T-Mobile Wi-Fi CellSpot AC1900 Gigabit Router (Pre-Owned) Expired

Use code CPOROUT to bring it down to $39.99 + tax.


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Ordering experience:

After checkout, "order is being processed and they'll contact you within 1 hour if any issues."
Then: Got this email a few moments after (Check spam email):

"Your order was successfully submitted. There are a few steps before we can complete your order.

FOLLOW-UP CALL
Just as a heads up, you may get a call from us within 24 hours in order to confirm your order. If we don't give you a call, keep an eye out for your confirmation email!

ORDER CONFIRMATION
Once we wrap up processing your order (which should only be a little bit longer) we will be sending a confirmation email your way.

NEXT STEPS
We're processing your order right now. Once we wrap that up, we'll be sending you a confirmation email."
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Download PDF manual for original T-mobile TM-AC1900:
https://us.v-cdn.net/6025034/uplo...glgrwe.pdf
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You can flash this router to an RT-AC68U: There are few change/additions needed in the guide before the latest ASUS firmware can be flashed, though.
Instructions: http://www.bayareatechpros.com/ac1900-to-ac68u/.
And or, Lazymoca's Guide [lazymocha.com]

Advice:

• Avoid CFE 1.0.2.5 from the RT-AC68P, as the newest Asus firmwares (3.0.0.4.384.20624 and later) have performance issues when running on a converted TM-AC1900. Instead, use CFE 1.0.2.0 US AiMesh; it was dumped from an actual RT-AC68U by user goggles99 at SNB. The CFE generator [pipeline.sh] by danielfeng has this version available.
  IF need, link to ASUS RT-AC68U Router Firmware 3.0.0.4.384.20308 [softpedia.com] (which is MD5 0eebcaebee656d3d882f6fcb40bf2697, if you are curious for its authenticity) ASUS removed this firmware as it is the last safest firmware for the converted cellspots without doing the MTD5 commands discussed below.
• Some TM-AC1900 ship with a firmware version that allows SSH access. If you get one of these, you can skip steps 5-10 of the guide. To check if you have SSH available, go to Administration > System in the router configuration interface. If your firmware permits SSH, there will be a setting to Enable SSH. If so, choose Yes, then Apply. Move on to step 11.
• The T-Mobile certificates have to be wiped from the mtd5 partition. This can be done after all of the steps in the guide have been completed, but must be done before any newer version of ASUS firmware is flashed. As of this writing, the firmware included in the bayareatechpros guide is 3.0.0.4.376.3626, so the steps below should be performed when this version is running on your router.

Other Tips:

Step 6 & 7
If you are having problems accessing the mini-CFE webserver this works:

1. Power off the router using the power button
2. Set your PC's IP to 192.168.29.2 (assuming the recovery mode is gateway is 192.168.29.1)
3. Navigate to 192.168.29.1 using your browser -- the browser continue to try and access the page until it is available
4. Press and hold the reset button while powering-on the router
5. When the mini-CFE webpage appears on the browser, release the reset button
6. As long as the browser status is still spinning -- looking for a webpage -- the mini CFE web page will load

Try Google Chrome incognito mode.
Even turn on AP mode in the router then try.


If accessing the mini-CFE webserver doesn't work at all for you...
You are experiencing the effects of a locked firmware...

In the bottom of the Bayareatechpros Guide under Step 24, is " Directions for rolling back to AC68 after AC1900 rollback: "
This is needed when a converted AC1900 to RT-AC68U, that did not do the mtd5 fix, attempted to do a firmware update past 3.0.0.4.384.20308. This caused the RT-AC68U to get rolled back to TM-AC1900. The RT-AC68U Firmware 3.0.0.4.384.20624 and newer is considered the 'virus' firmware resulting going to a locked TM AC1900 firmware, which most Cellspots / TM AC1900 are on now. It is considered a virus firmware because Asus started putting out this firmware to sniff out converted cellspots to 68U's.


IF you need to use this Google Doc. guide,(I recommend using the No CFE USB Instructions), it can be confusing.
To help you, there are some photos (Thank you Sploit) I found to show you how and where you put the commands when using this Google Document Guide.

The photos can be seen at the bottom of this post.

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Bayareatechpros Guide [bayareatechpros.com]

Steps 16: "Upload" the 3 files new_cfe.bin & mtd-write & FW_RT_AC68U_30043763626.trx by using the commands in Step 17, 18, 19 (below)
Steps 17-19:
The green text should appear in Putty after issuing the three commands.
Step 20 clear NVRAM:

• Perform NVRAM Reset.
  a. Power off router
  b. Wait 10 seconds
  c. Press and hold WPS button
  d. Power up the router and continue to hold WPS button for 15-20 seconds until power LED starts blinking very quickly.
  e. Release WPS button and wait for router to fully boot ~ 5 mins

If the Model number remains TM-AC1900: After doing Step 20, and you still don't see "RT-AC68U", this was due to a mistake in Steps 17-19.
Check the spelling of the code and re-naming of the CFE:

origional_cfe.bin to the CFE generator [pipeline.sh] (choosing 1.0.2.0 US AiMesh), correctly re-naming the received CFE "new_1.0.2.0_am.bin"
to
new_cfe.bin
(If doing Steps 17-19 again, make sure you also do Step 20)

Wiping T-Mobile certificates from the MTD5 partition Bayareatechpros Guide Step 23
(this is entered in Putty after enabling SSH on the router)

These instructions originally existed on SNB before that forum thread was shut down [snbforums.com]. Credit to XVortex and rdallen. After you've performed these steps, you can flash above Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.20308 and newer using the GUI.

