Draytek Vigor - TFTP Recovery for Repairing Faulty Routers
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DrayTek Vigor Router located on racking within a comms cabinet.

Draytek Vigor – TFTP Recovery for Repairing Or Updating Bricked / Faulty Routers


Introduction

This document shows how to upgrade or repair a Draytek Vigor router firmware with TFTP using a macOS device. The method uses Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) which is a useful fallback if your router’s firmware is broken and you cannot access the web management interface.

Method

Step 1

Connect your computer directly to the router’s LAN1 port and configure a static IP address on Mac OS device:

  1.   Go to System Preferences > Network
  2.   Configure LAN Adapter settings
    • Static IP 192.168.1.10
    • Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
    • Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1 (the default IP address of the router)

system preferences configure LAN adapter settings

Step 2

Set the Vigor router to TFTP mode.

  1. Power off the router
  2. Press and hold the Factory Reset button
  3. Power on the router while still pressing down the Factory Reset button
  4. For Vigor3900, the ACT LED lights will flash rapidly
    For most other Vigor models, the left three LED lights will flash rapidly

setting the DrayTek vigor router to TFTP mode

Step 3

Open your Mac’s web browser and download the latest firmware version for your model from https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/downloads

This will download a zipped folder to your Mac. Unzip the folder to your Desktop.

Step 4

On the Mac OS device, open Terminal and enter the following commands (do not enter the ” ” marks)

  • “cd”
    • Type a space after cd
    • Drag the firmware folder to the window and the path will be pre-filled for you
    • Press return
  • “tftp 192.168.1.1”
    • Press return
  •  “binary”
    • Press return
  •  “put”
    • Type a space after put
    • Drag the firmware file out of the folder and into the Terminal window to pre-fill the path
      • You will probably want to use the .rst file which completely resets the unit
      • If you use the .all file it will retain existing settings, but this is not advisable if you have a faulty unit
    • Press return

vigor reboot terminal command

The result will be shown on Terminal after the file has been uploaded successfully.

vigor reboot terminal command after successful upload

Then the router will now reboot and return to normal operating mode.

draytek router after reboot and returned to normal operating mode

 

Source

http://www.i-helpdesk.com.au/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/721/0/how-to-upgrade-router-firmware-via-tftp-using-mac-os-devices

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