FIX: Neatgear WNDR4500 Firmware Source of Internet Connection Dropping

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Netgear WNDR4500

5/7/15 UPDATE: The solution described in this blog post (from September 2013) may no longer be necessary. Â I recently (April 2015) performed a firmware update and “reset the router to factory defaults” and life is good, no performance issues.

The key “Revert to factory default settings.â€Â step may have been the issue all along, somethingÂ I don’t think I tired back in 2013.

Thanks to Phil for sharing thisÂ solution in the comment section along with links.

From Netgear’s Website:

Note: Please remember to do factory default after firmware upgrade. Enter “Backup Settings” in the web GUI and click “Erase” button of “Revert to factory default settings”.

Source: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/25841

Below is the original blog posted, which is an alternative solution ifÂ still have issues.

For the past few weeks I’ve been troubleshooting a problem with my internet connection. I finally found the solution and want to share the solution, just in case others are having the same issue.

Symptoms
My WAN or internet connection was dropping at least once a day, sometimes 3-4 times per day. Power cycling (unplug/plug back in) the cable modem OR the router would temporarily restore the connection, but this never resolved the problem.

Solution Firmware version 1.0.1.36 for the Netgear WNDR4500 was the source of my problem. I rolled back to the previous version V1.0.1.20_1.0.40 and BINGO, my internet connection was stable once again! You can downloadÂ V1.0.1.20_1.0.40 from the Netgear Support Website for the WNDR4500, click on "Get More Downloads" for the list of previous firmware. Once you download the firmware, access the router's admin panel through a web browser. Â By default the address is:Â http://192.168.1.1/. Â Once logged in, go to the advanced tab and select "Router Update" under the administration section. Here is a screenshot of the router update: [caption id="attachment_525" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Netgear WNDR4500 Firmware Update Screen[/caption] From here it's straight forward, click browse, find yourÂ V1.0.1.20_1.0.40 file and upload to the router. Â After rebooting the system, you should be FIXED! Hopefully Netgear is able to fix whatever issue they are having with V1.0.1.36, which was released in May 2013. Â Running the latest firmware is normally a good idea, USUALLY fixes bugs and strengthens security of the hardware. Hope this helps, what frustration! My broadband provider offered to come out and check the lines, with the usual warning...if it's determined the problem is with your equipment, we will need to charge for the service call. Love that... I'm glad I said "no thanks".

Comments

20 responses to “FIX: Neatgear WNDR4500 Firmware Source of Internet Connection Dropping”

September 25, 2013

John Kellgren

Michael,

If this works, you are my hero!! This has been driving me nuts for the last couple of months. Was getting ready to give up and purchase a new router because I experienced exactly your story with Cox–my local provider.

Thanks much,

John
December 31, 2013

John Kellgren

Michael,

Happy holidays to you and your family. I was wondering if you have had the opportunity to check out the new V1.0.1.38 firmware release for the WNDR4500.

Thanks,

John Kellgren
January 10, 2014

Dave Null

Worked for me too. I was seeing a lot of packet drops on WAN, and on the Ethernet switch. I was using 1.0.1.38
March 15, 2014

Lucas

Thank you! Problem still seems to exsist in later versions.
March 16, 2014

Michael Webber

Thanks for the update on the later versions Lucas. Anyone else able to confirm the problem still exists?
March 25, 2014

m

I’m using v1.0.1.40-1.0.68 have drop connection at least once every two days. Michael you are still using V1.0.1.20_1.0.40 and w/o issues? thanks.
March 25, 2014

Michael Webber

Yes, rock solid!
April 18, 2014

Quenet

Nothing’s worked for me. I’ve tried several firmwares including the 20. This router keeps the connection for 20-30 minutes max.
May 12, 2014

Brian

I’m having the same issue, about every 2-3 days I loose all connectivity. I just upgraded to the 40 version and turned off traffic monitoring, wondering if it’s a memory full issue. However, I noticed in the release notes, they mention doing a full erase AFTER firmware upgrades, has anyone actually done that? The configurations must not get applied correctly when upgrading to newer firmware, seems pretty poor, but worth a shot I guess.
July 19, 2014

Luis

Recently I updated my WNDR4500 router to the latest firmware.. Today I realized I could no longer manage the Access Control List (ACL) to only allow certain devices (By MAC Address).

