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A. AirPort [/Extreme] Base Station = Home DSL/Cable router with 802.11b/g access point.
Cross reference: Netgear WGR614, Linksys WRT54G, D-Link DI-824VUP.

B. Such products use DHCP servers and NAT to share the Internet connection. That's what they do.

C. Because of A and B, it can be deduced that the AirPort Base Station has a DHCP server.

Perhaps you weren't previously aware of point "A." I guess I could see if you thought it was just an access point?

My suspicion is that they're doing this to make PPPoE configuration easier. If they can save bandwith or other support costs, they save money in the end. More should follow their lead.

My suspicion is that they're doing this to make PPPoE configuration easier. If they can save bandwith or other support costs, they save money in the end. More should follow their lead.

I had these same issues after upgrading from version the 2.03 that came with it, to 2.1... I went back to 2.03 as a result, which is available here.

WIll this firmware work for older versions such as the wired BEFSR41

Lets not forget Linksys is owned by Cisco these days. I hope they are not stupid enough to sell a router for $2000 under the cisco brand, but only $150 under Linksys.

I currently own a BEFSR81, which is their 8-port wired version (no wireless) that I purchased a couple of years ago.

It's got built-in QoS, which can prioritize traffic. You can choose low or high priority based on either your IP port number, or one of the LAN ports (at least, the first four).

I've tried it out, and it worked pretty well when I needed to slow down BitTorrent so that my dad could use his web browser and email (otherwise, BitTorrent was eating *all* of my bandwidth).

It wasn't great for having fine control, but it worked well enough to solve the problem for me.

I just bought an eMachines m6807 notebook with an Athlon64 3000+ cpu (512MB/60GB/802.11g/DVDRW/Radeon9600/etc/etc/etc) and...yeah...probably a 32-bit version of XP Home. Pro woulda been nice but it wasn't an option; as a compensation, all the "free" bundled software uninstalled almost cleanly, and I was able to get a nifty new 802.11g WAP/switch/router/VPN with the savings vs. a comparably equipped Dell...

When I feel more confident (and get a couple of blank DVDs to use for backups) I may snarf down winxp64...

Dunno if this will help you, but Linksys has a signal booster for your Linksys wireless device. Pop the antennas off the existing one, pop them on the booster, connect the booster to the access point, and (according to Linksys), you're good to go.

Picture (L to R)
1)?

2)Play@TV

3)Linksys

Using modified drivers, it would be possible to make the card emit different frequencies or more power, thereby violating the usage licence.

Absolutely true. Linksys's wireless router (WRT54G) is essentially a software controlled radio. Using the ping interface it is possible to enter commands and the router will execute them. One of these is increasing transmit power. I believe most of these hacks and features were discovered because the firmware runs embedded linux and the source code to the router is GPL'ed.

I think Intel is wrong here. Big companies are going to reverse engineer it anyway. The source code isn't needed by them. The small companies that could benefit from the source code wouldn't have economies of scale to compete anyway.

The object on the right in their picture looks a lot like a Linksys WRV54G Wireless G VPN Broadband Router. Linksys has a similar product for 802.11b (WMA11B). I can't imagine that they would mod the router so that leaves the other two objects as the candidates.

Paraphrasing from the Linksys site:
- 802.11g Wireless Access Point
- 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch
- Router
- DHCP Server
- SPI firewall
- VPN Support

The object on the right in their picture looks a lot like a Linksys WRV54G Wireless G VPN Broadband Router. Linksys has a similar product for 802.11b (WMA11B). I can't imagine that they would mod the router so that leaves the other two objects as the candidates.

Paraphrasing from the Linksys site:
- 802.11g Wireless Access Point
- 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch
- Router
- DHCP Server
- SPI firewall
- VPN Support

My guess is they are trying to compete with the Linksys, the Turtle Beach Audiotron, and others...

Maybe combine it with a home NAS device (easy to expand a Tivo into that, I would think).

The wireless device to the right is clearly a Linksys product, like the WMA11B. It allows you to playback audio and video over a 802.11b connection. The other items look more or less like devices that could do the same thing as the Linksys unit, they have almost the same port setup.

