Neggear DGND3700 is an all-in-one router with built-in ADSL2+ modem and WAN gigabit Ethernet port for cable/fiber combined with a wireless router create the integrated home gateway. How do I enable telnet access on this router under Linux or OS X operating systems?

This router ( NETGEAR N600 ) is wireless dual band gigabit ADSL2+ modem router. It offers concurrent dual band technology, as well as wireless access from your computer to USB printers. However, telnet access is locked down by default. You can enable it easily as follows.

Find out information about open port

My router has 192.168.1.2 ip address. Open a terminal and type the following command to see all open ports:
$ nmap 192.168.1.2
Sample outputs:

Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2012-08-11 16:17 IST
Interesting ports on 192.168.1.2:
Not shown: 997 closed ports
PORT   STATE SERVICE
23/tcp open  telnet
53/tcp open  domain
80/tcp open  http
 
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.70 second

Try connecting using telnet, run:
$ telnet 192.168.1.2
Sample outputs:

Trying 192.168.1.2...
Connected to 192.168.1.2.
Escape character is '^]'.

You will not able to access telnet as it is locked down by vendor.

Say hello to telnetenable.py

Netgear provides a developer tool for unlocking the console access from a Windows client. However, Unix / Linux user can use python script to sends the router magic packets to enable the telnet interface. You can download program by visiting this url:

Install python-crypto

First, you need to install python-crypto package which provides cryptographic algorithms and protocols for Python. Type the following command under Debian / Ubuntu Linux, enter:
# apt-get install python-crypto
Type the following command to grab telnetenable.py using wget command, enter:
$ wget http://netgear-telnetenable.googlecode.com/files/netgear-telnetenable-0.1.zip
Sample outputs:

--2012-08-11 16:34:37--  http://netgear-telnetenable.googlecode.com/files/netgear-telnetenable-0.1.zip
Resolving nas02... 192.168.1.11
Connecting to nas02|192.168.1.11|:3128... connected.
Proxy request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 2323 (2.3K) [application/x-zip]
Saving to: `netgear-telnetenable-0.1.zip'

100%[==========================================================>] 2,323       --.-K/s   in 0s      

2012-08-11 16:34:37 (156 MB/s) - `netgear-telnetenable-0.1.zip' saved [2323/2323]

To unzip netgear-telnetenable-0.1.zip, enter:
$ unzip netgear-telnetenable-0.1.zip

How do I use telnetenable.py?

The syntax is:

python telnetenable.py 192.168.1.2 $(/usr/sbin/arp -n | awk "/192.168.1.2/"'  { gsub(/:/, "", $3); print toupper($3)}') Gearguy Geardog

Sample outputs:

Sent telnet enable payload to '192.168.1.2:23'

Make sure you replace the router IP 192.168.1.2 with your actual IP address.

Test it

Type the following command to access router via telnet:
$ telnet 192.168.1.2
Sample outputs:

Trying 192.168.1.2...
Connected to 192.168.1.2.
Escape character is '^]'.
 
 
BusyBox v1.00 (2011.10.21-00:18+0000) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
 
~#

WARNING! These examples may crash your router if not executed with proper care.

To see information about your router type:
# routerinfo
Sample outputs:

Release version : Netgear Wireless Router DGND3700
                  U12L14401/V1.0.0.17/1.0.17
           Time : Oct 21 2011 08:07:44
    CFE version : N/A
WSC PIN - 52135095
LAN mac address - 7444014057FB
WAN mac address - 7444014057FC
WLAN mac address - 7444014057FB
Board ID - U12L144T01_NETGEAR_NEWLED
serial number - 2XXXXXXXXXYZ

To see CPU info, enter:
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
Sample outputs:

system type             : 96368MVWG
processor               : 0
cpu model               : BMIPS 4350 V3.1
BogoMIPS                : 398.95
wait instruction        : yes
microsecond timers      : yes
tlb_entries             : 32
extra interrupt vector  : no
hardware watchpoint     : no
ASEs implemented        :
VCED exceptions         : not available
VCEI exceptions         : not available

unaligned exceptions            : 21822527

References:

• Unlocking the netgear telnet console – from the OpenWrt wiki page.
• netgear-telnetenable – A simple python implementation of telnetenable for enabling telnet on many Netgear devices.