Installation of 19.07.2 on WN3000RP

Unfortunately, the wifi chipset will never work on OpenWRT as BCM5357 will most likely never be supported by recent kernels. So, I decided to convert my WN3000RP into a VPN Server.

I compiled 19.07.02 to have best performance with minimal footprint.

I share my ROM if anyone also want to use his WN3000RP as a small VPN Server (or Client). This ROM provides LuCI, Firewall and VPN (OpenVPN 2.4 + Wireguard).

You can overclock it to 500Mhz to have good performance. Please read instructions carefully, especially the instructions to flash and revert to another ROM, as this ROM reclaims 64kb from the POT partition. All the instructions are in the README. Sources are also included in the archive.

Initial Flash
Use the Netgear WebUI to flash the FlashRom. Backup the POT partition and NVRAM data from the LuCI flash menu.
Then use the LuCI interface to flash the VPN ROM.

Reverting to standard firmware (or vendor firmware)
-Use NMRPFLASH to flash the FlashRom
-Use the POT-Restore ROM to restore the POT header (you must force the flash in LuCI)
-Restore the POT backup using mtd -r write /tmp/pot_backup.bin POT (where pot_backup is the file saved initially)
-You can then restore any ROM you want

Overclock
You can overclock the device to 500MHz through SSH by issuing the following commands:
nvram set clkfreq=500,250,125
nvram commit

Download Link

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All,

:warning: Be carefull with firmware from unknown sources!

The OP can provide a list of tweaks for you to self-compile.


BTW, welcome to the community, @vbelot!

Thank you lleachi :).

For info, the modified sources are included in the zip file, along with the information to compile the firmware yourself. I will compile 19.07.3 later this week.

Regards

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Thanks for your guide and files. I am also trying to use this device as a VPN server.

I've followed your instruction, installing the FlashRom first. I am now not getting any gateway IP and while I can see the device when I connect via ethernet, there is no IP and I cannot access it... Any idea?

Hi eshroom, this ROM is for WN3000RP only, not for WN3000RPv2/v3 (v1 did not have any version number, v2 is Mediatek based). If you have a non v2 version, then this is weird. Did it stop working after the install of the FlashRom or after the install of the VPN rom ?

You have the possibility to restore with nmrpflash but you will have to be very careful with the steps. First waiting for yoru feedback.

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Hi, thanks for the quick response. I managed to get in after leaving the router in failsafe mode overnight and trying again, this was on the FlashRom and I have V1h2, but as it is now working this must be similar enough to the standard v1.

I have installed the VPN flash and want to set up the VPN server. I have found this guide, but it requires me to download packages onto the router, I am afraid to do this due to the low memory. Does this guide look right to you or should I follow a different process for the WN3000RP?

Also does the basic VPN server support dynamic dns like duckdns.org?

Thank again.

I have created the certs and config file on mac... Not sure where to copy them to after SSH'ing into the WN3000RP though... I am guessing DDNS is also impossible due to lack of OPKG?

Performance-wise, I really advice you to use Wireguard instead of OpenVPN. DDNS is already embedded in the ROM normally (not sure for 19.07.2 I posted here), but you have to configure it through SSH as the GUI package required luci-compat packages that were a bit too heavy.

By the way I have 19.07.4 on mine, I will upload 19.07.5 this month. Also, if you want something specific I should be able to compile it (not before Dec 20th though).

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