All of the items could be off the shelf products, and that's what I'd guess they are, they look nothing like a product in development. Note the middle one with a barcode that looks like maybe a serial number and maybe a wi-fi logo below that. The one to the left is all compact and in a nice case, looks like it's had a trip trough the "make it pretty" team. Unless these are final product mockups, why bother getting plastic inserts printed with the wi-fi logo and all? I'd guess these have nothing at all to do with the story.

Any chance it supports the linksys wpc54g? Support for that card is the only thing keeping me from switching to linux on my laptop.

Hopefully this will work better for me than knoppix. I could never get my laptop(dell latitude lt, P1 233 mmx, 64mb ram, 4Gb HD) to boot to knoppix. I'd like to switch to linux, patrly because they're dropping support for win98 this week, and i really only need web, e-mail, IM etc. but i need support for a pcmcia cd-rom drive and my wireless card as well as my watch.

done all the time by network companies...

The best example is the linksys LNE100TX network card...

The manufacturers keep the same product number/upc code, but the product is different. There are at least 7 different versions of the card using at least 4 different drivers/chipsets.

The only way to tell the cards apart is to reference the web page and to look at the card physically. On some boxes they now have a stuck on label that says "version" and the card version... but the model name is the same....

done all the time by network companies...

The best example is the linksys LNE100TX network card...

The manufacturers keep the same product number/upc code, but the product is different. There are at least 7 different versions of the card using at least 4 different drivers/chipsets.

The only way to tell the cards apart is to reference the web page and to look at the card physically. On some boxes they now have a stuck on label that says "version" and the card version... but the model name is the same....

While I was eyeing the recent flood of media players that hook up to the TV, I was also disappointed that just about every solution I find on the local shelves all require Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

Thinking that they just put that there because it required a Windows share to hook up to was overly optimisitc, it needs to run software on the PC as well.

That rules out OS X and Linux users. I would also hazard a guess that this one will do the same, since their other similar media product has these restrictions.

...you should know that Linksys has no respect for the GPL, and only agreed to release its source code for $10 after threats of litigation.

This is not a company that you should support.

Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Open Source Company Watchdog

Another thing you might want to try if your up to it is voice control. I've never played with any of the speech packages for linux, but have had great success with the MS Speech SDK and getting my computer to respond to certian commands ("Bitch, Open Notepad", "Bitch, Open eMule"), and am planning to implement something similar in my next car (I'd use 'Car' instead of 'Bitch' though). Also, the use of TTS for things like warnings ("Change the Oil Mother Fucker"). At home I have a push button on the mic so that it doesn't get pickup background noise, figured to place it to the left of the stearing wheel with the mic above the visor. Another idea was to hook up a GPS to the computer (Thx for the link to the DC-DC PSU, I was thinking of using a damned inverter) and having some sort of in car navigation system. The network port can easilly be hooked up to something like the LinkSys WET54G. With and the GPS, you could be war driving when ever your out, when at home you can move new MP3s to the cars computer for listening to, 'apt-get update', upload your wardriving data, what ever. While your at it, get a nice red LED bar for the front of the car, you'll be set.

Because most are black boxes, you have to take whoever the manufacturers word for it that they have a solid tcp/ip stack that won't be susceptible to this sort of attack.

The Linksys WRT54G actually runs Linux

A few people have been able to compile custom versions of the firmware that include some extra (and very cool) functionality. If the tcp/ip stack is part of Linksys' GPL'd packages (I'm not sure if it is), it can be examined.

There are already consumer WLAN audio players (from Linksys, for example). Availability of WLAN movie players is only a matter of time. Besides, the same issues apply to audio players, so it really is an issue now.

yeah, I have a WPC-11, and I've been very happy with it. I finally got encryption (albeit 64bit) working with the orinoco_cs driver, which means I don't have to wait for this guy to catch up with new kernel releases. I'm pretty sure that Linksys switched to Broadcom. That's actually part of the big stink over the source code for the WRT54G router they sell. It runs linux, and uses a Broadcom chipset. So we know a driver exists.

