TP-Link TL-WR703N

Introduction

The TP-Link TL-WR703N is a low cost, commercially available wireless router that supports OpenWRT and thus is extremely ‘hackable’.

It is marketed as a travel router so it is extremely compact, and for ~$20 shipped to most places it represents great value for hacking and learning.

A bunch of us at the Sydney hackerspace have purchased “non insignificant” quantities of these routers for all sorts of fun.  I have committed to providing limited support in providing pre-built OpenWRT images suitable for hacking and writing up some instructions and short HOWTOs.

Specifications

(From OpenWRT Wiki)

  • Atheros AR7240 CPU (400Mhz)
  • Atheros AR9331 Chipset (integrated wireless)
  • 802.11 b/g/n 150Mbps (130Mbps real)
  • wireless power output 20dBm – 100mW
  • 4 MB flash memory
  • 32 MB RAM
  • USB 2.0 port
  • Powered via micro-USB socket
  • Tiny form factor: 5.7cm x 5.7cm

Firmware Images

Three (3) standard pre-built images are available

  1. Standard (Download 2013-02-23)

    • This is the standard ‘hacker’ image with a suite of goodies built in
      • Luci – for easy configuration and setting
      • USB Video support
        • mjpg-streamer for webcam streaming
      • USB Serial support
        • belkin, ch431, cp210x, ftdi, option, pl2303, ti-usb
        • ser2net for easy serial to Ethernet conversion
        • stty for configuring serial
      • Lua for simple scripting
        • lualibusb
        • luasocket
      • USB ACM Support for 3G modems and other devices (New in 2012-10-04+ : usb_modeswitch)
      • USB Storage and network filesystems
        • ext4, nfs, ntfs, vfat
        • block-mount for mounting extroot pivot overlays (i.e. adding USB storage for installing programs)
    • Old Downloads that may not work with newer devices : 2012-06-25 / 2012-10-04

  2. USBIP (Download 2013-02-23)

    • Default installation + Luci + USBIP Server + A few Luci apps like ntpc and upnp
    • Untested and not recommended for beginners! [OK tested a little bit… works with Up! Printer and a Microsoft webcam]
    • Old Downloads that may not work with newer devices : 2012-10-04 – kernel images from repositories will not work with these older versions.

  3. Base (Download 2013-02-23)

    • Default installation + Luci
    • Basic install allows you to login and customize your router
    • Significantly more (~1MB) available space compared to the Standard version
    • Old Downloads that may not work with newer devices : 2012-06-25 / 2012-10-04 – kernel images from repositories will not work with these older versions.

Installation & Setup

There are differences from a factory installation and a upgrade from an existing OpenWRT install.  Follow the appropriate instructions below.

Factory Install

Due to the router being targeted for sale within China only, the web interface will be in Chinese.  Follow the instructions and use the status bar of the browser (showing URL of the links) to guide you.

  1. Power on the router via USB cable
  2. Connect wired Ethernet connection to PC
  3. Access http://192.168.1.1/ using your browser
  4. Login to access the web interface, the default user:password is admin:admin
  5. On the left navigation bar – select “系统工具” (System Tools)
  6. Then select “软件升级” (Software Upgrade)
  7. In the main frame – select “浏览…” (Browse…)
  8. Browse and select the “openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin” file from one of the pre-built image packages.
  9. Then click “升 级”. (Upgrade)
  10. Press “OK” on the confirmation.
  11. Wait for the software to load (patiently).
  12. The router should reboot into OpenWRT, press login without a password entered.
  13. Go to password configuration and set up a password if required.

