If you happen to have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router…
…and you use an alternative firmware, say, DD-WRT, and you tend to have to reset your modem and router a lot, then I have a possible fix for you. If you don’t know what the hell it is I’m talking about, then let me explain.
If you have the router in question:
…and the version number of it is 1-4, then you can upgrade the firmware in it to a 3rd-party one, which will allow you to configure a bunch of things that you were previously not able to. This is a cool thing, because you can fine-tune your setup, and add in other features like static DHCP leases. That means, for example, that you can always assign the same IP address to one of your laptops so you can keep your port forwarding options on it the same, but if you take your laptop down the road to Joe’s Wi_Fi spot, it will automatically grab it without you having to re-configure anything. It’s handy.
So, once you do it, because of the new options and wonderful toys, your once-stable connection might be dropping in and out a bit more than you would like. Some of the default settings on DD-WRT were not getting along with my modem at all. So much, in fact, that it made me question the modem’s general health, so I replaced it with a newer one. Same problems! So after scouring the internet for other people suffering from my connection’s problems, here’s a cluster of things I changed which resulted in a very solid configuration, and I have had zero dropped connections since, where they used to be one per every few hours.
µTorrent has a tip to help:
Special note for users with Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS routers, there are severe problems with them when running any P2P app (read for fix)
The default firmware for Linksys (and all replacement firmwares except for one) have a severe problem where they track old connections for FIVE days, which causes the router to hang when using P2P apps, or any software that generates a lot of connections. DHT only aggravates the situation because of the number of connections it generates.
Linksys has yet to address this issue, but there is a fix. If you use alternative firmware, you can put in a start-up script to fix this problem. DD-WRT and HyperWRT support custom start-up scripts. I am not responsible if you screw up your router, so you do this at your own risk. This page has instructions on recovering a bricked router.
I’ll walk you through how to do it with DD-WRT- the page has instructions for both DD-WRT and HyperWRT if you run that one instead. Note that these are my settings and are working great for me, which means that it probably will be for you too, but I can’t guarantee it. I advise you to do some more research about doing this if I’ve said at least one thing that you’re not toally sure about.
Go to Admin > Services and choose to enable SSHD. Save settings.
Download putty.exe if you don’t have it, and run it.
For host name, put in your router’s IP address. The default is 192.168.1.1. Leave the port at 22, and make sure the protocol is SSH. Hit open.
Login as root.
root@192.168.x.x’s password is your router’s password. If you’ve never changed it from the default setting, it’s admin.
At the ~ # prompt, enter the following (copy and paste one line at a time by copying a line below, then pasting it into putty by right clicking on putty’s screen, and hitting enter after each line):
nvram set rc_startup=" echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses echo '600 1800 120 60 120 120 10 60 30 120' > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_conntrack_tcp_timeouts "
Then you’ll be back to the ~ # prompt. Type in
nvram commit reboot
Then the system will tell you The system is going down NOW !! Sending SIGTERM to all processes.That’s fine. Once it reboots, you can close putty and go to your web management console.
Go to your Management tab, and scroll down to IP Filter Settings. Change the Maximum Ports value to 4096 and the TCP and UDP to 300 each. Save settings.
Go to the Setup tab, and under Basic Setup, note the STP setting. If you have Comcast cable, disable this.
Under optional settings, the MTU size is set to auto. Change it to manual and enter 1392.
Go to the Wireless tab, and then select the subheader Adavnced Settings. Change the Xmit Power to 200 80.
Again, these are my settings and they work well for me. I will not take responsibility if you accidentally destroy your router trying to update it. Those that feel comfortable doing some thing like this, I urge you to try it out, it’s a noticeable increase in performance.
-->
January 5th, 2006 at 6:07 am
firefox扩展
这两天一直看到有朋友利用ListZilla将自己的firefox扩展贴出来，今天也花了些时间将自己的firefox扩展了一下，用了以后才发现原来firefox的扩展有这么多。
January 11th, 2006 at 12:01 am
good find. I had no idea it kept history for such a long time. And the DHT exaserbation of the problem is evident on my setup also - I don’t use it and I don’t ruin the router performance, ye another user does use DHT and totally makes the network unusable for others when he does. Generally have to reboot to regain functionality after BT use.
but why MTU equal to 1392? I thought 1492 was the default packet size for the protocal used (winppoe on ethernet connects, I think).
cheers!
January 11th, 2006 at 6:28 am
What does increasing the wireless strength have to do with the problem? Do you know that a value that high can cause more problems than it fixes?
January 11th, 2006 at 6:30 am
Suggesting people to boost their crappy boxen transmit power to 200 mW (23 dBm) is pretty pointless.
If you don’t have a 3 to 4 floor all stone or all steel built crib, 50mW xmit power should be enough for every avarage Joe installation.
