Netgear WNR3500v2

Default IP address: 192.168.1.1
the IP 192.168.1.1 is used by 1324 additional devices
of which 107 are Netgear devices
Default login user: admin
Default login password: password
admin:password credentials used by 425 additional devices
of which 306 are Netgear devices

Manuf/OEM/ODM

Foxconn U12H127 T00

3rd Party Firmware Support

DD-WRT • (List)
, FreshTomato • (List | DLs)
, OpenWrt (Was)

Retail

Availability

End of Life

FCC approval date

23 January 2009

Country of manuf

China

Physical

LEDs/Color

Yellow, Green, Blue

Dimensions

175 x 130 x 35 mm (6.89 x 5.12 x 1.38 in)

Radio 1

Chip1

Broadcom BCM4718A1

Wireless interface OUI

C0:3F:0E, 00:26:F2

Antenna Connector Type

Internal

MIMO status

2x2:2

Wireless Standard

IEEE 802.11b/g/n

802.11n

up to 300 Mbps

802.11g

up to 54 Mbps

802.11b

up to 11 Mbps

WiFi Operating Frequency

2.4 GHz

Radio cor_rev

Radio Capabilities

ap sta wet led wme pio 802.11d 802.11h rm cqa mbss16 afterburner ampdu amsdurx amsdutx acktiming rxchain_pwrsave radio_pwrsave bcm_dcs

	FCC ID
Netgear WNR3500Lv1	PY308400093
Netgear WNR3500U	PY308400093

	CPU1 brand	Radio1 chip1 brand	Radio1 chip2 brand
Netgear WNR3500Lv1	Broadcom	Broadcom
Netgear WNR3500Lv2	Broadcom	Broadcom
Netgear WNR3500U	Broadcom	Broadcom
Netgear WNR3500v1	Marvell	Marvell	Marvell
Netgear WNR3500v2	Broadcom	Broadcom

For a list of all currently documented Broadcom chipsets with specifications, see Broadcom.

For a list of all currently documented Netgear device with specifications, see Netgear.

• 300 Mbps - 2SS 2.4GHz 802.11n (40MHz chan.) = N300 class

Overview

Manuf. by Foxconn (Hon Hai) U12H127T00/U12H127T70

See also: Netgear WNR3500, Netgear PCB ID and Netgear

How To Identify Which Model Router You Have

by benryanau

After spending an hour researching the variants of the Netgear WNR3500 family and their specs prior to a purchase, I realized this would he handy to post up somewhere. So, I thought I'd table it up and share it, since there wasn't a concise guide anywhere on the web already. Hopefully this will help some people out!

Model	Flash /RAM	CPU	USB	Ant	WLAN	Eth	WAN	Notes	FCC ID
WNR3500 v1	8/32	Marvell 88F5180NB1 @500 TopDog	No	2 int.	N300	4x GbE	GigE	Blue Antenna LEDs on top	PY307300074
WNR3500 v2	4/32	Broadcom BCM4718A @480 MIPS74k	No	4 int.	N300	4x GbE	GbE	"V2" marked under orange LAN ports, smaller housing, no antenna LEDs	PY308400093
WNR3500L V1 WNR3500U	8/64	Broadcom BCM4718A @480 MIPS74k	1x USB 2.0	4 int.	N300	4x GbE	GbE	WNR3500U/WNR3500L Marked below yellow WAN port	PY308400093
WNR3500L V2	128/128	Broadcom BCM47186B0 @480 MIPS74k	1x USB 2.0	2 int.	N300	4x GbE	GbE	Below yellow WAN port WNR3500L v2	PY310400153

Images

Picture of the back of WNR3500U/3500L v1
Picture of the back of WNR3500L v2
Picture of the back of WNR3500U
Closeup of label WNR3500U

Links of Interest

DD-WRT forums

Flashing

NOTE: During configuration or flashing a device, the only things that should be hooked to the device is the computer and power.

Flashing DD-WRT

WARNING: Requires K2.6 for DD-WRT, Do not flash anything else!

Supported

Hard Reset/30-30-30
Configurge PC for a static ip of 192.168.1.10
Make sure nothing else but power and PC is hooked to router
Load dd-wrt.v24-18946_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-WNR3500v2.chk
Wait 5 Minutes
Browse to 192.168.1.1, make sure you get the change password page
Hard Reset/30-30-30
Browse to 192.168.1.1, change name and password, configure.

Flashing OpenWrt

This device is NOT RECOMMENDED for future use with OpenWrt due to low flash/ram. DO NOT BUY DEVICES WITH 4MB FLASH / 32MB RAM if you intend to flash an up-to-date and secure OpenWrt version onto it! See 4/32 warning for details.

This device does not have sufficient resources (flash and/or RAM) to provide secure and reliable operation. This means that even setting a password or changing simple network settings might not be possible any more, rendering the device effectively useless. See OpenWrt on 4/32 devices what you can do now.

