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Linux Hackers Reclaim the WRT54G
An anonymous reader writes "The world's most ubiquitous wireless access point is free to run Linux again, thanks to a brilliant hack by db90h, aka Jeremy Collake. No soldering is required, as Collake's 'VxWorks Killer' nixes the WRT54G's VxWorks bootloader and installs a normal Broadcom one, allowing Linux to be installed easily. One distribution small enough for the series five WRT54G's 2MB of Flash and 8MB of RAM is the free DD-WRT project's "micro" edition. It lacks some of the fancier Linux router packages, such as nocat and IPv6, but does support PPPoE, and could be more stable than the VxWorks firmware, which seems to have generated mixed reviews." Update: 06/26 22:52 GMT by T : Note that the project's name is DD-WRT, not (as it was mistakenly rendered) WR-DDT. Check out the DD-WRT project's site.
power failure during the two second installation process could permanently incapacitate or "brick" the device.
Reminds me of a Windows 98 installation I once did.
It's the dd-wrt project, not WR-DDT. Great package though, I run it on my v4 WRT54G.
Other manufacturers (nvidia, are you reading this) - this applies for you too. If you support the software I use most (Linux) I will support your hardware.
I ran for the longest time various 3rd party firmwares, bouncing from one to the other when one would get updated when it had features that I was looking for. But they all seem to introduce their own set of nasty bugs/gotchas even though they claim to fix bugs in the linksys version. Finally I got fed up with it all and went back to the normal linksys firmware that just works without all the added bloat that these 3rd party ones slap on top. I got tired of futzing with the router more than I was just letting it do its job.
They aren't fighting them. In fact, they have released WRT54GL with linux, specifically for this purpose. They just didn't want people bricking their routers and returning them under warranty.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
What's the real point. Sure, the VXWorks version of the WRT54G is a little bit cheaper but, it has less memory, which limits its capabilities. The old Linux capable WRT54G is still available in the form of the WRT54GL so, why would anyone choose this route?
As I think about it, this development may actually hurt the WRT54G Linux crowd. If price is the motivating factor and everyone opts for the slightly cheaper VXWorks version, Cisco will likely discontinue the WRT54GL due to lack of sales leaving the LInux crowd with a less featureful option.
Reminds me of when I upgraded my Version 1.1 WRT54G using the official firmware! Brick City.
Bought a Version 5 WRT54G and the thing turned into a brick all on its own during a normal reboot, after not even owning it for a day.
Bought a wireless print server. Wouldn't connect to my access point and didn't offer WPA as an option. Linksys removed WPA completely from the latest firmware and it apparently never worked in the older firmware. Doesn't keep them from advertising it on the box and their website though. Blatant false advertising.
I also bought a Linksys wirless range extender. A complete failure.
NetGear's business class products on the other hand... w00t.
Can this router be used as a client so that I can connect to the access point of my wireless internet service provider and distribute the connection over cat5 to my computers.
This is fabulous news. I own an early WRT54G which I use as a bridged PPPoE connection, and also as a router (both wireless and wired), and with custom firmware it performs a blindingly good job. As of right now, it has an uptime of just over a month, and I believe that was because of a powerout.
The original firmware was by no means pitiful, but it lacked a huge number of features that coders have 'rereleased', such as QoS, more advanced scripting abilities, better performance with BT and so on.
When I heard that they had moved to VxWorks, with no backwards compatibility with the custom firmware, I thought it was a stupid move. The firmware has improved immensely from the countless iterations created by outside coders, why not let that process continue?
I had lightening somehow take out my cable modem (which I rent) last weekend... it also fried the WAN port on my V2.2 WRT54G that was completely stock.
Needing a WAN port I went and bought another WRT54G (a new one at Best Buy that happens to be a V5)...
I knew that the WRT54G was hackable though, so I figured I would try to make some use out of the one with the dead WAN port. I nabbed the DD-WRT firmware and loaded it up... and on the first try it worked beautifully (well... I mean the firmware worked... I still didn't have a purpose for it yet).
I started looking at what the firmware could do and noticed the "client-bridge" wireless mode... meaning it could bridge two wired networks with a wireless link. I tried it out and sure enough it connected to my new V5 WRT54G without problem. Looking around my apartment I noticed a long ethernet cable running around the baseboards from where my cable modem and router sit (in my TV nook... where my ReplayTV is plugged into them) to where my server and desktop are.... and the thought came to me that I could use the "broken" WRT54G to bridge that gap instead (and make my wife happier... with less cords).
