1 nmrpflash - Netgear Unbrick Utility
2 ====================================
4 This program uses Netgear's [NMRP protocol]
5 (http://www.chubb.wattle.id.au/PeterChubb/nmrp.html)
6 to flash a new firmware image to a compatible device. This utility has been
7 tested with a Netgear EX2700, but is likely to work on many others as well.
9 Prebuilt binaries for Linux, OS X and Windows are available
10 [here](https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash/releases)
11 ([WinPcap](https://www.winpcap.org/install/default.htm) is required on Windows).
14 Usage: nmrpflash [OPTIONS...]
16 Options (-a, -i and -f and/or -c are mandatory):
17 -a <ipaddr> IP address to assign to target device
18 -c <command> Command to run before (or instead of) TFTP upload
19 -f <firmware> Firmware file
20 -F <filename> Remote filename to use during TFTP upload
21 -i <interface> Network interface directly connected to device
22 -m <mac> MAC address of target device (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx)
23 -M <netmask> Subnet mask to assign to target device
24 -t <timeout> Timeout (in milliseconds) for regular messages
25 -T <timeout> Time (seconds) to wait after successfull TFTP upload
26 -p <port> Port to use for TFTP upload
27 -R <region> Set device region (NA, WW, GR, PR, RU, BZ, IN, KO, JP)
29 -V Print version and exit
30 -L List network interfaces
36 Connect your Netgear router to your computer using a network cable.
37 Assign a static IP address to the network adapter that's plugged into
40 For this example, we'll assume that your network interface is `eth0`.
41 First, we have to assign a static IP address to our network interface.
42 In this example, we'll use `192.168.1.2`. All available network interfaces
47 eth0 192.168.1.2 f2:11:a1:02:03:b1
50 Now we can `nmrpflash`. The argument for the `-a` option needs
51 to be a *free* IP address from the same subnet as the one used by your
52 network interface. We'll use `192.168.1.254`. Firmware images can usually
53 be downloaded directly from netgear. For details on how to do this, see
54 [here](#obtaining-firmware-images). Power on your device immediately
55 after starting `nmrpflash`.
58 $ nmrpflash -i eth0 -a 192.168.1.254 -f EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img
59 Advertising NMRP server on eth0 ... /
60 Received configuration request from a4:2b:8c:00:00:01.
61 Sending configuration: ip 192.168.1.254, mask 255.255.255.0.
62 Received upload request: filename 'firmware'.
63 Uploading EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img ... OK
64 Waiting for remote to respond.
65 Remote finished. Closing connection.
66 Reboot your device now.
70 ###### "No suitable network interfaces found."
72 If you're *not* on Windows, rerun `nmrpflash -L` using `sudo`. In any case,
73 use `-vvvL` to see more detailed messages, and file a bug report if applicable.
75 ###### "No response after 60 seconds. Bailing out."
77 The router did not respond. Try rebooting the device and run `nmrpflash` again.
78 You could also try running `nmrpflash` with `-m` and specify your router's
79 MAC address. It's also possible that your device does not support the NMRP protocol.
81 ###### "Timeout while waiting for CLOSE_REQ."
83 After a successful file upload, `nmrpflash` waits for up to 120 seconds for an
84 answer from your device. You can increase this by specifying a longer timeout
85 using `-T` switch (argument is in seconds).
87 It's entirely possible that the image was flashed successfully, but the
88 operation took longer than 120 seconds.
90 ###### "Address X/Y cannot be used on interface Z."
92 `nmrpflash` refuses to use an IP address / subnet mask combination that would
93 make the remote device unreachable from the device running `nmrpflash`. For
94 example, if the IP address of your computer is 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0, assigning
95 192.168.2.1/255.255.255.0 to the router makes no sense, because the TFTP upload will
98 ###### "IP address of X has changed. Please assign a static IP to the interface."
100 This can happen if the network interface in question automatically detects that
101 the network cable has been connected, and your computer tries to reconfigure that
102 interface (NetworkManager on Linux does this for example) - this can usually be
105 An alternative would be to add `-c 'ifconfig <interface> <ip>'` to the command line,
108 `nmrpflash -i eth0 -a 192.168.1.1 -f firmware.bin -c 'ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2'`
110 This will execute the command specified by `-c` prior to starting the TFTP upload (in
111 this case setting the IP address to 192.168.1.2).
113 ### Building and installing
114 ###### Linux, Mac OS X, BSDs
117 $ make && sudo make install
122 The repository includes a
123 [DevCpp](http://sourceforge.net/projects/orwelldevcpp/)
124 project file (`nmrpflash.dev`). Download the latest
125 [WinPcap Developer Pack](https://www.winpcap.org/devel.htm)
126 and extract it into the root folder of the nmrpflash sources.
128 ### Obtaining firmware images
130 Firmware images can be downloaded directly from Netgear's FTP servers.
131 For the Netgear EX2700 for example, download
132 ftp://updates1.netgear.com/ex2700/ww/fileinfo.txt. At the top there
133 should be an entry like this:
137 file=EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img
141 The download link for the latest firmware image for this device is thus:
142 ftp://updates1.netgear.com/ex2700/ww/EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img. Substitute
143 `ex2700` for your device (`wndr4300`, `wndr3700`, `r6100`, etc.). If
144 neccessary, substitute `ww` (world-wide) for a specific region.