My ancient D-Link 624 has showing signs of conking out over the past couple of months. That had put me in the dilemma of “Do I wait for 802.11n to be released or do I buy a modifiable router now?” Well, I made the decision. I bought an old, high modifiable Linksys WRT54GL.
***Just a word of caution, don’t buy a WRT54GL unless you plan on flashing the firmware to something better because the default firmware sucks royally.***
This morning, I successfully applied the latest DD-WRT firmware to the router and now have it up and running. So far, I am really digging it. I highly recommend it to anyone with supported hardware. I choose DD-WRT over OpenWRT simply because of the ease of upgrading it. Eventually, I may switch over, but as of now I have no plans to.
This procedure is not without risk however. If you screw it up, you could find yourself with nothing more than an expensive doorstop/paper-weight/what-have-you. If you follow the instructions provided on the site you will most likely succeed.
If you would like to attempt to modify your router firmware, go to http://www.dd-wrt.com/ and check to see if your hardware is supported. Definitely check the Instructions because you will brick your router if you mess up. Also check out the “Peacock” thread in the DD-WRT Forums. It can be found here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=51486. I followed the exact procedure listed in the first post and had absolutely no problems.
a.Set your computer to a static IP of 192.168.1.8. (or to whatever subnet the router is on) Disable all firewalls and security. Disable wireless on your computer and only have the router connected to the flashing computer by the ethernet cable between the two.
b. Hard reset prior to flashing. Wait. Check for password page on re-login and change password.
c. Flash firmware. You can use the webgui except if you have a belkin router. (For belkin use tftp.exe to flash)
d. Wait…at least three minutes. Lights should return to normal. See important2, below. Failing to wait is how most people brick their routers.
e. Do a power cycle of the router. (Unplug the cord, count to 30 and plug it back in.)
f. Wait for the lights to return to normal usually about 2 minutes.
g. HARD reset again. Wait. Check for the password page and re-login to change the password. Then you can reconfigure your settings manually.
h. Once configured set your computer back to autoIP and autoDNS.
Attached below is a video I watched before doing it. It really simplifies the procedure and you really need to read more into it, but it should alleviate some fears.