Getting DD-WRT On The Netgear N750 (WNDR4000)

I didn't really find a very definitive post on getting DD-WRT on the Netgear N750 AKA WNDR4000 router so I decided to keep notes on what I did when I finally took the plunge. Hopefully this will help out others.


**Note - It appears that as of December 2011 this router is still not officially supported in DD-WRT hopefully it is picked up soon.
The main post that lead me to the information on this router with respect to DD-WRT is located on the dd-wrt forum page

Familiarize yourself with the 30/30/30 reset procedure

30/30/30 Reset

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Hard_reset_or_30/30/30

With the unit powered on, press and hold the reset button on back of unit for 30 seconds
Without releasing the reset button, unplug the unit and hold reset for another 30 seconds
Plug the unit back in STILL holding the reset button a final 30 seconds
This procedure should be done BEFORE and AFTER every firmware upgrade/downgrade.

**At times after performing the 30/30/30 reset I had to power the router off and then back on. 

Download and Install DD-WRT

Download the zip file containing the initial bootstrap install and the upgradeable portion from the dd-wrt forum, it is about halfway down the 5th page
Unzip the files

~/downloads> unzip dd-wrt.v24-17201-for-wndr4000.zip
Archive:  dd-wrt.v24-17201-for-wndr4000.zip
  inflating: dd-wrt.v24-17201_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-WNDR4000.chk
  inflating: dd-wrt.v24-17201_NEWD-2_K2.6_big-nv64k.bin  

Installing the initial mini chk
1. Perform a 30/30/30 reset while still on the default firmware (See above)
2. Goto http://192.168.1.1 -> Router upgrade and upload  dd-wrt.v24-17201_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-WNDR4000.chk

You will see something like:

Router Upgrade
Warning! The firmware version you are trying to upload is older than the one you had. Do you still want to continue?
Current Firmware Version	V1.0.0.82_8.0.71
Uploaded Version	V1.0.0.35_80.0.0

3. Click yes and wait ~5 minutes.

After ~5 minutes go to http://192.168.1.1,  you should see the DD-WRT username/password setup page.

If you are happy with the DD-WRT mini install you are done!

Big install
The big install comes with a bunch more features and since the router can run it, why not?

1. Perform another 30/30/30 reset, this is when you are on the mini DD-WRT forum already (See above)
   *It is recommended to do another 30/30/30 reset between this update and the next one.
2. Go to http://192.168.1.1, Update username/password again,  Then go to Administration -> Firmware Upgrade,
   Upload dd-wrt.v24-17201_NEWD-2_K2.6_big-nv64k.bin  and select reset to defaults, from the drop down and click
   Upgrade
3. Wait 5 minutes.
4. Confirm the upgrade went welll by going to http://192.168.1.1, you should see "Firmware: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (06/13/11) big" in the upper right corner.
5. Perform your final 30/30/30 Reset.

While you may not need to do this many 30/30/30 resets, I would rather spend 5 minutes doing resets and have everything working upfront then spend 30 minutes trying to figure out why some portions aren't working. Other upgrade pathways suggested this method so I stuck to it.

That's it!


Update
Looks like official support is in, you can update to the latest build here:
dd-wrt.v24-18024_NEWD-2_K2.6_big-nv64k.bin

You can find regular updates by going to:
ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/2012

Look in the latest folder for the broadcom_K26 folder

In there you should see a file that matches: dd-wrt.vXX-YYYYY_NEWD-2_K2.6_big-nv64k.bin

XX and YYYYY will be numbers that will change over time.

For people who have not gone through the initial process you will still need to load the .chk file first. If you are already on dd-wrt you can upgrade through the frontend.



Random
If you happen to be on a Mac and don't want to keep track of the time while holding that button during the 30/30/30 reset procedure run the following in a terminal:

sleep 30 && say switch; sleep 30 && say  switch && sleep 30 && say diggity done

When you hear switch push the power switch