Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
Ben Scott writes: > On 3/25/07, David A. Long wrote: > > Has anyone looked into mini PCI (type III) crypto cards, or otherwise > > made modifications to the WRT54GL hardware? The radio hardware in the > > box is on its own removable mini PCI card and presumably could be > > replaced with a crypto card. > > Interesting idea. I like it. > > One problem: I think LinkSys long ago stopped using modular radio > hardware with the WRT54G series. It's all soldered on to the PCB now. > Even on the "L" sub-series models. You'd have to find one of the old > WRT54G v1 units to get a mPCI slot. I think. If it helps, a Soekris box has a free mini-PCI slot... Regards, --kevin -- GnuPG ID: B280F24E Never could stand that dog. alumni.unh.edu!kdc -- Tom Waits ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Mar 25, 2007, at 16:25, Ben Scott wrote: You'd have to find one of the old WRT54G v1 units to get a mPCI slot. I think. There are other brands that run the *WRT line. One that comes to mind is Asus's WL-500g, which has a Mini-PCI radio: http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx? modelmenu=2&model=1121&l1=12&l2=43&l3=0 Most of the distro projects have a hardware support list. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 New Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On 3/25/07, David A. Long <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Has anyone looked into mini PCI (type III) crypto cards, or otherwise made modifications to the WRT54GL hardware? The radio hardware in the box is on its own removable mini PCI card and presumably could be replaced with a crypto card. Interesting idea. I like it. One problem: I think LinkSys long ago stopped using modular radio hardware with the WRT54G series. It's all soldered on to the PCB now. Even on the "L" sub-series models. You'd have to find one of the old WRT54G v1 units to get a mPCI slot. I think. -- "One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me" -- Rush, "Far Cry" ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Mon, 2007-03-12 at 21:33 -0400, Jarod Wilson wrote: > On Mar 12, 2007, at 16:28, Ben Scott wrote: > > There are some LinkSys bitty boxes which supposedly have crypto > > accelerators in them, and some of them are listed on the OpenWRT > > pages, but I don't know if the crypto hardware is supported. > > I looked into boxes w/IPSec crypto acceleration maybe six months ago. > At the time, none of them ran OpenWRT and none of them were > particularly inexpensive, so I just moved vpn duties onto a > substantially more powerful system. If something runs OpenWRT, can do > hardware crypto, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, that'd be slick... Has anyone looked into mini PCI (type III) crypto cards, or otherwise made modifications to the WRT54GL hardware? The radio hardware in the box is on its own removable mini PCI card and presumably could be replaced with a crypto card. Since my firewall is in the basement I had already planned to use other WRT54GL's as dedicated wifi access points upstairs. -dl ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Mar 12, 2007, at 16:28, Ben Scott wrote: On 3/12/07, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: And it made me cry, watching how pitiful the throughput was when using an ipsec vpn client running on the wrt. :) Ouch. Yah, it's like a 200 MHz CPU, and it's optimized for low-power, not performance. I'm surprised it's even usable. I didn't have particularly high expectations, it was more "hey, why not try this, since I have a wrt54gs that's been sitting doing absolutely nothing for a year or so". Now its back to sitting around doing nothing. I seem to recall getting ~400kbps throughput with vpnc, 1.5Mbps with openswan (hooking to a Cisco vpn concentrator). The openswan number isn't terrible, until you consider that with something that can keep up with the crypto demands, I can usually move 10Mpbs+ over our vpn... :) There are some LinkSys bitty boxes which supposedly have crypto accelerators in them, and some of them are listed on the OpenWRT pages, but I don't know if the crypto hardware is supported. I looked into boxes w/IPSec crypto acceleration maybe six months ago. At the time, none of them ran OpenWRT and none of them were particularly inexpensive, so I just moved vpn duties onto a substantially more powerful system. If something runs OpenWRT, can do hardware crypto, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, that'd be slick... -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP.sig Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
Ben Scott wrote: > On 3/12/07, Ted Roche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> But would non-owners be getting bored with all this purple-and-black >> stuff? > > Tsk. They're clearly blue. ;-) > I was only allowed the 8 big fat crayons in school, so I don't know what you call it. I've referred the issue to my expert color commentator and she tells me the proper color name is 'periwinkle.' -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On 3/12/07, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: And it made me cry, watching how pitiful the throughput was when using an ipsec vpn client running on the wrt. :) Ouch. Yah, it's like a 200 MHz CPU, and it's optimized for low-power, not performance. I'm surprised it's even usable. There are some LinkSys bitty boxes which supposedly have crypto accelerators in them, and some of them are listed on the OpenWRT pages, but I don't know if the crypto hardware is supported. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
tsk... obviously they're Linksys-colored. --DTVZ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
