Jason Roe / Blog, Jason Roe - Web design, Development, SEO Advice

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I have been having a lot of trouble with my home network as of late. The problems all started when I hooked up my new Linksys WRT54GS ap/router about 3 months ago. I heard great things about the WRT54G but I did all of the usual homework before I made the purchase. At the time, all of the official sources seemed to have gleaming reviews. Maybe I should have looked a bit deeper.

It seems the original versions of the WRT54G (v1, v2, v3) was the cream of the crop allowing owners to hack them to their hearts content. It turns out my Linksys was one of the later editions to the rage (WRT54GS v5.1). What they didn’t say in the reviews was how the WRT54G has devolved into what can only be described as a crippled elderly anorexic snail. The device started out life with 32mb ram and 8mb flash and devolved into its current state with 16mb ram and 2mb flash. Maybe this was for cost saving, power or a change in target market, being honest I don’t really know.

That being said, the router worked OK for a while. Then after about the second month, something strange started happening. My WRT54GS started dropping my wireless connection at random intervals. You can imagine how frustrating this can be!

Linksys Wrt54g Ultimate Hacking

This book will teach the reader how to make the most of their WRT54G series hardware. These handy little inexpensive devices can be configured for a near endless amount of networking tasks. The reader will learn about the WRT54Gs hardware components, the different third-party firmware available and the differences between them, choosing the firmware that is right for you, and how to install different third-party firmware distributions. Never before has this hardware been documented in this amount of detail, which includes a wide-array of photographs and complete listing of all WRT54G models currently available, including the WRTSL54GS.

We have 2 Desktops, 3 laptops an XBOX and a VOIP PAP2 ATA all sitting on the network so I thought maybe it was just maxed out. Thinking it was the wireless AP causing the problem I purchased a dedicated AP to manage that side of the network. My thinking behind this was that if it was a capacity issue the new kit might take some stress off the router. I was wrong! Things only went further downhill from here on. As soon as 2 people got on the network the Linksys WRT54GS started crashing repeatedly.

Many people suggested that I try the firmware hacks that have been banging about for some time. Upon trying to apply hacks I was presented with unauthorised firmware errors. Woe is me I thought! Until I found this article on how to flash Linux on a Linksys WRT54G! I will give a quick summary of what worked in my case, I have a WRT54GS v5.1.

Linksys WRT54GL-UK, Wireless Access Point Router

Wireless-G is the upcoming 54Mbps wireless networking standard that’s almost five times faster than the widely deployed Wireless-B (802.11b) products found in homes, businesses, and public wireless hotspots around the country - but since they share the same 2.4GHz radio band, Wireless-G devices can also interoperate with existing 11Mbps Wireless-B equipment. First, there’s the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect Wireless-G or Wireless-B devices to the network. There’s also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices. Connect four PCs directly, or daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need.

Summary:

Download [vxworks_prep] and extract.

Download [vxworks_killer] and extract

Download [DD-WRT micro generic]. Do not use the one labelled ‘WRT54G’ or ‘WRT54GS’, use the ‘generic’.

Download [Linksys TFTP transfer tool] (Windows). Or use a tftp client.

* Updated links

Assign a static IP address to your network adaptor.

In the router’s web admin go to ‘Administration’ the ‘Firmware Upgrade’

Select vxworks_prep bin file that you extracted. Hit Apply.

When you see a white screen power cycle your router.

Go back to the routers web admin you will see a firmware upgrade screen. Select the vxworks_killer bin file that you extracted. Click apply. You should then see the words ‘Success’. Power cycle your router.

Open up the Linksys TFTP transfer tool. Fill in the IP of your router. Select the DD-WRT micro generic bin file and click upgrade. After a few minutes the router will reboot itself (Do NOT reboot your router manually).

All done! See article for troubleshooting

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