Linksys Adds Linux WRT54G Model Back 318
Glenn Fleishman writes "Last month, Slashdot and others wrote about how the Linksys WRT54G, a popular embedded Linux-based Wi-Fi gateway, had switched to VxWorks's OS for its v5 release. Because the WRT54G has become the standard as a cheap commodity device for building your own platform (like Sveasoft, Fon, and many others), this seemed like a big blow to hackers and developers. If you could still manage to flash the device--not sure if that was possible--it had half the RAM and flash of the v4 model. It turns out Linksys wasn't killing the Linux model. They've released it as the WRT54GL with v4.30.0(US) firmware and will sell it under that name for about $70 retail. It's already in stock and the new firmware is on their GPL software download page. Linux sales represent a few percentage points of their overall volume, based on the Linksys product director's remarks. The lesser quantity of RAM puts money back in their pockets on the mainstream model."
money in the pockets (Score:5, Insightful)
anyone who buys the more expensive model is 90% more likely to load their own firmware *since that is the market it's for*
and Linksys will be a whole lot less responsive to people making warranty claims when they fuckup the firmware flash.
calling tech support and saying "I dunno" what happened is not gonna cut it on these models.. void the warranty, no service for you...
that will undoubtedly keep a few bucks in their pockets from less repairs....
Re:money in the pockets (Score:3, Interesting)
Because seriously, I want to hear you make the business case for allowing returns on models with flashed firmware. What company wants to tie up their helplines with the clueless newbies who will surely start whining after flashing their firmware.
Re:money in the pockets (Score:2)
previously, if I had a standard model, try the svea firmware, and fuck it up... I call linksys and say "it stopped working" and "I didn't do pnuthin" I ship it in, they send a refurb almost immediately. This costs them money.
now-- they can keep a few bucks by asking pointed and expected questions, upgrading the firmware is WHY this machine exists- but undoubtedly not a covered by warranty use. As buying it implies intended use that is not covered by warranty--- and denying the claim
Re:money in the pockets (Score:5, Insightful)
And this, IMO is fair. After all, if you flash it, and you brick it, and then you try to warranty it, you are really cheating Linksys. They are telling you, Hey we will support you UNLESS YOU DO X. So you do X it breaks, and then you claim warranty? That is duplicitous.
It would be like backing over it in your car, and then saying "I dunno what when wrong with it.." The only difference being that Linksys could tell if you backed over it in your car, in this case they cannot. Linksys is a company that exists to make a profit. Bricking your router by doing something non-warranty safe and getting a replacement is unfair to Linksys - big faceless corporation or not.
Re:money in the pockets (Score:5, Interesting)
for that occurence, a common remedy is going to customer service/support, lying, and asking for an exchange under warranty.
2nd- they could NOT release a router where the firmware is not flashable, and stay competitive.
they've closed the loophole, that undoubtedly cost them money unfairly. I applaud the thought..
I think it's cool because it serves two purposes, keeps hardware out there for hackers (original not media definition)
and keeps them from getting burned for experimental failures for which they shouldn't be responsible.
Re:money in the pockets (Score:3, Informative)
The only dead routers I have seen were not killed by the bad flash attempt, but during the resurrection attempts by shorting the wrong pins and frying the flash chip or worse.
Re:money in the pockets (Score:3, Informative)
Not true, most of the time. You can open the box up and short a couple of wires, causing the bootstrap to decide the FLASH is corrupt, and TFTP a new firmware in.
I bricked my 54G last month, and got it back via this method. From reading the forums, at least 90% of failed flash upgrades can be recovered from. There's a reason there are people out on eBay and other places buying bricked routers. They're de-bricking
I spent a lot of time working with (Score:4, Informative)
I am surprised CISCO doesn't do their own Linux adaptation for these boxes. I had no idea they were so popular that they actually would consider a different model for them.
Strangly QoS does not work very well with the latest versions from SveaSoft, as well as SveaSoft now locking downloads to a particular MAC address. I also had trouble getting the newer firmware (Talisman) to work cleanly with my box. I ended up buying a D-Link Gamer [dlink.com] Wireless router and things just worked well. Having built in 1GBPS ethernet, QoS without the configuration headaches of OpenWRT and Linksys was cool. As with all opensource, it's only free if your time is worthless.
