My mum has recently been given a D-Link DIR-615 wireless-N router from Virgin Media with firmware revision V1.00VG and HW revision D4. This was working fine until today when I tried to VPN-out using standard Windows Networking and got it hanging at “Authenticating Username and Password”.
It appears that this is a common complaint with Virgin’s firmware and at the time of writing (9 Jan 2011) no updated firmware is available to resolve it. I’ve searched various forums and found no solution, my guess is that it is NATing the TCP1723 but not passing through the GRE.
I solved this by using the open-source DD-WRT firmware which I put on all of my routers (Buffalo / Linksys) usually anyway. I hadn’t done this previously as Virgin won’t support it and if it breaks most likely won’t replace it either – you’ve been warned. On the flip-side the last equivalent router I bought (Buffalo) was £22 from eBuyer so I wouldn’t worry too much if you need to buy an equivalent to replace it.
Steps to get it working (correct as of 9 Jan 2011) – print / save this page before getting started!
- Go to www.dd-wrt.com
- Go to Router Database
- Enter “DIR-615”, click the HW revision that corresponds to the sticker on your router
- Download the “factory-webflash” file to your harddrive
- Now, using a wired network connection go in to maintenance and upgrade firmware. Specify the file you just downloaded. Note you can use a wireless connection but it’s safer to use a cable.
- After a minute or so the router will be flashed with the DD-WRT firmware. This means that all of your settings will have been reset. If you are connecting wirelessly then a network called dd-wrt will appear with no password which is your router
- Go to http://192.168.1.1 to get in to the setup.
- Setup a username & password as prompted
- Setup your wireless network
You should now find you can VPN out as you should’ve been able to originally. Why VM supply routers like this is beyond me.
Just trying to make it all work... and then stay that way 