Long-term Memory

As a follow up on my previous article with the WRT320N, here’s my journey for the WRT610N revision 2 (which is very similar, but has two radio’s).

The initial flash

After reading through the dd-wrt forum (most notably this one) and the wiki page, I learned a few things:

• Recommended build is still 14929
• This unit needs a tailored build for the first flash

This is the procedure I followed, with success, starting from Linksys version “2.00.00 B05 Jul. 10, 2009”:

1. Download the tailored build for the WRT610N (local copy) (for the freaks, my binary MD5s to c67e6099c63f11cc8e8f5f74b371aa23).
2. Connect via wired ethernet to the router. That way, you can see the link going up/down.
3. Reset the Linksys software (defaults are 192.168.1.1, username “” and password “admin”)
4. In the Linksys firmware, upload this file.
5. Wait 5 very long minutes.
6. Configure yourself a static IP in the 192.168.1.0/24 network (I use 192.168.1.8)
7. Direct your browser to http://192.168.1.1/
8. You may have to set a temporary password, I did not.
9. Wait 1 minute
10. Reset the router: push & hold the reset button, wait 30 seconds; unplug the power, wait 30 seconds; plug in power, wait 30 seconds; release reset button.
11. Close & reopen your browser to flush all cached pages and credentials
12. Direct your browser to http://192.168.1.1/. If you don’t get the question to set up a new password, the reset didn’t work.
13. Enjoy

The upgrade

After the initial flash, you can upgrade to any regular version, but keep in mind that this unit requires a 2.6 kernel. I choose the 14929-mini version (local copy, md5 af9ab2ff822ab69d26fa7308d47ad05a), not because it provided all I need (it doesn’t support IPv6 for example), but because it leaves the most free space for me to fiddle with.

To switch versions, I always follow this overly cautious procedure: (if you do this right after the initial flashing, you might be able to skip straight until step 4)

1. Reset to defaults: reset, 30 seconds; power down, 30 seconds; power up 30 seconds; release reset.
2. Make sure your IP is in the correct range (192.168.1.0/24)
3. Set a temporary password
4. Upload the new firmware
5. Wait until the browser is again at the “Set password” page (or 5 minutes)
6. Set temporary password (again, I did not get this prompt)
7. Reset to defaults again