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:2)
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:2)
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:2)
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:2)
In fact, I think a lot of the uses for these WRTG boxes tend to be things like bridges just to deal with crappy linux wireless cards.
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:5, Informative)
They have issued DMCA takedown notices and gone to completely unscrupulous lengths to get critics and distributors of 'their' firmware shut down and taken off the net, including accusations of hacking to get individual cablemodem accounts shut down.
The simple fact that they're using MAC-address locking on GPLed software should tell you most of what you need to know about their ethics.
Early on in this whole mess, I posted something that was gently critical of their GPL policy, and instantly had my account revoked. Fortunately, they gave me my $20 back, but then I kept digging and found out what sleazebags they really are.
NOT good people. DON'T give them money.
For more info, check the journal of TheIndividual [slashdot.org].
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:3, Informative)
OpenWRT is good too, but doesn't come with a GUI interface by default. Both DD-WRT and OpenWRT let you install debian ipk files for software compiled for the WRT. That's how you can get a GUI on OpenWRT...
HyperWRT is also one I've heard of that's supposed to be good. Just do some googling
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:3, Interesting)
HyperWRT is designed to be pretty much what Linksys provides, but with a few extra features enabled (why Linksys hides these, I dunno). The main feature which I enjoy is the remote Reboot button, although its pretty stable and I don't need to use it much.
Having an early model of the WRT54GS (the speedboost model, with more RAM), my big concern is how many varations of this hardware have been put on the market. Some flashes are model-dependen
Re:I spent a lot of time working with (Score:3, Informative)
As with most people that are clueless about open source, this line is mindlessly repeated. This closed minded statement completely ignores the fact that many people use open source because 1) it's their hobby, 2) they want something to do with their extra time, 3) enjoy doing something the average joe has not (sense of achievement)....so on and so on. For that mindless statement to have any merit is to assume that no one, anywhere, has any t
Impressive (Score:4, Interesting)
Re-releasing this marked as a Linux device should be commended. Not only are they selling something that they know people have the intent to modify (which is rare in this day and age), but they are also making it noticable that it runs Linux.
I wish more companies would sell things and be ok with people modifying what they paid money for (MS, Sony, Apple, MPAA,...)
THANK YOU CISCO/LINKSYS (Score:3, Insightful)
Linksys - keep up the good philosophy, and I suspect you could become the IBM-PC-like-standard of consumer appliances that anyone's software can run on.
Re:Impressive (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Impressive (Score:2)
Try dd-wrt over sevasoft - version
Re:Impressive (Score:3, Insightful)
This is not quite accurate.
On my recommendation, I would say ten to twenty of these have been bought so far, perhaps more.
I recommend them because they can be hacked to run Linux. To date, to my knowledge, none have been.
Even mine, which I keep buying, which are specifically to play with, I have never yet gotten around to actually putting something else on.
I always end up having to loan it out (as currently) or sell it t
Linux and numbers... (Score:2, Interesting)
Other operating systems? (Score:2, Interesting)
OpenBSD no, NetBSD maybe (Score:3, Informative)
changing the rules (Score:2)
This changes the rules, and is very exciting - I can alreay anticipate a whole new generation of hacks coming out that add everything f
I call it BS (Score:3, Insightful)
We also know, that besides the flash and RAM size difference, there was no other difference between the G and GS versions.
Linksys(or Cisco) decided however in the GS v.4 to castrate it to half the RAM and flash and sell it at the same freaking price as previous versions !! So there was no advantage to buy the GS version instead of the G version ( 60$ instead of 100$).
So pple said, screw the GS, let's go for the G. Well well well, not so fast, since they crippled the G v5 to a puny amount of flash and ram : 8M RAM and 2M flash !! that is unusable with linux even if pple figure out a way to somehow flash linux on it !!
So what was linksys's next move ? release a GL version as the old G router and sell it for 20$ more !! Bastards, i tell you.