OpenWRT Upgrade

Upgrading from OpenWRT should be simple

  1. Power on the router via USB cable
  2. Connect wired Ethernet connection to PC
  3. Access http://192.168.1.1/ using your browser
  4. Login to access the web interface (Luci)
  5. Select the “System” tab at the top
  6. Then select “Backup / Flash Firmware”
  7. Check or Uncheck “Keep Settings” as you desire
  8. Click “Choose File” and select the “openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr703n-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin” file from one of the pre-built image packages.
  9. Follow the prompts…missing the last step here…
Madox/John will add a separate sub-page for recovery/unbricking, because those are for naughty boys and girls…

Add-ons and Accessories

  1. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25257 – Generic 3D printed replacement case for the router.
  2. http://ww.kean.com.au/oshw/WR703N/ -Kean’s IO expander board for the router.  Featuring USB Hub & FTDI dual serial/GPIO/JTAG.
  3. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25389 – 3D printed case for the router + Kean’s Expander board.

Project Ideas, Examples & Guides

To be updated

  1. Wireless Webcam
  2. Helicopter controller replacement
  3. Wireless/Internet connectivity for your projects
  4. Light Painting for Long Exposure Photography
  5. WiFi Remote Control Toy

250 thoughts on “TP-Link TL-WR703N”

      1. Dear Madox,

        I bought this TL-WR703N device only 2 days ago in China.
        My idea was to install a name and password, but I could not read any Chinese so I tought I had to follow your steps.
        At step 8 while the divice was still powered and hooked up to the my iMac I choose Flash image and my screen returned back to the blank 192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci/ (OpenWrt – LuCI) blank screen.
        I unhooked the device and coupled my modem to it. Now my iPhone or iPad can not find it anymore as a WIFI device.
        Where did I go wrong.

        Thanks,

        Jorrit

        Reply

          1. Hi Jorrit,
            Glad to see you got it working.
            You should secure the WiFi using WPA2 under the network/wireless setting pages.
            You should also secure the device itself, there is a prompt/link for it when you first log-on to it.

  2. Pingback: Madox.NET » TP-Link TL-WR703N Cheap hackable router!

  3. Hi
    This is very nice.
    I was wondering if these different builds can be reproduced using the ImageGenerator ?
    If yes, it would be nice if you could publish the xxx.mk files of the your image profiles as statring point for other “cookers”
    Thanks a lot & Best Regards.
    ~barbudor~ (from France)

    Reply

    1. Hi Barbudor,

      Each image I upload includes 3 files, the factory upgrade image, the sysupgrade image as as well as the configuration file used to generate them. Included for the very reason you mentioned ;). The standard image has two config files, one with many additional packages built as modules that I end up uploading to my repository.

      Have fun 😉

      (Yes maybe the standard one is a bit feature rich…)

      Reply

      2. Hi Madox
        Sorry for bothering but as the OpenWRT forum is down, “you are my only hope Ben Kenobi” 😉
        Unfortunately I have no idea how to use your config file.
        I was expecting it to be a config.mk file for the ImageBuilder but apparently not.

        However I think I will start to run the Standard image as what I am looking for seems to be inside :
        – Ethernet and Wifi client
        – Mass storage so I can connect a SD-card or a USB flash key for my own files/apps
        – USB ACM to connect Arduino Uno or Leonardo
        br

        Reply

        1. No problem.

          1)There are 3/4 files within each image package, 2 are the images as I mentioned. The third is the config file you’re looking for. I have it named NOT “.config” because that’ll be confusing if I ever wonder which one that represented, plus I can’t keep all copies in the same folder (I just rename them as I build each image…)
          2)Yup good idea, that’s the idea. It includes the FTDI serial drivers for normal Arduino’s too since it is intended as a hacker’s image 😉

          Reply

          2. Hi,
            first off, thank you for your great image. I do try to add vsftpd in the image and i’m stuggeling with the image builder. Could you just give me a hint on how to use the config file. How do I need to rename it and where should I copy it? In the /target/linux/ar71xx/generic folder? How do I run then the make image command? Just plain make image or a make image PROFILE=WR703 ? Sorry for being such noob, BR David

  4. when i modify an installation how can i back up this as an image? will it be a full image or an upgade image?

