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Based on the above, it should be fairly self-evident that the following procedure is recommended for using the
reset button on the MN-700.
1.
Unplug the WRT
2.
Plug in the WRT
3.
The power light will blink, then glow amber
4.
As soon as the power light turns off, press and hold the reset button
5.
Hold the reset button until the power and wireless buttons glow green.
6.
The WRT should now be reset to its defaults
Hardware Notes
This section covers observations made about working with the MN-700 hardware. Certian behaviors of this
device are different than other WRTs (especially the Linksys).
Firmware Restoration Mode
The MN-700 (and Asus WL500G AFAIK) has a special pre-boot state that makes it extremely easy to upload
new firmware images, even when the current firmware is corrupt (infact the WRT automatically drops into
this mode when a corrupt firmware is detected during boot). Either applying a new firmware through the Asus
Firmware Restoration Utility (see section below) or a hard reboot (removing the power) is required to exit this
state (Note that entering this state does not negatively effect the current settings or firmware so it is not
especially dangerous to accidentially enter firmware restoration mode -- although it does get in the way of
performing a "reset button" based reset of the WRTs settings as noted in the section above).
To enter firmware restoration mode, simply press the reset button while powering on the WRT and wait until
the power LED alternates between green and amber. The reset button can then be released and the WRT will
stay in this state until the next power cycle or a new firmware has been uploaded.
In this state, the Asus Firmware Restoration Utility (see below) can/should be used to upload new firmware
images.
It does not appear that any particular IP address range is needed to upload firmware in this mode. However, a
valid IP address is required. Since no DHCP server is available in this mode, either the host computer needs a
static IP address or one simply needs to wait for Windows (Win2k and later) to assign an automatic private IP
address in the 169.254.0.0/16 range.
Asus Firmware Restoration Utility
The Asus Firmware Restoration Utility is available from the Asus support site under "Utilities." This is the
preferred utility for uploading new firmware distributions since many firmwares reject a different
distribution's firmware if one attempts to use the web interface.
It appears this utility operates at layer 2 of the OSI model, because it is able to detect WRTs in Firmware
Recovery Mode regardless of the host computer's IP address. I recommend statically assigning an IP address
in the 192.168.1.x range when working with DD-WRT because this is the range DD-WRT defaults to and
WRTs can only be detected once the host has an IP address (DHCP works, but takes longer because the
Reset Button
MN-700
3
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