Here's how to make your router BETTER! (OpenWRT)

so check this out I got this router here it's a tp-link n750 from 2012. even though it's a decade old it's still a relatively good router and if you look carefully what's more interesting is that instead of traditional tp-link firmware we are running openwrt thanks to that I have a lot of extra features but the best of all is the ability to set up a VPN using wireguard today let me show you how you can upgrade your router as well now you may be watching this without even knowing what openwt is believe it or not all routers are just essentially small computers which just like normal PCS have an operating system think like how your regular desktop PC has Windows or Linux or your Mac has Mac OS routers too have an OS designed for networking openwrt is exactly that an OS that's built using Linux and its primary focus is to provide a secure and frequently built environment that can manage your network and focus on the words frequently updated because you you see traditional routers provided by ISB companies usually don't update their firmware's very often you may get an update here and there while some other companies just abandon updating their routers completely this results in them lacking features but more importantly security I mean there's a reason why we don't use Windows XP anymore it was last updated in 2014. using exp today would be kind of like playing Minesweeper with your precious files and data so now imagine having an outdated and insecure OS on your router the device that literally controls your entire network on the other hand openwrt is updated almost daily depending on the router that you're using speaking of which today's subject is well the router from the intro of this video the tp-link n750 from 2012 which had its last official update in November of 2015. so that's three years of support that you would have gotten with this particular router originally In fairness to tp-link three years is not terrible however not all routers are as lucky I've seen some manufacturers abandon the updates just a year after the router was released but you may be wondering why can't router manufacturers Just update firmware themselves the issue stems from the fact that router companies constantly release new hardware which obviously requires support usually what ends up happening is that older router models just become forgotten since creating updates requires time and effort if we go back to openwt it is supported by the community this community consists of owners and users of this router like you and me many of them are also security engineers and developers themselves anyway I just wanted to introduce you to openwt and explain why upgrading it can level up your router security now before we get into any of the installation steps I have to make a big big disclaimer installing openwrt may result in your router getting bricked in other words become unusable there are ways to unbrick your router if it does happen depending on the brand and model however it's not always possible and it can be fairly difficult to recover addition only flashing your router with openwt may also void your warranty surfshark does not in any way suggest breaching any router manufacturers terms of service and you the viewer should read them very very carefully before proceeding with installation of openwrt okay with that out of the way let's get started where's my mouse can I have a mouse thanks all right the very first step is to check if your router is supported by openwt because like I mentioned in the intro of this video not all of them are so let's open up a browser and head to openwrt.org here where it says current stable series will find a couple of licks the first one is just for release notes to see what new versions have changed or added but the second one will open up a firmware selector in which you can enter your router's brand and model number this is nice but personally I prefer using the last link which leads to the table of Hardware as it's called it shows me a big list of routers that support the latest version of openwt which is 202203 as of making this video if you want to see other routers that support older builds then just click here where it says show all some routers cannot support later versions due to technical limitations or due to the lack of devs working on it I would also say that if your router only supports open wrt version 18 or 19 or older then you'll have to make a decision if it's worth the effort of at all because while you may get the benefits of new features security won't be one of them since these builds are fairly old and obviously if you cannot find your router anywhere on this list then you're out of luck and perhaps you should consider upgrading it if it's not good for you anymore we actually have made a top 5 router video which I will leave in the description and on the top card right over here now in our case we are flashing the n750 here which is also known as the bdr4300 as its code name one thing to keep in mind is that some routers can have different revisions of the same model for instance my other router the tp-link Archer C7 has several different revisions just make sure to download The Right firmware file that corresponds to your router you can check the back of your router and it should indicate which version it is on the right side of your router entry you will have the choice to download either a factory or a system upgrade image if you're upgrading from your original router firmware then download the factory file however in the future if you want to update your open wrt you will need to use system upgrade image edges once we get this file we will need to log into a router's control panel to begin flashing now it is recommended that you do this on a device that is physically connected to the router via an ethernet cable such as this one so that is done merely for stability reasons you can try flashing over a wireless connection as well but wired is just recommended to avoid any kind of issues to log into your router you will have to enter your default gateway address on screen now you'll see some of the more popular router addresses otherwise you can easily find them via Google search if you entered your gateway correctly you will be at your router's login screen your login credentials will be left as default if you haven't changed anything on screen again I'll show you some of the default credentials so pause the video if you need to but if that doesn't work for you also try looking on the back of your router for these credentials like right here yeah you won't see it but it's it's right there trust me after logging in you'll be at the control panel for step number three we'll need to find an option to update your firmware now every router brand will have its menus laid out differently but in the case of tp-link router I need to go to system tools and then select firmware update from here let's click on choose file and select the open WT file that we downloaded earlier now at this point if you want to go back then this is the time to back out okay after we click upgrade the flashing process will begin so let's do that and cross our fingers that everything goes correctly this can take up to 10 minutes to fully finish if the flashing process was successful your router will restart and you will be taken to the openwt password creation page make sure to create a memorable yet strong password next you'll be met by the open wrt control panel like I've mentioned earlier openwt is super powerful it may take you a lot of time to learn all of its capability these however you don't need to learn everything if you don't want to from here on out your router will be more secure and less vulnerable to hacker attacks anyway the next thing you may want to do is to set up your wireless networks just head to network here and at the top Select Wireless here I get options for both 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands and by clicking at it I can access more options for changing channels or name and password but what should I do if I don't like openwrt I mean all of these features are really cool but they seem a little complicated or I just want to go back and switch to my original firmware well again this will vary from router to router but we won't be going into detail on how to do that in this video however to return to stock it is recommended to use the tftp method to avoid any issues so first you would need to grab your original firmware from your router support page for example for me that's again the tp-link bdr4300 then in the case of tp-link you will see original firmware files on their support page from here here you will need to download a tftp software to push the original firmware into your router for this I would recommend using tftpd64 which works on Windows Mac OS on the other hand actually has tftp tools built into the terminal so you don't need to download any additional software anyway this is just a super short version of how to recover your original firmware I will provide helpful links for tftp Recovery in the description below but that'll be all for this video If you enjoyed it then hit that like button subscribe to the channel I know this video took a long time but it's finally here and I hope you guys enjoyed it and speaking of which here are two more videos that I think you'll like but that's all from me take care

Channel: Surfshark Academy

Views: 42,838

Keywords: surfshark, surfshark vpn, surfshark academy, best vpn, router vpn, openwrt, how to flash openwrt, upgrade router, openwrt tp-link, openwrt router, openwrt vpn

Id: HgOA9oUSpmM

Length: 9min 2sec (542 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 17 2023