    Reply

    1. What do you mean when you modify the configuration? You could do a configuration backup from LuCi, but my approach is to always write down everything I do so I can reproduce it even on another image (for example from someone else, where the backup might not be compatible).

      Reply

  7. Is there any chance of you selling pre manufactured usb expansion kits for the 703 to people who live outside oz?

    Reply

  8. I’ve successfully installed openwrt using your firmware. Thank You very much !
    It seems I need other packages to install my usb 3g modem
    usb-modeswitch usb-modeswitch-data
    where I can download them ?

    Regards

    Reply

      1. I’ve searched those packages on your repository but i did not find them.
        I’ve tried to install them from another repository but it seems that it needed to upgrade libusb to 1.0.2
        I upgraded libusb successfully but i was not able to install usb_mode_switch because of libusb dependency issue.
        it seems that there is too little space left for new packages. new libusb is much bigger
        let me know when packages are available

        I’ve tried another firmware but I’ve bricked device 🙁 alas
        I’ve ordered a serial cable to de-brick and another wr703n

        Reply

          1. Hi, I’ve installed ur firmware successfully, but there’s not enough space left to install usb-modeswitch-data pkg.

            When trying to uninstall some packages i don’t need it gives a no space left error.

            And I need to install usb-modeswitch-data to get my modem working as another user also commented, why have you left that package out?

          2. Hi, there is limited space on the router and the data package is basically just the device database with associated rules. These will naturally become out of date as new modems are released. You can put in the device rules for your specific modem relatively easily.

            Similarly the USB ID database isn’t included in the USBIP image.

    1. USBIP image back. Been lazy sorry. This image works but the Daemon does not auto-start nor does it attach any devices.
      You’ll have to load it, configure networking, and place the attach and daemon start commands into startup.

      Reply

      1. Hello!
        I’ve already flashed your USBIP image, bind usb flash drive an successfully launched daemon, but can’t connect with windows client v.0.2.0
        any suggestions?

        Reply

          1. Why didn’t the binaries from 0.2.0.0 work for you? I was going to suggest that you check your firewall settings but it may be compatibility mode that you needed to set. So all working now? 🙂

  10. Hi,

    I’m installed your firmware successfully on a v1.6 and USB is working with NTFS which is great!

    Everything seems to work perfectly, but I cannot seem to find an option to install a FTP server in opkg.

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks again for the great work!

    Reply

  11. Got FTP working using a link to the original packages and installing on ram while the vsftp package is 96kb. Still don’t quite understand how you can have a rootfs / of only 320kb with all these applications installed.

    Any insights?

    Reply

      1. It is part of OWFS (http://owfs.org/). It is for talking to 1-wire devices. I use it to control and measure the heating in my house. The plan was to replace a network bridge and a NAS which i now controlling my heating with just a TL-WR703N.

        Reply

  13. Great post! Thanks. Any word on when Madox/John will add the separate sub-page for recovery/unbricking, because I’ve been a naughty boy?

    Reply

    1. When I brick my next unit 🙂 Google around, you should find what you need… Something about holding reset for some seconds and running a tftp server…

      Reply

  14. Hi,

    I performed every step but after the firmwire update, the router never came back ON.

    Now when I powered on the router, the Blue led flashes twice and then it closes. I’m not able to ping or to connect via Telnet.

    Is there anything I can do ???

    THanks!!

    Reply

  15. Hi Madox, I’ve just installed the your standard image on my 703N, with the hope of getting it to run with a Kean expander I’ve bought. In the Kernel and system logs, there is a message which keeps coming up repetitively:

    [ 170.530000] ath: phy0: Failed to stop TX DMA, queues=0x001!

    any ideas how to stop this? other than that Ive got it to successfully recognize the FTDI chip yey!

    [ 167.460000] usb 1-1.4: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

    would you be able to give me some pointers to writing some code – possibly in C?! – to get a data stream through ethernet to the ttyUSB0 ??

    cheers!

