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Hacking the Linksys WRT54G
knightrdr writes "Robert X. Cringely has posted an interesting article on the PBS web site about modifying the Linksys WRT54G wireless G broadband router to build a wireless layer on top of the Internet. He argues that with as little as a $70 investment per node, the Sveasoft WRT54G Firmware could be the first in a line of many wireless devices to enable a giant leap forward for the Internet."
It's a dupe, was posted on friday. Still one of the better cringely columns...
only a base system, which can be customized for your needs.
Please note that Sveasoft uses a very restrictive development model. The firmware is developed by a closed group and only released to paying customers who lose access to future releases the instant they redistribute the firmware.
The next article will be ready soon, but Slashdot editors can dupe it early!
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broadband is easy to get. just live in an apartment where there are 3 or 4 unprotected wireless nodes.
Evolution or ID?
EWRT, from Portless Networks (a fork of Sveasoft)
Wi-Fi Box
Ahh... the wonders of OSS and GPL. :-)
I feel like my intelligence is being insulted by the pervasive labeling of these devices by Linksys as "Wireless G" and "Wireless B" (as opposed to "802.11g" and "802.11b"). Why can't any technical term ever remain unadulterated by end-users and marketeers? Yeesh. What's next, they'll start referring to the "Linux Kernel 2.6" as "PenguinPopper 2004"?
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
From the article, it seems that Cringely perceives this as being an idea which could put your local phone company out of business.
Would this be the same local phone company which provides the ADSL link this would require?
I would like to say that there is not only Linksys, but all Broadcom based routers (Trendnet TEW-411BRP, Belkin F5D7230, Motorola, Asustek wl300g et wl500g, Buffalo Airstation, Dell Truemobile2300).
u te rs
See:
http://seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/BroadcomRo
There is also the other APs based on Intersil:
http://isl3893.sf.net
I'm not alone here in being more interested in stuff like that than in WISPs, am i? A Cisco-like router (at least as far as the interface goes) for $70 or so would be awesome. :,)
You asked the question wrong. On Slashdot, if you wanted to find out how to do VOIP, you have to say:
"VOIP is a dead technology. You can't implement it. There aren't and headsets or software available, and it doesn't scale between countries well."
This will cause the modern geek to feel challenged, and he'll reveal your answers as he rebukes you.
-----Buy the ticket, take the ride.-----
Personally, I run OpenWRT (http://openwrt.ksilebo.net/) on my WRT54G. In my opinion, it is better, and my contact with the developers so far on IRC has been wonderfull.
:-)
Check it out, and a WRT54G (or the WRT54GS) is a nice investment, even if it was just for its geekyness
This means a WISP in a box for everyone - and LinSpot handles the roaming between all linspots and fills your PayPal account while you sleep (and while others roam).
I guess it will take the LinSpot crew a couple of weeks to iron the bugs out and release this for your enjoyement.
We just ordered two new NIC's for our Cisco load balancer. They cost $1000 (one thousand) each. We needed them, we had the budget, blah blah blah.
We got them, and we looked at them, and for the life of me, they looked like cheesy $15 PCI no-name-brand NICs.
We got the FCC approval number, and guess what... they were $15 PCI no-name-brand NICs. We just learned a $2K lesson.
Won't make that mistake again.
I would like to know where he gets the dollar values from at the bottom of the article? He starts to toss out how much money an access point will start to make but no real values to back it up.. come one.. you need some sort of proper accounting..
:)
Almost sounds like a get rich scam, look at how much money you can make by buying this device. Just like the gold rush, very few made money on gold, everyone got rich selling shovel's and supplies to the masses..
Another cringley article that is partially based on facts, partially on fiction..
... if a single damned one of the web pages gave me a good couple of concrete examples of what the payoff is of installing one of these alternatives. That is, beyond whatever disease makes so many linux users desperate to install linux on their toaster, pda and remote control. OpenWRT touts being small with a focus on installable packages, EWRT says what they have up on the others is the captive portal but none of them have an entry in their FAQ that answers "Why would I replace this currently functioning, rarely crashing pre-installed firmware and features with something else? Does it DO anything other than bragging rights at the geek pub?" And yes you troll, I know some have bandwidth shaping and other features but any software that purports to be a solution to a problem might want to identify that problem right off the bat or it should just call itself devTitsOnaBull.
