[Brennan39]

Model: Netgear Nighthawk R7000
DDWRT Build: Kong 24800 (from Aug. 2014)
OS: Windows 7
Browser: Firefox 38.0.5

I've had DDWRT running on my R7000 without issues for a few weeks. I specifically chose Kong build 24800 because, according to my reasearch on these forums, it was the latest stable build for VPN connections (which is a requirement for me).

One thing I frequently do is change the static DNS settings. I've noticed sometimes that, in the browser interface (using Firefox, at least), the HTML would not completely render after clicking "Apply Settings". Usually, clicking to another tab would load the GUI properly. Recently, after applying settings on a static DNS change, the browser was stuck hanging on the "applying settings" loading screen for several minutes. Normally, this only takes a few seconds. It appears I made a critical mistake in closing the browser, because after doing that, I now cannot access the router at all.

Now, after reading several threads (including Peacock), it seems like a simple power cycle will do the trick, but before I do that and make things worse, I wanted to check with the forum if that should be ok. So, onto the details:

The router's lights don't indicate any problems. When connected to a modem, the following lights are all white: Power, Internet, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, Ethernet (if a device is connected), WiFi, WPS. No amber lights.

Windows is still showing the custom SSID name I gave to the 2.4 GHz band as an available network. When I try to connect to it, I get full bars, but a warning about "Limited Access". I cannot connect to any website or the firmware GUI (the connection times out). I should probably note that I had it set to use HTTPS connections (don't know if that matters). Interestingly, it also shows an "Other Network" SSID at full bars - this would presumably be the 5 GHz band, but I had disabled that in the firmware.

I went through the process described in the Peacock thread of pinging the router (disconnecting all other devices, turning off firewall/antivirus, etc). I used IP 192.168.1.20 for my computer. Command Prompt gives me the following output:

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 42, Received = 37, Lost = 5 (11% loss),
Control-C
^C

Is a power cycle the next step I should try?

Are there any known issues with build 24800 and DNS changes? Maybe I should use a newer build, but it would have to be stable with all VPN protocols, and I haven't been able to find confirmation of any later builds that are.

Thank you for your assistance.

[Brennan39]

Well, I have since tried:

1) Communicating with the router through SSH (PuTTY) over port 22
2) Power cycling the router
3) Re-trying all communication attempts from before the power cycle

When I tried 1), I got a timeout error message from Putty.

The only thing that has appeared to change after power cycling is that non-browser connection attempts *sometimes* instantly fail, rather than hanging and timing out. Putty once just froze without an error message. Ping attempts did not timeout either, they just couldn't reach the host:

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.20: Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Otherwise, I'm seeing the same symptoms as described in the original post (still can see SSID broadcasting, no amber lights, etc).

Do I need to purchase a serial cable at this point? Please help.

[JAMESMTL]

Have you tried a hard reset and starting fresh? Hold the reset button for 10 seconds or so till the lights cycle.

[Brennan39]

Thank you, it was that simple. I incorrectly thought that I couldn't do a pin reset with the R7000 once DD-WRT was installed.