    Reply

    1. Hi Parko,

      ser2net is installed in the standard image, I suggest you use that for ethernet to serial conversion.

      For one of my ‘silly’ projects, I’m actually just using urlencoded strings via a cgi-bin script to send to the serial port

      #!/bin/sh
      #This script decodes a url encoded query string and sends it to ttyACM0
      printf $(echo $QUERY_STRING | sed -e 's/%/\\x/g') >> /dev/ttyACM0

      Reply

  16. Hi
    I’m trying get my router to support usb-serial, but there are problems with both versions of your base image. The one from 2012-06-25 have mismatching kernel and kmod versions. The new version is missing kmod-usb-serial and kmod-usb-serial-ch341 packages.
    The standard version would have been great if it would have more free space (can’t install libow and owserver).
    Is it possible to permanently remove preinstalled packages from an installed image? I can’t see any increase in free space after removing a package.

    Reply

        1. Thanks. Annoyingly, my bad. Made a bad assumption about how openwrt works.

          “Even changing the kmod-* package selection changes the version string of the ‘kernel’ package, because such changes can lead to those packages being incompatible with a kernel from a different config.”

          I’ll recompile each image, and provide separate repositories for each image . I’ll include your owserver if you wish, E-mail me to remind me 😉

          Reply

          1. There’s no need to do anything for me, I’ve gotten it working with the attitude adjustment beta. Thanks anyway!

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  18. Pingback: Madox.NET » TL-WR703N Example Project 1 : BitBltBlade
  20. Pingback: Madox.NET » TL-WR703N Example Project 2 : Cute Exterminator (Remote Control Toy)

  21. good day. i just bought this 3G wifi today primarily to connect my satelite receiver via rj45 cable to the lan port. i pluged in my usb 3G modem to it but alas it is not conecting to the internet. please what can i do to make this router connect directly with the usb moderm pluged into it

    Reply

  22. Hi Madox, i got the same problem:

    Hi,

    I performed every step but after the firmwire update, the router never came back ON.

    Now when I powered on the router, the Blue led flashes twice and then it closes. I’m not able to ping or to connect via Telnet.

    Is there anything I can do ???

    THanks!!

    Reply

  23. Hi,

    Been trying to get the USBIP to work. Any suggestions? I was able to get it to show unknown device, but one device (USB camera) stayed online for about a minute and then always disappears. The other (USB Storage), remains unknown.

    Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Hi Fez,

      I’ll do a quick ‘vague’ walk-through on how to get it walking today. Basically you should always expect ‘unknown’ because I did not load the usb id’s on [not needed]. If you have devices that disappear, then it is most likely that you don’t have sufficient power to the USB device. Check the cable that’s powering your router as the most suspicious part.

      Reply

      1. Thanks,
        I checked the power, it turned out there was a low power mode in the settings I had not noticed before. When it was not being actively used it went into a low power mode.

        I look forward to seeing your information on making this work.

        Thanks,
        Fez

        Reply

  24. Hi and thanks for making the images available.

    I’ve recently flashed my WR703N with your image, following the instructions at the top of the page and everything seems to be working right, configured the SSID, enabled the WiFi and everything.

    Now I need to know how one configures settings for USB 3G modems? APN and such and where they are enabled.dis-abled from?

    Thanks,
    Eebrah

    Reply

  26. How do I enable channels 12, 13 and 14 on the WR703n router?

    Thanks in advance.
    regards,
    Wr703n_users

    Reply

  27. Hi Madox,
    I install your Standard image in my wr703n and works great !. I would like to install a soundcard usb.
    To do I need to install the modules kmod-sound-core , kmod-usb-audio and madplay I understand.
    As it should ? Could you help me?
    Thanks

    Marcelo

    Reply

  28. Hey Madox,

    Thanks for this. Looks awesome. Just what I need to remote control some Arduinos (over ser2net). I stupidly flashed dd-wrt on my test unit as soon as I got it though, before finding your site. Now dd-wrt won’t let me put ser2net on there.