Boosting to 200mW, at first violates the FCC standards in you live in US. It should also violate the respective European standards too. Maximum allowed trasnmit power is 100 mW (20 dBm) in US. This 20dBm is calculated by [device’s transmit power + gain of the antenna]. So even setting the device to transmit at 20 dBm is not legal.
You may say, who the fuck cares about law and FCC… OK.
Please think about the wireless dirt you’re about the create. Think about your contribution to the “cause of death” of your favorite pet practically helping it to develop cancer earlier. Think about the digital annoyance you’re about to create in your neighbourhood.
802.11a/b/g protocols run in the unlicensed ISM frequency band. It’s a collision and interference band by it’s very nature. This is why many devices operating in ISM are using FHSS (frequency hoping spread spectrum). So you can not just pop up and pump powerful signals and create much more annoyance.
Hacking is about being creative not destructive…
January 11th, 2006 at 6:31 am
I recommend that you do not use xmit power above 50…. 200 will cause interference and decrease the throughput of the wireless connections, will cause excessive heat (unless you modify the cooling) and generally shorten the life of your router
January 11th, 2006 at 6:35 am
So if you ramp the power up, what are the odds you will get busted from the FCC?
January 11th, 2006 at 6:56 am
as a ham radio operator with a tech license im fully capable of using the 200mw output on this router. heck i might even make a 1500 watt linear for it so i can fry a bird that fly in front of my outside omni. i think im allowed connecting to my wifi at 30 miles away if i want. fcc allows me.
January 11th, 2006 at 7:29 am
[…] read more | digg story […]
January 11th, 2006 at 7:34 am
as another tech licensee at 2.4 ghs band we are only alowed 1000 watts but a good antenna is often better than lots of wats into a bad antenna (DO NOT read cheap) and you have to have equivilent equipment on both ends and as an owner of said router i wouldnt take it above 50 without a new heatsink caues you will fry your transmitter
and the odds of getting busted if your near a hams station are pretty high
January 11th, 2006 at 8:45 am
Regarding legal power output, this is from the Sveasoft FAQ:
“The stock firmware radio output power is fixed at 28 mw by Linksys. The Sveasoft firmware allows adjustment of the power from 0 to 251 mw.
The legality of changing the power depends on the local regulations and the antennas used. In some areas using the full 251 mw and the stock antennas is illegal. In others it is still far under the allowable limits.
Some examples:
EU countries limit the maximum radiated power to 20 dBi. The stock antennas are 2.2 dBi and this means a maximum power setting of of 17.8 dBm for the radio. The maximum radio power setting is thus 61 mw for a total of 20 dBi.
North America limits are much higher and the maximum allowable radiated power for point to multipoint links is 36 dBi. In the US with the stock antennas and 251 mw you will produce just over 26 dBi. Thus you can add much stronger 12 dBi antennas and still meet the 36 dBi limit.
The higher power settings do not generally mean higher throughput. But for long links they can mean the difference between a working link and none at all.
Please see this page for a graphical representation of the frequencies produced at different output levels http://explorer.cyberstreet.com/wrt54g/WRT54g-spectraloutput.html .”
January 11th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Don’t go over 84mW, the internal hardware isn’t designed for that. In fact, users shouldn’t touch this setting unless they know what it does and have a real need to change it.
Second, MTU 1392??? Why? Users shouldn’t touch or change that either, unless there is a need for it.
No offence, but you shouldn’t post things like this, it does more harm than good.
January 11th, 2006 at 11:10 am
Slight off topic, Linksys sells a better antena at 7dbi if I’m not mistaken. I’ve been thinking of purchasing it ($60 is a bit expensive IMHO) but wanted to know if anyone is already using it to improve reception? I also use Cisco PCMCIA wireless cards on my laptop (both Aironet 340/350).
January 11th, 2006 at 11:40 am
Man, thanks so much for this. I have seriously been contemplating going back to the standard Linksys firmware. Every few hours (sometimes less) my connection goes haywire but fixes itself within about 3 minutes. That would be fine but I run an always-on server (web and mail) and this screws with everything.
I’ll give this a try this evening. Thanks!
January 11th, 2006 at 11:52 am
I bought those addon linksys anteneas, and while they look really cool, I found almost zero improvement on signal strength and quality.
January 11th, 2006 at 11:58 am
DSL Reports’ Tweak Test reccomended an MTU of 1500. I tried it with both and got better results with it set to 1500.
January 11th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Although you included some info which wasn’t really necessary, this has been bothering me FOREVER.
I think this problem, or one similar to it may have even affected the stock firmware, though I haven’t used the stock firmware for more than a year.
My router goes down all *@&@%# time. I’m crossing my fingers that you’ve found the solution!
January 11th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Re: Hidden Force
Oh this is the most stupid thing I’ve heard today. Setting MTU to 1500 and getting better performance… C’mon! You must be on drugs.