Those 7 MTD5 commands look like this:
If following the Bayareatechpros Guide, you will be on Firmware version 3004.376.3626 during this step. (Step 23)


The last 2 MTD5 commands:
In order to do the last 2 MTD5 commands you must be on Firmware 384.xxxxx or higher. (3.0.0.4.384.20308 [softpedia.com] preferred because it is just before the virus) or the command will not be effective.
Remember, reset NVRAM Step 20. Enable SSH, then do the last 2 commands below.

Writing all FFs to the mtd5, the green text should appear in Putty after issuing the two commands.
You may now upgrade to the latest ASUS firmware (I suggest every firmware install be manually uploaded, and off the internet.)
ASUS RT-AC68U firmware downloads [asus.com]
Don't forget to reset NVRAM after firmware installs.

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A guide on the Internet connectivity during the process.
For those following BayAreaTechPro's flashing guide [bayareatechpros.com], this tells you when to connect/disconnect the PC from the Internet and old router to new router.

Assuming you are using a single PC to do the flashing:

• You are connected to the Internet via your old router in Steps 1-3.
• Then you disconnect from old router, "Set static IP for PC" (as in Step 4) connect to the new router in Steps 4-14 (no Internet).
• Now you disconnect from new router, "Reset PC IP back to default" (as in Step 21), reconnect to your old router to get on the Internet, and do Step 15.
• Then you disconnect from old router, "Set static IP for PC" (as in Step 4) connect to the new router for Steps 16-20 (no Internet). From now on, your PC can stay connected to the new router.
• Step 21 "Reset PC IP back to default" Continue with Step 22-23 (no Internet).
• In Step 24, you can connect the new router to your Internet modem. After a normal configuration, your PC should connect to the Internet now via the new router.
• Flash your desired/updated/newest firmware to the router via a manual upload on the router's Firmware Update screen. Then do Step 20 again.

Assuming you are using 2 PC's to do the flashing, and the above is complicated:

• If you are using 2 PC's follow Bayareatechpro Guide. Use the separate PC to get step 1 and 3 downloads onto a thumbdrive, and transfer it to the (off Internet PC working on the new router).
  On step 14, thumbdrive the origional_cfe.bin from the offline PC - to the online PC, do Step 15, rename the CFE and transfer the new_cfe.bin to the (offline PC) again via thumbdrive.
  Finish the work. Once you are past Step 23, you can go on the internet with the new router.

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Having Trouble Getting a AiMesh Node to connect to your main AiMesh router? (confirmed working on firmware 3.0.0.4.384.32799) then follow this tutorial from vboyz103 (Click me to go to his original post or read below)

For those who look to setup Aimesh, do:

1. Complete mesh setup of the Mesh Router (this is the "master")
2. To set up "slaves" or Nodes, first factory restore via Admin menu.
3. Once Node router rebooted, plug your laptop into LAN port (yellow ports) of the Node router.
4. log in and go thru setup wizard and select type to be AiMesh Nodes. Click next and you will get prompted to redirect PC message.
5. Now unplug the ethernet cable from your PC, setup PC to connect to the "master" via wireless that you setup in step 1.
6. Plug the ethernet cable into the back of the master router LAN ports. At this point the cable should be connecting your AiMesh Node router to the AiMesh Router (master) both via LAN ports (yellow)
7. At the main page (General Map) click AiMesh icon and look to the right. The portion of the page will refresh. You will see a search button click it. Within few secs, the Node router will appear and click Add.
8. Done.
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If you feel the need to change clock speeds
(Not necessary for conversion from cellspot to RT-AC68U)

After completing the above steps to convert your router to RT-AC68U using CFE 1.0.2.0 US AiMesh, you may notice the CFE defaults to clkfreq=800,666 and will revert to default after reboot if overclocked.
To make the overclock stick, follow these steps from the whirlpool forum:

To manually set the clkfreq the following SSH commands can be used which allow the clkfreq to survive a device reboot:

nvram set asuscfeclkfreq=1000,800 && nvram set asuscfecommit=1
nvram set clkfreq=1000,800
nvram commit && reboot

People have reported using the following clock speeds: 800,666, 1000/666, 1000/800, 1200/800, or 1400/800

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SNB now disallows discussion [snbforums.com] about converting TM-AC1900 to RT-AC68U with AiMesh. So, modding information may be a bit harder to come by going forward. Some discussion has moved to this thread [whirlpool.net.au] on whirlpool.

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