Mweb range extender

geniass said:
NOTE: I run Linux and have not tested any of this on Windows, but it shouldn't really matter. Anyway I don't take responsibilty for unusable (as if it wasn't already) devices after following this procedure.
To get rid of Mweb's 'firmware', we need to
  • Copy the stock fw_upgrade binary and the firmware binary to the device
  • Run the new binary
The device has a built-in tftp client which works (surprisingly) so we can use that.
  1. Connect the repeater to your pc using the ethernet port, and make sure you can access its webpage (192.168.2.2)
  2. Install a tftp server on pc
    On Linux, I used tftpd-hpa. On Windows it looks like you can use tftpd32. This seems like a decent tutorial.
  3. Download the latest firmware from Zyxel's website. Make sure it's for the correct hardware version (probably wre2205v2) and extract the zip file
  4. Either download the stock fw_upgrade from https://www.dropbox.com/s/zp21r8ijm2dpdph/fw_upgrade?dl=0 or use a program such as binwalk (Google for a tutorial) to extract the .bin file. In that case, fw_upgrade is in /sbin relative to the squash-fs file system you just extracted.
  5. Put fw_upgrade as well as the .bin file into the base directory of the tftp server
  6. Now go to 192.168.2.2/mp.asp
    You should see a basic webpage with a textbox and a button. This will allow you to enter commands as root [GASP]
  7. Enter this command:
    Code: 
    ; echo "`tftp -g -l /etc/fw_upgrade -r fw_upgrade 192.168.2.100; tftp -g -l /etc/fw.bin -r [name of .bin file].bin 192.168.2.100`"
    This copies both files over to the repeater. They are being copied to /etc because the rest of the file system is read-only.
    192.168.2.100 is your pc's IP address. It should be this.
  8. Now enter
    Code: 
    ; echo "`chmod +x /etc/fw_upgrade; ls -al /etc`"
    This makes it executable. In the output list you should see fw_upgrade and fw.bin
  9. Enter
    Code: 
    /etc/fw_upgrade upg /etc/fw.bin
    This begins the update. The standard warnings apply: don't switch off the device etc... and wait about 5 minutes.
    Eventually the address 192.168.2.2 will stop working. The stock firmware uses 192.168.2.254 instead. Keep trying this address until it works.

That should be it. The repeater should now be ready to go with stock firmware.
Click to expand...

Thank you! using this I flashed the Edimax firmware EW-7438RPn V2 which has access point options.
 
Howsit guys.

i did it, but i messed it up somewhere along the line, and now it doesnt allow access to the extender.. resetting it doesnt seem to work. any idea on what i can do or is it done?
 
Hey guys

Same here, thanks to @geniass and @Hoster for sharing the love!

For those still struggling, don't follow @spatulacat's youtube example just yet (although I was very tempted at some point :)

Here are some tips that I picked up after my 12th attempt was finally successful:

Make sure to check on your TFTP server that the .bin file has indeed been copied. In my case only the FW_Upgrade file copied, resulting in the old firmware to be executed every time. For some reason I had to change the name V1.00(AANK.3)C0.bin to something shorter. Only then did the TFTP server copy it. I changed it to V1.00C0.bin, but you can probably change it to whatever as long as it contains the .bin extension.

; echo "`tftp -g -l /etc/fw_upgrade -r fw_upgrade 192.168.2.100; tftp -g -l /etc/fw.bin -r V1.00C0.bin 192.168.2.100`"

Then run

; echo "`chmod +x /etc/fw_upgrade; ls -al /etc`"

and then

; echo "`/etc/fw_upgrade upg /etc/fw.bin`"

and make sure that the start (; echo "`) and end (`") paramaters are included in that last line.

The "GO" tab will then be greyed out for a few mins indicating that it is doing the upgrade. Try IP 192.168.1.2 after 5mins and voila!, it should open the GUI showing the new firmware and config.

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
For anyone that want to use the original Edimax Firmware, here is the latest EW7438RPNv2 bin file

It seems that hte bin file has gone corrupt after extraction from the .exe....
 
Last edited:
Cannot get the fw.bin file to show up

corpsegrinder62 said:
Hi, i get till step 9. Then the command does nothing, yes i checked that tdtp uploaded, shows fw.bin and fw_upgrade, and i enter the commands to make it executable, except the console shows nothing happening and i waited 20mins and i could still access 192.168.2.2, i rebooted it and still on mweb fw, any suggestions pls?!? I wanna get this unlocked so badly, thank you!!
Click to expand...