I hooked it up... and it's been working beautifully for a week... a very nice solution.
With how satisfied I was I thought it would be great to be able to hack my new one at some point in the future too... and when I found out that the V5 was difficult/impossible (at that time) to hack... and instead Linksys made a WRT54GL model that still ran linux and was hackable... I ordered one of those up (for about $10 more) and am planning on taking the V5 back to Best Buy as soon as the new one arrives from Amazon (later this week).
This news doesn't really change my mind about this... the WRT54GL is inherently a more hackable system (more memory and such) and should remain a good workhorse into the future.
The moral of all of these ramblings is that Linux is great! How did I come to that conclusion? Well... it's nothing except the open-sourceness of my old router's firmware that allowed me to still get utility out of it after part of it had failed. If it was some proprietary BS (like VxWorks) then it would have just been a plastic brick....
Friedmud
Even with this hack, the WRT54G v5 doesn't have the resources. We should be telling users to buy one of the equivelent routers from another vendor, such as the Asus or the Buffalo.
For starters, we need a new name to identify this platform (vs. calling it the WRT54G). The WRT54G/S is just one product utilizing the Broadcom platform.
Also, what about similar platforms from other wireless vendors? Their is a similar Linux platform from Conexant (Prism), but that's hard to get now. How about a Linux Atheros platform? After all, isn't Broadcom supposed to be the least open source friendly of the wireless chipset companies?
All that is a thing of the past. In fact, here's what my router says now:
-SuperTux
Has anyone un-bricked this or similar, or even dissimilar equipment?
My guess is that anything built in the last ten years or so stores setup information on flash memory. Although it isn't always the case, the flash memory will be on its own chip. (There are lots of embedded devices that do have internal flash memory though.) Presumably one could unsolder the chip, stuff it in a burner and re-solder it. (I know that isn't trivial.)
There are lots of potential problems. A really big one is that the chips often don't have part numbers because the manufacturers don't want people reverse engineering their products.
So, my question is: Has anyone out there unbricked anything recently?
We over at the DD-WRT forum have been following this for a while.
As with any other fine F/OSS project, please donate if you find the project useful.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
Linux Fanoy: "Don Jeremy, Cisco want's me to pay $20 extra for a Linux version of their router. What can I do?"
Don Jeremy: "You could act like a man!" [slap]
The next morning in John Chamber's bedroom...
[John discovers bloody penguin head in bed.]
John: AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaagghh!
Cisco/Linksys lobotimized the WRT54G by halving the flash and ram from the previous version, not to mention locking down access by puting a locked up vxworks on it. It's also quite retarded by having only two real ethernet ports, one attached to a built in six port switch with vlans. Makes some kind of routing impossible, and is less secure as firewall routing rules don't apply to packets that never get seen by the kernel.
The WRTSL54GS on the other hand has 32MB ram and 8MB flash, perfect for installing lots more software, and all the ports are true ports, making it fully routable/usable and more secure.
Cisco/Linksys:
When are you going to release a Linux Wireless Router that handles 802.11a/5.4GHz?
Why doesn't Compusa and Best Buy carry the units that can be Linuxatized/made useful?
How about a Linux router without wireless?
I know that if this last product existed, tens of thousands of these could be sold, and that's just to the company I work for.
I'm glad to hear there is a non JTAG way of getting a new bootloader on the WRT54G v5 routers. If you have the option however, I think the best bet would be to avoid version 5 altogether, as it has the weakest hardware (ie, less RAM/FLASH) of the line so far. If you plan to hack your router (ie, 3rd party firmware), consider a WRT54GL so you have room to play (or an older WRT54G V4, V3, V2).
In related news, FON is selling a WRT54GL for $5 + shipping, but with some strings attached. You have to register with them and make it available for their customers' VoIP (failure to results in a $45 surcharge). So if you reflash it, I suspect you would be in violation of their terms.
