Just buy Draytek. Playtime is over. Pricy but mine lasted 7 years before I replaced it with another Draytek (for dual WAN support). Bomb proof and great VPN support out of the box. I bridge my parent's network to mine over VPN, and the Linux servers at either end provide failover DNS, mail etc. So useful, especially for remote support.
Don't use Linksys routers
91–100 of 150 posts
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#92The modern equivalent of a Linksys WRT54GL is the ASUS RT-N16. It runs OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and Tomato variants really well, does 802.11n (only one frequency) and has plenty of memory and flash storage for extra hacking. The ASUS RT-N66U is frequently advised if you want 5GHz 802.11n as well. The other router mentioned in this article, the Linksys EA2700, doesn't seem compatible with third party firmware. And apparently…
> It runs OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and Tomato variants really well You're sure about that? I've had an rt-n16 sitting on a shelf for over a year waiting for OpenWrt support. Your message caused me to go check their website, and all it says is: "The Asus RT-N16 has early support in Barrier Breaker (trunk) only!"
According to
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N16
there is support for dd-wrt, apparently since late 2010. You understand that Barrier Breaker is pre-release, right?
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It runs OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and Tomato variants really well You're sure about that? I've had an rt-n16 sitting on a shelf for over a year waiting for OpenWrt support. Your message caused me to go check their website, and all it says is: "The Asus RT-N16 has early support in Barrier Breaker (trunk) only!"
According to http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N16 there is support for dd-wrt, apparently since late 2010. You understand that Barrier Breaker is pre-release, right?
Yes, I understand Barrier Breaker is pre-release. That is precisely why, when NelsonMinar suggested the RT-N16 runs OpenWrt "really well," I asked if he was sure.
I am uninterested in dd-wrt, which is why I didn't mention it.
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
After running DD-WRT on a WRT54GL for years I tried the RT-N16 and got terrible network throughout over WiFi even within 5-15ft. Maybe the issue has been solved in the last few months but I was very disappointed.
You need to adjust the default xmit power, in Tomato I use 63. There is a guy would did a bunch of testing of xmit power for the RT-N16 here http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/asus-rt-n16-tra...
Oh woah, seriously? I use Tomato and it seems like the default is 17, no wonder I've been having some issues with range. I just thought it was because my neighbors were setting up more wifi routers. Will try that out, thanks!
The one thing I'm worried about though is whether that setting of 63 is worse for shorter distances. From my limited experience with building a simple radio transmitter/receiver and amplifiers, if your received signal is too strong it'll just saturate and turn to crap, and as it happens my bedroom is right next to the room with the router in it, so boosting the signal might screw up reception on my phone. But at least now I know that there's room to play around here, thanks for letting me know!
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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. :(
Switch to 5 GHz. You'll need a new router and WiFi adapters, but they're available. You won't have quite the range, but even business locations with dozens of 2.4 GHz networks (e.g. Physician office buildings) will have 1-2 5GHz networks total, and most off the shelf consumer laptops don't support it right now so adoption will take a while.
Stop telling people to do this. I like my roomy uncluttered 5ghz spectrum.
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#96Mitigating factor, the attacker would need to have been granted access to your network in the first place?
Not at all. That's what CSRF is all about. All the attacker needs to do is get you to visit a page on the internet that they control. Then the code on the page does its magic and runs on the browser and because you and the browser are on your network it can work.
As a simple example, imagine that you had a test server behind a firewall in your own home network, totally inaccessible from the internet. Now let's say you have it set up so that it will, oh, let's say turn on the oven if you hit a specific URL without any authentication (like testserver/actions/oven/on, or some such). If someone knows of this then they could contrive to have you visit a web page with some embedded resource such as an inline image that causes you to hit that url from your browser. Boom, now your oven is on and you didn't even know it. Even if you switch to using logins and cookies on your test server to ensure that only authorized users on your network can use it then you'll still have the same problem, because when your browser hits that URL it will be in your name, and all of the right cookies will be there. That's the nature of CSRF.
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for the info - do you know if there's an ADSL modem that's good for DD-WRT these days? Last I looked (yeeeaaaars ago) there were only two models, long since out of production, and they didn't seem to be going in that direction anymore.
Why would you run linux on your modem? Unless its a hybrid modem/router.
ADSL modems are frequently hybrids, and it's one less thing to take up a power socket to use a hybrid over a two-thingy combo.
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#98What recommendations do people here have for an entry level commercial router instead of a high consumer level router?
Juniper SRX100 ($500), with Ubiquiti APs (~$100).
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
What is it about these class of devices that makes them so expensive? 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.…
Low turnover.
Re: Don't use Linksys routers
#100The modern equivalent of a Linksys WRT54GL is the ASUS RT-N16. It runs OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and Tomato variants really well, does 802.11n (only one frequency) and has plenty of memory and flash storage for extra hacking. The ASUS RT-N66U is frequently advised if you want 5GHz 802.11n as well. The other router mentioned in this article, the Linksys EA2700, doesn't seem compatible with third party firmware. And apparently…
> It runs OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and Tomato variants really well You're sure about that? I've had an rt-n16 sitting on a shelf for over a year waiting for OpenWrt support. Your message caused me to go check their website, and all it says is: "The Asus RT-N16 has early support in Barrier Breaker (trunk) only!"
Actually, no, I don't know anything about running OpenWrt on an RT-N16 and shouldn't have included it in my list. Sorry for the mistake! As noted by other commenters apparently it's only supported in WIP versions, details at http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-n16