[BozemanLUG] Linksys 54G router

[David Boreham]

rpotter wrote:
>
> At one time it was my understanding that the newer WRT 54G wireless 
> routers were not able to be hacked and a linux/Open Source firmware 
> installed. But I also have read things that make it sound like that 
> limitation no longer exists. I have found WRT54G V8.2 that I am 
> thinking about purchasing with the desire to explore hacking the 
> firmware.
>
> Does anyone know if V8.2 would work for this? Also, what open source 
> firmware would you all recommend? Has anyone setup a VPN with one of 
> these or a vlan? How easy or hard is it to build an ip table based 
> firewall – is it better on the router or by building another machine, 
> etc? I am just looking for feedback first in regards to the router 
> itself, but second on the useful features of the open source software 
> firmware.
>
It should be pretty easy to confirm this but off the top of my head you 
need the specific 'Linux' version of the WRT54.
They re-designed the 'real' one to have too little memory to run Linux, 
but then brought back the original design (by popular
demand) as the L variant.

I've used OpenWRT quite a bit, but not on this hardware (we run it on 
bigger embedded system boards).
Anyway, I'd recommend OpenWRT. It's a bit of a learning exercise, but 
not too bad if you already know
Linux. VLAN is supported, provided the ethernet port has driver support 
(should be possible to check this on
the OpenWRT forums). VPN servers of various kinds exist either in the 
base OS, or as packages. The package
system is nice too. You can just install packages over the 'net from a 
shell (like yum on a big box).
iptables is available in OpenWRT. Personally I don't like to create the 
rules myself, so I use firehol to
automate the process.

We ran our ISP on this platform for a while, until driver bugs in the 
open source Atheros drivers drove me
crazy, which led to the entire setup being replaces with Mikrotik 
boards. If you have the money for those,
I'd recommend them over roll-your-own OpenWRT because you will save a 
pile of time messing around
trying to fix stuff yourself. Mikrotik is Linux based (but not OSS 
itself). It's a bit annoying (e.g. we ran our
own programs on the OpenWRT boards, and changed some kernel drivers, and 
that's impossible with
Mikrotik), OTOH they do actually 'just work' which is what I need given 
my copious lack of spare time.

btw, your e-mail had a Jan 10 date on it.