Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2026 18:17 Post subject: XR500 back to stock (or straight to OpenWrt) ?
Hello,
Happy New Year to you and yours, may the DD-WRT project continue to thrive !
I'm having trouble getting a mesh network 802.11s to function with some Netgear XR500 routers.
I would like to try OpenWrt, as I have heard that the 802.11s implementation may be more reliable over there (but what do I know...).
So, I've seen there is a file to revert R7800 to stock (ddwrt-to-netgear-fw-R7800.bin) but I can't find one for the XR500 (I assume it's not the same, as the main difference between the two routers is in the firmware...).
Does such a file exist?
Am I stuck with DD-WRT? (there are worse things )
Do I have to revert to stock to install OpenWrt?
Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 252 Location: United Kingdom
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2026 19:06 Post subject: Re: XR500 back to stock (or straight to OpenWrt) ?
LaMarMôt wrote:
I'm having trouble getting a mesh network 802.11s to function with some Netgear XR500 routers.
I would like to try OpenWrt, as I have heard that the 802.11s implementation may be more reliable over there (but what do I know...).
I will try TFTP or nmrpflash, guess I'll find out how, will come back if not
I've kind of understood that 802.11s would be more "robust" than WDS and would give better throughput as well? Plus some nodes would be at the end of a "Daisy Chain" (won't be connected directly to the gateway), dunno if WDS is ideal in this case?
...of course if I can't get it to function that would be kind of a bit less robust...
Joined: 16 Nov 2015 Posts: 7090 Location: UK, London, just across the river..
Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2026 13:33 Post subject:
well in this case prepare to pull your hairs off..as OpenWRT will not produce a better results ....
but yep their new builds progress is very slow...and not always according to the fixing the bugs...
more over those client/station setups are always client dependent so, there is no universal mode.....and compatibility...in fact DDWRT has its own radio driver, as well also using the same as OpenWRT 9k/10k/11k...atheros...openfirmware...so dont know what else to say...give a try if so..
I always use factory builds and TFTP to move around, but to be safe you can go stock if needed... _________________ Atheros
TP-Link WR1043NDv2 -DD-WRT 62606 Gateway/DoT,Forced DNS,Ad-Block,Firewall,x4VLAN,VPN
TP-Link WR1043NDv2 -Gargoyle OS 1.15.x AP,DNS,QoS,Quotas
Qualcomm-Atheros
Netgear XR500 -DD-WRT 63600 GTW/SmDNS/DoT,AD-Blk,Forced DNS,AP&Net Isolation,x2VLAN,Vanilla
Netgear R7800 --DD-WRT 62606 Gateway/DNSCryptv2,AD-Block,Forced DNS,AP&Net Isolation,x3VLAN,Firewall,Vanilla,VPN cli
Netgear R9000 --DD-WRT 62606 Gateway/DoT,AD-Block,AP Isolation,Firewall,Forced DNS,x2VLAN,Vanilla
Dynalink DL-WRX36-DDWRT 62606
Broadcom
Netgear R7000 --DD-WRT 63600 GTW/DNScrypt-proxy2/AD-Block,IPset Firewall,Forced DNS,x4VLAN,VPN cli
NOT USING 5Ghz ANYWHERE
------------------------------------------------------
Stubby DNS over TLS I DNSCrypt v2 by mac913
Joined: 18 Mar 2014 Posts: 13880 Location: Netherlands
Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2026 13:34 Post subject:
When switching first tftp stock firmware again on your router from there on you can upload OpenWRT, for flashing from stock to OpenWRT you need the squashfs-factory.img
The procedure is the same as for the R7800 but you need the specific files for the XR500
well in this case prepare to pull your hairs off..as OpenWRT will not produce a better results ....
but yep their new builds progress is very slow...and not always according to the fixing the bugs...
more over those client/station setups are always client dependent so, there is no universal mode.....and compatibility...in fact DDWRT has its own radio driver, as well also using the same as OpenWRT 9k/10k/11k...atheros...openfirmware...so dont know what else to say...give a try if so..
I always use factory builds and TFTP to move around, but to be safe you can go stock if needed...
Well...
While looking at openWRT, I stumbled upon this bit:
Quote:
Support for 802.11s (type mesh) depends on wireless driver. Most up to date open source drivers work. Note that some drivers may advertise they support mesh but have problems with it.
For example, as of Dec 2023, the ath10k-ct wireless driver used in NETGEAR R7800 and other devices with Qualcomm Atheros QCA988x chips doesn't support mesh very well, resulting in errors and random dropping of wireless interfaces (issue report). It is recommended that you use firmware selector to request a custom firmware build that removes the -ct module (ex: kmod-ath10k-ct) and the -ct firmware (ex: ath10k-firmware-qca9984-ct) and replaces them with the non-ct versions (ex: kmod-ath10k and ath10k-firmware-qca9984) to get reliable mesh support.
well... I assume that applies to XR500, but does it apply to DD-WRT and if so, is there a way to achieve that?
Like the CT version, “dd-wrt” is based on older source code, and candelatech and dd-wrt exchange patches and have pretty much the same bugs. _________________ Quickstart guides:
Joined: 16 Nov 2015 Posts: 7090 Location: UK, London, just across the river..
Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2026 16:01 Post subject:
back in the days i had great results with WDS with x1 station and x2 beacons...but in general i tend to use either a wired WAP or mesh systems that are on the market, but those have their own caveats...so i always prefer to stick, to the wired WAP... _________________ Atheros
TP-Link WR1043NDv2 -DD-WRT 62606 Gateway/DoT,Forced DNS,Ad-Block,Firewall,x4VLAN,VPN
TP-Link WR1043NDv2 -Gargoyle OS 1.15.x AP,DNS,QoS,Quotas
Qualcomm-Atheros
Netgear XR500 -DD-WRT 63600 GTW/SmDNS/DoT,AD-Blk,Forced DNS,AP&Net Isolation,x2VLAN,Vanilla
Netgear R7800 --DD-WRT 62606 Gateway/DNSCryptv2,AD-Block,Forced DNS,AP&Net Isolation,x3VLAN,Firewall,Vanilla,VPN cli
Netgear R9000 --DD-WRT 62606 Gateway/DoT,AD-Block,AP Isolation,Firewall,Forced DNS,x2VLAN,Vanilla
Dynalink DL-WRX36-DDWRT 62606
Broadcom
Netgear R7000 --DD-WRT 63600 GTW/DNScrypt-proxy2/AD-Block,IPset Firewall,Forced DNS,x4VLAN,VPN cli
NOT USING 5Ghz ANYWHERE
------------------------------------------------------
Stubby DNS over TLS I DNSCrypt v2 by mac913
)
Support for 802.11s (type mesh) depends on wireless driver. Most up to date open source drivers work. Note that some drivers may advertise they support mesh but have problems with it.