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I flashed some firmware (direct link here) onto a brand new TP-LINK TL-WA901ND v2, and now it doesn't look very good.

The power LED is on, and the LAN LED lights up when I attach the cable to my computer but the WLAN and SYSTEM are now always off.

When I attach the cable to my computer, I cannot access http://192.168.1.1. I haven't much experience on bricks, but this looks like one.

Doing a netscan on my network I see:

network router  Router  192.168.1.1 MAC-ADDRESS 
network router  Router  224.0.0.1   MAC-ADDRESS 
unidentified device hidden  224.0.0.251 MAC-ADDRESS

I tried to telnet and ssh 192.168.1.1 with no luck.

Any advice?

UPDATE

I tried to do the 30/30/30 reset, and nothing changed.

I tried the tftp transfer using the original firmware from TP-Link; this is the output:

tftp> connect 192.168.1.1 
tftp> binary
tftp> rexmt 1
tftp> timeout 60
tftp> put wa901nv2_en_3_12_16_up(120224).bin
Transfer timed out.

Basically, it's not answering to tftp (and timing out).

I tried also immediately after a reset, during boot time, but had no luck.

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  • You can't brick these routers without overwriting the CFE. If you just flashed the firmware, it's recoverable. You have to push a new firmware at it using tftp right as it's booting up. The process is explained here. Jan 5, 2013 at 2:36
  • the router doesn't even respond to ping. port 21 is not open. I did a port scan and nothing is open between port 1 and 1000.
    – Luigi
    Jan 5, 2013 at 3:17
  • It won't respond to pings and it won't respond to a port scan. The only thing you can do is push a tftp to it. It will, however, respond to ARP requests, so you can confirm that it's working that way. Jan 5, 2013 at 3:18
  • first of all, thank you for the help. I tried the tftp, it tells me "Tranfer timed out".
    – Luigi
    Jan 5, 2013 at 3:24
  • That's normal. You have a narrow window to get the tftp started in. Keep trying around reboot time. If you got an ARP reply, it will work. Jan 5, 2013 at 3:35

3 Answers 3

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It seems the DD-WRT firmware for the TP-Link WA901ND disables the LAN port. Refer to posts here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=71721&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=180

My experience with this device is the same.

The good news is that you should be able to connect to the wireless interface. The default wireless SSID is dd-wrt, no security (no passphrase) and uses an IP Address of 192.168.1.1.

I was successfully able to connect to the access point this way and see the DD-WRT firmware had installed. I tried playing with it to enable the LAN port again, but it seems the firmware is no yet ready for production. Without a LAN port, it is fairly useless!

You can also re-flash it back to stock TP-Link firmware through the web interface over wireless. Just download the webrevert firmware from DD-WRT and you should be able to access it again on the default settings (192.168.1.254) over the LAN port.

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  • Thanks, I didn't notice the SSID was available. I have the dd-wrt wifi SSID but after connected the IP 192.168.1.1 doesn't respond to any port (ssh, http, telnet, ping). I see the IP 192.168.1.1 is assigned to the router, but I can't connect in any way. I tried to port scan it, but no results.
    – Luigi
    May 18, 2013 at 14:24
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Since I had the same problem, the actual solution was:

  1. hard reset 30/30/30: dd-wrt hard reset guide
  2. change arp mac address of wireless connection, follow this guide
  3. connect to web interface via 192.168.1.1

Update: the only working dd-wrt firmware with enabled LAN port is this one:

DD-WRT v24-sp2 (01/24/13) std - build 20548 
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The post is a bit old and muy english is not the best, but i got the same problem and solved it by forcing to resolve the ip to the rigth mac address.

In windows xp command line, type arp -a and you gonna see that the ip 192.168.1.1 is resolved to a mac address that its no the same the router got on its label. Type arp -d 192.168.1.1 to remove the entry and then arp -s 192.168.1.1 xx-xx-xx-xx-xx where xx... is the mac address signaled on your router label.

Then try to get up to the router configuration typing 192.168.1.1 in your browser and it should work.

Just note that it only work for me using WiFi connection.

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