DD-WRT : Gaining Control of Your Wireless Router

I am teaching a course in Wireless at ECPI in Charleston this term. Most of the material is book learning: how many channels are there in 802.11G, what is the EIRP of a system given various parameters, what does the A-Z amendment to 802.11 propose...

However, I wanted to actually do some measurements and activities:

• free space loss
• site planning
• sensitivity
• etc.

So, I decided to look at open source for access points to see if I could find some nice tools. DD-WRT had the clearest support for the device. So, I tried it first. DD-WRT is an off-shoot of Sveasoft's software which is no longer free.

Today, I will talk about the success that I have had on my Asus WL-500g Premium (WL-500gP) router. I chose this device because it was relatively cheap and was chocked full of features:

• 32 MB Ram
• 8 MB Flash
• 2 USB 2.0
• 264 MHz Broadcom BCM4704 chip rev 9 Processor

These specs were much better than the average wireless router. I was especially happy with the USB ports and the extra RAM. $80 at newegg.com.

Installation of DD-WRT v24 [RC-6 (01/02/08) mini - build 8743 ]:

• Obtain the following images and software:

• tftp (e.g. WinAgents tftp client)

  Obtain clear for nvram: wl500g-clear-nvram.trx

  Obtain recovery software: wl500g-recover.trx

  Obtain an image. I used dd-wrt.v24_mini_asus.trx

• Connect your pc RJ-45 to LAN1 port of the router.
  
• Set your IP Address to 192.168.1.2
  
• tftp the clear image to the router
• push the reset button (with a paper clip) and plug in the router
• wait for the device to flash and release button
• tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT wl5006-clear-nvram.trx
• wait about 10 seconds for the upload to complete
• give it a few more seconds
• unplug the router
  
• tftp the recover image to the router
  • push the reset button (with a paper clip) and plug in the router
  • wait for the device to flash and release button
  • tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT wl5006-recover.trx
  • wait about 10 seconds for the upload to complete
  • give it a few more seconds
  • unplug the router
    
• Send the DD-WRT image to the router
  • wait about 10 seconds for the upload to complete
  • give it a few minutes
  • unplug the router

Reboot the router.

• plug in the router
• Set your browser to http://192.168.1.1
• You should now be in the DD-WRT management console
• Your initial username is root and the password is admin

You should find that you have lots of space left on your device. You can now set up for ssh and turn off telent. Once you can get to a shell you can add a bunch more. However, there is a ton of stuff that you can do from browser console.

We will look at what we advanced features we can add to the router in the near future.

In summary, the Asus 500-gP is easily upgraded to DD-WRT and can be easily set back to the original Asus software. The Asus hardware appears to be sound, and the DD-WRT software looks great!