Howto flash Gargoyle onto Rosewill RNX-N300RT

[customcarvin]

YAY I got Gargoyle working on my Rosewill RNX-N300RT!! This is how I did it... if anyone has a simpler method please post. But I just wanted to put this up here for others that wanted to do this.

Before we start know that this router has the same exact hardware as a TP-Link TL-WR841N v7.x -- it is just re-branded as Rosewill.

With that said, This is how I did it:

1. download and flash "factory-to-ddwrt.bin" from ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer ... rnx-n300rt (this will put ddwrt on the router)

2. download and flash "wr841nv7_webrevert.bin" from http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=85237 (this will flash to stock TP-Link firmware) NOTE: bin is in rar file, and must be extracted (duh) and you need to be signed into ddwrt forums in order to see download links. When flashing choose "RESET TO DEFAULTS"!!!

3. Download and flash "gargoyle_1.5.8-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841nd-v7-squashfs-factory.bin" from http://www.gargoyle-router.com/download.php. Rename the file to "factory-to-Gargoyle.bin" or similar before flashing. (This will put the latest version of Gargoyle-wrt on the router.)

-- Make sure you allow plenty of time for the router to recover between flashes. Other than that it should be pretty straight forward.

Hope that helps someone... BIG thanks from me to the Gargoyle team, OpenWrt and other contributors who make this possible!!!

[customcarvin]

I just wanted to update this thread for those who might be hesitant with this odd flashing procedure...

My router has been working flawlessly ever since flashing Gargoyle 1.5.8 (~ 3 weeks), and my family/friends have had 0 connection/speed issues. Also, I have not had to reset or reboot once.

Hopefully at some point the router will be added to the supported devices list, and a flash from factory Rosewill firmware file will be available so all this crazy cross flashing can be avoided completely!

Again, I hope this helps someone

[Trlsd]

Thanks for the instructions, they worked well for me.

Going to test and see how the connection goes.

[Takenover83]

Thanks for the guide. For some strange reason, if you search "RNX-N300RT" on the forums, nothing comes up. But if you search "N300RT" then you find this thread.

I have been browsing the dd-wrt, openwrt, and gargoyle forums trying to decide which firmware I want to load once my router arrives in a few days. Checking the download section. 1.5.9, is the latest test version. How stable is it on this hardware? Or are you still on 1.5.8? If so, how is 1.5.8? I will be using the router in REPEATER mode.

Ran any of the other custom firmware on your RNX-N300RT? If so, please share your experiences. I am familar with dd-wrt (for the past 5 years), but want to try something new.

[Trlsd]

Was in the same boat as you, coming from ddwrt. 1.5.8 works quite well on the RNX-N300 and I am also using it as a repeater. I am repeating the same ssid, not sure if that is what you're doing.

I also wrote about the RNX-N150 appending most of the information from this thread. Maybe it'll help you in some cases:

http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi ... f=5&t=3670

If you search the ddwrt forums about the RNX-N300, you see a few threads about dd-wrt being unstable on the RNX. Maybe that is changed and they have released a new version. Not sure though.

[Takenover83]

I have tried all 3 now.

OpenWRT did not come with a Web GUI out the gate (trunk version). So it was a good learning experience getting the repeater setup via CLI. Once internet was established I was able to install LUCI.

Gargoyle is much more pretty than Luci. I wish there a was easier way to see the signal strength of the "host router" that I am connected to. It's not shown where the other signal strength info is, with the normal wifi clients. Only way is to hit the "scan" button, which is not that great when you want somewhat real time info, like dd-wrt would offer. But I am nit picking really.

DD-WRT works for me (I am on it now, but not for to much longer). But I seem to get alot better signal with Gargoyle. Not sure why. Also, tons of builds and no one really is sure which is the most stable for Atheros hardware. It's kinda like one step forward, two steps back. Sadly it has been that way with DD-WRT for awhile.

Out of all 3, DD-WRT is the most easy to navigate around, IMO (mostly because I am used to it). But I will take stability, flexibility over that any day. Gargoyle offers a great UI, with the flexibility of being build apron OpenWRT. So it' almost a no brainer.

[Trlsd]

cool, thanks for sharing the info. I had tried OpenWRT before, just found it a bit difficult to use. So far, gargoyle is working for me too. Just miss some of the advanced options of dd-wrt, but I am using the N300 for repeater anyways.

Also, I was actually using 1.5.8 on the N300. Sorry, for some reason I got confused. I have edited the previous post to reflect this.

[whitedavidp]

Greetings. I want to say that I followed this exact procedure on my new N3000RT router. I originally started with DD-WRT since I wanted a repeater, read that it would work, and had previously built a repeater using DD-WRT. Sadly (not really now) I could not get the repeater work work very long using DD-WRT. Not sure why. I read a ton and tried many things. It would work at first after boot. But within 5 minutes, I could not reach anything on the WAN. Finally, I stumbled upon Gargoyle and this thread. I had things up and running in maybe 20 minutes. Since then, all has been perfect on the repeater. I cannot thank those involved enough!

One question though, is there any reason to prefer broadcasting using a different SSID on the repeater versus using the same as that used to join?

[Trlsd]

If the same SSID works with the repeater, then why would you want to have to separate ones? I guess if you want two separate "virtual" networks with different passwords, then it would make sense to have a different SSID for the repeater. I haven't tried this, but it should work. There also have been problems using the same SSID on the repeater in that some devices don't connect (check ddwrt wiki). Usually whats supposed to happen is that a device's network adapter would automatically pick the main router or the repeater depending on which one has the strongest signal if you're using the same SSID on both. Sometimes, the network adapter gets confused and doesn't connect at all...but so far with the 300RT and gargoyle this hasn't happened. Try all devices you have to see how long they take to connect and if they are connecting to the device with the strongest signal. Sometimes they'll connect to the lower signal router first, and then after a few seconds connect the the higher signal repeater. At least that's what I am noticing. So I guess the advantage of using a different SSID is that network adapter won't get confused in switching between the strongest device. The disadvantage is that now you have to keep changing SSID manually depending on which device you are closest to.

[whitedavidp]

If the same SSID works with the repeater, then why would you want to have to separate ones? I guess if you want two separate "virtual" networks with different passwords, then it would make sense to have a different SSID for the repeater. I haven't tried this, but it should work. There also have been problems using the same SSID on the repeater in that some devices don't connect (check ddwrt wiki). Usually whats supposed to happen is that a device's network adapter would automatically pick the main router or the repeater depending on which one has the strongest signal if you're using the same SSID on both. Sometimes, the network adapter gets confused and doesn't connect at all...but so far with the 300RT and gargoyle this hasn't happened. Try all devices you have to see how long they take to connect and if they are connecting to the device with the strongest signal. Sometimes they'll connect to the lower signal router first, and then after a few seconds connect the the higher signal repeater. At least that's what I am noticing. So I guess the advantage of using a different SSID is that network adapter won't get confused in switching between the strongest device. The disadvantage is that now you have to keep changing SSID manually depending on which device you are closest to.

Thanks for this explanation. I have one repeater network using 2 Asus routers (RT-N10+) and the Asus software gave me no choice in the matter. Seems to work fine as the Asus software simply repeats the same SSID. I tried both alternatives on the new Rosewill with Gargoyle and found no real difference. So the convenience factor won out for me!