In conclusion, they're efectively selling 2 devices : the G and the GS with lower specks for both of them, and they are charging us MORE for the G(GL) and the same price for the GS but with HALF the RAM and HALF the flash.
In other words, WE GOT SCRWED and yet the slashdot editor, paints a rather positive spin on this !!
Way to go guys
Adi
Re:I call it BS (Score:2)
Convenient strategy - establish market share with good products, then significantly lower the quality of the mass-market device. In the meantime, they'll keep the old product around so the geeks are happy - they'll just have to pay for it.
And yet again, the consumer gets screwed.
(before you go off on some capitalism
You forgot one thing. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I call it BS (Score:5, Informative)
If you are going to go on a rant like that, at least get your details right, otherwise you look like a blathering fool. The WRT54GS prior to version 4 (what you get now thru retail channels) had 8 meg of flash, 32 meg of ram. The G models had 4 meg flash, and 16 meg of ram. I always wondered why linksys did this, because the GS never did use the extra ram or flash, but I certainly use it on a lot of my installations. The GS models now come with 4 meg of flash, and 16 meg of ram, same as the G always had. I'm not surprised, thier firmware doesn't need the extra hardware, why put it on the boards to begin with ?
I've got about 200 WRT54G and 800 WRT54GS in the field. Have I been screwed by linksys ? Well, if you call putting out a thousand edge devices for well under $100 each being 'screwed', well, then I got screwed, and, please, do it again. this is the kind of screwing we really enjoy. But, before this deployment started, we did have questions about product availability and lifespan, questions we asked directly of linksys. The answers were as expected, the basic non answer one expected. Comparing our options, we chose to accept this risk, and started the deployment about 18 months ago, averaging a little over 50 a month since then, and still going strong. the point is, we did the risk analysis before starting deployment, and accepted the product change cycle risk as a possible point in the future that would break our plan. so far, it's not been a problem, we've been able to keep pace with the product change cycle.
The WRT54G product has allowed me to leverage the manufacturing might of linksys, onto a highly customized platform with our own in house firmware, and deploy a LOT of very capable routers, and a previously unheard of price point, buying for under $100 each. If I had used cisco equipment, and contracted 'cisco experts', the total cost would be well over a million dollars spent today, and, in all honesty, it would never have happened, our budget didn't have that kind of money to spend. I didn't use cisco 'experts' to design the network, I designed it myself. I started with OpenWRT, set up my own package repository on a server in our data center, and built up a custom package set that meets our needs. I've got a thousand routers spread across north america, every one of them religiously checking for firmware updates on a centralized server twice a day. They all have full time vpn connections running, and, the net result is a wide area network that gives all my small locations a full time connection to the corporate network, using a cheap dsl or cable connection from local sources. It's transparent to the offices, nobody at the offices has to fuss with vpn on thier pc's, and, we get wifi thrown in as a bonus. Sales staff LOVE it, they show up at any office, and voila, instant connection over wifi. The hardware cost to date, is just under $100K, and, within the company, I'm a hero for even coming up with the idea, never mind having it implemented and deployed.
The upcoming WRT54GL is good news for me, because it shows that linksys is validating the model we are using. I would have been much happier if the GL had the 8/32 form factor, could care less about the SpeedBooster tho. My supplier has quoted me the GL platform at about $10 less than what my last batch of GS V4.0 cost, so, the price break is gonna be noticed/appreciated here. If the GL was 10 dollars more instead of 10 dollars cheaper, I'd still be happy.
I dont have a lot of patience for folks that bitch about how linksys handles the WRT54 product line. They produce and put into the retail chain a router that's an ideal hardware platform for numerous edge device roles. They leverage thier manufacturing and distribution ability to get that thing to us at a sub $100 price point, even paying full retail. I dont believe for a minute that I'm the only one deploying these things at a tremendous rate to get 'real work' done, at a ver
Re:Unfortunately force is present but not obvious. (Score:3, Insightful)
What force, gravity? Dark Energy?
