Virgin Netgear WGR614 MOD

It has been a few weeks since I have updated this section so my apologies

Recently I have been asked how to remove the firmware from a virgin branded WGR614 Netgear wireless router, the problem is not so much the crappy branded firmware but the removal option to allow telnet and subsequent generic firmware flash

now I do not advise anyone to do this as your breaking the T&C from Virgin as they still own the equipment, whether modem, cable box or router. Trust me they hire subcontractors to go around customer's houses to collect the equipment several months after leaving virgin media on the likelihood that you will;

a) sell it on ebay

b} chuck it in the bin

they will invoice you if you cannot give it back !

anyway enough of my baffle

1. firstly you need

http://rapidshare.com/files/71670434/telnetEnable.zip

2. Login to Windows using an account which has administrative privileges (needed for sending custom crafted network packets which this tool does).
3. You will see a Microsoft Word document, which contains screenshots and instructions in korean language, a firmware update (you don't need this) and the telnetEnable.exe tool
4. Get the MAC address of your Netgear router. You can look it up on the web interface of your router (Maintenance -> Router status -> LAN port -> MAC Address).
5. Copy or type the MAC address to a text editor such as Notepad, Wordpad or write it down.
Remove any minus signs ( - ) or colons ( : ), replace all characters by their upper case representation (a -> A, d-> D etc.)
6. Copy the result of your editing to the clipboard and return to the command line window.
7. Type (without quotes) "telnetenable.exe", the IP address of your router (e.g. "192.168.1.1"), add another space (" "), paste the contents of the clipboard, and append " Gearguy Geardog". These are the default username and password for telnet console access (they differ from those of the web interface), you need to modify them appropriately if you changed them previously. The result should look similar to this: telnetenable.exe 192.168.1.1 000FB5A2BE26 Gearguy Geardog
8. Now press Enter to run the tool. It should return to the shell pretty quickly with no error. If it takes a long time and returns a 'send failed' error message, just try again.
9. You should now be able to login to the router via telnet from any computer in your local subnet (including the one you just used to activate the listening mode). To do so, type the following (no quotes): "telnet", append the IP of your router and press enter (e.g. telnet 192.168.1.1)
10. You should not be prompted a a login and password, but if you do the login is Gearguy and the password is Geardog - Correct character case is important here.
11. After successful authentication you will be presented a prompt such as: U12H09400 >
12. Then type “burnboardid U12H094T00_NETGEAR”
13. Then type “reboot”
14. After that, you can log back into the router via its web interface and flash it with the generic netgear firmware.
15. After flashing reset the router by holding in the reset button on the back of the router until the “Ѵ-“sign on the front starts blinking.

be aware you need to use Internet explorer to GUI into the router not firefox as the router will refuse the flash

funnily enough I had this problem when flashing some hax0rware firmware via firefox

good luck !