Hi, Im kinda new to this all. I cannot get the fw.bin file to show. What settings needs to be changed in Tftpd32 application other than selecting the base folder?
 
Hey Hoster,

I see you are online. Can you maybe help me with this one? I cannot get the fw.bin file to show up in the second step. What changes do you have to make in the tftpd32 application other than selecting your base directory?
 
Massive thank you to geniass and Hoster. The guide was excellent, followed it and everything worked the first time and now my Zyxel is working perfectly.
 
Anybody have the Edimax firmware & instructions on how to flash it to the Zyxel WRE2205 v2 range extender .. ?
 
I couldn't install the upgrade firmware on the extender. I am using Ubuntu 14.04 on my desktop. I copied the fw_upgrade file and the bin file to the etc folder on my PC. Is there something that I missed out? tftpd-hpa was installed via the synaptic package manager. I have tftp32 installed on my work laptop. I can try through windows if someone can guide me through the process. :D
 
I managed to install the ZyXEL firmware. I have tried installing the Edimax firmware, but it keeps on saying "invalid file format".
Does anyone have the correct Edimax firware?
 
Cool - finally got around to this.

The Edimax firmware bin can be grabbed from the EXE using 7-zip.
Just open the exe with 7z, and drag out the v2 bin to your tftpd folder.
Much easier ;)

Also - I could never reach the router after the reboot.
I ended up connecting to the edimax SSID with my phone, which connects to http://edimax.setup/ or somesuch.
From there I set it to connect to my existing SSID as an extender.

The phone was assigned the ip 192.168.9.100, so i would assume the router was in the same 192.168.9.x range.

I also had the issue with the fw.bin file not being transferred. Mine was originally called WRE2205.bin, but I renamed it to fw.bin which worked.
 
geniass said:
NOTE: I run Linux and have not tested any of this on Windows, but it shouldn't really matter. Anyway I don't take responsibilty for unusable (as if it wasn't already) devices after following this procedure.
To get rid of Mweb's 'firmware', we need to
  • Copy the stock fw_upgrade binary and the firmware binary to the device
  • Run the new binary
The device has a built-in tftp client which works (surprisingly) so we can use that.
  1. Connect the repeater to your pc using the ethernet port, and make sure you can access its webpage (192.168.2.2)
  2. Install a tftp server on pc
    On Linux, I used tftpd-hpa. On Windows it looks like you can use tftpd32. This seems like a decent tutorial.
  3. Download the latest firmware from Zyxel's website. Make sure it's for the correct hardware version (probably wre2205v2) and extract the zip file
  4. Either download the stock fw_upgrade from https://www.dropbox.com/s/zp21r8ijm2dpdph/fw_upgrade?dl=0 or use a program such as binwalk (Google for a tutorial) to extract the .bin file. In that case, fw_upgrade is in /sbin relative to the squash-fs file system you just extracted.
  5. Put fw_upgrade as well as the .bin file into the base directory of the tftp server
  6. Now go to 192.168.2.2/mp.asp
    You should see a basic webpage with a textbox and a button. This will allow you to enter commands as root [GASP]
  7. Enter this command:
    Code: 
    ; echo "`tftp -g -l /etc/fw_upgrade -r fw_upgrade 192.168.2.100; tftp -g -l /etc/fw.bin -r [name of .bin file].bin 192.168.2.100`"
    This copies both files over to the repeater. They are being copied to /etc because the rest of the file system is read-only.
    192.168.2.100 is your pc's IP address. It should be this.
  8. Now enter
    Code: 
    ; echo "`chmod +x /etc/fw_upgrade; ls -al /etc`"
    This makes it executable. In the output list you should see fw_upgrade and fw.bin
  9. Enter
    Code: 
    /etc/fw_upgrade upg /etc/fw.bin
    This begins the update. The standard warnings apply: don't switch off the device etc... and wait about 5 minutes.
    Eventually the address 192.168.2.2 will stop working. The stock firmware uses 192.168.2.254 instead. Keep trying this address until it works.

That should be it. The repeater should now be ready to go with stock firmware.
Click to expand...

Whoa, thanks. Now it works great!
Was a bit tricky getting tftpd installed and working though.
Thanks for the help!
 
Thanks @geniass and @Hoster. Worked like a charm! (I just had to rename the firmware I downloaded to a shorted name for some reason unknown to me)
 
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