Ben Scott wrote: > On 3/12/07, Ted Roche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> But would non-owners be getting bored with all this purple-and-black >> stuff? > > Tsk. They're clearly blue. ;-) > I was only allowed the 8 big fat crayons in school, so I don't know what you call it. I've referred the issue to my expert color commentator and she tells me the proper color name is 'periwinkle.' -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Monday 12 March 2007 11:21:18 Ben Scott wrote: > On 3/12/07, Drew Van Zandt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I just wanted to change the *(@#$&^)%# subnet mask on the box to > > 255.255.0.0 instead of being limited to their list. > > 24 bits of netmask should be enough for anyone. ;-) > > > hyperWRT ... doesn't appear to have SNMP support > > ... I'd like to monitor per-port bandwidth ... > > OpenWRT has a metric crapload of packages which appear in the > "available to be installed" list. SNMP, Radius, Samba, Asterisk, all > sorts of stuff. > > You should like it, ipkg is based on dpkg/apt. ;-) > > I did see that the X-WRT/Webif^2 package I installed added all sorts > of really pretty looking graphs in the web UI. I didn't really get > further than going "Ohhh, pretty" yet, but I think bandwidth > utilization was in there. Yup, its there. And it made me cry, watching how pitiful the throughput was when using an ipsec vpn client running on the wrt. :) -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
I was far lazier than that - I put a line in my startup script doing an appropriate ifconfig. --DTVZ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Mon, 2007-03-12 at 10:57 -0400, Drew Van Zandt wrote: > I just wanted to change the *(@#$&^)%# subnet mask on the box to > 255.255.0.0 instead of being limited to their list. If you feel like using ssh to connect to the box, I would expect nvram show | grep -i mask to show something like: lan_netmask=255.255.255.0 wan_netmask=255.255.255.0 You should be able to change the mask nvram set lan_netmask=255.255.0.0 nvram get lan_netmask and check for typos! nvram commit save to flash. When you reboot, you should be in business. DISCLAIMER: I've only used ssh with the STOCK linksys install, OpenWRT, and sveasoft. If hyperWRT looks to have dramatically changed things quit while you're ahead. > I'll be switching > from hyperWRT soon, though, since it doesn't appear to have SNMP > support and I'd like to monitor per-port bandwidth. I believe several > of the others will do that. (Correct me if I'm wrong on HyperWRT and > SNMP, though, maybe I just haven't figured out how to turn it on.) > > --DTVZ > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp. 1 Court Street, Suite 378 Lebanon, NH 03766-1358 voice: 603-653-8139 fax:320-210-3409 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Sun, 2007-03-11 at 16:19 -0400, Ben Scott wrote:
> Hi everybody!
>
> I was asked off-list about my experience with OpenWRT. I asked if
> an on-list message was okay, and it was. So:
>
> I have a LinkSys WRT54G, Hardware Version 2, at home. As many know,
> these boxes run Linux internally, and third-party firmware has been
> developed to greatly extend their feature set. Llyod Kvam recently
> spoke at the Nashua chapter [1] about doing this for his own purposes,
> and that's what gave me the impetus to finally try it out.
>
> Picking a Project
> -
>
> There are several different third-party firmware projects. OpenWRT,
> DD-WRT, HyperWRT, Sveasoft, and others. I did a little Googling,
> trying to figure out which was best for my purposes. I eventually got
> the impression that OpenWRT was well-supported and very "modular" --
> it's built around the idea of a small base system plus optional
> packages, just like a "regular" Linux distribution. So I went that
> way.
I was in a hurry when I picked OpenWRT. A quick read indicated that it
would do the firewall job I was tackling. I also noticed that they were
targeting a fairly large list of devices.
>
> Installation
>
>
> Installation was ludicrously simple. I went to the OpenWRT home
> page (http://openwrt.org/), clicked "Download", downloaded the release
> for my box, and uploaded it using the LinkSys stock web UI. The box
> rebooted, and was now running the OpenWRT firmware. It even preserved
> my old configuration!
I glossed over the installation because it was so simple.
The configuration based on "magic" nvram variables is extremely simple.
OpenWRT clearly stuck with the basic Linksys approach.
My config was based on bridging the Internet to the LAN rather than
routing with NAT. I split the 4 port LAN into an Internet side and a
LAN side.
For general use as a bridging filter, it would be better to discard the
WAN routing and bridge the Internet port to the LAN ports with the
appropriate filters. That would have required more extensive changes to
the startup scripts. However the labels on the box ports would have
reflected the real processing going on.
>
> Well, okay, I read some documentation first, because that's the kind
> of guy I am. But that was the conclusion I reached.The only
> tricky part was picking which firmware was what.
>
> Picking the Firmware
>
>
> Short version: Go to the OpenWRT home page, click "Download", click
> "Default", find the file name that matches your model name, and grab
> that.
>
> Long version:
>
> There are multiple base images, with different functionality
> included. This is apparently done mainly for the newer LinkSys boxes
> (V5 and later), which don't have enough marbles for a complete kit.
> If you've got a V4 or or older WRT54G, or a WRT54GL, you can just use
> the "default" (I guess sometimes called "bin") base image.