OpenWrt support for this device has ended in 2022.
19.07.10 was the last official build for 4/32 devices.

Devices with Broadcom WiFi chipsets have limited OpenWrt supportability (due to limited FLOSS driver availability for Broadcom chips). Consider this when choosing a device to buy, or when deciding to flash OpenWrt on your device because it is listed as supported. See Broadcom WiFi for details.

On the OpenWrt ToH (techdata entry)
On the OpenWrt Wiki
OpenWrt Target: bcm47xx
OpenWrt Subtarget: mips74k
OpenWrt Package architecture: mipsel_74kc
Support started version: 17.01.0
Current supported version: 22.03.7

Please insert instructions here

Flashing Tomato

FreshTomato hardware compatibility table note the following for this device:

"Due to hard-coded jffs2 partition, flash size is reduced to only 3,473,408 bytes. As of v2022.5, FreshTomato MiniIPv6 builds (with the filename pattern freshtomato-K26-NVRAM32K_RT-MIPSR2-<version>-MiniIPv6.zip) are 3,467,534 bytes and is the only image type that will fit. It will likely become necessary before long to look back to older releases in FreshTomato's download archive for images that are still small enough to fit it's available space."

Upgrading

Updating DD-WRT

If dd-wrt is already on the router follow these instructions. If stock firmware is on the router follow the flashing instructions.

Check for recommended builds here first.
Set your computer to a static IP of 192.168.1.7. (or to whatever subnet the router is on) Disable all firewalls and security. Disable wireless on your computer and only have the router connected to the flashing computer by the ethernet cable between the two.
Hard reset or 30/30/30 (If the router supports it, if not, reset to defults in the GUI) prior to flashing. Wait. Check for password page on re-login and change password.
Flash firmware. You can use the webgui except if you have a belkin router. (For belkin use tftp.exe to flash)
Wait...at least three minutes. Lights should return to normal. See important2, below. Failing to wait is how most people brick their routers.
Do a power cycle of the router. (Unplug the cord, count to 30 and plug it back in.)
Wait for the lights to return to normal usually about 2 minutes.
Hard reset or 30/30/30 again (If the router supports it, if not, reset to defults in the GUI). Wait. Check for the password page and re-login to change the password. Then you can reconfigure your settings manually.
Once configured set your computer back to autoIP and autoDNS.

Important1: This Hard reset or 30/30/30 works fine for Asus router, but you do have to power cycle after the reset.

Important2: After you flash the firmware, and before you do the hard reset, the router will be building some nvram settings. YOU MUST WAIT FOR THIS TO FINISH PRIOR TO DOING ANYTHING WITH THE ROUTER INCLUDING A HARD RESET. Usually, you can tell when this process is completed by the WAN light coming on, but it does take several minutes. Go have a beer. There are starting to be more and more people who BRICK their routers by not waiting until the nvram is rebuilt, PRIOR to doing a hard reset. YOU NEED TO WAIT!

Reverting

From DD-WRT

No GUI reversion possible yet, see serial recovery for reversion.

Reverting to stock firmware

Adapted from NETGEAR's official documentation of the TFTP bootloader recovery process

The most robust method for replacing the stock firmware on this device in the event of a bad flash or a desire to stop using a third-party firmware is done using TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol). Since most third-party firmwares do not alter the device's bootloader, this method can often recover devices that has ceased functioning correctly or even connecting to other devices. As a failsafe, the bootloader is designed to probe its LAN Ethernet ports moments into the start of every boot cycle for the presence of a TFTP server at the IP address 192.168.1.10, and if one is found, to request its file list and download the first file it encounters with either an .img or a .chk file extension and write its contents into flash memory. Assuming you're working from a modern Windows PC, the process tends to closely resemble this:

Download TFTPD64 to your computer and make sure it executes successfully, then exit it for now.
Downloads the OEM firmware from the Netgear web site and unzip the file (either with the Windows File Manager or a utility like 7-Zip) so that the .chk file in it is in a directory by itself.
Configure your computer's network adapter with a static/manual IP address of 192.168.1.10, subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a default gateway of 192.168.1.1. Connect your network adapter to one of the router's LAN ports via Ethernet cable with the router powered off.
Launch TFTPD64 again and make sure the static IP address you just configured is selected in the drop-down menu labelled Server Interface. Configure the Base Directory for the server as the directory where you extracted the .chk file containing the OEM firmware to.
Power on the router. If the process begins successfully, within a minute of being turned on the power LED with turn orange and begin blinking, signalling that the bootloader found all the conditions needed to trigger the TFTP recovery mode and has begun the process of transferring the file and flashing itself with it. This will be briefly confirmed on the Server tab of TFTPD64 when the router appears in the connection list while it's retrieving the firmware file, and thereafter in the program's Log tab.
Wait at least five minutes after the router closes the TFTP connection for the flashing process to complete and the router to reboot itself into the stock firmware; the process is complete when the Power LED has returned to steadily glowing white and the wireless network lights have turned on.
Return to your network adapter settings and remove the static/manual IP address, subnet mask and default gateway entries, returning it to the "Automatic" or DHCP configuration mode.
Open a web browser and go to the address 192.168.1.1 to begin reconfiguring your router's new firmware.

Serial-JTAG Info

NOTE: This section is assuming you know how to use the XVI32 Hex Editor, zJTAG and TFTPD64, as well as have a USB-/Serial-TTL adapter cable and/or a JTAG adapter.

Serial

Serial Pinouts

JP1

 VCC 1 o
  RX 2 o
 N/C 3 o
 N/C 4 o
  TX 5 o
 GND 6 o

Flash partitions

 dev:  size     erasesize name
 mtd0: 00040000 00010000 "pmon"
 mtd1: 00750000 00010000 "linux"
 mtd2: 005dc000 00010000 "rootfs"
 mtd3: 00080000 00010000 "jffs2"
 mtd4: 00010000 00010000 "nvram"
 mtd5: 00010000 00010000 "board_data"

DD-WRT Serial Recovery

Once you hooked up and getting data in putting/Hyper terminal and have a static ip on you pc of 192.168.1.10,

Power cycle the router. Imediatly start rapid firing CTRL+C until it breaks into the CFE.

Get TFTP ready with the OEM firmware.
Type tftpd, then click upgrade on the TFTP window.
Give it about 5 min to bootup and settle, then goto 192.168.1.1

JTAG

NOTE: This section is assuming you know how to use XVI32, TJTAG and TFTP

as well as have a serial-TTL adapter and/or a JTAG adapter.

JTAG Pinouts

J14

 nTRST   1o o2	 GND
   TDI   3o o4	 GND
   TDO   5o o6	 GND
   TMS   7o o8	 GND
   TCK   9o o10	 GND
 nSRST  11o o12  N/C

Using Universal JTAG Adapter

  white  1o o2	 black
    red  3o o4	 GND
   blue  5o o6	 GND
  green  7o o8	 GND
 yellow  9o o10  GND
 orange 11o o12  N/C

Using TUMPA

        TUMPA
   N/C  1o o2  N/C
 nTRST  3o o4  GND
   TDI  5o o6  GND
   TMS  7o o8  GND
   TCK  9o o10 GND
   N/C 11o o12 GND
   TDO 13o o14 GND
 nSRST 15o o16 GND
   N/C 17o o18 GND
   N/C 19o o20 GND

 Using the ribbon cable provided
 Black to your choice of pins 2,4,6,8,10 on router and 
 your choice of pins 4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20 on TUMPA for GND
 White to pin 1 on router and pin 3 on TUMPA for nTRST
 Grey to pin 3 on router and pin 5 on TUMPA for TDI
 Purple to pin 7 on router and pin 7 on TUMPA for TMS
 Blue to pin 9 0n router and pin 9 on TUMPA for TCK
 Green to pin 5 on router and pin 13 on TUMPA for TDO
 Yellow to pin 11 on router and pin 15 on TUMPA for nSRST

DD-WRT JTAG Recovery for Universal JTAG Adapter

Confirmed Working with North American Unit and Firmware

Power Cycle, tjtag3 -backup:cfe128 /silent /otheroptions
Power Cycle, tjtag3 -backup:nvram /silent /otheroptions
Power Cycle, tjtag3 -backup:wholeflash /silent /otheroptions
Power Cycle, tjtag3 -backup:custom /window:0x1fc00000 /start:0x1c3e0000 /length:0x10000 /silent /otheroptions
The last step will backup the board data to "custom.bin, Using a Hex editer, check to make sure all the data looks similar to board_data.bin or post it to your thread in the dd-wrt forums and somebody can check it for you.
If it is similar, change "U12H127T70_NETGEAR" to "U12H127T00_NETGEAR". The mac address starts at Hex address 40 in the middle pane, make sure it's correct. The Serial number starts at Dec address 76 in the right pane, make sure it's correct. The Security Pin starts at Dec address 108 in the right pane, make sure it's correct. The actual board data starts at Dec address 256 in the right pane, make sure it matches board_data.bin. If it looks all messed up then start fresh with board_data.bin and make all the changes ti it. When done "save as" "custom.bin" without the quotes. Makes sure it's in the same folder as TJTAG.
Now do the same with the cfe128, mac sure mac address match(although not as important with the cfe). Check to see if is similar to cfe128.bin. If not or it's just totally messed up use the reference cfe128.bin. Just edit it to match the information from your router.
Power Cycle, tjtag3 -flash:custom /window:0x1fc00000 /start:0x1ffe0000 /length:0x10000 /swap_endian /byte_mode /silent /otheroptions
Power Cycle, tjtag3 -flash:cfe128 /swap_endian /byte_mode /silent /otheroptions
Have TFTP.exe ready in WindowsXP, with WNR3500v2-V1.2.2.28_25.0.85NA.chk from that zip file.