Bringing SkyDog Router Back to Life

[ftresi]

I have a SkyDog router that I used for three years but became a brick when the service was shut down over two years ago. For those who are familiar, the routers became bricks when the cloud service was shut down.

It was a decent router and I'd like to flash it and use it as a spare router / access point.

Is anybody out there familiar with this router, and does anybody know how I can update the firmware? I got the firmware from OpenWRT but don't know how to update it. I can log into the router but only get a very basic interface that allows me to select DHCP / Static IP / PPPoE and nothing else.

I'm hoping someone has done this and can tell me how to do it.

Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

If there is a image available form openwrt then you would think there are instructions on how to install it. You can not just load any openwrt image on any router there are generally different builds for just about every router.

If there is not some simple upgrade firmware option in the router it is going to be a lot harder even if you get a proper file. Some routers have a firmware recovery mode you can put the router into but you must know the filename it wants and the ip address it will try to access it. That router may not have that feature. After that some routers people get very creative and do things like solder console connections into the motherboard.

This is the exact example that made cisco/linksys decide "cloud" configuration was not a good idea. They had massive complaints when they had a series of routers that you could only configure fully via the "cloud" It was pointed out if cisco decided to discontinue the servers the routers were bricks. They added back local configuration options. And guess what they sold it to belkin and the services was discontinued much like yours was.

 

[ftresi]

If there is a image available form openwrt then you would think there are instructions on how to install it. You can not just load any openwrt image on any router there are generally different builds for just about every router.

If there is not some simple upgrade firmware option in the router it is going to be a lot harder even if you get a proper file. Some routers have a firmware recovery mode you can put the router into but you must know the filename it wants and the ip address it will try to access it. That router may not have that feature. After that some routers people get very creative and do things like solder console connections into the motherboard.

This is the exact example that made cisco/linksys decide "cloud" configuration was not a good idea. They had massive complaints when they had a series of routers that you could only configure fully via the "cloud" It was pointed out if cisco decided to discontinue the servers the routers were bricks. They added back local configuration options. And guess what they sold it to belkin and the services was discontinued much like yours was.

The firmware and instructions are at https://openwrt.org/toh/powercloud_systems/powercloud_systems_cr5000#installation but I've never done anything like this before and am not really sure what to do with this.

 

[bill001g]

Not exactly a beginner device to try to learn this. You are going to have to do some study. Maybe you get lucky and there is a youtube video

The key line you will find in this page is.

aka "Senao WBR4200AGN" + "Skydog"; serial requires soldering on a header

So this is one of the very hard devices to do this. Even though I have a soldering iron laying around someplace I would not do it. It is only a 802.11n router you likely could get a old name brand router at a yard sale for $5.