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It should be pretty easy to upgrade vulnerable WRT54GL routers. Any volunteers to setup a page that POSTs a newer firmware like OpenWrt or Tomato?
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Definitely. There appear to be more than 30 named networks within range of my iMac. That's one reason I've wired my iMac and my fiancee's iMac with cat6; as I wrote in another comment day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5192837 : It's also amazing how prevalent Ethernet still is, even when wireless is a competitor. The other day I left this comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5052448 on HN, because in…
I do the same, because my building is so crowded the connection drops all the time, even if I am sitting next to the router. :(
OpenSource is a vulnerability not an Asset according to #5. For small projects which few contributors I would agree but, for projects as large as OpenWRT and DDWRT and such, I don't agree.
In an ideal world, whether code is open source is neutral. The extra ease of finding bugs is balanced by the fact that people can and do find then fix them. Theory says that these two are, to first order, equivalent. So end user security is the same. (But code quality tends to be higher with open source software.) However whenever code moves towards being more open, you've got all of the vulnerabilities of closed sou…
Let me just get this in before the cries of JUST INSTALL OPENWRT come raining down. Your mother / father / grandmother / etc are not installing openWRT on their routers. Installing one of these CISCO home routers is pretty much hacking yourself. And, just update the firmware is not gonna work. Try it one day, go up like 10 people and ask them what's a firmware. If the user isn't technical, you're going to get a 0/10…
My mother / father / grandmother / etc are typically not buying the routers. They are saying things like, "next time you visit, can you fix my internet?" Or, "since you're here, can you check what's wrong with the internet? I can't get it to work." which is when you install and configure the xxxWRT device for them.
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That's how I did it, connected my WRT-54GL (Tomato) to a D-Link modem/router, works fantastically well.
Are you thinking of Bridged mode? I used to do this until something happened at my ISP and my router can no longer authenticate against my ISP's PPPoE server. Now I have my modem providing NAT and DHCP, and my router is just a dumb access point. The only problem is my modem has an externally accessible administration page running on port 4567, and telnet on port 1111 that I can't turn off, even when all remote manage…
But remember not to leave your wireless access open to passers-by. That helps hackers, and Al-Qaeda, and pedophiles, and drug dealers! /sarcasm
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In an ideal world, whether code is open source is neutral. The extra ease of finding bugs is balanced by the fact that people can and do find then fix them. Theory says that these two are, to first order, equivalent. So end user security is the same. (But code quality tends to be higher with open source software.) However whenever code moves towards being more open, you've got all of the vulnerabilities of closed sou…
Just curious, but wouldn't this indicate that open source code which allow iterators to close off their improvements would produce less vulnerable code overall?
The real consequence is that how secure a product is depends more on the project than on whether it is open source. Apache and OpenBSD are two examples of very good open source code. Java and Rails are two examples of not so good open source code.
Google's website is an example of good closed source code. The software shipped by Linksys is an example of bad closed source code.
Or just put OpenWRT[1] on it. It's a real Linux distribution with a package manager and everything. You can even disable the webinterface, if you don't trust it, and use SSH. EDIT: WRT54GL is pretty old and it won't run the default build of OpenWRT Attitude Adjustment (the newest release). It also probably won't have enough memory to operate the package manager or the webinterface. But I do have one running a custom…
The trouble with the WRT54G series (and most of these little routers) is that they have ~200MHz CPUs and ~16MB of RAM. This is, incidentally, why they often crash when you open a lot of simultaneous connections -- memory exhaustion. I find that if you're interested in experimenting with a Linux router, old PCs are a much better choice. You can get a PowerPC G3 or G4 or a late model Pentium III for practically zero mo…
They tend to have 500Mhz CPUs, approximately no RAM, unresponsive very basic web interfaces, and fall over at the touch of a light breeze.
An el-cheapo Android tablet with 1.6Ghz dual core ARM processor, 1Gb RAM, WiFi, and a bunch of other technically hard stuff on top (IPS screen, battery) costs less than one of these style of WAP/switch/routers.
Are they really so different?
Let me just get this in before the cries of JUST INSTALL OPENWRT come raining down. Your mother / father / grandmother / etc are not installing openWRT on their routers. Installing one of these CISCO home routers is pretty much hacking yourself. And, just update the firmware is not gonna work. Try it one day, go up like 10 people and ask them what's a firmware. If the user isn't technical, you're going to get a 0/10…
Maybe they should just ship with the alternative firmware installed if the open source is doing a better job?
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Why would you run linux on your modem? Unless its a hybrid modem/router.
I haven't seen a modem (from a telecom) that isn't a router in the past 5 years. Most ship wireless router/modems to their customers these days as standard. Cable companies might still ship modems (they did the last time I had cable internet, but that was probably 8 years ago).
Amusingly, they always set the SSID to 'insight_wifi_XXXX' and their formula for WPA keys is `firstname[0] + lastname + housenumber`.
My ISP makes me use a "gateway"[1][2] with a wireless router built into it. In the name of reducing electricity usage, I forego running my own router and surrender to using theirs. I would be willing to bet many others do the same. I wonder how secure it is? [1] http://www.att.com/u-verse/explore/residential-gateway.jsp [2] http://verrytechnical.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ATTUver...
All I really wanted was to set it up in bridge mode in front of my pfsense box, but couldn't do this. I cloned their router's MAC, put their router back in the box and used my existing 'dumb' modem.
Perhaps this would work for you as well.