Difference between WRT54G and WAP54G = $20 and a little work. I wanted to set up MythTv for my home. My internet access is in the back room but I watch myth in the front room. Naturally I went with wireless since the wife didn't want the ugly cables. I went to my local electronics store and bought a 54G not thinking it couldn't be a client. I set it up and home and found out I bought the wrong product rather quickly. Knowing that hacks like this exist for anything with a chip I did a little research and found the SVEASoft firmware. Downloaded it from another site (it's open source, thank you Linksys). I upgraded my firmware and on reboot got a blinking red light. That's when I found out about the term brick. After my heart started beating again, I did another search and found a quick tutorial on how to un-brick your system and first step is to try the Linksys exe (worked like a charm, again thanks Linksys). I then found DD-WRT, installed and worked like a charm. I was a little confused that I had to set my clients name as the same as the wireless server to enable the bridge, but after getting that straight everything worked like a charm. Overall, the potential heart attack was not worth $20, but the satisfaction of buying something, finding out it doesn't work and turning to the open source community for the answer, Priceless.
does it run Windows?
I haven't followed it for a while, but I have a wrt54gs with custom firmware on it. Can the current GS still be flashed, or have they removed that except for the GL line? Considering the bump the GS has in processor and memory, it would be a shame to lose that platform. Just wondering because I haven't done it in a long time.
One Token Ring to Rule them All, One Search Engine to Find Them, One WAN to bring them in, and TCP/IP Bind them...
That says it all -- Mixed reviews is a nice way of putting it. There's been tons of complaints about the VXWorks based WRT54G just flat out not working. broadbandreports, etc. have all sorts of threads that are like "I got a WRT54G and it doesn't work worth a crap.. WTF?" "Is it v5?" "Yep." I had one for a bit...these were the bugs I saw having one running for maybe 2 or 3 days before I ditched it. Then I tried it with newer firmware and it was still not working properly.. then after a while longer waiting for better firmware I returned it.
.. in effect, cutting off anything from using the access point until I hooked up by ethernet to resetup the access point. This scrambled the channel, WEP key, and AP name to some random values.
Go in to setup the WEP key etc., and it sometimes would NOT keep the WEP key I had just keyed in.
It has this button to do some kind of autosetup. Tell the setup to ignore this button and it doesn't.. which was OK since it was in a basement away from anything/anybody bumping the button but not cool otherwise.
As a bonus, sometimes the autosetup would just randomly trigger
I had several B cards that WOULD NOT hook up to the AP. A few would if I forced the AP to B-only mode, but that would disable some other cards from working (besides dropping the speed).
When it was working it was very slow. I don't know if this is solveable, it just doesn't have much RAM to work with. It also crashed probably once a day.
Well, several of these bugs have been fixed. But it was quite ridiculous to get a v5 of a product and find v1.00.0 firmware in it. They're up to 1.00.9 now, the amount of bugs they fixed is quite astounding. I did have the 1.00.2 or possibly 1.00.4 firmware that supposedly fixed interoperability with cards; it doesn't.
At this point if I was stuck with a WRT54Gv5 or 6 I would CERTAINLY try the Linux firmware. It certainly cannot be worse than the VXWorks firmware!
So when can I turn my WRT54G into a PSP? Now that would be a hack!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Yes. And when OS X runs on a Linksys WRT54G we'll call that slick too.
If not now, when?
Amazed, am I, at Linksys's continuing to miss the opportunity to sell a fully featured WRT54G themselves. They could have a knockout product out of the box in that price range that would leave the competition scrambling, but persist in sticking to a basic, no frills configuration.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
yes - no, I didn't RTFA.
I hope I didn't brain my damage.
Ummmm, so does any computer that has a WiFi NIC and a wired ethernet NIC. So, what's your point? Did your Mac cost you $60 bucks? Is it fanless and small? Yeah, I could spend $500-$3000 for a Mac and just use it to route and bridge my network, but that would make me pretty dumb.
Except it comes with iTunes.
:%s:work:/.:g
It's $20 extra and it has more ram. $20. Why should they bother giving everyone more expensive hardware when only 0.0001% of the consumers will even use the extra ram?
When I read this story on Slashdot, it occured to me how funny the news post was. Print it out and let your parents read it. See how much they get. It's rare to see this many shortcuts and technical terms even on Slashdot, don't you think?
