Is anyone using an open source software on their wireless router?

I have seen an article on this on www.hackaday.com, It is a hardware modification site.

http://m0n0.ch/wall any good? Not strictly speaking a router, and not strictly speaking a wireless one...

Is anyone using an open source software on their wireless router?

Routers are shipped with the manufacturers software on the router itself.

If your using a Wireless Lan card its best to check its compatable with the operating system before you buy or any hardware for that matter.

What are you trying to do?

Routers are shipped with the manufacturers software on the router itself.

I read somewhere that you can install a different os on the router itself, like linux or something?

I read somewhere that you can install a different os on the router itself, like linux or something?

I'm pretty sure I've played with a Linksys model with Linux installed. The general problem with ideas like this is that the hardware is so awkward and has such a limited life - by the time you've got the new OS working correctly with the bizarre builtin modules a new device is released. Unless you're intensively developing, in the way the manufacturers do, you tend to end up with inferior software.

All IMHE (experience).

Im with Si on this. You could get it working but what would you get out of it. If you want to run an opensource firewall try Smoothwall but to get one on a custom built device like a wireless router will provide all sorts of issues around compatability.

Why not run a second device as a firewall as the ones in the routers are normally a bit rubbish. You can run a basic rule set on the router and a more detailed one on the second layer firewall. That way you can do more complex operations if you need to.

Hey,

I'm running OpenWRT on my Linksys WRT54G. It works fine. If I wanted to I could use it as a XLink Kai Server, and a whole bunch of other stuff. At the moment, its just an access point on my network and the only fun thing it is running is SNMP so I can have bandwidth graphs and things on my local MRTG page.

If you're serious about wireless network security you can host a IPSec (I think its FreeSWAN, not sure) server on the router and only bridge to your internal network from that. That is totally the way to go. At the moment, I'm just running WPA and leaving it at that.

I'm sure I'll find some other things to do with it later.

Btw, I'd totally recommend OpenWRT to anyone who wants to play - its a very mature firmware, and there are tons of apps out there in constant development.

Hey' date='

I'm running OpenWRT on my Linksys WRT54G. It works fine. If I wanted to I could use it as a XLink Kai Server, and a whole bunch of other stuff. At the moment, its just an access point on my network and the only fun thing it is running is SNMP so I can have bandwidth graphs and things on my local MRTG page.

If you're serious about wireless network security you can host a IPSec (I think its FreeSWAN, not sure) server on the router and only bridge to your internal network from that. That is totally the way to go. At the moment, I'm just running WPA and leaving it at that.

I'm sure I'll find some other things to do with it later.[/quote']

I've just bought that router! Can you use it as a webserver ? Was it easy to install the OpenWRT?

I've just bought that router! Can you use it as a webserver ? Was it easy to install the OpenWRT?

Yeah mate, piece of cake.

In short it was a case of using an exploit on the 'Ping' page of the router config to set a value in NVRAM and let it accept firmware on bootup via TFTP. Then I started a TFTP upload of the OpenWRT firmware on my laptop which was hooked up to the router with a cable. Rebooted it, it accepted the file, and rebooted itself.

When that is done, it is still configured up exactly as before, as OpenWRT reads the config values in the NVRAM to set up all the networking. So, routing, wireless and stuff should all work as before.

You can telnet into the router, set a password, wget a SSH package, test it out and disable telnet. This should be the first thing to do.

As for a webserver - sure there is a webserver package included in OpenWRT if I remember. There isn't much space on the router, a tiny bit of flash and a couple meg ram (I can't remember the sizes). It would be fine for a simple page with no images (CSS is your friend). If you want images and stuff, what you'd want to do is get a script to mount a NFS volume on the router, and use that as your web root. Does mean you need another machine (or standalone network storage device) on.

HTH.

what did you have running on your router?