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A lot of ISP user agreements prohibit the provision of service to third parties. This violates that restriction, and doesn't attempt to cover it up.
Pun intended. There is a major catch to all of this disruptive technology that Cringley and everyone else seems to be forgetting. The catch, regulatory restrictions.
You see, in the phone business, there are countless regulations and restrictions at the federal, state and local government levels. These restrictions cover everything, 911 location requirements, reliability, coverage, who is authorized to offer service, taxes and a whole lot more.
At the moment, VoIP is excluded from much of this. But, with VoIP threatening the industry, the phone giants will be using their lobbying power to make the restrictions apply to VoIP as well.
An infrastructure such as Cringley describes is technically possible, theoretically. But, if it comes to pass, it will be controlled by today's phone giants.
Of course, for all this to happen and for us to have the reliability of landlines or even cellular service our cities would have to be so heavily blanketed by 802.11 devices that hot dogs would cook themselves once removed from their microwave shielded packaging. Eat it quickly Honey, before it gets too hot.
well you are already bombarded by your TV, FM, AM Satelite and other radio frequency, more or less you'll die eventualy.
Beside, if you are woried about living long and healthy. Well first start with the water and the food. they are morelikely to kill you, with all those GMO, pesticied etc..
Repeat after me: GMOs will not kill me.
There can be so many other things wrong with GMOs (most scary is various pests inheriting resistancy), but they do not kill you per se.
There's nothing definitive, but the regulations that govern Part 15 devices like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth require extremely low signal strength in client devices -- effectively 10 to 1000 times less than a cell phone signal. I have some concerns that we'll find that a cell phone against your brain might have been a bad idea, but a Wi-Fi device across the room is only a few orders of magnitude above background thermal noise.
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
No, actually thats not what he says. He says 16% (IIRC from the last time slashdot posted this) is needed to be 'edge nodes', ie: internet connected with DSL/cable.
Also, these mesh protocols are not great (and I doubt they will ever be as good as the current routed internet) and I personally wouldn't like to enjoy 10,000 hop internet from Texas to Michican. Just my 2 cents...
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"Is if somone ported airsnort to one of these.. Imagine throwing one under a desk for a week, while it cracked the wep key, then having it switch on its radio and broadcast the key as its SSID.."
or make it attack all computers it can reach.. noone would ever find it
SURELY NOT!!!!!
"broadband is easy to get. just live in an apartment where there are 3 or 4 unprotected wireless nodes."
So far that arrangement was the best internet access I've had at home. I wish more of my current neighbors had access points, I'd gladly share to have all that combined bandwidth and flexibility back again.
The core firmware of these routers runs linux, and as such Linksys was compelled to offer the source code back to the community. Sveasoft was kind enough to modify the firmware using the provided source and to then provide compiled binaries and source back to the community.
p hp?t=1259
Now they've changed their model somewhat. Currently you can only download the binaries and source for the older versions of the firmware. To access any of their newer works, you have to pay them a $20/year subscription fee. Once you've ponied up the $20, you can download the new sources and binaries.
While the GPL allows for this sort of action, it's their policing of it that makes me uncomfortable. You can download the code and binaries and post them on a website, but if they figure out which user did this they will cancel your subscription. If you post links in their forums to download sites for their new version your subscription is cancelled, your forum account suspended, and the post is deleted.
What they've done is to take a GPL-covered firmware, improve it, charge $20 for access to it, and then do anything they can to censor any action of sharing that code. While their actions still obey the letter of the GPL, I can't really see that it is in keeping with the spirit of the free software movement.
Sveasoft's FAQ about charging $20 for GPL software and canceling accounts that are caught distributing the software: http://www.sveasoft.com/modules/phpBB2/viewtopic.
I've had a WRT54g v2 since February, and have tried several third-party firmware offerings over the past few months. I have a Comcast 3000/256 cable modem connection, and have been 100% Linux at home for almost nine years. Here's my quick impressions of each: