Can't access my old TP-Link WR741ND ver:2.4 with Gargoyle firmware

[hans80]

Hello everyone(my first post here),

Some years ago I bought a TP-WR741ND router to extend home network from my primary router and I installed Gargoyle firmware on it. It worked flawlessly for some time until it wasn't needed anymore. Now, after some years of not using it I'd like to once again extend my current network configuration (already two routers) but I can't assess my old TP-Link. I don't remember the IP address I defined years ago, but standard 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.2 IPs don't seem to work (and both IPs are assigned now to my current primary routers). Is there an easy way to hard reset TP-Link and than to define its IP as 192.168.1.3? An existing reset button doesn't seem to work as expected, a 30-30-30 method found online also doesn't help. Technically the router is fine - it propagates a wifi network defined years ago (no internet of course), and there's internet working when connecting a laptop with 2 ethernet cabels through LAN ports of TP-link to one of my main routers. I'll appreciate any help.
Cheers,
Karol

[RomanHK]

Try "Factory Reset" with "Failsafe Mode": viewtopic.php?p=57637#p57637

[hans80]

Thanks a lot Roman! A YouTube tutorial from your link helped me to go through a factory reset in failsafe mode procedure. Then "firstboot && reboot now" command in a PuTTY app did the trick. My old router is now fine and working. Stay safe and case closed

[Ghost]

I have that router with the same tpLink chipset as a RoseWill clone. I have three of them spread around my house as AP's & one as a wireless bridge w/o repeater, running Gargoyle 1.10.0 with pfSense 2.5 as my primary router running on an old repurposed HP workstatation. It is my cheap mesh-like system. They continue to work flawlsesslly. I brought them a few years ago from NewEGG for less than $30.00 a pop. It's too bad RoseWill discontinued them. & Gargoyle stopped supporting them after version 1.10.0 due to, perhaps, memory constraints.