Call me old fashioned, but I don't think that young children should go to pr0n sites.. I passively monitor the sites they go to with Linksys Log viewer I've caught all the kids going to inappropriate sites at one point or another. Each time they get grounded from their computer for a few days or a week. I also installed DameWare Mini Remote Control on their computers so at anytime I can take a look at what they have on their screen from the comfort of my own computer. With this setup it is kind of hard to monitor their Chat conversations.I've heard that SpectorSoft is good for Key Capture, Site Logging, Chat Logging, and Screen Shot Logging, but it costs $99. Other than that I don't actively block any sites, but when they are grounded I exclude their IP from the router. Seems I periodically remove Gator type programs from the computer that belongs to our youngest child. The Youngest is also the best at Q3A and Urban Terror! He sometimes even beats me when we go head to head.

Stop being ignorant.

Broadcom should release specs for their chipset, or code for their drivers, and then i'll take them a little more seriously (since Atheros chipset cards do work under linux). right now the only way i can use my linksys 802.11g card is with linuxant's windows driver wrapper software, and linksys emailed me saying they do not plan on releasing drivers for this card (WMP54G.)

One problem I've had with ghost is that it's DOS-based, when means you need a DOS driver for your NIC. For most PCI cards, this isn't a problem, but for neato things like Linksys's little USB NIC, this can be a problem (is there an easy way to get USB working under DOS? I know ghost comes with DOS USB mass storage drivers...). And for systems that don't have NICs (yes, there are still some out there) or whose NICs are so new there aren't any drivers except the XP/2K ones on the manufacturer's web site, this little USB NIC is a lifesaver. And what about wireless, etc? In general, I'd say, driver support is better (or at least easier to find) on linux than on a DOS-type platform.

Yes that is true, though it has not been a secret.
The 802.11G product line of Belkin is based on the same Broadcom model which Linksys used. Talked over many times before, but somehow it takes a while before Belkin's sourcecode is released just as Linksys did...

I'm typing this right now on my laptop connected over 802.11g to my cable line through my linksys WRT54g. It seems to be what your looking for, 4 port switch and Wi-Fi, it was relativly cheap and easy to setup, range is better than expected and the speed is decent. I definitly recomend linksys, all my networking stuff besides the NIC in my main box(onboard anyway) and my cable modem (motorola surfboard provided by time warner) are linksys and i havn't had any problems with any of it.

I don't mean to imply that you are one but, sadly too many people jumping on Linsys without really havening the story.

The short version is that Brodcom was subcontracted by Linksys to develop the imbeded software and Linksys wasn't fully aware of the obligations under the GPL.

Linksys GPL code (or most of it) can now be found here.

I do am unlucky to own (and ignorant to buy, sigh) a Belkin wlan-accesspoint (802.11G). As these accesspoints and wireless routers all carry the same Broadcom-chip and modifications to GPL sourcecode as the Linksys 54G-variants, they should release their sourcecode just as Linksys nicely did.
Now I do believe when that is done that should solve the problem with this re-routing...

Hello. ZoneAlarm is the best personal software firewall on the internet, and they offer a fully functional FREE version (it is NOT a timed trial). And no, I don't work for ZoneLabs. Here is the link.

ZoneAlarm

You can also buy a hardware firewall very cheap. I use one of these at home. Here is an example:
Firewall Router
Firewall Router

Good Luck, and screw Symantec!

In a related note, Linksys/Broadcom have released source code and the toolchain used in the wrt54g access point. They even have instructions on how to build your own firmware.

Everything you need to build your own firmware is available in version 1.42.2

Note that my wrt54g linux distribution won't work with version 1.42.2 unless your modify the firmware to re-enable the wrt54g "ping hack"

-Pat

Buy a couple of SliMP3s and a couple of Linksys Ethernet Bridges, and avoid lost time spent reburning your CD collection. Oh, and save $2400 bucks.

Folks who have worked out other improvements over WEP also stressed key rotation.

