Recovery utility issues

[Hex]

Hi,

I'm trying revert my DG834GT modem back to the default sky firmware (V1.02.28)

I have now tried doing it on 3 pcs with 6 nics (2 netgears(FA311 and GA302T) and the interface is all messed up or thy don't find the modem in the device list , I have made a post on the netgear site and they have been little to no help at all

[James67]

Assuming you are putting the router into its recovery mode (with the power and the tick lights flashing alternately), you need to find out what type of router your router thinks it is. It might sound a bit odd, but sometimes when you're playing around with flash images, you can get the router into a state where it thinks a completely different type of router, and the Netgear Recovery Utility doesn't show the router in its device list, because it's not the type of router that it's looking for.

It is possible to find out what the router's getting up to, but it's a bit tricky.

1. Download and install the latest copy of WinPcap. You can get it from here.
   
   
2. Download WinDump.exe. You can get that from here. Note that that isn't an installer, it's actually the program, so you'll need to make a note of where you save it on your hard disk.
   
   
3. Get the router into its recovery state, by holding in the reset button at the same times as plugging the power connector in.
   
   
4. Get a command window - Start->Run then type cmd
   
   
5. Change directory to the directory to which you downloaded the windump.exe program. and in the command window type this command…

   windump -i 2 -w nru.dump

   The windump will sit there quietly examining all the network traffic. Don't close the command window just yet!
   
   
6. Start the Netgear Recovery Utility and work through each of the pages until you get to the point where it's looked for a router, but has failed to find one. Once it's got there, quit the program.
   
   
7. Go back to the command window, and press Ctrl-C. This should stop the windump program.
   
   
8. Type the following command in the command window…

   windump -r nru.dump ether proto 0x8888 | more

   You should see something like this:

   01:56:44.818106 00:19:db:c0:ff:ee (oui Unknown) > Broadcast, ethertype Unknown (0x8888), length 64:
           0x0000:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
           0x0010:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
           0x0020:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
           0x0030:  0000                                     ..
   01:56:44.818207 00:18:de:ad:be:ef (oui Unknown) > 00:19:db:c0:ff:ee (oui Unknown), ethertype Unknown (0x8888), length 80:
           0x0000:  0000 0000 0000 0000 3800 0000 0000 4447  ........8.....DG
           0x0010:  3833 3447 542d 3153 4b55 4b53 0000 0000  834GT-1SKUKS....
           0x0020:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
           0x0030:  4100 3732 0000 0000 0000 0000 121c 0000  A.72............
           0x0040:  0000                                     ..

   I've changed the MAC addresses for security reasons. If you look at the packet information, you can see that the router with the MAC address 00:18:de:ad:be:ef has sent a reply saying that it's a DG834GT-1SKUKS router, so the Netgear Recovery Utility will have no problem putting a DG834GT image onto the router.

I know this is a pretty advanced thing to do, but this is why I keep reminding people that playing around with your router's firmware is not an activity to be undertaken lightly. You need to know all this kind of stuff - things like getting and analysing Ethernet traffic.

[Hex]

Thats odd, I was running WinDump and by magic the recovery utility picked up the modem and I was able to flash it back.


That all said and done, now I get

Sat, 2000-01-01 00:01:30 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:01:30 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:02:30 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:02:30 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:03:20 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:03:20 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:03:21 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:03:28 - LCP down.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:03:29 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:03:29 - LCP is allowed to come up.

[James67]

Hmmm, curious. The WinPcap library puts the network interface into its "promiscuous" mode - maybe that's all it took to get the Netgear Recovery Utility working.

If you're getting an authentication error, you need to reset the router to factory defaults. This will reinitialise the ADSL user name and password to the correct values.

[Hex]

All working now, many thanks James

[PJ02]

Thank you James,

Dug out the old brick i had replaced ages ago, used the packet capture method to find out it thought it was a DG834PNB

Downloaded the PN firmware and used the Recovery Utility which could now see the device in the device list. Changed the name of the latest GT firmware to that of the PN and uploaded. I now have a spare working sky DG834GT v1 with the latest Netgear firmware on.

Much appreciated.

Andy

[ardsar]

Originally Posted by PJ02

Thank you James,

Dug out the old brick i had replaced ages ago, used the packet capture method to find out it thought it was a DG834PNB

Downloaded the PN firmware and used the Recovery Utility which could now see the device in the device list. Changed the name of the latest GT firmware to that of the PN and uploaded. I now have a spare working sky DG834GT v1 with the latest Netgear firmware on.

Much appreciated.

Andy

Hi, I have this exact same problem. Can you please advise how you solved this. I cant find the recovery utility for the PN, only the GT

THanks

[Isitme]

There is no Recovery Utility for the PN, only for the DG834 in general. The PN firmware is only used to fool the router, as the Utility for some reason sees the GT as a PN.

Why do you want to do this?