There is nothing 'special' about the hardware in Zen braded routers as far as I can determine.

There are differences between DSL in Germany and the UK and this, I think, is what may have tripped up both Zen and AVM in this instance. As I posted before, I did have a beta version of the s/w from AVM and did report back that they had an issue but it fell on deaf ears.

Zen certainly didn't do enough testing before releasing it, that's for sure.

Just wondering what the way forward is going to be for the 7530. I suspect that this could be the last upgrade of the s/w as far as Zen are concerned.

I have a Zen 7530 about 3 years old, that I use occasionally on my Zen FTTP connection, for backup purposes when my usual router is unavailable, such as during power cuts. Can I assume that if I connect it and it gets auto-updated this will have no ill effects when used on an FTTP connection?

In reply to a post by rogerh:

I have a Zen 7530 about 3 years old, that I use occasionally on my Zen FTTP connection, for backup purposes when my usual router is unavailable, such as during power cuts. Can I assume that if I connect it and it gets auto-updated this will have no ill effects when used on an FTTP connection?

I have had no problem with it on FTTP and using VOIP.
I haven't seen anyone else using it solely as a router report any issues. The problem would appear to only affect those utilising the modem functionality so you should be fine.

Thanks! That's reassuring.

Works for me - thanks

Anyone having IPSec VPN issues since upgrading to Fritz OS 8 ?

I have three 7530 routers at different locations (using Zen) and whilst I've not experienced dropouts (yet), the "Send all traffic" via the VPN option no longer works.

I can make the connection between the routers, but the minute I tick the Send All Traffic via VPN option, the VPN disconnects.

I know I have a very specific use case here, but it's been rock solid for the two years I've had this configuration, and after the latest upgrade, it's un-useable. It's more than a coincidence.

The following notes appear in the V8.00 release Documentation under “Additional Improvements”:-

Changed The AES-192 encryption algorithm is no longer supported in Phase 2 SAs of VPN connections
Changed The hash algorithm MD5 and the 3DES encryption algorithm are no longer used on VPN connections over IPSec for reasons of security

Anything to do with your issue?

To be honest, I'm not sure. Because I rely on the FritzBoxes to do the work for me, I just assume they all talk the same protocol.

Certainly something to investigate. I'll post any relevant info that I find.

Thanks for the response.

Thanks NewMoon for the detailed write up. It worked perfectly, and my VPN connection (which was no longer functioning) is back to normal after I re-flashed the firmware back to v7.59. I did turn off Windows Firewall and Windows Defender, just to eliminate any possibility of the recovery process failing.

One thing I would add to your procedure. The reason it took a few attempts to get it to work, is probably because you need to end the FTP session, which allows the recovery tool to work. I suspect your session timed out, which is when the process started to work.

If you send the quit command as the last line of the ftp session, then things work a lot faster.

So the sequence of commands in Windows terminal would be as follows:

ftp -n 192.168.178.1
quote USER adam2
quote PASS adam2
quote SETENV firmware_version avme
quote UNSETENV provider
quit


I've set the Update feature to Level 1 (notify) on all three 7530 routers now. Not going to risk them updating themselves.

Thanks again.

MJ

In reply to a post by NewMoon:

Downgrading a Zen-branded 7530 to Fritz!OS v. 7.59

I've just managed to downgrade a Zen-branded box to Fritz!OS v. 7.59. The box got debranded in the process. Optionally, remote management can be disabled in the process.

Steps:

1. Download v. 7.59 recovery executable from here.
2. Set your Ethernet adapter to 192.168.178.x/24, default gateway: 192.168.178.1.
3. Connect the 7530 to the Ethernet port via LAN1 port.
4. Start recovery. Allow through Windows firewall if asked.
— If you get a "version not identified" error, try setting the Ethernet adapter to 10Mbps half-duplex.
— If you still see "custom firmware" error message, use command line to set provider and firmware_version environment variables via ftp (either don't close the error message when starting FTP, or restart the router and run FTP command within 2–3 seconds of powering on):

ftp -n 192.168.178.1
quote USER adam2
quote PASS adam2
quote SETENV firmware_version avme
quote UNSETENV provider

then, without rebooting the router, run recovery again.

After several attempts, my box accepted the recovery and downgraded cleanly to 7.59, losing the Zen branding and their DSL configuration presets in the process.

5. Do configuration restore using the 7.59 backup file that you should have received by push email when the box upgraded to v. 8.0.
— You might like to edit the configuration file and disable certain parameters related to remote management (TR-069). Just search for tr069. A simple option is removing the management server URL. Certainly, disabling remote firmware upgrades would make a lot of sense.

Good luck!

P.S. If your time is worth more than 40-something quids, then an eBay seller is selling unbranded 7530 boxes on v. 7.x (they call them 7530 unlocked).

Edited by MJ_WXM (Fri 06-Dec-24 17:31:07)

@MJ_WXM

I think you may have overlooked another 'backdoor'.

Internet > Account Information > Provider Services

You might also like to consider removing permissions on

Internet > Account Information > AVM Services