So is WPA any good?

It requires FW updates on the client cards, or a card that alread supports it (several of the LinkSys "54G" (802.11g) client cards do support it).

The WRT54G router/AP and client card are on sale at Frys right now for $100 (AR) and $60 (AR) respectively. Is this worth it?

This linksys print server has served me well at two locations. It can be a bit difficult to setup but supports netbios, ipx, and bsd spools for remote clients.

The question is: how much spooling do you need? If 256k is enough, then any of the little boxes (like this one) will do just fine. If you need a few megs, you can still find little "print boxes" that do what you need, but they'll be "workgroup spoolers", and they'll cost more. If it's absolutely essential that the job leave the client machine ASAP (i.e. it's an old mainframe and there are billing issues), it's time for a real spooler. Set up a machine from the junk pile with a version of unix that IT'll support. Even, gasp, a Windows spooler (they'll talk LPR both in and out, though not by default) if you're at place that's enslaved to Microsoft. Plug the printer into that machine. Move on.

I really think that if Microsoft was doing so, they'd publically take a stand (a la "OSS is viral"),

They've already done that, repeatedly. "Viral" is one of the words used, "a cancer" is another phrase from a few years back that comes to mind.

rather than paying off journalists.

Aren't they where the phrase "astroturfing" comes from? This isn't nearly that bad - to get press they want, Microsoft doesn't even have to make any obvious bribes, they just have to make their advertisement dollars follow up shill articles more often than coincidence would allow.

Linksys management almost certainly did not decide to use GPLed software -- some subcontractor put it in. [...] Some engineer at Linksys (or some Indian subcontractor...there are good engineers in India, but in the current environment, there are also a *lot* of people that simply swipe code and let the company get screwed down the line) swiped some code.

Linksys isn't just using a couple swiped functions here, they're selling products based on the whole Linux kernel and a dozen other free packages. They're even providing related source code under the GPL for what they distribute; it just turns out that they're not providing the source code for the derived works they're distributing, they're providing it for the original GPLed software they started from.

There's simply no way this could be an oversight that went on underneath their management's noses - this is practically the entire software component of their product!

It's possible that this never made it to a lawyer, I suppose, and that Linksys for some reason thinks the "you must provide source code" clauses in the GPL are because we don't have enough kernel mirrors of our own... but it's more likely that they're keeping their modifications closed because they thought they could get away with it.

Isn't the code already released under GPL Or maybe it is another one....

While not terribly expensive, I think this is going to be a cool product. I bet in the next few months everone will be offering wifi webcams. Linksys WVC11B

I have gotton no further response from Linksys, and the sources for the EFG80 have not been posted on their GPL source web site. I am fairly confident, however, that this is just a case of things moving slowly.

It would help if someone out there who has an EFG80 could verify that the sources are on the accompanying CD-ROM (and that they produce workable binaries).

Some vendors who use Samba will provide a test unit to the Team or access to a system at their end for use in the build farm, but that is certainly not a requirement. It just helps them, and us, keep everything working smoothly.

Chris -)-----

As much as I hate LinkSys, they actually have a wireless 802.11b net camera with a built-in webserver. Supports 4 connections

See it here.

My organization uses a Linksys BEFSR41 for firewalling. Works great.

Lowest price search results from pricegrabber.com. Lowest I could find on Pricewatch was $103 + shipping.

Amazon has it for $100 after rebate with free shipping.

There was a new firmware put out about 6 weeks ago. Here's the details.

Lowest price search results from pricegrabber.com. Lowest I could find on Pricewatch was $103 + shipping.

Amazon has it for $100 after rebate with free shipping.

There was a new firmware put out about 6 weeks ago. Here's the details.

Looks like Linksys is doing the right thing and providing the source now.

Linksys has an email address, security@linksys.com set up so that you can report things like this. Tech support is for people who can't tell the LAN cable from the WAN cable, or need to be told to power-cycle their routers.

And if you don't hear anything back for a while after emailing them there, try posting it to Bugtraq -- that'll get their attention, if nothing else.