    Any idea how to get your firmware on to it? I’ve tried every method I can find (except opening it up and soldering a serial cable, which I’d rather not do), with your factory and upgrade binary files, and even the original Chinese firmware. With everything I’ve tried, the update fails. dd-wrt seems to have locked me in. 🙁

    If it’s any help, the error message when trying to flash via the command line is always “Invalid trx header”.

    Thanks!

    Reply

  29. I compiled shairplay for the wr703n (airplay client simulating an airport express: you can send music from itunes, ipad, etc..). You need to install it with –force-depends, then manually provide the libs (too lazy to fix that, sorry..)

    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/77238083/shairport_0.05_ar71xx.ipk

    Also, pay attention to the dbus and avahi daemons, in particular dbus config, which was corrupt in my case.

    Reply

    1. I gave up on it, there’s no binary with the standard openwrt recipe. I had to knock together my own recipe and even include a small hack to make it work with the compiled windows binaries [else you’ll run into ‘version incompatible’ issues].

      Reply

  32. Hey, I was looking around for that router to buy one, but can only find it on ebay. I can’t even find it on TP’s own site. Have they stop selling it/producing it because of this possability to hack it?

    I can find the model TL-WR702N in a webshop in my country. But I guess it is a updated model or something so it isn’t possible to hack. Or will it work as good as the TL-WR703N?

    Greets

    Reply

    1. Hi,
      The TL-WR703N is intended for ‘domestic’ (i.e. China) use only and not for export. That is why you probably can’t find it for sale via the official channels. Why don’t you buy it from eBay? The price is excellent and shipping usually only takes 2 weeks. Don’t buy the WR702N, get the WR703N.

      Reply

  33. hi there, i tried to install ddwrt and somehow? stopped?! … i cant go to 192.168.1.1
    what happened?

    at the bottom shows ver.1.6

    :/

    Reply

  34. Hi,

    Thanks for the article it’s been a great help. I have installed the Standard 2012-06-25 image and it works perfectly.

    I’m now trying to build the exact same image from the openwrt source. I can build an image using your zipped .configs but the image sizes are different. Below is what I’ve done, any ideas on what steps I’ve missed out?

    Thanks, Steve

    Create a working folder

    cd ~
    mkdir openwrt
    cd openwrt

    Get your binary + the config used to build it

    wget http://madox.googlecode.com/files/tl-wr703n_standard_2012-06-25.7z
    7za x tl-wr703n_standard_2012-06-25.7z

    Get opwnWRT source

    svn co svn://svn.openwrt.org/openwrt/trunk/
    cd trunk
    svn update -r32117

    Copy config file used to build “image 2012-06-25”, update feeds and make

    cp ../tl-wr703n_standard_2012-06-25/config_standardplusmodules .config
    ./scripts/feeds update
    make

    Reply

    1. Hi Steve,
      The important thing is that your image works, have you tried it out? Whilst you might have matched the openwrt source revision, the feeds may not be at the same revision. It doesn’t need to be exactly the same size, just be careful what you build isn’t too big that you’ve left nothing over for the overlay (for configuration files etc).

      Any reason you’re using the June image over the October one?

      Reply

      1. I chose the June image simply because it was the first in the list. The reason for the rebuild is simply that I want to gain an understanding of the openwrt build process. It should be possible to build the exact same image but, as yet, I’m having no luck.

        I’ve just done a fresh build, this time leaving out “./scripts/feeds update” but again my images are different to yours.

        Cheers, Steve

        Reply
  35. Pingback: Madox.NET » TL-WR703N Example Project 3 : Wireless 3D printing (or 2D printing or just simply wireless USB)

  36. Noob Alert

    Hi Madox,

    I have a little project in mind using a 703n a webcam, and 3g but am stuck on the webcam part. I have installed you image ( http://madox.googlecode.com/files/tl-wr703n_standard_2012-10-04.7z) without error and the system is working fine.