Full Tilt
I work for a small WISP and I've dealt with more than my fair share of WRT54G routers. We began with the WRT54Gv4 router and they were spectacular. They were solid, stable, and only had problems when they were struck by lightning (don't ask...). We distributed many dozens of these routers. To my knowledge, every one of them is still in use today.
Then Linksys released their version 5 of the router. We deployed dozens more of these. We've had two main problems with them: the WAN port loses its ability to communicate with a static IP address (it thinks it's been assigned 0.0.0.0--very helpful); or the WLAN connection permanently ceases to work properly (it still puts out radiation at 2.4GHz but it's just noise). Out of the dozens of these v5 routers we've installed for customers, approximately 25% have been returned to Linksys.
We no longer use Linksys routers for our customers. We sell D-Link WBR-1310 routers instead. It took me a while to get over my initial snobbish elitism (I'd used D-Link's products in the past and they were less than stellar) but now I'm a believer. The WBR-1310 is fantastic. We've put a couple dozen of these in the field and so far there hasn't been one issue among them. D-Link has really cleaned up their act. It also helps that these basic routers are dirt cheap. Even Office Depot sells them for $40-60 so you can imagine what wholesale prices are like...
At home, I'd had different problems with my WRT54Gv5. Basically, any time I tried to use BitTorrent, the router would play hide-and-seek with my network. It didn't matter whether it was LAN or WLAN, the connection would cut out every two minutes. Only a power cycle would bring it back. I've since replaced it with the aforementioned D-Link WBR-1310 and I'm pleased as punch. BitTorrent works faster than ever and I've not yet had to power cycle the thing after two months of punishing use.
So... Mixed reviews? Hardly. The WRT54Gv5 is the least reliable router I've ever used, and I've used a LOT in that price range. It's a bloody shame, too, because Linksys really had something going with the v4 of the same router. If they sold them again, we'd buy a hundred in an instant, with orders for hundreds more down the road. But somehow, I doubt Linksys will ever go back to the v4.
Here's hoping that this new DD-WRT release will ease the pain of so many unfortunate buyers of the WRT54Gv5.
But does it run Windows?
n/t (mostly)
I was hoping that they could get Linux on my little WRT54GC as the firmware on the 54GC is okay- miles better than the old D-Link 802.11b unit I had that bricked, but still could use some more stability and speed.
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
Why can't someone hack something useful like a cheap gigabit 16 port router? The wrt54g is certainly promising for hacking some private vpn wireless connections but other than that it only has 4 ports.
I dream of a powerful 16/24 port gigabit swiich I could load linux on. I could then get IPv6, broadcast, anycast, multicast, and all the other new IPv6 protocols I'd love to play with and customize it to my hearts content. No more proprietary BS.
I'd settle for an 8 port gigabit switch and a 16 10/100 for appliences.
I need all those ports because eventually everything will be hooked into it, routers, phones, stereo, if it's possible I'm going to do it. It's disgusting how all the home user venders are ignoring a feature they could hype.
The last time I looked, the best info seemed to be the seattlewireless.net page. Are there any pages with more info? I haven't had the time or need (so far) to alter it, but eventually...
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Son, we are your parents. Got news for your: it was your parents invented Slashdot.
Does anyone know how much money Linksys might actually save on the downgrade in RAM on the v5? RAM seems so dirtcheap these days, and we are talking about 4 megs difference right? A dollar difference? (No clue on how pricing on embedded systems works..)
59.99 for the WRT-54G at Fry's on sale a few months ago and 20.00 that i donated to the funky haired guy who coded the firmware... the syslog and vpn endpoint components are great and the thing has been up for weeks now without a hiccup...
sig goes here!
Linux needs to have some people focusing on extremely small memory kernels and tools. It's a crying shame that I can't linux on my old Compaq Aero 486/25 with 4 MB Ram. There is a lot of cheap hardware that is more useful with DRDOS that with Linux, and it shouldn't be that way.
...Wait. I thought hackers managed to open a huge hole in the WRT54G that could be bad! I use that specific router as my access point for my rather cumbersome network, with nefarious old school Linksys switches. But whew.
But as I read this article further, I'm glad SOMEONE who had the spare time(enough of it, anyways) to slap Linux on it. Now I just got to get the spare time to finally do it rather than "I think I'll try some Linux on that...oooo, let's play WoW." But I do have a question I'd like answered.
