I like to keep the firmware running on all my devices up to date. New firmware is released to do to main things: fixing bugs and feature enhancing.

Today, I just found out that the modem/router provided by my ISP is running and out of date firmware. The installed firmware is NF18ACV.NC.AU-R6B016.EN released on 2018/05/14. There have been a few new versions of firmware released between then and now, with the latest version being: NC2-R6B021 released on 2020/11/26.

Here is the changes in the NC2-R6B021 firmware:

New Features:

  • Added hook and call status on the SIP page (TT 39464)

Enhancements:

  • Disabled Service in access control by default including SSH, Telnet, SNMP, Samba (TT 40589)
  • Cosmetic updates on the QoS Classification page (TT 40488, TT 40487, TT 40473)
  • Cosmetic update on Password page (TT 40417)
  • Cosmetic update on Wizard page (TT 40722)
  • Fixed a wizard issue where it would not s ave the VPI/VCI value if it was not 8/35 (TT 40158)
  • Cosmetic updates to the DHCP option page and SIP settings (TT 39344)
  • Enhanced the performance of t he web user interface
  • (TT 39434) Fixed an issue where applying changes remotely always shows a blank page (TT 39253)
  • Fixed an issue with Port forwarding rules not correctly showing their WAN interface (TT 39807)
  • Fixed an issue where Hide SSID on the 2.4GHz radio could not be turned off after it was turned on (TT 39684)
  • Updated the ETH WAN interface default settings to “No VLAN” and “Dynamic IP” (TT 41423)
  • Updated the VDSL interface default settings to “No VLAN” and “Dynamic IP” (TT 41422)
  • Fixed Guest Wi-Fi password issue when the password is less than 8 characters (TT 41149)
  • Added iperf3 support (TT 40154)
  • Enhance CPE security (TT 41415)

To begin upgrading the firmware, first I need to download this new version of firmware: NF18ACV-NC2-R6B021.zip (30.8MB).

Navigate to that file and unzip it.

❯ unzip NF18ACV-NC2-R6B021.zip 
Archive:  NF18ACV-NC2-R6B021.zip
  inflating: NF18ACV-NC2-R6B021/NF18ACV-NC2 Firmware Release Notes.pdf  
  inflating: NF18ACV-NC2-R6B021/NF18ACV-NC2-R6B021.EN_upgrade

Open the router’s web console, usually it is the IP address of your (home network) router. In my case, it is http://192.168.1.1.

After logging in, click on Management -> Update Firmware.

Click on “Browse”, select NF18ACV-NC2-R6B021.EN_upgrade, and click on the Update Firmware button.

After an approximate 15 seconds, I saw this information:

Uploading is in progress. The Broadband Router will reboot upon completion. This process will take about 2 minutes.

Here how the web console looks like with the new firmware: NF18ACV-NC2-R6B021.EN.

It looks like it was a successful firmware update. I didn’t have to apply any new settings with this new firmware. However, I had to wait about 5 minutes for the modem to boot up and connect to the ISP.

Need less to say, updating the firmware on the modem/router may render your Internet unusable. I’m not suggesting that you should update your router at all. :-)

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