TL-WR1043ND V3

[peterro]

Success! I was confused about the designated driver and gargoyle. I loaded the sysupgrade gargoyle image on top of the designated driver and it worked great.

Thanks again for all the help.

[bradysquirrel]

YES!

I got a great deal on a new V3 router, $25 CAD. Surprised how pain free this was. First steps inspired by https://jacksontech.net/index.php/2016/ ... ss-router/. My starting factory firmware was

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3.16.9 Build 160122 Rel.38384n.

This is a two part deal. In part one, you need to use tftp to get OpenWRT firmware onto the router. In part two, you use the OpenWRT command line upgrade procedure to get Gargoyle running.

Part 1: Get OpenWRT onto the router
These steps give you a quick tftp server to use for this if you have a linux machine, with an ethernet port. If you don't have a linux machine, you'll need to do the equivalent on whatever OS you're on. You can't do this wirelessly.

1. Download OpenWRT firmware: https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots ... actory.bin
2. Move the firmware to a folder you can serve from (eg /tmp), and change the filename to a special name that the router will look for in recovery mode.

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mv openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr1043nd-v3-squashfs-factory.bin /tmp/wr1043v3_tp_recovery.bin

3. Set the IP address of your ethernet adapter to the special address the router will look for in recovery mode, 192.168.0.66. You'll need to do manual IP address configuration:

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IP 192.168.0.66
subnet 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1

4. With the router powered off, connect the ethernet cable from your machine to one of the LAN ports on the router.
5. Start the tftp server using DNSMasq, serving files from /tmp:

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dnsmasq -d –enable-tftp –tftp-root=/tmp

6. In another terminal window, run tcpdump to view traffic on your NIC.
7. Start the router in recovery mode by holding down the router’s reset button and power it on.
8. Continue to hold the reset button until tcpdump shows the file transfer in progress. This took about five seconds for me. So if you don't have tcpdump, maybe wait 10 seconds before releasing.
9. Wait 5 minutes.
10. Set your ethernet settings back to DHCP so it can an address from the router.
11. SSH into the router

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ssh root@192.168.1.1

If you can get in, congrats!

Part 2: Upgrade to Gargoyle
1. Download the upgrade file from lantisproject
https://lantisproject.com/gargoyle_ispy ... pgrade.bin
2. copy it to the router

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scp gargoyle_1.9.x-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr1043nd-v3-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin root@192.168.1.1:/tmp/sysupgrade.bin

3. upgrade to Gargoyle

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sysupgrade -n -F /tmp/sysupgrade.bin

4. After a few minutes, go to http://192.168.1.1. If you see Gargoyle, congrats!

[peterro]

Excellent, that's essentially what I ended up doing. One gotcha that is easy to miss is that you have to switch networks from 192.168.0.66 to something on 192.168.1.X.

[cosylemonade]

Thanks, bradysquirrel!
That worked perfectly. I had to find Windows equivalent tools such as Tftpd32, Putty, and WinSCP to follow the steps. Tftpd32 had a nice easy front-end that also displayed a progress bar on the file transfer when it was picked up by the router.
All features seem to be working well.

I'm primarily using Gargoyle to regulate bandwidth since we live in the country and have very limited data and I have a 12 year old that absolutely doesn't care. The monitoring is fantastic and the quotas have brought peace to the house since we no longer have to stare at it all of the time and regulate and harp on the boy. When his quota is used up, he gets dial-up speed... heh.
Picked up the WR1043ND V3 from Newegg for just over 40 bucks which was really a bargain now that it is running Gargoyle.
Thanks to all!

[sliceolife1999]

cosylemonade, could you please share which programs you used for the steps you took to get your TL-WR1043ND V3 router working? I have the same problem just need some guidance which program to use for the commands listed in this post.
Thanks,
Chris

[cosylemonade]

@sliceolife1999,
Sorry for the late response, I apparently don't have notifications enabled.
In bradysquirrel's instructions Part 1 Steps 1-5, I used Tftpd32 instead of DNSMasq. Follow all of the other instructions such as renaming the file, setting your IP address to 192.168.0.66, etc. Make sure you configure the "Current Directory" in Tftpd32 to whatever directory you have placed the renamed OpenWRT firmware and the "Server Interface" to the interface you just set the static IP on. There will be a progress bar that appears when your router pulls the file making it obvious if the step was successful.

Part 1 Step 11, I used Putty to test the SSH connection.

Part 2 Step 2, I used WinSCP to move the Gargoyle firmware to the router.

Part 2 Step 3 - Again, I used Putty to SSH to the router and run the installation command.

I hope this helps.

[jamiepirotta]

Hi, I have a question. Using WinSCP to transfer the Gargoyle firmware, what is the username and password? I completed step 1 and got openWRT onto the router.

Thanks

[jamiepirotta]

Don't worry, sorted!

[kutykurutty]

Hi,

I have realized that in the download section there is a firmware for this router which seams to be the correct one. The filename contains the exact version of my router: gargoyle_1.10.0-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr1043nd-v3-squashfs-factory.bin

My question is: has anybody already tried to install this firmware? Is it now possible to install Gargoyle to this router direct from the original TP-Link stock firmware without any tricks?

Thanks for answers in advance!

[shumbies]

Hi,

I have realized that in the download section there is a firmware for this router which seams to be the correct one. The filename contains the exact version of my router: gargoyle_1.10.0-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr1043nd-v3-squashfs-factory.bin

My question is: has anybody already tried to install this firmware? Is it now possible to install Gargoyle to this router direct from the original TP-Link stock firmware without any tricks?

Thanks for answers in advance!

YES! I can confirm that I just downloaded it and installed it on my V3 TP-Link. I can't attest to the functionality as I have just installed it, but it didn't brick my router. I had to join up to post this so I hope it's helpful

EDIT: I also upgraded using the second firmware file and all is well! Didn Brick it either.