Is the Router soft/firmware that Linux offers better than what is on the firmware already in it(with timely updates)? God, I bet I sound ignorant.
" i r 1337. j00 a l0z3r "
That talk kinda makes you cry, doesn't it?
That's right..cry those nerdly tears
Sweet, cant wait to try it out. Oh wait, theres still no driver available for my laptop -_-;
Since when does being a Socialist mean 'someone who has a different opinion than me'?
Are there any equivalent modifications for Linksys' wireless DSL products? Like, for example, the WAG54G or similar? Over here in the UK, cable only has about 30% coverage, so the vast majority of people have DSL and consequently a WRT54G isn't much use since it doesn't have a built-in DSL modem.
she is just too much of a FOSS fanatic to waste her time on some Linksys related news ... old people are weird.
Perhaps a dollar on each of the SDRAM and flash.
$1/unit adds up fast. $2 a unit even faster.
If they sell a million units a year, that's up to $2M.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
It would cost Linksys a decent amount of money to develop the firmware to unlock the router's potential. Sure, they could adopt one of the existing GPL'ed third party firmwares, but they're still stuck supporting it.
By not offering a fully featured router, they still reap the benefits of that third party firmware without having to support it, and occasionally someone bricks their router and buys a new one from Linksys.
I need a translator for this post.
Or maybe i'm getting old. And I'm 20.
For someone not into wireless, it sounds like Linux hackers just took over the Matrix from [insert evil idiots here].
But wait, that IS what you're trying to say, no?
the linksys/cisco wrt54g is a very common 4 port wired and wireless G router (its a black box thing with a blue front with two antennas sticking up from the back)
this would get your e-machine Xbox PS2 and tivo all online and leave room for that hacker parked outside to get online (with about a dozen of his friends)
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
If only Apple would release an iPod NanoL with Linux preinstalled...that would be sweet!
Then Plug the unit and the PC into a UPS. That should reduce the likelyhood of such an event happening.
And someone that's geeky enough to mess with the router must have a UPS around somewhere that they can temporarily re-task.
does it run HURD?
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
I already have (on backorder) a WRT54GL. I owned a WRT54G (version 5) for a week. What crap! Or put in other terms: the VX works firmware from Linksys suks hard! Example: my old Allied Telesyn 10BaseT hub connected to my DSL modem can shove data around the network at close to 10Mb/s, and through the DSL modem, I can occasionally get broadband at 220KB/s (although 180KB/s is more common). Replacing the old 10BaseT hub with the WRT54G (version5): I am *LUCKY* to get 5 kilobytes per second. Five! And its supposed to be a router, not a hub! So she went back to the store. Latest firmware upgrades didn't cause it to budge one extra bit, and pings to my ISP were all over the map (most were at 3000ms, but would bounce down to 2000ms and in between mostly 2000 - 3000 ms, I would occasionally get 1.7ms ....why? Linksys/Cisco took a good thing and wrecked it. As for me, I'm going for the extra hardware ....if it would only get here some time this year.
I have a WRT54GC (compact version) that does not work with my wired (not wireless) linux box. Will this new fix work, or is it only for wireless and/or only for the non-compact version?
I have just receieved the go ahead to create a proof of concept mesh network with WRT54G routers for a small city. The initial phase will provide coverage for a .5KM radius in a downtown core. I am looking at using the DD-WRT firmware with WRT54GL units.
If we can provide seamless roaming across this entire space, then we will try to expand and provide free roaming wifi VOIP.
What I am asking the slashdot community is what sort of management tools have you used to monitor things like node bandwidth utilization, link integrity, rogue access point detection, signal to noise ratio, uptime, etc.
I am looking at WIFI Manager from Manage Engine:
a nager/index.html?tb/
http://manageengine.adventnet.com/products/wifi-m
Has anybody used this or other tools to monitor a larger scale deployment?
You can find out more about this here -> http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php?t opic=4147.msg29299#msg29299
This is the person this article is about.
Engineers do it with less resistance
For those of us who don't want to drop cash just to install some turbo-charged firmware, check out HyperWRT Thibor. It's a branch of the original GPL source released by LinkSys that has had many features added to it by a long line of developers. It doesn't quite have all the bling that dd-wrt has, but it runs great on my v1.1 with no CPU overload.