Back in 2001, Lawerence Baldwin explained the optimal MTU in PPPoE and PPPoA ADSL connections. http://www.mynetwatchman.com/kb/adsl/pppoemtu.htm
Go and read the technical facts before posting fake experiences from illusions.
January 11th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
This is exactly what I needed, my router would sometimes need to be reset multiple times a day and I’m trying to run servers on that connection. I’ll try it out today and hopefully it’ll work.
January 11th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Unamous said 100 mw is max power allowed. At http://www.trevormarshall.com/byte_articles/byte1.htm the following can be found. “The FCC had already decided to place a limit of +36 dBm (4 watts) Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) on Multi-Point WLAN links, and a maximum power of +30 dBm (1 watt) at the WLAN tranmitter’s connector.
This is quite a change from 100 mw.
Widget
January 11th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Sorry, the anonymous said
January 11th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
About packet size…. when you are talking about reducing the size are you only referring to PPPoE? If I use Comcast cable I don’t have to worry about that… right? I think mine is set to 1500… should I leave it that way?
I messed with VPN before, specifically with the cisco routers, and there I had to worry about reducing the packet sizes because of the encryption overhead. I don’t think comcast does anything with the packets, does any one know?
January 11th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
A couple of people mention the power limits and whether or not hams can surpass the part 15 rules with these devices. The way that I read the rules (IANAL) is that you can. However, I am not so sure about being usable. When you are operating this equipment as a ham, I don’t think that you are allowed to use encryption (read WAP, WEP) as hams are not allowed to use encryption for amatuer radio activities. I could be wrong, but I’d be careful. The fines for this kind of thing are HIGH and seem to go higher all the time.
January 11th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
How do you enable SSHD? I don’t see that option in services anywhere. Also, Putty reports a connection when I try to connect to 192.168.1.1 (but it works fine to log in on a browser).
January 11th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Wow! This got a lot more comments than I thought it would. Like I said twice before- this works great for me, and it might for you too, but research it yourself. I’m just here to plant a seed in your head that might lead to better performance for you, but it’s up to you for decision making and implementation.
I don’t believe that anything I said is truly harmful. My connection has never ran so strong and so uninterrupted before, so say what you may, but my setup is now rock-solid.
The Xmit Power setting was a last thought, but I set mine as such so I thought I should include it. My router is on the 3rd floor and my desktop is in the basement. I used to get 2 out of 3 bars on my icon that showed signal strength, now I consistently get 3. That’s enough of proof for me that it works well.
January 12th, 2006 at 12:15 am
But where do you enable SSHD at? And how to make putty work.. :(
January 12th, 2006 at 2:08 am
Evan W: Don’t worry about SSHD and Putty. Just Use Telnet. On that services page, enable Telnet. It’s at the bottom. Then go Start > Run > Telnet. First type “unset crlf” and “unset localecho”. Then type “open 192.168.1.1″ and you can follow the instructions from there. Do not type in the quotes when typing.
January 12th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
hey i made the changes to my setup but then aft that i kept on losing my connection. i suspect it’s got to the with the putty as i changed back to the linksys firmware but it continued.
could someone help in giving me the commands to reset the process?
thanks
January 12th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Thanks Anonymous.
January 12th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
[…] roachfiend.com » If you happen to have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router… (tags: linksys) […]
January 13th, 2006 at 7:24 am
To reset the process, flash your firmware back to the original Linksys firnware, and hold down the reset button on your router for 30 seconds. This will put it back to the factory settings.
I don’t talk too much about flashing the firmware here, but this needs to be done over a wired connection. There’s too much of a chance of an error occuring if you flash it via wireless.
January 13th, 2006 at 8:15 am
i did that already. funny thing is now i still continue to drop connections. no idea why.
January 13th, 2006 at 11:54 am
ah turns out the channel i was using had tons of interference. doh.
January 14th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
[…] roachfiend.com » If you happen to have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router… (tags: DIY hacks hardware network reference tips) […]
January 17th, 2006 at 11:21 am
Hanging Ping
Greetings,
I have the
Linksys wrt54gs (brand new) and a new HP laptop (windows XP Pro)
I have enabled wpa. I have not refalshed the firmware yet. It currently has 1.05 the router is version 4 I think.
When I ping anything on the local network it works. If I ping something like
ping yahoo.com
ping hangs.
Ctrl-C does not restart it.
Has anyone else had this problem?
