Netgear RNDP4000 ReadyNAS issues and upgrade to OS6

I recently came across an old Netgear RNDP4000 ReadyNAS and tried to put it into service but encountered some issues. The NAS had firmware version 4.2.x.

The first issue was that I was unable to access the web-based administration due to the NAS using an old SSL cypher that is not supported in modern browsers. When I tried to access the admin page I would get an error message: "This site can’t provide a secure connection. <IP address> uses an unsupported protocol. ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH"

I tried a few suggestions such as accessing the page in Microsoft Edge in Internet Explorer mode. I tried Internet Explorer on an old Windows 7 PC I have for emergencies. I tried downloading an old version of Firefox. All failed.

Strangely it worked once on my Android 12 phone but then never again. I also tried an old Android tablet but no go.

I then switched to a Linux (Ubuntu) PC and downloaded Firefox 52.9.0 and although an error was shown, I was able to continue to the admin page.

The next issue is that not only does firmware version 4.x have this issue, it is also very out of date and doesn't work well with modern Windows 10 and 11 PCs. A little investigation reveals that an upgrade to OS6 solves all problems, although it isn't an upgrade that is officially supported.

Note that the firmware upgrade will result in total loss of data.

On the Netgear forums there are instructions to perform the upgrade. Here is the steps I followed somewhat successfully.

1. Download the add-on PREP4TOR6_0.1-x86.bin.

2. In the admin go to the add-ons page and add a new add on, selecting this file.

At first I didn't think this was working but eventually a pop-up appeared saying it had been installed. It never showed in the list of installed add-ons though, but I continued anyway.

3. Download the firmware update R4toR6_6.9.5.bin and install through the admin system updates page.

It will prompt you to reboot when it needs to.

At this point the upgrade looked to have gone wrong. It rebooted and after some time stopped with the error message "ERR: Could not properly extract".

I started Googling how to fix a bricked NAS but it actually eventually continued on its' own and progressed, after rebooting itself at least one more time.

On a subsequent reboot it stopped at 81% and again, I thought it was broken. I did a little research and there was mention that it may take 15 minutes due to the factory reset that it was doing. But I waited longer than that and it hadn't moved so I powered it down.

Surprisingly, after powering up again, it booted successfully. I was able to get into the admin page on any browser and it reported OS 6.x and offered an upgrade to a later version, 6.10.10, which against my better judgement I accepted and installed. This upgrade went off without a hitch and the NAS has been configured and works fine!

Note that after the upgrade the admin password is reset to "password".

There is a 303 page Software Manual available from Netgear for ReadyNAS OS 6.10 if needed.