Netgear's R4500 and WNDR4500 routers are the exact same thing. However, Netgear stopped pushing firmware updates to the R4500. This can pose a huge security risk for your home network. In this post, I detail how to convert an R4500 into a WNDR4500 so you can get the latest firmware update from Netgear.
2) Get a telnet enabler. I used TelnetEnabler.exe for Windows which is available here.
3) Enable telnet in Windows options or just download a free copy of puTTY. (I like puTTY, personally - but recommended to just enable the telnet client in windows its easier).
4) Unplug your router from everything, Disconnect your computer from the internet, and connect it to a LAN port on your router. and
2) Open up the command line utility, its in the accessories directory of the start menu on windows. Navigate to the directory where you placed telnetenable.exe. Look on the side of the router to find the MAC address its there somewhere, I promise. You can cut/paste or just type carefully the following into your command line and substitute the MAC address of your router (leave out the < and >, though).
telnetenable.exe 192.168.1.1 <your router's mac address> Gearguy Geardog
note: MAC addresses are all capital letters and MAC addresses do not contain the letter o. Anything that looks like the letter o is actually the number zero 0
note: for telnetenable.exe do NOT include the semicolons in the MAC address or any punctuation
note: there is no confirmation that says this step was successful. You will find out if it was successful in the next step.
2) When the telnet client opens, type in Open 192.168.1.1
3) Type in, or better yet cut/paste the following at the command line prompt;
burnboardid U12H189T00_NETGEAR
4) Close the connection and exit the telnet client (or just hit X in the upper right hand corner if you are lazy).
2) Log into the administration panel at 192.168.1.1 (default is user is admin / password is password - genius eh)
3) Go to update your router area and upload the WNDR4500 firmware you got from the netgear support page.
4) Wait for the router to update and reboot itself.
5) Log into 192.168.1.1 again
6) You should now have a WNDR4500. Good job!
Prepare
1) Download the latest WNDR4500 firmware from NetGear’s support site.2) Get a telnet enabler. I used TelnetEnabler.exe for Windows which is available here.
If you don't have a github account, now would be a good time to make one and star this program.
I placed telnetenable.exe into the root directory of the C: disk, just to make it easy to find. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm assuming that you will be doing the same.
3) Enable telnet in Windows options or just download a free copy of puTTY. (I like puTTY, personally - but recommended to just enable the telnet client in windows its easier).
4) Unplug your router from everything, Disconnect your computer from the internet, and connect it to a LAN port on your router. and
Use the Telnet Enabler utility you downloaded to switch on remote access.
1) Do a hard reset of your router. If you don't know how to press the reset button in for 20 seconds, you probably really shouldn't be trying to flash anything, though. But just in case you're not sure or have questions you can find how to do it on the Netgear Support Site.2) Open up the command line utility, its in the accessories directory of the start menu on windows. Navigate to the directory where you placed telnetenable.exe. Look on the side of the router to find the MAC address its there somewhere, I promise. You can cut/paste or just type carefully the following into your command line and substitute the MAC address of your router (leave out the < and >, though).
telnetenable.exe 192.168.1.1 <your router's mac address> Gearguy Geardog
note: MAC addresses are all capital letters and MAC addresses do not contain the letter o. Anything that looks like the letter o is actually the number zero 0
note: for telnetenable.exe do NOT include the semicolons in the MAC address or any punctuation
 |
| it should look something like this |
note: there is no confirmation that says this step was successful. You will find out if it was successful in the next step.
Log in to the router with telnet and change the board id
1) Hopefully you have already enabled the windows telnet client. Type telnet in the command line.2) When the telnet client opens, type in Open 192.168.1.1
- *If you were successful in switching on the remote access, you will see a command line utility called busybox open and the prompt will be a # - good job you hacked into the Gibson.
- *If you were unsuccessful in switching on the remote access, nothing will happen. Start all over again at step one of enabling telnet; because you did something wrong.
3) Type in, or better yet cut/paste the following at the command line prompt;
burnboardid U12H189T00_NETGEAR
note:THOSE ARE NOT CAPITAL LETTER o's THEY ARE THE NUMBER ZEROS
note: do NOT FUCK THIS UP OR YOU WILL POTENTIALLY BRICK YOUR ROUTER
note: do NOT FUCK THIS UP OR YOU WILL POTENTIALLY BRICK YOUR ROUTER
4) Close the connection and exit the telnet client (or just hit X in the upper right hand corner if you are lazy).
Install the WNDR4500 firmware you downloaded
1) Power cycle (restart) your router by unplugging it and plugging it back in again.2) Log into the administration panel at 192.168.1.1 (default is user is admin / password is password - genius eh)
3) Go to update your router area and upload the WNDR4500 firmware you got from the netgear support page.
4) Wait for the router to update and reboot itself.
5) Log into 192.168.1.1 again
6) You should now have a WNDR4500. Good job!