I received an Archer C7 v2 on eBay. Turned it on and found DD-wrt. Crap. I tried flashing Open-wrt and OEM firmware from the web-broswer gui. It pretends that it is working fine, but always boots back to DD-wrt.
I read these three posts about how to proceed but none of them worked for me.
The best option here is to try using the tftp installation method:
If that doesn't work, head over to the DD-WRT forums and ask them for assistance getting back to the stock firmware, and then you'll be in a good position to install OpenWrt using the factory image from the stock firmware's firmware upgrade feature.
This link leads to another link which ends at a forum post that appears to be dead. I tried from Firefox and Brave browsers both with same result. The post says:
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 23:41 Post subject:
Revert file for TP-Link ArcherC7 v2
But there is no active link or useful information that I can find. Perhaps at one time it contained a link to the actual revert file?
I read the TFTP procedure on the device page. Sounds simple enough, but lots of critical details are missing for me. I am not familiar with running a TFTP server. I have a Linux Ubuntu machine. I found this article about setting up a TFTP server on Ubuntu. I executed the procedure described in the top rated answer, so theoretically my machine is "running a TFTP server". However, I am definitely stuck at " Configure the server machine with IP 192.168.0.66/24 (subnetmask 255.255.255.0, 'router' option can be empty) [1]. The router will run as a TFTP client at 192.168.0.86."
I really don't know what that means. How do I configure the server? I've done lots of web searching and am getting more lost and overwhelmed.
I also have a MacBook and tried following the TFTP prodecures for that but hit brick walls there as well.
To set your server machine with the necessary IP, you simply go into the computer's network settings. In most cases, your computer will be using DHCP to get its network configuration, but here you'll change that to 'static IP' and then fill in the two relevant fields (in this case the IP will be 192.168.0.66 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0).
What do I do with this .rar reversion file? The dd-wrt forum says nothing about what to do with the file.
I finally figured out how to login to the forum. Registration was easy, but I had to Google search to find the login page. Interesting. Anyways, I've downloaded the reversion file. Um, I don't know what to do with it. I tried searching the dd-wrt forum and the internet in general on what to do with a .rar file. I could make a guess on how to use it, but I've already bricked one router in this quest.
I struggled for several hours attempting to get tftp up and running without success. Happily, the process of reverting to OEM firmware and then flashing open-wrt worked well.
I had no idea that .rar was a compression format. I was about ready to upload the .rar file itself (that was my best guess). This is the fourth router I have attempted to install open-wrt onto, and finally, I can say SUCCESS! Thanks to everyone for sticking in there with me. Obviously I am at the edge of my comfort zone here. I would not have made it near this point without lots of advice and encouragement from the users of this noble forum.
