WRTP54G with firmware 1.00.18 or 1.00.20 - read this!

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 09, 2005 Posts: 3

I have seen some discussion regarding firmware updates for these devices as well as the RTP-300. I happen to have plenty of inside information on this as well as a few other topics I see circulating around on these forums and I am here to give you all the skinny!

okay.. so you've just got yourself a brand new WRTP54G and you've been told it needs a firmware update. Ordinarily all Vonage devices keep their firmware update automatically over the net, however, these devices when they were manufactured were released with a firmware that has many flaws.

I won't go into the details of all the issues that can be seen with these older firmwares because they are various and sundry, but I can tell you the easy way to get them updated without having to do a local firmware update.

One of the bugs the older firmware has is the device is unable to update it's firmware over the net.. it keeps trying, but the TFTP transfer times out before it finishes.

In order to "fix" the situation and let the device update it's firmware successfully over the net you have to do 3 things.

1 - log into the router at 192.168.15.1
the default username and password are "admin" (unless you changed the password)
once logged in... go to the wireless tab and disable the wireless
the explanation I was given for this is this devices wireless mode uses additional memory buffers. by disabling the wireless we allow this memory to be used for storing the received firmware data.

2 - unplug any and all phone cords from the device's phone ports.

3 - reboot (power cycle) the router.

The router will download a new profile and within a few minutes should start to download the firmware. Your indication that this is happening is the power light will flash rapidly. This firmware is pretty big so this will take a while. Do not interrupt the process.

Once the power light stops flashing the device will reboot itself.. and when it comes back up it should have updated firmware! You can check this by logging in and checking the version in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Don't forget to re-enable your wireless (if you are using it)
rebooting the device after this is all complete isn't a bad idea either.

Posts: 2257

skinnydude wrote:

the explanation I was given for this is this devices wireless mode uses additional memory buffers. by disabling the wireless we allow this memory to be used for storing the received firmware data.

They're THAT tight on memory in the WRTP54G? Wow.

I would have figured that they'd upgrade the 16MB in the standard WRT54G to make the WRTP54G. But the need to disable wireless to upgrade firmware tells me this probably isn't so...

No wonder my WRTP54G can't handle any load. It's probably running out of memory. It's probably a good thing I don't use wireless on it and have it disabled, or it'd be even worse.

EDIT: PS: THANK YOU for the advice. I'm sure many people who are stuck with the WRTP54G will benefit from it. At least the latest firmware seems to make the Vonage side work extremely well, even if the router side is very much on the 80-pound-weakling-getting-sand-kicked-in-his-face-and-crying-to-mommy side.