    Looking at the system I get

    Dmesg :
    [ 164.600000] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Venus USB2.0 Camera (0ac8:3420)
    [ 164.620000] input: Venus USB2.0 Camera as /devices/platform/ehci-platform/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/input/input1

    System log:
    Jan 9 23:26:53 OpenWrt user.info MJPG-streamer [1303]: Using V4L2 device.: /dev/video0
    Jan 9 23:26:53 OpenWrt user.info MJPG-streamer [1303]: Desired Resolution: 640 x 480
    Jan 9 23:26:53 OpenWrt user.info MJPG-streamer [1303]: Frames Per Second.: 5
    Jan 9 23:26:53 OpenWrt user.info MJPG-streamer [1303]: Format…………: MJPEG
    Jan 9 23:26:53 OpenWrt user.info MJPG-streamer [1303]: init_VideoIn failed

    A search of the net ( https://sites.google.com/site/fzatinc/tl-wr703n/webcam) suggests that the second line in dmesg should read:
    [ 1973.970000] input: Microsoft® LifeCam Cinema(TM) as /devices/platform/ehci-platform/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/input/input0

    the only difference allowing for different cameras is is input1 v input0. but I have no idea how to rectify this or even if it is the problem. According to http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/, my webcam is supported by UVC :
    0ac8:3410 Venus USB 2.0 Camera (Minoru3D) Vimicro

    For good measure here is my /etc/config/mjpg-streamer file:

    config mjpg-streamer core
    option enabled “1”
    option device “/dev/video0”
    option resolution “640×480”
    option fps “5”
    option www “/www/webcam”
    option port “8080”
    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Kind Regards
    ockhams barber

    ps next come the 3g questions, but 1 thing at a time. 🙂 — see first line of post

    Reply

    1. Hi mate, another Aussie eh? I suggest you back away from auto-starting mjpg-streamer until you have it working from the command line first.

      This is a cut and paste of an extract of an Email I sent to someone… I should tidy it up and post it as a separate article…

      – telnet/ssh into the router
      – Run the command

      ./mjpg_streamer -i “./input_uvc.so -n -f 6 -d /dev/video0” -o “./output_http.so -p 8080 -n”

      If it doesn’t work, it means you don’t have a JPEG camera, try this command

      ./mjpg_streamer -i “./input_uvc.so -n -q 60 -r QVGA -f 6 -d /dev/video0” -o “./output_http.so -p 8080 -n”

      this forces mjpg-streamer to convert into raw into JPEG at (-q) quality 60, at resolution (-r) QVGA, this can be “160×120” for example. The framerate is specified by the -f (6). If you have to use router cpu for compression you might have to tweak the resolution and framerate low..
      Using a device connected to the router, use a webbrowser (e.g. Chrome) to connect to…
      – http://192.168.1.1:8080/?action=stream
      – http://192.168.1.1:8080/?action=snapshot

      After you check which camera type you have and a command line with settings you’re happy you can make it autostart. Either by the ‘easy way’ which is via the LuCi interface or you can edit /etc/init.d/mjpg-streamer and /etc/config/mjpg-streamer. Remember to add “&” to the end of the command if you add it via the LuCi interface.

      Reply

  37. hi, i was flashing my wR 703n and after elashing it Bricked. i don’t understand linux language. can someone tell me step by step how to recover it back and install DD wrt software.

    Reply

    1. Hi, have you connected your router to the internet? You’ll need to connect to the internet say through your home network before you can download packages.

