Mike Pegg's Blog —————————————————————————————Tech Talk

Updating the firmware on a Virgin WGR614v9 router

Having been a Virgin Broadband customer for almost two years and dealing with the routers frequent drop outs (appears to reach a maximum number of connections) when multiple users are using BitTorrent or likewise I had before searched for fixes for the WGR614v9 router. However, this router supplied by Virgin is locked to their own custom firmware (read: no improvements or even a new graphic). So how to update the firmware. Bit of googleing and came across this thread on how to do it, which is rather lengthy, misses some detail, an app and feedback. So, how to update:

Firstly:

1. Only use Internet Explorer (Firefox fails with this router for some reason)
2. Know your way around the routers admin panel (default ip is http://192.168.1.1 , username: virgin, password: password)
3. Connect via a wired connection, wireless will fail.
4. Have a telnet client (default activated in xp, needs activating in vista/win 7 from control panel, 'Turn Windows features on or off'
5. Aquire telnetEnable.exe from either mirror or local

Then:

1. Acquire the routers MAC Address (Maintenance -> Router status -> LAN port -> MAC Address), then save it somewhere, removing colons ( : ).
2. Copy the MAC Address to the clipboard
3. Open a command line window, navigate to where you stored telnetEnable.exe and execute: telnetenable.exe 192.168.1.1 *MAC-address-from-clipboard* Gearguy Geardog
4. You have now enabled telnet on the router, telnet to the router by executing: telnet 192.168.1.1
5. At the prompt execute: burnboardid U12H094T00_NETGEAR
6. then execute: reboot
7. You have now successfully unlocked the router from the Virgin firmware lock.
8. Flash the router using the router admin page, the latest firmware can be located here