BTW, the symptoms of this problem are the wrt54g web interface not responding (or taking forever), DNS timeouts, and all internet access either slowing to a crawl or timing out completely. When the web interface finally responds, the system load average shows as *way* over 1.0.
Kudos to the developers of both projects!
that getting a seperate router to work with DSL was a major pain in the arse if the DSL was pppoa based (as much european stuff is)
a friend of mine is using a linksys nslu2 with a USB DSL modem sucessfully though, maybe thats the way to go.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
the connection problems that the v5 has with the linksys firmware? It has been reported on tomshardware.com that the v5 (both linux and non-linux versions) has issues with evenly sharing bandwidth when more than 16 or so connections exist. It usually happens when you run p2p apps. I wondered what the hell was going on because I was running eMule and when I read the article I happened to have eMule shutdown and as soon as I started it up while downloading from my ISP's news server my bandwidth went from a steady 9% (on a 54mbps link) down to a fluctuating 2%-4%. It would be great if this was able to fix that problem. (Newest firmware from linksys was shown not to help as that was what tomshardware.com tested with).
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
I've had very serious problems with both business and "home" Netgear products. Sloppiness, poor technical support, failure to pay rebates, and other problems.
The only complaint I have about dd-wrt is that it doesn't have a comprehensive firewall rules GUI. You can do port mapping all day long, but something simple like denying all LAN traffic outbound except for a select proxy box is simply not possible. UNLESS of course you use FWBuilder and send your script to iptables. But then you're blind and can't administer it through the dd-wrt GUI. Even the most basic firewall box has this ability. Is there something I'm missing besides the command-line grandeur of iptables?
Where did you get this information from? Without a source, this is hardly deserving of a +5 Informative moderation.
If Cisco feared warranty returns of inoperable routers (due to user's misflashing), why would Cisco release a router running the Linux kernel at all? Why would they release a router that had software which could be modified? It doesn't seem logical to change the model number to something else out of fear of "brick"ed warranty returns unless the WRT54GL is somehow un-"brick"able (which, I'm guessing, it isn't).
Digital Citizen
That's sexp.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What version of a WRT54G did you get and how big is your sample size. It sounds like you suffered either from a v5 unit or a defective item. That sucks, to be sure, but I have several large networks running on these guys and the problems you mention don't manifest themselves there.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I found this out after several hours of wasted time spent analyzing ethereal traces. Sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't forward some higher UDP ports between 10,000 and 20,000 ...a complete crapshoot.
I haven't seen this in the DD-WRT Mantis database. You did file a bug after all that work, right?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Not true. I have a WRT54G v1.1 and have been using DD-WRT v23 Final for several months now without a problem. When I used the "official" linksys firmware, I had to constantly reset the modem every day or so, but not after I installed the DD-WRT firmware. I noticed my bittorrent speeds actually increased when I switched to the dd-wrt firmware. I have it traffic shaping bittorent too, so that it doesn't hog all my cable bandwidth.
I only have 4 computers connected to it (2 wireless, 2 wired) and the speeds are amazing. My mom used to always complain about losing her wireless signal on her laptop when I was using the standard linksys firmware, but not after I switched to DD-WRT. I don't have all the extra features enabled though (maybe that's why it runs fine on my v1.1 cpu).
My main concern with past D-Link products was their power supply. I was running a 624+ for less than 2 years, when it started to act weird. Lost PPP connection every now and then, didn't want to route any traffic through the router (although you could ping the router just fine). After 2 weeks of testing and trying, it turned out, that the router worked just fine with a AP900+ power supply, that I had available. I have 2 other 900AP+ here with connection problems, and I guess it the power supply, too. If you check the forums, you'll read a lot of complaints about the PSU's, so I guess I'm not alone. Another issue is the WEP, that D-Link uses. I does not connect with my Atmel card, my Spectec card, my X-micro dongle or my Skyracer router. Seems like D-Link requires D-Link for encryption. WEP off and I can connect. I'll try WPA at some point, but I'm still uncertain about the new firmware versions (the router is required and I don't want to brick it).
We always get our rebate money from Netgear and every other company. You need to know how to get it. The companies are deliberately involved in fraud, it appears to me. But there is always a way to get paid.
If anyone is interested, I will post instructions for getting rebate money.