      Reply

  39. Hi Madox,

    Your solution worked a treat. It was the webcam. It serves me right for trying to use something that I bought from Woolies for $5.95 (but it was on special normally $6.95 ) I’m serious. I bought a half a dozen on spec.
    The command ./mjpg_streamer -i “./input_uvc.so -n -q 60 -r QVGA -f 6 -d /dev/video0″ -o “./output_http.so -p 8080 -n” worked but I could drink a 6 pack (of Coopers SA) between frames so I bit the bullet and bought a M$ HD3000 HD and the whole system sprang into life.
    The project I mentioned concerns, a couple of 703Ns, 3G, Arduino, Raspberry PI, and airplanes (see http://www.diydrones.com for some clues ). If you are interested I will keep you up to speed with the progress. If you like drop me a quick email and I will use that rather than cluttering up the blog.

    Cheers and thanks again for the ultra quick reply.

    Regards
    ockhams barber

    Reply

    1. How have you connected to your home router? Can you see any other devices on your home network? Is your home network connected to the internet and the router has been assigned a DHCP address with an appropriate gateway? Can you “wget http://www.google.com/“?

      Reply

  41. Hi there

    Im’ trying to build a wifi webcam with a logitech C270 uvc camera and a arm motherboard (I haven’t choosen one yet). Your firmware is very interesting because it already have uvc video support and mjpg-streamer which I intend to use. Still, the device you used here, the TL-WR703N is reserved to the chinese market AFAIK and is unavailable here in europe. Instead, I’ve found there is the TL-MR3020 available in europe BUT is the firmware you’ve build is compatible with it (the standard version) ??

    as a side note, I’m actually experimenting this on a netgear WNR3500L with toastman custom firmware and the camera is able to send 1280×720 @25 fps with only ~11% cpu usage, a little less fps with wifi but still very usable.

    if you have you tried higher resolution / fps over wifi on this little device, can you give me more info ?

    Where could we have the source code to compile it ourself ?

    Thank you very much

    Reply

    1. Hi there, you can of course compile it yourself just by checking out openwrt 🙂
      The TL-MR3020 is significantly more expensive than the TL-WR703N, and eBay sellers for the TL-WR703N usually ship worldwide at minimal cost. If your webcam supports JPEG encoding onboard, then there usually is very little CPU load with mjpg-streamer. The trouble arises when cheap webcams only support YUV and mjpg-streamer has to encode the JPEG itself, then the router REALLY struggles (you’ll be happy to get 160×120 at decent frame-rate).

      Reply

  42. Hi,
    I just flashed the 10-04 standard package onto my 703N, but since then I have not been to connect to it — the router does not show up when I scan for wireless signal. I stupidly deleted the entry in networkmanager for the 703N before the flash, so I don’t even it’s ssid now! Suggestions and help on unbricking this is most appreciative. THANKS!!

    Reply

    1. Hi, I don’t think you have bricked it. My images do not have WiFi enabled by default. All you need is an Ethernet cable to recover.

      Reply

      1. Thanks for your prompt reply! After I connected the 703N to my laptop using an ethernet cable, I was able to log into 192.168.1.1 to setup an admin password and turn on wifi, but it still does not work.

        After I applied the changes above, I disconnected and then reconnected the power for the router and I was able to connect the laptop to the wifi router and I was able to wirelessly connect to 192.168.1.1. But I could not get to any external websites. On 192.168.1.1, when I clicked “network”, under LAN it showed connection, and under “wifi” I have full bars and an IPv4 address. But when I clicked “status”, under “IPv4 WAN status” I got “? not connected”, and under “Active Connections” I got “290/16384 (1%)”.

        I should mentioned that I have not set an (user) password for the wifi, so this should not be a security protocol issue. Also, when I first set up wifi I picked “access points”.

        I’m new to openwrt and I know I must have missed something trivial; your help and suggestions are most appreciative.

        Reply

  43. Hi, I am wondering how many USB-devices that is possible to connect on the USB-port at the same time that uses power from the usb-port only and not using external power. I ofcourse understand it depends on how much every device uses but just as a aiming.

