TP-Link WR940N v2.1 upgrade path

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furrydonut
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Joined: 12 Jan 2020
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 3:35    Post subject: TP-Link WR940N v2.1 upgrade path Reply with quote
I have an old TL-WR940N v2.1 that I once installed v24-sp2 (7/22/09) micro on, and I haven't used it since other than to confirm it worked and I also set the password. It's been a long time since I did this, and honestly I've forgotten what steps I followed when I installed it.

My question is, what do I need to do to upgrade this further to a more current build, and which most recent build can I install that will work with it. A couple weeks back I located another thread in these forums from around 2016 that had a .bin file for flashing a build directly from stock firmware, but I don't have stock firmware on this anymore. And I'm not sure how to revert to stock firmware if I needed to in order to use that build.

Appreciate any help/guidance. Cheers!
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kernel-panic69
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Joined: 08 May 2018
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Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 4:22    Post subject: Reply with quote
The only build I know for this was a test build. However, the following models linked below the forum thread link are quite similar. Only the last 3 are supported. Caveat Emptor, you can try flashing builds for the last 3 devices, but you risk bricking.

https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=909802

https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/TP-LINK_TL-WR940N_v2.x

https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/TP-LINK_TL-WR941ND_v5.x

https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/TP-LINK_TL-WA901ND_v3.x

https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/TP-LINK_TL-WR841ND_v8.x

https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/TP-LINK_TL-WR842ND_v2.x

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servicetech
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Joined: 26 Jun 2019
Posts: 377

PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 13:33    Post subject: Re: TP-Link WR940N v2.1 upgrade path Reply with quote
furrydonut wrote:
I have an old TL-WR940N v2.1 that I once installed v24-sp2 (7/22/09) micro on, and I haven't used it since other than to confirm it worked and I also set the password. It's been a long time since I did this, and honestly I've forgotten what steps I followed when I installed it.

My question is, what do I need to do to upgrade this further to a more current build, and which most recent build can I install that will work with it. A couple weeks back I located another thread in these forums from around 2016 that had a .bin file for flashing a build directly from stock firmware, but I don't have stock firmware on this anymore. And I'm not sure how to revert to stock firmware if I needed to in order to use that build.

Appreciate any help/guidance. Cheers!



There is a high risk to brick your router by update from a very old dd-wrt build to a much more recent 2019 build with the easy update function on the WebUI, because you will see much more info with updates between builds from the same year.

If you read the posts the less risky method is to revert to factory tp-link firmware, reset all settings to factory defaults, then perform a factory to dd-wrt firmware installation with the build you want to try, as this should work.

The cleanest way is to load the factory firmware by the TFTP emergency install.

I own a 941NDv6 from all the dd-wrt builds I have tested the r40750 or r40863 are the best on the 4M flash and 32M RAM device for me. More recent builds seem somehow out of scope on development for 4/32M devices, some builds are eating up all the RAM with WLAN activated and idle, until the router get slow or may crash (reboot) or have other major issues.
kernel-panic69
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Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 14125
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 16:54    Post subject: Reply with quote
TP-Links are especially painful this way in general. You either have to TFTP back to factory firmware and then re-initial flash them or TFTP flash the upgrade / upgrade via CLI. This is an unacceptable situation all the way around IMHO, but that's just my $0.02.
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servicetech
DD-WRT User


Joined: 26 Jun 2019
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 18:38    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
TP-Links are especially painful this way in general. You either have to TFTP back to factory firmware and then re-initial flash them or TFTP flash the upgrade / upgrade via CLI. This is an unacceptable situation all the way around IMHO, but that's just my $0.02.


After 4+ years it is time to buy some recent hardware replacement. The downside is that you sometime end up with a bunch of old replaced devices on stock Crying or Very sad
If they get bricked with flashing experimental firmware, it does not hurt me much. But its worth to try (dd-wrt, ...), that's my $0.02
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