Does Linksys have some monopoly on the ability to build routers? No, anyone is welcome to start building a competing product at any time for a lesser price. The fact that no one has may be evidence that in fact this is still a very good value. Who are we to say how much is a reasonable profit for Linksys to make off of these routers? What if they have determined that their support costs for the Linux router
If only it wouldn't lockup (Score:3, Informative)
I had the very problem you speak of (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If only it wouldn't lockup (Score:2)
That seems like a good reason for trying new firmware.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Impressive - especially as a WRT54G owner (Score:4, Informative)
I reccomended this model to everyone I knew - we use them at work now, and employees at work have bought them now on my reccomendation. I sent linksys an email thanking them for the GPLed version, and letting Linksys know I was reccomending this model to people.
I was dissapointed with the recent story of the non-linux version, however, with the release of the GL version, I am very impressed by Linksys indeed. Yes, it will probably cost a little more due to the better ram, but hey, I WANT the better ram! (Still seriously considering the flashcard hack...)
For those who care, my router runs:
dd-wrt version
WRTBlog [hetos.de]
Uses SMB to save information to one of my network machines
Uses SNMP and MRTG (on network machine) to monitor bandwith (on top of bwlog)
These are worthy additions to your WRT. I am considering purchasing another and running kismet on it for wardrivng.
-- So, thank you Linksys, for releasing the source, and maintaining the WRT line.
Arg, mixed copy paste - should have previewed (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.dd-wrt.com/ [dd-wrt.com]
dd-wrt [dd-wrt.com]
Re:Impressive - especially as a WRT54G owner (Score:2)
This is true, and I knew it prior to buying - but that does not change the fact that they HAVE released the code, and look at what has happened - if you check out their downloads page there is MORE than just the WRT54G in there, and they have even rolled some of the hacks back into the official releases. The GPL contains the clauses it does so comp
Re:Impressive - especially as a WRT54G owner (Score:2)
Linksys obviously looked the situation and decided that they could actually get good press by releasing the GPL code with everything needed to get it going, and made it easy for us.
See, Linksys might only se
Management Mode (Score:4, Informative)
One nice feature (which unfortunatly didn't work with mine) is the 'Management Mode' It allows you to put the router in a special mode to re-flash, even if the existing firmware is corrupt. Has a bare-bones web interface to upload the file. Handy.
Too bad mainstream appears to also mean 'cheap, unreliable parts' too...
About semiconductor failure rates (Score:5, Informative)
I can't say I disagree with you, but as I work for a semiconductor manufacturer, I would like to expand on what 'unreliable' means in this case.
Actually, most consumer electronics devices are 'unreliable' in the sense that they experience relatively high failure rates (compared to, say, telecommunications infrastructure devices). This is a result of the (lack of) burn in done before the parts are deployed. Simply stated, it is cheaper to have consumer electronics fail in the field than to burn in all of the parts before-hand. This is not unique to Linksys.
Consumer devices are generally 250 FIT or higher for early failure rate [first year]. A FIT (failure in time) is the ratio of failed devices (in parts per million) to running time (in thousands of power on hours [kpoh])... so 250 FITS translates into 2500 parts per million (ppm) failing after 10 kpoh. That's really reasonable for consumer devices (0.25% failure in the first year). The average failure rate over the life of the consumer semiconductor (probably rated for 100K or 200K poh) is around 100 FITS.
As a side note, telecommunications devices are generally a higher standard, with early failure rate below 65 FIT and average failure rate below 25 FIT. The burn-in required to reduce the failure rate (since most of the failures occur early in the lifecycle, stress testing a part early on can trigger many of the early failures) costs a bundle of money, and can add enough expense to a part to eliminate the entire profit margin on a consumer device. Of course, for more important applications (telecom, brake systems in vehicles, medical equipment), higher reliability parts are used.
So yes, 'mainstream' (actually 'low margin and low risk in case of failure') does mean lower quality, but please don't bash the manufacturers too hard for it. Economics forces their hand, and the result is the system that is set up to take the returns, as you experienced.
Could this be a thin client computer? (Score:2)
Linksys is ruining their reputation (Score:5, Interesting)
Boy was I wrong. Many sites, such as: http://www.tmobile.com/ [tmobile.com] http://www.realtor.com/ [realtor.com] and http://www.gamespot.com/ [gamespot.com] all had great difficulty loading. It turns out a **LOT** of other people are having the same problem with the Version 5 WRT54G [dslreports.com].