>
> There are two firmware file formats, TRX and BIN. These days, I
> gather you can just use the BIN provided for your model. (I guess it
> used to matter more, but things have improved, and now it doesn't.)
>
> There was also mention of JFFS vs SquashFS images. I gather this is
> also obsolete these days. At the least, the pre-built images are all
> just "squashfs".
>
> There's also all this stuff about version numbers and mixed drinks.
> Just use "whiterussion/0.9", which is the current stable release.
> (The mixed drinks are tags for the release milestones.)
>
> Configuration
> -
>
> There is no stock password. To set the password, you telnet to the
> box. It automatically logs you in to a root shell prompt. You then
> run "passwd" like you normally would. In addition to setting the
> password, this also disables Telnet and enables SSH. The default
> firewall *does* block everything coming in from the WAN/Internet side,
> so you at least need to be on the LAN in order to do this.
>
> As I mentioned above, OpenWRT preserved the configuration I had
> created with the stock LinkSys firmware. Apparently, OpenWRT
> understands and uses the same NVRAM syntax as LinkSys. So
> configuration was already largely "done".
>
> More Installation
> -
>
> The OpenWRT web interface ("webif") had some, but not all, of the
> basic configuration elements of the LinkSys web UI. But I quickly
> found reference to something called X-WRT and Webif² (Webif^2). X-WRT
> is an overlay distribution (think atrpms, rpmforge, etc.) for OpenWRT.
> Webif² is a *much* more powerful web UI. To install it, you just
> issue this command at the OpenWRT root prompt:
>
> ipkg install http://ftp.berlios.de/pub/xwrt/webif_latest_stable.ipk
>
> One auto-reboot later (they did warn of this), and I was presented
> with the new-and-improved Webif² UI.
>
> The web UI does provide a menu-driven list of available packages,
> with options to install them, so even ke
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Mar 12, 2007, at 08:44, Ted Roche wrote: I enjoyed Lloyd's talk about DD-WRT and the ethernet bridging he had done. IIRC Lloyd was also using OpenWRT. Sounds like we almost have enough topics for a WRT54G users group! Oh, no, not per-distro user groups! :) -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 New Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On 3/12/07, Drew Van Zandt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I just wanted to change the *(@#$&^)%# subnet mask on the box to 255.255.0.0 instead of being limited to their list. 24 bits of netmask should be enough for anyone. ;-) hyperWRT ... doesn't appear to have SNMP support ... I'd like to monitor per-port bandwidth ... OpenWRT has a metric crapload of packages which appear in the "available to be installed" list. SNMP, Radius, Samba, Asterisk, all sorts of stuff. You should like it, ipkg is based on dpkg/apt. ;-) I did see that the X-WRT/Webif^2 package I installed added all sorts of really pretty looking graphs in the web UI. I didn't really get further than going "Ohhh, pretty" yet, but I think bandwidth utilization was in there. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
I just wanted to change the *(@#$&^)%# subnet mask on the box to 255.255.0.0 instead of being limited to their list. I'll be switching from hyperWRT soon, though, since it doesn't appear to have SNMP support and I'd like to monitor per-port bandwidth. I believe several of the others will do that. (Correct me if I'm wrong on HyperWRT and SNMP, though, maybe I just haven't figured out how to turn it on.) --DTVZ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On 3/12/07, Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 3/12/07, Ted Roche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Boy, that sounds like it could be a pretty good presentation. If people are interested, I would be happy to re-load the stock firmware and then demonstrate the process "live". (Yah, a live demo -- I'm crazy that way.) > But would non-owners be getting bored with all this purple-and-black > stuff? Tsk. They're clearly blue. ;-) Being a parent of young children, this statement reminds me of how Quack (from Peep) is often called a 'Blue Duck' when in fact he is purple. :) -- Jeff Macdonald Ayer, MA ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On 3/12/07, Ted Roche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Boy, that sounds like it could be a pretty good presentation. If people are interested, I would be happy to re-load the stock firmware and then demonstrate the process "live". (Yah, a live demo -- I'm crazy that way.) But would non-owners be getting bored with all this purple-and-black stuff? Tsk. They're clearly blue. ;-) Seriously: From what the web page claims, OpenWRT can run on several other vendor's devices as well. And I think, in many cases, there may be real benefits to be had by exploring third-party firmware, even for more "casual" users. One of my major motivations was to get a dynamic DNS update client installed that actually worked. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Mar 11, 2007, at 4:19 PM, Ben Scott wrote: Hi everybody! I was asked off-list about my experience with OpenWRT. I asked if an on-list message was okay, and it was. So: Boy, that sounds like it could be a pretty good presentation. I enjoyed Lloyd's talk about DD-WRT and the ethernet bridging he had done. And Bruce had mentioned the WRT54SLG (I think) which is a Linux- based WRT54GS, large RAM and FlashRAM model, with a USB 2.0 "Storage Link" for hooking in a USB disk drive or RAM device. Sounds like we almost have enough topics for a WRT54G users group! But would non-owners be getting bored with all this purple-and-black stuff? Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
