutes the job should be done and now you are ready to hard-reset your router.

Take a pen and press the black reset button on the back of your router for about 10 seconds

The router is now resetting and new firmware is being loaded. Wait until the "ready" light is on.

Now you have the new OS, you'll need to configure the router again. The easiest thing to do is follow the steps from the easy install guide by using the EZSetup Wizard software.

If you don't have the guide anymore, you can download it from:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wir...ick_qe2393.zip

The most current version of the utilities you need for the setup can be downloaded from:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wir...ility_1700.zip

Once you have set up your router, return to the firmware upgrade page from step "1" and you can see if the router is now running the new firmware version.

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There is also a different way to upgrade your router. This one is also very usefull if your router doesn't work anymore after an earlier upgrade. The original was written by DaNawq, but usefull for this section as well, so it will not get lost.

The step below can be followed if your router is still working properly or is not responding anymore.

1. Before you do anything to your router, first give your desktop computer a static IP address like 192.168.1.50. This is needed to be able to do the steps below. (From experience: Stop all the background programs like anti-virus of wirewall if the below steps don't work. Worse case, you need a clean Windows install)
2. Now unplug the power cord of your router for about 10-20 seconds
3. Hold the orange EZSetup-button while plugging power on
4. Once the blue Ready LED is blinking unhold immediately EZSetup button.
5. Wait 10 seconds
6. Start the Firmware-Restore tool on your desktop computer to upload a working firmware (do not start it before any of the earlier steps).
7. Press the Browse button to select a firmware file. E.g. "WL700gE_1.0.4.2.nas" and then press "Upload"
8. Now a box will appear where you can see the router is being found and the firmware being uploaded. Once finished, the window will automatically close
9. Do NOT turn off the router now, but wait for 1 or 2 minutes and you will notice that your router is still working even if in previous step the window automatically closed. The blue IDE LED will blink showing that your manchine is still processing some stuff and after a while the blue Ready LED and also the blue AIR LED will shine.
10. Do NOT !!!!! NOT Press the Reset button !!!!! If you would do this, the router will become useless (untill you repeat step 1 again)
11. Wait for the router to boot. After about a minute or so, the "Ready" light will come on.
12. Now you can press the EZSetup-button for a few seconds until the start button starts blinking to configure the router with the EZ Setup Wizard software.

Good luck

[aslepet]

Great :-)

This really helped me alot..i thought i messed up the whole router when not being able to get in contact with it...but by reading this tutorial i got it back to the previous firmware...when i then tried to upload new firmware again it went just fine.

so, thxs for this great tutorial...

regards

aslepet

[bmonninkhof]

Yesterday I tried to update my device with the latest firmware 1.0.4.6. I wish I just didn't do that. Now my device is totally died.

I can't restore my firmware for the WL-700gE, I even tried the manual above. Despite all my actions, I couldn’t restore my device.

What am I doing wrong?
I have some questions for the manual-creator!
- when do I have tot stop pushing the orange E-button?

1.
When I hold the E-button even when the restore program is running the next screen is staying this way (harddisk is down):

Noting seems to happen!

2
When I let go before starting (ready light is flashing) the restore program the following thing is happening (harddisk is spinning):

The Dutch message says
nasunpack:….
The system can’t find the given patch..
Error: ….

Pingtest my device!

[nitzer]

This time I also really thought that my WL700gE was fucked up.

Please find hereafter the steps which finally worked for me :

1) unplug the power cord of your machine for 20 seconds
2) hold the EZSetup button while plugin power on
3) once the blue Ready LED is blinking unhold immediately EZSetup button, wait 10 seconds...
4) start Firmware Restoration on your pc and select last firmware, press upload.
5) a box will appear where you can see the router is being found and the firmware being uploaded. After some seconds, the window will automatically close...
6) Last Important step!!!!! Don't press reset button, but wait for 1 or 2 minutes and you will notice that the WL700gE is still working even if in previous step the window automatically closed. The blue IDE LED will blink showing that your manchine is still processing some stuff and after a while the blue Ready LED and also the blue AIR LED will shine.
7) Now you should try to browse a webpage on your PC or Mac.

Hope it will work for you as it did for me

[GerardNL]

What am I doing wrong?
I have some questions for the manual-creator!
- when do I have tot stop pushing the orange E-button?

1.
When I hold the E-button even when the restore program is running the next screen is staying this way (harddisk is down):

To respond to both your questions:

I've adjusted the above manual a bit to include when you should stop pressing the buttons on the router. I hope that helps.

Please also note the order of things. The Firmware Restore program needs to be started AFTER you restart the router, not before. And it will only work if your desktop has a fixed IP number. (I'm not totally sure, but the desktop needs to be hardwired to the router, not via wireless or this will not work)

I hope it helps. Succes

[bmonninkhof]

I've tried everything

The flashing light (ready light) will flash 5 times. After the fith time it stops, and it will go off.
I tried several options:
1. I let go when the ready light flashes 1 time, the light is on!
The disk is now spinning, but I still get the ERROR --> screen 2
2 I let go when after the ready light flashes 1 time, the light is now off!
Noting happens, the bow stays black --> screen 1!
3 I let go after 2 and also after 3 flashing (seperate) times flashing
The disk is now spinning, but I still get the ERROR --> screen 2

These are my IP:settings:


I turned off the windows firewall and my antivirus!

