How do I upgrade my router firmware?

Question

Alot of people tell me I need to upgrade my routers firmware. Where and how do I do this?

I use a netgear CG814WG

Answer 1

I am not familiar with that exact router but they all use pretty much the same method to upgrade the firmware.

NOTE - It is likely that this process will reset the router to factory defaults so make sure you have a record of all your critical settings (ADSL account login/password, various IP addresses and DNS names, etc). You can either just write these down on paper and re-enter them later, or there may be an option to back up your settings to a file on your computer and restore them again later. If you use the backup feature, I still recommend writing down the settings on paper anyway because I have had the restore process fail on me on occasion.

Once you have the settings recorded...

1) If you haven't already, download the upgrade file from wherever you can get it. Decompress it if it's been zipped.

2) Connect to the web interface of your router using your favourite browser (I assume you know how to do this but let me know if you don't and I'll walk you through it)

3) Find the page where you upgrade the firmware (it will probably be under one of the tabs/menu items labelled "Maintenance" or "Management" or something similar.

4) There will be a button or field saying "select upgrade file" (or similar). This will bring up a file browsing window. Navigate to the updater file you downloaded and select it

5) There should be some other button labelled "update" or "start" or similar. Click that and the update should start. Once it starts, let it keep going until it's done. Don't interupt it (it probably won't take long anyway)

6) Once the update is complete, reset the router (either by hitting the reset button or by cycling the power (i.e. turning it off, waiting a few seconds, then turning it back on again.

That should do it. Just restore your settings (if they have been erased, they might not be) and you are on your way. Don't forget to restore the login password to your router because that will be reset to factory defaults as well and leaving it set to the factory default login/password is a huge security hole.

Hope this helps.

TV

Answer 2

If it's working fine just leave it alone as it can get messy.

You only need to upgrade firmware if you start having problems setting it up

Answer 3

use the netgear site there are instructions there...............