Microsoft MN700 hack project

[ericj]

I lost the R6 carelessly, so the MN-700 ROUTER could not work.

please could you tell me which model of the R6 in the chart shows .

Looks like 850 ohms.

You don't necessarily need a surface mount part there, either. You could get a 1/4 or 1/8 watt axial part and solder it from the small pad to the left of it in that picture to the big huge ground plane to the right of it. Just use a razor blade to scrape away the green mask and swab the copper lightly with a good flux, and pre-tin it with solder before tacking down the resistor.

[thenamelessthin]

Hi all! I have build a JTAG cable and I test it with a multimeter. It look good. When I try to jtag the routeur I got FFFFFFFFFFFF error.. I have try with the Windows JTAG soft (with GUI) I'm on XP and I disable the antivirus. And I have try on the différent PC.

Any Idea?

[fargodude]

Hello all the title says it all. Everything seems to flash ok, but no power led, no blink. No ping, no TFTP, no asus util

I have tried to download a known good cfe.bin from Oleg just to see if that was the problem, but that did seem to be the problem.

Maybe is the way I am doing it.
I am trying to use HairyDairy v4.8 util on Ubuntu. Is this why it not working?
I do the erase:cfe, kernel, nvram then the flash:cfe.

Does anyone know if this works.

I did see some posts about changing the code and something about "R6" but I don't know if that should be the next step.

I also have a ByteblasterMV cable I was thinking about trying to use as my cable might be on the long side.

Do all versions of the MN-700 have the same hardware other than the MAC change?

Thanks for any input you can give.
-Fargodude

[leperkuan]

I'm just starting to attempt this modification and im just a little worried, ive started to solder my jtag cable and from what i see on the diagram, 17-25(pc) are ground wires and can be placed on any 2,4,6,10,12 (jtag) ??? the way i have done it was
(25-2) (24-4) (23-6) (22-8) (21-10)
does this sound correct?

Also does anyone know if Radioshack carries the 12 pin header male and female, so far ive soldered straight into the router.... which i see may cause problems down the line in case i need to restore or something of that sort i would have to re solder..

closest thing i have done to this is put a mod chip into an xbox and flash it and my first go i bricked an xbox motherboard so im taking this project in stride.

once i get this connector finished i will be back in the forums because alot of these tutorials i have seen leave you to figure out some small items

[fargodude]

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

I have tried everything.

I think maybe were I have gone wrong is that I did a
-erase:cfe
-erase:nvram
-erase:kernel
before I did a ./wrt54g -flash:cfe

So I am still stuck. When I do a ./wrt54g -flash:cfe everything seem to work, but when I try to ping it I get nothing. I also don't see a power light.

PLEASE PLEASE can someone help me?

Thanks
Dustin

[fargodude]

I thank everyone for there help in this matter. But after much agony I fixed it myself.

To flash this router, I have found you must use a utility called
"wrt54 modified" or something to that effect.

Everything works great then.

It also appears that the mega version is to large for this unit. I chose the vpn version and everything works great.

Thanks to all the hackers that put this thing together.

[smeyer56]

I am having problems getting nvserial to run on Ubuntu. Is it possible to take someone else's CFE.bin and just edit the MAC address?

[smeyer56]

I finally got nvserial to work! It took a lot of time and multiple tries but it works!

[Sofo]

Might I please get the CFE.bin with the MAC address of
00:0D:3A:70:50:F4 ?

Thanks in advance, I'm really looking forward to testing it out.

[fergulator]

Hi -

Is anyone able to provide me with a cfe.bin for my router MAC address of 00-0D-3A-6E-2A-BA

I'm not really Linux skilled, so if someone could help me out that would be great.

Thanks in advance and thanks for the tread - great to be able to get some use out of my old router.

[dnaraG_1M]

WHAT:
I owe a debt of gratitude to the folks of this forum - and some other pages - for the help in getting my MN-700 re-flashed with DD-WRT in a fairly quick and easy manner. It was a great learning experience.

WHY:
I bought a $10 MN-700 from a local thrift store with the idea of replacing my current, kludgy, ResetMeOften router. It works! And I've turned another piece of junk into a treasure. How's _that_ for recycling!!

HOW:
I read - and re-read - this forum and several other pages. like Liamm, for a day or so, then plunged in with both feet. The first problem was how to connect to the JTAG port in a way that would allow use in the future. (Having struggled with Murphy and his "Law" for about a half century, I always plan for Plan B!!!). I found an old keyboard extender cable to be an Organ Donor of miniDIN connector(s) which would fit in the box when closed.

