DD-WRT (kong) on Netgear R7000 and Fiber7 IPv6 configuration

Posted on Sat 21 January 2017 in tech

I'm a fan of Netgear's R7000 hardware. Not so much of the software. Since I bought this router I was not able to get IPv6 working with my Fiber7 internet connection. The Netgear firmware does not support DHCPv6-PD which is what my provider requires. Anyway, not having IPv6 was not a big problem (yet). But the latest security vulnerability debacle (see CVE-2016-6277 and CVE-2017-5521) was too much. Let's switch to DD-WRT.

Performance side remarks

According to the DD-WRT wiki Netgear uses proprietary hardware acceleration for IPv4 NAT. If you use a free firmware you'll lose this hardware acceleration and the throughput will be lower. So with a fast internet connection >= 500 Mbit/s you'll notice this. I have a fast internet connection but don't care about it. We don't get the full speed over W-Lan anyway and I'd rather get rid of the Netgear firmware than have a higher throughput, no IPv6 and all the security udpates...

Which version?

Apparently there are two different versions of DD-WRT for the R7000. There's Kong's mod and then there are the builds on the DD-WRT website. I decided to use Kong's mod because they seem to be the dev who brought R7000 support to DD-WRT and their firmware has some additional features (like for example a cli update program).

DD-WRT Installation

I use dd-wrt.K3_R7000.chk (dated 18th of January 2017) from Kong's website. This assumes that currently the official netgear firmware is installed.

  • Reset router to factory defaults using the admin interface
  • Use the admin interface to upload the new firmware
  • There might be a warning about installing the same or an older firmware. Just accept it.
  • As soon as the router is available visit http://192.168.1.1 and set a DD-WRT admin username and passwort
  • Now head to http://192.168.1.1/Factory_Defaults.asp and Restore Factory Defaults.
  • Router will reboot and again you need to set username and password on http://192.168.1.1.
  • Since it's not clear (at least for me) whether Restore Factory Defaults also deletes the nvram I did this manually:
    • telnet 192.168.1.1
    • username: root
    • password: THE_ADMIN_PASSWORD_YOU_SET_BEFORE
    • nvram erase
    • reboot
  • Now for the last time set a username and password on http://192.168.1.1

DD-WRT is now installed and you can start configuring it. I mainly set the Wireless Regulatory Domain to Switzerland, configured wireless and port forwarding and enabled IPV6.

Fiber7 IPv6 settings

To get IPv6 with my provider working I enabled it here: http://192.168.1.1/IPV6.asp

  • IPv6: enable
  • IPv6 Type: DHCPv6 with Prefix Delegation
  • Prefix Length: 48
  • Static DNS 1: leave empty
  • Static DNS 2: leave empty
  • Remaining settings: default

After Save, Apply Settings and a Router reboot IPv6 was working on router and clients.

Further links

dd-wrt fiber7