Flashing TP-Link TL-WR740N with OpenWRT best firmware

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TP-Link’s WR740N is a very lowcost wireless router capable of running OpenWRT. I bought it for 12 LVL (~23 USD / 18 EUR) and it had the v4.2 of WR740N and thanks to good guys at OpenWRT I was able to replace my buggy original firmware with solid firmware that was capable of doing what I need, specifically, connect as a client to a existing wifi network.


Hardware highlights
  • CPU – Atheros A7240 @ 400 MHz
  • RAM – 32 MB
  • Flash – 4 MB
  • WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n 150 Mbps
  • Network – 4 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
Here are some images of WR704N. I already played a bit with the LEDs, that’s why I have WLAN and WAN LEDs working :)

Original firmware doesn’t supports connecting as a wireless client and has a buggy implementation of WDS, anyway, here’s how to flash a WR740N with OpenWRT from trunk (currently r30479). Fortunately there’s even a wiki statement that provides us with solid ground to work on: „V4.2 and V4.3 work without apparent problems from trunk r29631 onward”.

Prerequisites
Installation

It seems that the only difference between WR740N and WR740ND is that the later has a detachable antenna so it is safe to follow it’s tutorial. The manual at openwrt.org says that some of the devices have a protection for uploading unsuitable firmware, but this wasn’t the case. I think it was more aimed towards the D version. The trunk WR740N image can be flashed trough the stock TP-Link web interface.
  • Browse to your router (default http://192.168.1.1/ OR as cool guys would do it http://tplinklogin.net/)
  • Login with your credentials (default user name: admin, password: admin)
  • On the left side navigation go to System tools then to Factory defaults and click restore
  • After router has rebooted navigate to Firmware upgrade
  • Upload previously downloaded *-factory.bin file to router
  • Click on Upgrade button and wait for it to reboot
  • Wait about a minute or so (watch the sys led activity)
Configuration

Now it’s time to open previously downloaded PuTTY executable and setup a password for root account.
  • Open PuTTY and type 192.168.1.1 in the Host name field
  • select „Telnet” as connection type and click open
  • After the OpenWRT banner/greeting type: „passwd root” without the quotes and enter your password twice
  • Once password has been setup Telnet is no longer avaiable, use SSH instead
And that finishes the installation of OpenWRT on TL-WR740N. For basic configuration of your device head to OpenWRT wiki. And again thanks to the good guys at OpenWRT for making this happen!

Via school-street

7 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Hi, I have bought a new tplink 740n and installed openwrt AA12.09. My Wifi connection disconnects when download speed goes beyond 2Mbps (if I do torrent, that is every few seconds. The reason in the router log is "disconnected due to excessive missing acks". Until now, I could not find a solution on openwrt site. Could you please help me?

Anonymous said...

After more digging, I have found that it was my tablet's fault. With my laptop I have managed sustained rates in excess of 70Mbps. As a conclusion, try Openwrt! It is a very pleasant surprise!

Anonymous said...

After more digging, I have found that it was my tablet's fault. With my laptop I have managed sustained rates in excess of 70Mbps. As a conclusion, try Openwrt! It is a very pleasant surprise!

Jago Resi said...

Thanks.. It works..!!

Unknown said...

Hello,I have a TP link WR740N ver 6, i am unable to replace the original firmware with the OpenWrt firmware, because of FCC lock. Kindly Help me to flash the firmware.

Unknown said...

Hello,I have a TP link WR740N ver 6, i am unable to replace the original firmware with the OpenWrt firmware, because of FCC lock. Kindly Help me to flash the firmware.

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