How to upgrade your firmware

Read the instructions! If your firmware comes with specific upgrade instructions that are different to those below, please follow the official instructions instead :)

Many people appear to suffer various problems upgrading the firmware in their router. The recipe below has been well-tested and feedback has suggested that it avoids most, if not all, problems encountered when upgrading the firmware.

1. Ensure the router is directly connected via the network cable to the computer (not a hub or switch) from which you are running the upgrade utility program (Windows only).
2. Ensure that the SNMP access password is "private" (the default password) otherwise the D-Link utility will not be able to access the router (Windows only).
3. Unplug the RJ11 ADSL telephone line from the back of the router.
4. Uninstall the existing D-Link upgrade utility program (Windows only).
5. Delete any left behind directories from the "program files" directory (Windows only).
6. Install the D-Link upgrade utility program for the new firmware version (Windows only).
7. Windows XP users only: reboot your computer (Windows only).
8. Upgrade to firmware version X. The router should restart all by itself if this is successful. If the upgrade times out, do not reboot the router AND do not turn off the power to the router, you may optionally try this solution and/or go back to Step 3 (repeat until successful). Note that some users have reported that despite the timeout message, the upgrade was successful: to determine this, first connect the console serial cable to your PC, start your favourite terminal program (full configuration details are here) and observe the console messages. If, AND ONLY IF, you see a "Flashing successful" message, you can ignore the timeout error message.
9. Using the serial console (or telnet), logon to the router and execute the following commands in sequence:

   192.168.0.1 > config default
   192.168.0.1 > config save
   192.168.0.1 > flashfs update
   192.168.0.1 > restart
   

10. Plug the RJ11 ADSL telephone line back into the router :)
11. Plug the network cable from the computer back into whatever device it was originally plugged into (if not the router).
12. The router will reboot and you can now re-configure it to taste.

Windows XP: A number of users have recently (August/September 2004) reported that they have been unable to upgrade their firmware when using Windows XP as their operating system. They always received the dreaded "timeout" error message from the D-Link upgrade utility. In such cases, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 executed the D-Link upgrade utility successfully. Another option is to use the XModem method for upgrading firmware - provided you have a .BIN file. Further details for using this method may be found here.

Anti-virus software: If you are using anti-virus software on the machine from which you are running the upgrade utility, disable the software during the upgrade process.

Firewalls: If you are using a firewall on the machine from which you are running the upgrade utility, disable the firewall during the upgrade process. Windows XP, for example, comes with a firewall which is enabled by default and has been known to prevent a successful firmware upgrade.

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