    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Is your question in relation to the WR703N router? It only has one USB port on it. If you’re using a hub and only low power USB devices like memory sticks and serial converters then I see no problem. For example, I use “Kean’s board” (which has a FTDI FT2232D on it) with a 8GB USB flash and an “USB IR Toy” with no problem.

      Take care on using a good cable to power the router though, else it might brown out on boot-up (in case you wonder why the router isn’t working…it is probably the cable)

      Reply

      1. Yes it was in relation to the router. And thanks for the good awnser.

        I had problems to connect with the router when I first got it. But tried again today and it worked. Because of the network adapter that followed didn’t work here in Sweden I tried one i got to my Android TV-computer and I think I also tried to plug it directly to a USB in my computer, wich I did again today and got it working.

        Still don’t understand why it didn’t work the first time, but I think I have 2 or more diffrent mini USB cables so they might deliver diffrent amount of power.

        We’ll see what I am going to plug into the router USB-wise.

        And again thanks for the awnser and the fast reply!

        Have a nice one!

        Reply

  44. Hello Madox,

    I’ve successfully uploaded the firmware via web interface.
    The device did refresh to its new page of Luci (OpenWrt).
    I’ve left on shutting down my system and switch off the router.
    I dunno what happen, but I don’t have access to my router and it keeps blinking blue.
    TL-WR703N
    Help please.

    Sincerely,
    Mike

    Reply

    1. Hi, sorry I didn’t know about the 1.7 issue until recently. I will recompile with a recent OpenWRT checkout for the version 1.7 hardware devices this weekend. In the meantime I’ll put a warning up on the page.

      Reply

  46. Hi Madox,

    I fear I may have bricked my TL-WR703N. I applied 2012-10-04 Standard Image file, all seemed to go well until the device rebooted and has subsequently become unrecognisable.

    When the device boots, the status light still goes through the usual flashing sequence before staying on constantly, yet windows 7 and 8 report it as an unrecognisable network device.

    Any suggestions would be appreciated.

    -ASh

    Reply
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  48. Hello,

    Is there any image with all the usb packages that have the current image ( for v1.6) for the v1.7 devices?

    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Hi, sorry I didn’t know about the 1.7 issue until recently. I will recompile with a recent OpenWRT checkout for the version 1.7 hardware devices this weekend. In the meantime I’ll put a warning up on the page.

      Reply

  49. Hi Madox,

    Thanks so much for the new compilation of the firmware. I have been testing it on my devive v1.7, everything is Okay, but when I activate the Dyanamic DHCP, after reboot, the router is unaccessible. I would like to share my Ethernet connection though the this router using the wireless. Please let me know if there an special configuration to do that…. FYI Before to try with Openwrt I was using DDWRT, but I received the same behavior. If there is not a solution, I was wondering if in Openwrt there is a easy solution to revert my device to the chinese firmware, as I did with the DDWRT before to try the Openwrt factory (DDWRT offered a “revert firmware”)

    Reply

    1. Did you change the firmware from ddwrt to openwrt?
      I’m looking for a way to do it cause my ddwrt won’t accept usb storage…

      Reply

      1. Yes I noticed that some routers bought from eBay come with dd-wrt installed. I will post instructions (use at your own risk!) on another post in 15 min 🙂

        Reply

  50. Hi Madox,

    I am using your “Standard” image and am trying to setup the device to share an internet connection from a connected USB 3G modem to clients on Wifi and LAN, but am hitting several obstacles.

    1.) After plugging in the modem it’s in “storage mode” as seen through dmesg:
    [12344.990000] scsi0 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0
    [12346.000000] scsi 0:0:0:0: CD-ROM ZTE USB SCSI CD-ROM 2.31 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
    How would I go about switching the mode and can it be done automatically on plug-in?

    2.) Do I have to manually add the WAN in network config? How can I controll connect/disconnect of 3G-dial-up connection?

    Reply

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