I don't know what to do anymore!

[GerardNL]

I found a big mistake in my manual (and I've corrected it now).

Do NOT NOT NOT press reset on your router after the upgrade. In 1.0.4.2 this was still working but in 1.0.4.6 this doesn't bring up the router any more.

Maybe some of the other (successfull) flashers can confirm this?

[GerardNL]

Maybe this also helps, these are the windows you are suppose to see while upgrading via the Restoration tool.

After selecting the .nas file, the window will first look like that:



I assume it is now running as some sort of tftp server server on your machine. The tftp server is anounceing itself on the subnet mask.

Then the window will change once the router notices the tftp server:



You can now see the IP address of the server as well as it's name. You can also see that the Restoration software copied the .nas file to the root of your C-drive. (It doesn't delete it afterwarts, so you can do that yourself later)

And you see the that the router is downloading the firmware.

After about 1 min the window will change again and should be something like this one:



As you can see the transfer is successfull and the program will shutdown on your PC.

(The above text will be merged into the main manual later)

[e-motion]

If flashing has failed and the WL-700ge has only a blinking <ready> light this will solve the issue:

1. Download and unzip the latest working firmware for the WL-700Ge
----> http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wir...700gE_1042.zip
2. Download tftp32 (http://tftp32.jounin.net)
3. Download the tool AsusTrxExtract. (http://www.headcrash.biz/wl700g).
Running this beautiful tool will split the WL700gE_1.0.4.2.nas file in:
- WL700gE_1.0.4.2_disk.trx
- WL700gE_1.0.4.2_flash.trx
4. Power on the WL-700ge
5. Use tftp32 to upload WL700gE_1.0.4.2_flash.trx to the WL-700ge
6. When transfer is succesfull remove powercable, wait 20 seconds and insert powercable.
7. Use the Asus Firmware restoration tool to upload the WL700gE_1.0.4.2.nas file.

Took me a day to figure out, but the white brick is up and running again!!!

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[bmonninkhof]

Ok, my "white brick" is also working again . After 2 days working, trying, frustrating I is working again.

I used 3 computers, 1 desktop and two laptops. With the last laptop it worked
I think I got an error all the time because of one of the following reasons:
- one of the windows xp servicepack fixes
- Acronis trueimage --> like norton ghost
- Arcronis diskmanager --> like partition magic
- Adobe CS2
- ....

thanks for all the help!

Brian

[GerardNL]

If flashing has failed and the WL-700ge has only a blinking <ready> light this will solve the issue:
......
Took me a day to figure out, but the white brick is up and running again!!!

Very impressive. Wonder how you figured all of them out. This would certainly get some people going again. This one should be filed as "good to have, hope never to need it".

For safe-keeping, I've downloaded the files and included them in this post. Just to make sure those little tools will be still available in the future...

tftpd32.301.zip
AsusTrxExtract_1.0.0.1.zip

[e-motion]

Very impressive. Wonder how you figured all of them out
...................

Thx for the compliment . In short:
1. Asus firmware restoration only showed dosbox, no information, regardless of all the startup options suggested in the forums
2. Upload from nas file with XP's TFTP started, but ended with a error message: server ended transfer
3. tftp32 showed that only half of the 17 MB file was transfered. Conclusion: file is too big.
4. WL-500 topics were talking about trx files. Found the AsusExtr tool, uploaded the flash part without error message and got things up and running.

Extraction of the latest nas files shows that only the (size of the) disk part code is changing...

[GerardNL]

Extraction of the latest nas files shows that only the (size of the) disk part code is changing...

I guess that makes sense since the part in flash memory is just to boot the router. Like the BIOS of a PC. Those are needed to load the higher level stuff from the harddrive. The lower bits are not written by ASUS and don't have all those problem.... :-)

[houli-mouli]

Hi Folks,

I just got a WL700gE and first tried to update it to 1.0.4.6! As seen in other posts I had the same issue, that the Internet Explorer went blank and after a while my router was crap.

I did following to get it back running:
1) Set local IP Adress to 192.168.1.50

2) I used a network cable which is "straigh through". As both cable types will show a connection to the router, with the crossed cable nothing happened.

3) Ping the adress 192.168.1.1 --> should be possible, and check with "arp -a" if the IP adress is found in the arp table

4) Now i used the ASUSTRX tool to split the NSA file into two TRX files. In my case I already uesed the 1.0.4.6 file

5) Connect the network cable on port "LAN 1"

6) Power Up the router

7) Start tftp32

8) Click on TFTP Client and put in following info
Host: 192.168.1.1 Port: 69
File: C:\xxxxxxxxx.trx
Press the Button PUT

9) After a few seconds the power button on the router will lite

10) Press the power off button

11) Turn Router On

12) Make a update with the NAS file through Internet Explorer