My longstanding issue was finally escalated to Linksys Customer Support (you will be escalated to Customer support after dealing with Technical support). At Customer Support, they RMA'd my v5 router, and replaced it with a v4 router. I demanded that they replace it with a v4 router, and I noted that a *LOT* of people on this bulletin board are having the EXACT same problem.
I have literally spent hours trying to solve this problem on the v5 router. As soon as I plugged the v4 router in, my problems were solved!
Of course, Linksys being a company that enjoys wasting their customers' time by not even admitting a problem, you will be forced to pay for shipping charges. No matter that the item is clearly flawed by engineering defects to begin with. I will never, ever, consider buying a Linksys in the future. What a mistake I made thinking they were a premium brand. The fact that they are going to sell a version that finally works as it should, under a different model number and at a higher price, rather than fix the WRT54G Version 5 tells me that they are not interested in providing a quality product. I hope their strategy blows up in their face!
Re:Linksys is ruining their reputation (Score:3, Interesting)
The site you mention had about 3-4 people with a problem. So that does not equate to a lot. Hell, there are only 15-20 posts in the thread, and most are trying to help the same three people.
Although I work for a cell carrier(bandwidth is bandwidth), I have been doing networking consulting since the mid 90s, about 12 years total. And I keep very detailed records of everything. I have installed 87 linksys r
Re:Linksys is ruining their reputation (Score:2)
You may have installed 87 Linksys routers in the 12 years you've been keeping records, but how many of them were WRT54G, Version 5? All the prior versions worked great, it's just that Linksys is now selling hobbled r
Re:Linksys is ruining their reputation (Score:2)
Why not? The computer is a hand me down, most Windows consultants have MSDN subscriptions or the Action Pack, and generally answer surveys and such that net them another copy of copies a year. I have about 5 NFR copies in a drawer at home.
I run ISA Server 2004 using Windows 2003, on a Athlon XP.
I play with Linux and Windows equally.
Re:Linksys is ruining their reputation (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes,... (Score:2, Funny)
Similar embedded platforms (Score:3, Informative)
I have always wondered why people who buy the WRT54G to run customized firmwares don't show as much interest as in similar embedded platforms [gumstix.com], which are in the same price range ($70 to $130), have a similar or superior hardware config [1], and allow a similar level of customization. So why the WRT54G interest you, but not those embedded platforms ?
[1] Actually those platforms even seem more attractive (faster CPU, more RAM, bluetooth, MMC, etc), the only downside is that, of course, they don't provide 5 ethernet ports, but only 1 or 2.Re:Similar embedded platforms (Score:2)
That being said, I'd probably rush out and buy a Gumstix if they came out with a Wifi daughtercard. The CF wifi solution is bulkier than I'd like.
Re:Similar embedded platforms (Score:5, Insightful)
The wrt comes 'off the shelf' for about $70 (depending on where you buy it), comes in a nice little case, complete with power supply, 5 ethernet ports, wifi, antennas, and as a bonus, inside the box is a 6' ethernet cable and a nice coaster (cd). If you are going thru enough of them (I have over 1000 in the field), you will never run out of 90 day 'free trials' for an anti virus, every one of those coasters has one of those too.
I use the wrt as an edge device, loaded with my own custom firmware specific to our network. It can go out to any location, and they just plug it in. When it 'wakes up' at the new location, it brings up a vpn link back to head office. Voila, instant access to locations from the arctic down to locations in mexico. It's solid state, not a power hunger computer, and gives me all the flexibility I need in a custom linux edge device.
With the numbers I have in the field, it's important to look at the 'total cost deployed', not just the sticker price on the 'basic item before necessary add-ons'. If I could deploy gumstix at even double the cost of using wrt54, I probably would, but I cant. the reality is, I can put 3 WRT routers into a location for about what it would cost to build up a gumstix with ethernet and wifi, and it still needs an external switch to give multiple ports.