I wanted to add my son’s new laptop, so I tried to add the mac address to the router’s ACL but the latest firmware version no longer allows you to do that.

I tried turning Access Control Off: NO GO… Then with the Access Control Off, I tried changing the WIFI security protocols to all possible combinations and finally even having NO Password. The new laptop would not connect… I called NetGear’s support but they said they would not offer support unless I paid because my “Free Support” expired.

So my last hope was to downgrade the router to an older version of firmware where I could still set the ACL for added security, I found Firmware Version V1.0.1.38_1.0.64 (From Dec 2013 I believe) at the link below:
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24257/related/1

VOILA it worked!! the laptop is connected and I am not going to update the firmware. I have seen in other forums that some folks are complaining about not being able to manage the router’s ACL, I hope this helps
November 20, 2014

Nana

I can not thank you enough! We were going through frequent rebooting, usually more than once a day, which were slowing down our internet, disrupting downloads, interfering with my work (telecommute), and being a general annoyance with Netflix and Amazon Prime. I went back to the earlier firmware and have had zero problems with it since. Just like when it was brand new. You saved me having to buy a new router, as I’d tried everything else before stumbling on your fix! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
November 20, 2014

Nana

P.S. Netgear is useless because they already deemed this model ‘end of life’. They never fixed the problem in the subsequent firmware.
December 20, 2014

Michael Webber

Still amazed a fix was never released.
January 6, 2015

Florentina

Today i spent 300 $ for platinium roulette system , i hope that i
will make my first $$ online
February 16, 2015

Phil

All my problems with the NetGear WNDR4500 Wireless Router disappeared after following this piece of advice: Note: Please remember to do factory default after firmware upgrade. Enter “Backup Settings” in the web GUI and click “Erase” button of “Revert to factory default settings.”
My thanks go to this forum: http://goo.gl/yqpE2S. The advice is in comment #12 on that page.
This is the link to the NetGear support page: http://goo.gl/QiIqZS
As of this writing, Firmware Version V1.0.0.56_1.0.36 is the most current; and it works flawlessly for me.
May 7, 2015

Michael Webber

Phil, thanks for posting this solution. About a month ago I had an opportunity to try it out and BINGO! New firmware working great on my Netgear. Will post blog update with thanks to Phil!
May 8, 2015

Phil Berkun

You’ve just illustrated why I love the internets so much: people helping other people!
January 4, 2016

Paul E

Thanks so much for this posting. This problem has Plagued me for a number of months now. I found this most helpful, however after I follow the directions I found myself disconnected from the Internet, and unable to reconnect directly from either of our laptops.

The problem was finally solved by disconnecting both modem and router, and rebooting both of them.
March 12, 2016

Peter

I know this is an old thread, but I thought this might help someone out there with a Netgear N900 router (WNDR4500) who wants to be able to monitor their internet traffic by IP address on the network.

I installed Shibby’s mod of Tomato router firmware a few hours ago on 12th March 2016 on my Netgear WNDR4500v1. We share an internet connection with housemates, and this firmware allows us to see exactly which devices on the network are using up all of our downloads 🙂

You can tell if you have version 1 or 2 of the router by the amount of Amps that are required to power it. The sticker on the back of the router will either say 5A or 2.5A – with the 5A being version 1 and 2.5A being version 2. Shibby’s site has firmware available for both versions, here:

http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=164

You can download either the K26RT-N or K26RT-AC versions. The AC version is newer and I read somewhere that all of the code/support for the N version is included in the AC version, so I went with the K26RT-AC version.

I have version 1 of the router, so ended up downloading this file:
tomato-Netgear-WNDR4500V1_RT-AC6x–133-AIO-64K.zip
(the latest version at the time)

The install is fairly easy. I hooked my laptop up to the router using a short ethernet cable. You just update the firmware from inside the router and link to the .chk file on your computer (its contained within the above zip file). Then its just a matter of setting up your wifi (select WPA2 encryption) and putting your internet details (user name & password) into the WAN settings. It was up and running in no time and monitoring all the activity on our network.

I kept the wifi passwords the same, so didn’t have to do anything on any of the other computers attached to the network. They just continue to run as usual.

I can’t wait for people to try and deny responsibility for their downloads. lol
June 17, 2016

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