4 Easy Steps To Upgrade Linksys Wireless Router Firmware

by Ramesh Natarajan on June 8, 2009

Wireless RouterIf you own a Linksys Wireless router, it is strongly recommended that you upgrade the firmware to a latest version, which may resolve lot of bugs including random dropping of wireless connections. This article explains how to upgrade to the latest firmware on your Linksys wireless router.
 
Also, make sure you’ve secured your wireless as mentioned in 6 Steps to Secure Your Home Wireless Network

1. Get your Wireless Router Model Number and Version Number

On the back of your wireless router, you’ll see both model number and version number for your specific linksys wireless router. The example below shows the model and version of a WRT54G wireless router.

Identify Model Number For WRT54G2
Fig: Version Number of Linksys-Cisco WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router (Compatible with Linux)

2. Download Latest Linksys Wireless Router Firmware

Go to linksys.com -> Support -> Enter your wireless router model number (for example, WRT54GS)  -> Click on ‘Get Downloads’ -> Select Version number for your wireless router -> Click on the download link under firmware section, which typically shows the following information.
 

  • Release Date: For example, 07/01/2008
  • Firmware Version Number: For example, Ver.1.52.6
  • Download Size and Link. for example,  1.66 MB
  • Release Notes for the new firmware

 
Direct Download link for :

3. Take a Backup of Linksys Wireless Configuration

Before the upgrade, take a backup of the current Linksys Wireless Configuration. From the web interface, go to Administration -> Config Management -> Backup -> Config.bin, Save this file to some location on your local machine.

4. Upgrade the Linksys Wireless Firmware

From the web interface, go to Administration -> Firmware Upgrade -> Choose the latest file that you downloaded above -> Click on Upgrade.
 
Once the upgrade started, do not click on any other link on the web interface. Just wait until the upgrade is completed.
 
Once you’ve completed the upgrade, verify your new firmware version to make sure the upgrade was successfully completed. In my case, following is the firmware version.

  • Before the upgrade old Firmware Version: v1.50.5
  • AFter upgrade Firmware Version: v1.52.5

WRT160N Linksys Firmware Upgrade
Fig: Firmware Upgrade for Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router

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{ 1 trackback }

6 Steps to Secure Your Home Wireless Network
June 12, 2009 at 12:06 am

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

1 ku June 8, 2009 at 10:50 am

actually, i would rather give an advice to “upgrade” to dd-wrt ;) all my problems were solved after i did so over a year ago. and i also got new awesome features, one of which makes me able to have internet right now – the wireless bridge ;) and this works waay faster and more stable than a normal wifi adapter (900-1000kbps direct wifi connection on my laptop vs. 4+mbps on my pc over the wireless bridge).

2 d June 11, 2009 at 8:20 am

I’d agree with Ku here. I brought both of our routers up to dd-wrt and never looked back.

3 Ramesh Natarajan June 11, 2009 at 9:54 am

@Ku, @d,

Yes. I agree with you. Thanks for your feedback. I’ll probably write another article later about DD-WRT.
 
For those who don’t know about DD-WRT, it is a open source linux based firmware for the wireless router.

4 uBigDummy June 11, 2009 at 10:24 am

i bricked a 300n…can u help or know of any software that can be used for de-bricking…had power failure at the last moment.

5 MOhit June 15, 2009 at 12:42 am

Hi Ramesh, I am amzaed you are not using TOMATO firmware :)
or may DDWRT or OpenWRT, Why so ?

6 Ramesh Natarajan June 21, 2009 at 12:48 am

@uBigDummy,

I believe you are talking about Linksys WRT300N Router. You have to call Linksys customer support for that. If you find an answer, share it with me.
 
@Mohit,

I’m running DDWRT on one of my router. I’ve never used TOMATO firmware. Just for it’s name, I should play around with it. :)

 
For those, who are not aware of it, Tomato firmware is a small, lean and simple replacement firmware for Linksys’ WRT54G/GL/GS, Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54 and other Broadcom-based routers .

7 Pushpraj June 22, 2009 at 12:48 am

Thanks for article,
DD-WRT with linksys working best for me. and i m waiting for your article on DD-WRT.

8 Ashish September 17, 2009 at 4:10 pm

I have a WAP54G V2 Access point. I have downloaded the latest firmware from the linksys site. i type in the router’s IP address in the address bar ( computer is connect to the router with the ethernet wire), but then explorer starts to searching the net and does not open the web based utility. Am i missing something very basic ?

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