Add another bug to this list : v5 doesn't understand GRE encapsulation so you can't connect to a PPTP server if you're behind it. I spent hours with Linksys support and they finally gave me an RMA number. Couple days later I got it back but, to my surprise, it was a v4 !
Plugged it in and it worked right away.
So, if you're too cheap to spend the $10-$20 more for the Linux version, you could just spend hours on the phone with their support and end up with a v4 anyway
Avoid the MS tax, always buy I.B.M. PC's (I Built-it Myself)
This is soooo cool. I am flashing my Linksys right now
and I can't wait to check out the new fea@#*00#&$0
Does taking out VxWorks mean you can now root a virtual machine?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
It's hard to find any mention of this on the dd-wrt site
Perhaps that's because most people don't have any problems? I've got a v1.1 out on extended loan to a friend who's running both PPTP and SSH server on it, and it's solid as a rock even with the latest 6/26 DD-WRT mini multilanguage build. It simply depends on how much you're asking it to do and which build you're using.
I've been lurking at DD-WRT for over a year and depending on which build-du-jour I've played with there have definitely been some occasional issues with slow interface response, inaccurate CPU utilization stats, PPTP not working, etc. With builds from earlier this year, for example, my Buffalo WBR2-G54 (which runs at 200MHz) had problems similar to what you describe. Lately, BrainSlayer and the team seem to have tightened everything up and I have no problems on any of the hardware platforms I use and manage for friends: WRT54G v1.1/v2.2/v3, WRT54GS v2/v2.1/v4, Buffalo WBR2-G54/WHR-G54S, and Belkin F5D7230.
3000+ comments meta-modded. 0 mod points awarded.
Lesson for other meta-suckers: Don't believe the hype!
Outside of the wireless router arena, what other embedded devices are hackable? I would love to find something *cheap* with ethernet, enough ram, onboard flash (for the OS) and a CF socket/IDE (for data storage) that I could turn into a fanless fetchmail-imap server appliance (or even a general purpose server). I did some googling and so far only the soekris stuff looks promising. Any suggestions?
Yeah, Mee too!
Linksys old stuff good. Many moons good service.
Netgear home stuff notorious for lockups and freezes.
Netgear bad NTP robbers. (finally stop)
Stop mean people saying bad things about Linksys!
Has anyone else besides not had a problem with the VxWorks version? I have been running my V5 now for about 6 months with absolutely no trouble. I have installed two firmware updates from Linksys but that was because they were avalible not that anything was wrong with my rotuer. I used to run a FreeBSD box for my router but I switched to the Linksys just to stop myself from doing things like this. I was spending so much time tweaking my router just cause I could. Now my Linksys just sits there and works. It frees up my time to tinker with my development machines both Linux and Windows without my net going up and down. I use the port forwarding to control access from outside my network to the machines and services that I would have normaly all run on my BSD box. Really I just don't see the point execpt for its something to play with.
I use PPTP to connect to the work LAN when I'm telecommuting.
I want a wireless router that will do simple strict priority CoS. I want to set my PPTP traffic as high priority so that I do not experience telecommuting lag when someone else in our house is uploading pictures to flickr or downloading music.
Can this router + the aforementioned linux software do CoS/QoS based on the type of traffic (PPTP)?
Hmm, I hoped that I could make this horrible, buggy router useful and tried to load the Linux code, but all I get is the stupid Linksys error: "Upgrade are Failed!" (sic).
POS. Nuf sed.
Oh well, what the hell...
You are right, Broadcom is one of the least "open-minded" wireless (54) chipset manufacturers.
On the opposite end of the scale, there are Ralink, ZyDAS, and Realtek.
For a reference which chipset is being used in which wireless (54) device, see
http://ralink.rapla.net/
http://zydas.rapla.net/ (mostly USB wireless devices)
http://realtek.rapla.net/
Ralink earns some extra points here for being implemented in a wide variety of devices, like CardBus, MiniPCI and USB wireless, as well as making their own open source drivers available (the latter is true for ZyDAS and Realtek as well).
From any of these URLs, you can reach similar pages for the "lower end" companies, like Conexant and even Broadcom.
Regards,
Walter.
(emacs-sucks '(my-cock))
Wow, I knew it was feature-full but that's amazing.
In order to save our freedom it was necessary to destroy it.
Vim is cool though...