The WRT54 has yet one more fabulous redeeming feature. It's available EVERYWHERE. On more than one occaision, instead of shipping a pre-configured router, i've had somebody run to the local computer store, buy a wrt54, take it back to the office, plug it into a dsl connect and give me remote admin access. 10 minutes later, it's re-flashed, and they have a highly customized router that automatically integrates into the bigger picture corporate network.
Bottom line, gumstix and wrt54 are not similar platforms. gumstix is a hackers toy, meant for hardware hackers that want to do thier own soldering to hook it up to stuff. WRT54 is a complete/finished edge device, ready to go, out of the box, just add firmware.
Linux not so good for embedded systems (Score:2, Interesting)
Even with Wind River's per-unit royalties and upfront charges, Linksys finds it necessary to avoid the "free" OS to reduce cost.
Other routers can run linux... (Score:3, Informative)
The deals are out there. You just have to know what you're looking for.
Why buy this over a WRT54GS (Score:4, Informative)
So to anyone looking to buy this router, consider the WRT54GS. With more ram and storage, you can do more things with it. All for about the same price.
Also, avoid Sveasoft at all costs. They are slimy. I still haven't been refunded my money after I canceled my automatically-renewing annual protect, I mean firmware access, fee. They promised they would, but a month later and several unanswered e-mails and I'm still out my $20 bucks. Next week I'll lodge a complaint with paypal.
For the best capabilities, use openwrt. it rocks! I've done so much more with it than I did with sveasoft, thanks to having a small writable partition to place scripts and so forth, instead of just having to use the nvram.
WTF? (Score:2)
Why create an unnecessary point of discontinuity in the product line? They should have kept linux on the WRT54G, and called the VxWorks model the "WRT54GSUX"
WRT54GS models are good, get model up to v3.0 (Score:3, Informative)
The latest GS version v4.0 has half the ram (4 & 16 instead of 8 and 32), but the store had mine and even a few 2.0 models mixed in for those who bothered to check the serial on the outside of the box.
I am running dd-rt v.23 right now, because it is free AND very easy to use, as well as modular (uses ipkg capabilities from openwrt). OpenWRT probably does more but needs more setup. I have been playing with the extra features, checking out all the software people like to use, and enjoying connecting via command line to check and change stuff in addition to browser access.
The G model was also on rebate, for a little less, but again the latest version isnt as good, in fact G version 5.0 doesnt use Linux, and getting a lower model revision required reading a lot of boxes (*or letting the store employees help-- I chased off 3 before I decided to let them help read serials after all)
William
IPv6 (Score:3, Insightful)
The lack of IPv6 on consumer routers is the single greatest hurdle to wider IPv6 adoption.
Imagine for a moment if
Suddenly all machines behind all of those users have globally unique IPv6 addresses. The easy P2P access that is suddenly available would revolutionize the Internet and light a fire under IPv6. Sadly there is no immediate profit for the NAT/firewall/router vendors in it, and this firmware change represents a sad step in the wrong direction such that - even if a killer app came out for IPv6 that made this desirable - the possibilty of providing an easy IPv6 upgrade for the average users' NAT frouters is now dissolving.
Re:IPv6 (Score:3, Insightful)
NAT came about because of a percieved shortage of ipv4 address space, it was a 'kludge' developed as an interim solution prior to wide acceptance of ipv6. The real issue since then, it
Re:IPv6 (Score:5, Insightful)
being on a public ipv6 addrss is much safer than on a public ipv4 address simply because the hit rate of random attacks is about 16 billion billion times lower. but yes there is still the possibility of targeted attacks (e.g. by a server you connect to) and windows is shitty enough to make running it on a network that is end to end open require care.
but anyway you can have a no incoming connections unless i specify otherwise policy perfectly easilly without having nat.
say for example you wan't to be able to admin all your boxes remotely with ssh. it would seem far more convinaiant to be able to just say "allow ssh from theese ips" once rather than making a mapping for every single machine and trying to memorise which port maps to ssh on which machine.
and besides if someone really wants to get into any nontrivial sized network its probablly not that hard to get a box on the inside.
