A router firmware update goes bad

This being Computerworld, the number of readers who update the firmware in their router is probably loftier. But, I suspect very few non-techies go along their firmware current, or fifty-fifty know that the software in their router needs updating (and is chosen "firmware" rather than "software"). It's quite understandable.

For one thing, the security issues raised past quondam firmware don't generally scream at y'all. And the update procedure is never correctly or fully documented. And, the procedure varies, us techies have to deal with unlike upgrade procedures for different routers.

Then too, it's dangerous. If a firmware update (like a BIOS update) fails halfway through, you're indeep trouble. And, fifty-fifty if the update works, the new firmware may have reset some settings, settings that very few people are likely to notice or understand.

So, information technology was with some trepidation that I recently updated the firmware on an Asus RT-N66U Nighttime Knight router owned by a relative.

Knowing the dangers, I had procrastinated the update. At end of September 2014 the router was still running firmware that had been installed in early January 2013 (version 3.0.0.4.260). That's too long, especially since in that location were multiple updates in the interim.

The firmware update hassle starts with learning almost new firmware releases. Inconsistency is the rule.

The worst routers require that you periodically check the website of the manufacturer for updates. Side by side upwards the chain, are routers that offer a manual bank check for new firmware in their web interface. Some companies automate the process by sending you an email you lot when new firmware is released (Peplink and NAS vendor Synology do this). Other routers tin automatically check for updated firmware, only they only notify you if and when you login to the router to look.

asus router new firmware edited 1

The RT-N66U works this way. When you login to it later on it has detected new firmware, there volition be a blinking yellow assertion point in the acme correct corner. Hovering the mouse over the xanthous icon produces the message shown here.

In the former days, updating firmware meant downloading a file (often a zip file) to a reckoner and then uploading a file to the router. Now, some routers, the RT-N66U among them, can do most of the work on their own. A couple clicks in the administrative website downloads and installs the newer firmware.

At start, the procedure went well and the firmware was updated to version 3.0.0.4.374_720 (what's with the looooong version numbers?).

asus.router.firmware.complete

Of class, when I say the process went "well" I'm grading on a curve. Afterward the bulletin that the firmware had been successfully updated, everything stopped. What next? Asus offers no clue. You're on your ain.

I guessed, correctly, that the next footstep was to log back in to the router.

Experience has shown that routers don't always update themselves to the latest firmware, so afterwards the update, I had the router check again for newer firmware. Sure enough, it was not current.

The starting time update had gotten me to September 2013. The next 1 would accept me to June 2014.

The router doesn't identify the new firmware version that information technology wants to install in whatever way shape or grade. Afterwards, I learned that it wanted to install version iii.0.0.4.376_1071.

The 2nd update proceeded like the first one, including the lack of instructions for what to exercise later on the update completed. After it was washed, withal, I could not connect back into the router.

Had it lost its IP accost? The default IP accost of the router is not on the box itself, so this was a lesson learned the hard style: download the manuals for the thing earlier upgrading its firmware.

Turns out that I couldn't connect to the router because all the wireless networks were gone. Worse nonetheless, I couldn't connect to information technology by Ethernet either. Was the affair bricked?

With no other options, I unplugged the power from the router and let it sit. And sit down. And sit some more. Why so long? Interesting story.

In early 2014, The Wirecutter picked the Asus RT-AC56U as the best router. A few months afterward, after "some stability issues", they switched to recommending the Netgear R6250. The issues were that clients had trouble connecting to the RT-AC56U on the ii.4GHz band.

Quoting The Wirecutter

.. Asus acknowledged via email that the RT-AC56U had had a two.4 GHz problem only said that a firmware update final year fixed information technology. Withal, we encountered the same 2.iv GHz issues with our RT-AC56U, which had upwardly-to-date firmware. At 1 point, our wireless-n connectivity ground to a near-standstill. The 5 GHz connexion worked but fine, but on the 2.4 GHz band [we] couldn't fifty-fifty access the router's Spider web interface ... Nosotros power-cycled the router and even returned it to manufacturing plant default settings with no success. The upshot only fixed itself after we turned off the router off for a while so turned information technology on again.

For a while? They had to turn the RT-AC56U off "for a while". A normal ability bike did not articulate things upwards. And so I permit my RT-N66U sit down unplugged for nigh 15 minutes.

And it worked.

That said, when I first logged in to the 2nd new firmware, at that place was a warning about SAMBA sharing. The router is not used for file sharing, and so I disabled SAMBA. While I was at it, I disabled the DLNA media server also. IP v6 was already disabled. Its good Defensive Computing to turn off features y'all're not using.

If non for the scare this put into me (a houseful of people with no Internet access), I would have updated the firmware a third time. A subsequent check of the Asus website showed that a newer firmware (three.0.0.4.376.2524) had been released two weeks earlier.

Information technology's now almost a month since this latest firmware was released, and the RT-N66U still says that the version from June is the latest and greatest. And so it goes.

asus.router.new.firmware.check


The important point here is preparing for router failure. Even without a firmware update, a router tin can fail for other reasons, such every bit old age, an electrical surge or the cat knocking information technology to the flooring.

I arroyo is having a backup router. Similar a spare tire in the body of a car, information technology doesn't have to be as full featured, information technology simply has to work. A bottom of the line router can exist had for around $30.

Another pick that can tide you over is using your smartphone equally a Wi-Fi hotspot.

There is a tertiary option too, simply I have non seen it in a consumer form router.

Most people make a 1-to-1 connexion between a router and its firmware. That is, one router equals one firmware. It doesn't have to be that mode. In that location are routers capable of maintaining two copies of the firmware.

Such a router would let you download new firmware and not use it immediately. If, for case, you downloaded new firmware on a Wednesday you lot could look to reboot the box until the weekend to try out the new version. If there are bug, you tin autumn back to the prior, known good, version of the firmware.

Peplink is a router company that offers multiple firmwares, fifty-fifty on their cheapest models. Here is a screen shot from their low end Pepwave Surf Soho showing the 2 bachelor firmware releases that you can reboot the box into.

peplink.firmware.reboot


If you know of other routers with multiple firmwares please get out a comment below or email me at my full name at gmail and I'll add a note here about it.

Which of these three approaches do I use? All of them, of form.

Michael Horowitz is an contained consultant who has long been focused on Defensive Computing.

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