Many folks here have noted the "noise prone" nature of the cable and the need to Keep It Short (Size Does Matter!). But, one person indicated that an extension cable could be used if the cable didn't reach the PC. Hmmmm. That sounds like the problem of noise might be due to the resistors being on the DB25 connector - thus, extending the internal JTAG nodes. Perhaps the cable length from the resistors to the DB25 isn't the limiting factor..??.. With that in mind, I decided on a ZERO LENGTH cable. IE, solder the resistors to the JTAG socket and extend the wire from the resistors to the DB25 connector. Remembering Murphy, I still made the total cable length SHORT. About 8".
(See Pix below.)
For whichever reason - resistor location, cable length, or both, that worked B-U-TEE-FLEA!!!! No hardware problems at all.
Take that you rotten, no good Murphy!

I had several software problems and it took three or four re-visits to these pages to iron them out. But, the bottom line is that 10 bucks, about a day or two of "study", an hour of hardware work and about two hours of software fiddling has left me with a GREAT router - love it. It's already looking more stable than the former POS.

I could not have done it without you all.
So thanks, ..........thanks, ............and thanks again.......

cheers,
johnd

[fergulator]

Is anyone able to provide me with a cfe.bin....
I'm not really Linux skilled...

My aversion was really based on my not wanting to mess around with a dual boot setup (as I don't have a Linux machine) on my XP box. The wonderful alternative I found, which I can't recommend highly enough, was VMware player. It's a free utility that allows you to run a virtual machine in my case over XP. It was EASY to set it up and find a Linux appliance to run under it.

The rest of the install was silky smooth (clearly due to the very helpful instructions here).

Thanks all.

[a973352]

I successfully flashed the CFE using a JTAG cable. However, I cannot get the Asus Firmware Restoration Utility to load any firmware onto the router. When I turn on the router I can ping it while the light is flashing green-yellow. As soon as I click Upload on the Firmware utility, the light goes green, and I can no longer ping the router. The Firmware utility tries for 30 seconds, but always says, "No wireless device in recovery mode is found." What is wrong? I tried 2 versions of the Firmware Utility (1.3.8.2 and 1.3.8.0). I tried all 4 ports on the router. I tried a computer running Windows 2000 and another running Windows XP. I tried multiple Ethernet cables. I tried holding down the reset button when turning on the router. I tried hitting upload before plugging in the router, at the same time I plugged in the router, and after I plugged in the router. I tried getting a DHCP address, I tried setting a static IP to the DHCP address, I tried setting my computer's IP to 192.168.1.10. Is there anything I didn't try? My antivirus software is turned off, the Windows Firewall is turned off on the computer running XP (Win 2000 doesn't have a firewall). I've tried to load both DD-WRT and OpenWRT firmware files. Does anyone have any other ideas?

[royitoroy]

hi friends, im roy from venezuela and i think that i break my mn700 because sombody have just lost a few times ago the 12v energy adapter, so and i had to change it the conector in the mn700 for use another universal 12v energy adapter with a lot of plugs, and i just use the one for the conector that i change it in the mn700.

ok thats fine its not a problem and it works fine, but.. im trying to change the firm to ddwrt and i am doing all of this post and thats good too, the problem its by mistakes i change the polarity of the universal 12v energy adapter and now, it doesnt do anithing, dont turn on the ligth , it do nothing, and i think its burn some transistor o anything...
but a really think that is the little thing (capasitor, transistor, anything ) black rounded with written stuffs in white on it, that its down to the energy conector and of the hole of the bold, in the picture it just saw.

it says: <PS>E
JET
bel
T1.25A 250V

PLEASE let me know if you know what could ill do? wath its that? can i foud anything like that to change it? can you help me to fix it? or at least tell me if can i buy anyting to change that or fix it? pleaaase i want my ddwrt in that sh.. its about a junior hacker proud

[EMAIL=royroyers@gmail.com
very very sorry for my english its 4 am and im learning it and im desperate
and for the image i dont know how to get it smaller soory
thanks

[akcam2006]

dnaraG_1M, thanks for the help. I moded my router just like you did and it worked perfectly. I played with the idea of using a longer cord and with the resisters on the board my 18" cord worked perfectly.

Thanks to everyone for the help... My old POS is now running at light speed. Well not really but its much better than it was.

akcam2006