Re:IPv6 (Score:3, Informative)
The original poster was premised on using ipv6 for peer to peer. That basically invalidates your discovery arguement, no random probes thru address space required. Just join the p2p network, and wait for the machine to tell you where it's located. Ip discovery problem solved.
As for the overall security, you misunderstood the whole concept. Nat is not the only l
To everyone recommending DD-WRT (Score:3, Interesting)
Asus WL-500G Deluxe (Score:3, Informative)
"Linux Model" (Score:3)
But if they are going to make a Linux version, then it's a fairly foregone conclusion that people intend to hack on it. They should, therefore, make it more hack-friendly in the process. Add a CF slot to the device! Mark it up accordingly as I am sure people will buy the heck out of those.
Re:Difference between versions? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Difference between versions? (Score:2)
Unless you're considering v to be a unit of measure, at which point it would better syntax to place the v at the end of the amount, rather than at the front.
Re:Difference between versions? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:open (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:open (Score:2)
Of course my laptop will only last 2 or 3 hours, but I can plug it into the UPS too when the laptop battery dies. I figure I can get maybe 4 hours total off the one UPS. 6 to 8 hours if I buy the addon battery pack for my UPS (Back-UPS RS 1500)
Re:open (Score:2)
Re:open (Score:4, Insightful)
um... you are joking right? Having a linux kernel on the router is great. It means being able to write iptables processing rules for your packets.
It gives you alot of flexibility beyond just being a firewall and ip masquerader. Plus you can do great things if you care about security. Syslog to a loghost dropped packet logs maybe?
Admittedly your setup will work just as well, but this is sleak and can be easily deployed and maintained.
-Steve
Re:open (Score:3, Insightful)
The $10 crappy PC is cheap - but one faulty part and it'll be as expensive as the router again. And the router is small, it is quiet (no fan or harddrive), and you'll save enough on your electric bill compared to a whole PC that I really wonder if the PC is worth it at all.
Re:open (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:open (Score:2)
Not to mention the original poster also put across "value add" with using a PC, in that it can do more for you.. That has to have a 'value' associated with it.
Re:open (Score:5, Interesting)
We mount them in outdoor enclosures for use as access points or as small deployable routers/firewalls for fiber set ups.
However they are rather pricey (250 - 450 dollars a pop) so still a lot less than comparable cisco hardware, but still too expensive to drop on the porch of a customer.
The question I've had for a while is whether or not I can as a distributor legaly hack a linksys router and drop our own distro on it, and give those out to customers. At a much more affordable price.
I called linksys the other day but the lady I talked to had no idea and never called me back
~Anders
Re:open (Score:2)
I dont see why NOT, once you own the router, you can back over it in your car if you want to. Just dont expect any kind of support from Linksys - but for your hardware dollar savings, the lack of warranty support will likely be worth it.
Re:open (Score:5, Insightful)
> linksys router and drop our own distro on it, and give those out to customers.
Depends on which hack you install. Hyperwrt is a modified copy of the Linksys code. While the linux binaries and a lot of the other stuff is licensed under the GPL, you might want to make sure it ALL is. Openwrt on the other hand is plain old linux. No licensing problems there at all.
As for the other reply about a EULA, ignore that guy. You are buying hardware. Hardware IS sold and not licensed. Yes there is software embedded in it, but you are planning on blanking that out before you resell it so that is a moot point. The day a judge says a piece of hardware sold over the counter at Walmart is bound by an unsigned EULA is the day I declare the Revolution to have begun and load up my 'sporting goods'.
Re:open (Score:2)
So any other OSS firmware would do. But you won't be able to hack the firmware on the new model.
While I'm not really happy with the price
Re:open (Score:3, Interesting)
Fair point, but it is more than a firewall, it is ALSO a router. The stock version does not, for example support SNMP (yes, I know about the problems with SNMP) - and, as another poster pointed out, you can custom script IPTables on it. Heck, you can even run SNORT on it, and who knows, possibly HOGWASH. [sourceforge.net]
But lets say you do use it for a mail ser
Re:open (Score:3, Interesting)
It's all part of the Melbourne Wireless Router Project (MWRP) and is detailed more at:
http://melbourne.wireless.org.au/wiki/?MelbWireles sRouterProject [wireless.org.au]
We currently use it in a number of places, and it can be used in both PC based systems, and the WRT54G APs.
