TP-Link TL-WDR3500

Dual Band (concurrent) and 100Mbps Ethernet. Advertised as 600 Mbps it is Dual-Stream (2×2) on the 2.4 GHz Band and Dual-Stream (2×2) on the 5 GHz Band.

Chaos Calmer (15.05), Barrier Breaker (14.07). Chaos Calmer tested and installed through the sysupgrade image.

NOTE: After upgrading to Chaos Calmer, kernel output (dmesg) reports that this device actually has gigabit ethernet. Unfortunately tests shows just 100Mbit connections.

→ Install OpenWrt (generic explanation)

EASIEST WAY TO REFLASH STRAIGHT OUT OF BOX:

1. Download the OpenWrt factory firmware for this router above and rename it from “openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wdr3500-v1-squashfs-factory.bin” to “wdr3500v1_tp_recovery.bin”
2. Plug the router directly into your ethernet and turn the router on. (You may have to turn off wifi (easy) or change the order of devices your computer connects to network (google it) so the ethernet device takes precedence.
3. Open Browser and navigate to http://192.168.0.1/, login= admin password= password. (in my case, it was password=admin)
4. On the left, navigate to SYSTEM TOOLS
5. Click on FIRMWARE UPGRADE
6. Point the router to the file “wdr3500v1_tp_recovery.bin” you renamed in step 1.
7. Click UPGRADE.....that's it.
8. DO NOT UNPLUG OR POWER OFF YOUR ROUTER DURING UPGRADE or you will likely have a Brick
9. login to 192.168.1.1 to confirm firmware upgrade.
10. it may be possible to do this firmware upgrade wirelessly, however it is not recommended. Use Ethernet to reflash firmware whenever possible.

Thanks to the inspiration from http://www.theoutpost.org/6-techy/tp-link-wdr3600-recovery-without-serial/ who made me brave enough to try it.

→ generic.uninstall

With the TL-WDR3500 router, there is a catch: the stock firmware is obtained from the OEM: http://www.tplink.com/en/support/download/?model=TL-WDR3500

• in case the file name of this firmware file does not contain the word “boot” in it, you can simply revert back to original firmware
• in case the file name of this firmware file does contain the word “boot” in it, you need to cut off parts of the image file before flashing it:

An example of an image file with the word “boot” in it is wdr3500v1_en_3_14_1_up_boot(141113).bin.

Cut the first 0x20200 (that is 131,584 = 257*512) Bytes from original firmware:

dd if=orig.bin of=tplink.bin skip=257 bs=512

You should transfer the firmeware image to the /tmp folder and revert back to original firmware (if availlable you can flash the firmware via the webinterface as well):

Via the safer method using sysupgrade:

sysupgrade /tmp/tplink.bin

Or you use the mtd method:

mtd -r write /tmp/tplink.bin firmware

OEM TP-Link firmware for the TL-WDR3500 with the boot part removed to revert to the original OEM firmware:

• TL-WDR3500 V1 TL-WDR3500-V1-stripped.zip

For general failsafe help, consult the OpenWrt Failsafe Mode page.

For this specific TP-Link model there is an alternative way of flashing the firmware to the router. Thanks to http://www.theoutpost.org/?/archives/385-TP-Link-WDR3600-recovery-without-serial.html for finding this.

EDIT--- THE GUIDE BELOW IS FOR DIFFERENT HARDWARE, THE 3600, not the 3500.

This method may work if you have a brick already, but see above for an alternative method using the factory firmware upgrade function.

This guide assumes you are using Ubuntu.

1. Change your ip address to 192.168.0.66
2. Connect your cable to one of the LAN ports on the router (WAN port won't work for this)
3. Setup a tftp server on your machine by entering sudo apt-get install xinetd tftpd tftp
4. Download the OpenWrt factory firmware and rename openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wdr3500-v1-squashfs-factory.bin to wdr3500v1_tp_recovery.bin
5. Put the renamed firmware in your tftp folder (/var/lib/tftpboot/)
6. Start the tftp server with tftp 192.168.0.66
7. Hold down the WPS/Reset button on the router
8. Power on the router. The router will show the two arrow symbol when done correctly.
9. After approximately 7 seconds release the reset button
10. The router will now download the firmware from your server and upgrade
11. After about a minute the router will indicate a restart.
12. Change your IP to 192.168.1.2 and try to connect to Openwrt by telnet.

The “Ports” above are the port numbers as designated on the case.

Physical interface eth0 is connected to the switch.

WAN port is on separate physical interface eth1.

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