Re:open (Score:3, Interesting)
They lock up like mad, buckle when you try to save config changes, refuse to do pppoe properly after a few hours of runtime, god, my list of complainst goes on.
I did not know this, but it sure as fuck explains a lot. I don't care if it runs linux or not, I just want it to run right, and the linu
Re:open (Score:2)
Re:open (Score:2)
Re:open (Score:2, Informative)
Re:GOOD! (Score:2)
Re:GOOD! (Score:2)
What do you want to use the router for? If the default features work okay for you, and you don't need things like WDS, routable subnets, QoS, you are better of staying put.
Re:GOOD! (Score:2, Informative)
Actually using this method, you can reload a Microsoft MN-700 game router with OpenWRT, and it turns into quite a good wireless router.
Just my $0.02.
Re:GOOD! (Score:5, Informative)
Just do a little reasearch on your specific model, so you know exactly which version you have. Then, install dd-wrt for your model of router. In fact, if you post your exact model of router here I am fairly certain a kindly slashdotter will give you the specific version required. (As long as they are not trolling, heck, if you reply to this I will even tell you what specific version of dd-wrt binary you need) I have flashed a number of WRT's, each with dd-wrt and the directions here are the best:
dd-wrt flashing guide [bsr-clan.de]
If you are paranoid make certain to wait the two min suggested after clicking the upload, and then ok buttons. That is it, you are good to go.
Re:GOOD! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:GOOD! (Score:4, Informative)
On hindsight, OpenWRT would have been a better choice, but for the minimally-enhanced functionality I was looking for (wds and a shell), sveasoft is dead easy. Yes, you run a risk and void your warranty. But you only go around once, eh?
Make sure your chosen firmware version is known to work on your particular linksys hardware. Here [linksysinfo.org] is a good page outlining the differences in Linksys versions. Sveasoft Alchemy doesn't specifically support my version but I found a reference of someone doing it, and it does work for me.
Good luck / happy hacking, and if you mess up, you want to search for the work "debricking"
Re:GOOD! (Score:5, Informative)
I prefer the dd-wrt firmware because it has the nice web based frontend plus the ablitity like OpenWRT to install extra software and do intresting things.
Here is an Install Page [bsr-clan.de] for the router and once you get it going you can really see what it does. It's awsome. You can use the routers web based frontend without even really having to see the backend but it's still there for those who like to tinker.
Install the v23 beta then Head over here to get ipv6 working [solosoft.org] this is cool cause it works with a popular free ipv6 tunneling provider. It's so easy to get running and once it's up on the router the clients are easy as pie to setup. "modprobe ipv6" (linux) or "ipv6 install" (windows XP) to get it fired up. He.net gives you 18 quintillion IP's so that should be satisfactory for your small to big LAN.
Solosoft
Re:Can't afford it? (Score:2)
My wife is a demon on Fat Wallet
Can you say Com-POOZA? (Score:2)
That's pronounced Com-POOZA.
$2.99 is expensive, I thought. These days I expect to get something free after rebate, or actually be paid to take something. *grin*
If ever you don't get a rebate, call them up and use the F word. Fraud. That causes low-paid rebate center employees to quit, and costs the fraudsters money to hire someone else.
Re:GOOD! (Score:5, Informative)
DD-WRT is just as feature-rich (if not more) than sveasoft, and doesn't play sveasoft's silly games with their firmware source code, the GPL, and banning people on their forums. Sadly I can no longer recommend sveasoft to any of my friends with linksys routers.
N.
Re:GOOD! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Percent Linux sales (Score:2)
You forgot that there a lot more routers out there than WRT54Gs (and people with no router)... You need to factor the percentage of internet users with WRT54Gs into you calculations. I expect that it represents less than 20% (less than 10? 5?) of the internet population.
Re:Percent Linux sales (Score:2)
Re:Percent Linux sales (Score:2)
Re:speaking of routers... (Score:2)