January 19th, 2006 at 12:34 am
[…] This is a great article for those of us that tweak our routers…… Allen read more | digg story […]
January 26th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
[…] roachfiend.com » If you happen to have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router… (tags: networking) […]
January 29th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Hi
I bought a WRT54G and configured to share internet in my home network. Every thing seems to work. However if I power down the WRT54G and start again I cannot access internet in my LAN. Then I have to reset the WRT54G to factory defaults and reconfigure the internet settings in WRT54G to be able to start accessing internet again from my LAN. It seems the settings are still there in WRT54G after I restart but they some how dont work until I reset and reconfigure. Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks,
Nitesh
February 8th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Thanks to the advice here. I managed to use telnet and follow the instructions given above to fix my constant rebooting of router.
Now router is a lot more robust and I don’t need to reset it for 4 days now.
Many thanks.
February 12th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
nitesh i have the same problem. Is there any info out there?
February 27th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Hi guys. A UK user here having problems.
Right I bought a the router in question last week and set it up perfectly with no problems whatsoever until I started downloading through it and opening up ports so I can play football manager network games… then the problems started.
Now my computer freezes regulary, just totally freezes, sound, image, mouse, keyboard commands everything. Mostly out of the blue.
Now until yesterday I thought it was a problem with my PC, memory for example, until yesterday the exact same thing happened on the laptop downstairs and the only thing the two systems have in common is windows XP and that they both connect to the Linksys network.
My computer has worked flawlessly for 1-1/2 years now without a single problem and within a matter of days since installing a new network its barely usable for any length of time…
So does anyone else have a problem like this?
Thanks guys. Jim.
March 1st, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Jim,
This sounds totally unconnected to your router.
D.
March 5th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
I’m using HyperWRT and I dont see a services page under admin or any of the other pages. I also tried getting to a services page by going to http://192.168.1.1/Services.asp but it came up blank.
What should I do?
March 23rd, 2006 at 2:49 am
This site: http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=998127 also has a lot of info on it
April 3rd, 2006 at 5:02 pm
Need help, upgrade my firmware on my Linksys WRT54GS router to the DD-WRT. Now my router sits with the power light blinking and ports 1, 3, 4, and the internet port lights on constantly. I have tried to reset it with no luck. Am I hosed?
April 4th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Replaced my old wrt54g (which died) with the new version 5. Initial setup went smooth until I started up my apple G4 laptop OS tiger 10.4.5. The signal drops every couple of minutes after resetting the router. Anyone else having this problem?
April 9th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
[…] Over at roachfiend.com, Eric has a post about how to optimize settings if you are having trouble or just want to try some optimizations. I personally did not feel the need to do any optimizations as my FON router is working fine. […]
April 18th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Ken, try changing Basic Rate (Wireless->Advanced) to “All” instead of “Default”. I believe this is what I had to tweak to get my old roomates Apple airport or whatever working :).
HTH!
April 28th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
ken posted the following…
“Replaced my old wrt54g (which died) with the new version 5. Initial setup went smooth until I started up my apple G4 laptop OS tiger 10.4.5. The signal drops every couple of minutes after resetting the router. Anyone else having this problem?”
I am having the same porblem. I too have a Apple G4 Notebook and a wrt54GS. I udated the firmware to DD-wrt and found I was getting lower than usual signal strength and sometimes no signal at all. I tryed the tweak from roachfiend.com (http://roachfiend.com/archives/2006/01/02/if-you-happen-to-have-a-linksys-wrt54g-wireless-router/) and also search all other the web and forums and nothing could help me. still low signal streng.
can anyone help??? ken did u figure it out?????
May 26th, 2006 at 10:57 am
This is very GOOD idea IMHO :)
June 29th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
[…] read more | digg story […]
August 1st, 2006 at 2:09 am
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August 1st, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Scott: you are the proud owner of a $60 brick. There are some websites which explain how to de-brick your router. Also check out http://www.dd-wrt.com, they have a lot of good info about flashing the WRT.
Kelly Miller: spammy freekin’ spammer, go away!
I recently flashed my v5 WRT with the micro version of DD-WRT, and it works great (with the exception of the needs-rebooting bug of which your article speaks) so I’ll try this when I get home tonight, and unlike the majority of replies here, I will post a second reply with the results of my attempt!
Thanks for posting this great info, Eric! We need more people who understand the WRT and less people asking questions about it ;-)
–Adrian
Austin, TX
September 8th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
[…] â?¦and you use an alternative firmware, say, DD-WRT, and you tend to have to reset your modem and router a lot, then I have a possible fix for you. If you don â??t know what the hell it is Iâ??m talking about, then let me explain.read more | digg story […]
October 8th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Need help, upgrade my firmware on my Linksys WRT54GS router to the DD-WRT. Now my router sits with the power light blinking and ports 1, 3, 4, and the internet port lights on constantly. I have tried to reset it with no luck. Am I hosed?
Scott, did you solve your problem?
November 20th, 2006 at 1:56 am
Scott your router got bricked.
You need:
JTAG cable
HairyDiaryMaid v45 (There is a pdf file with JTAG spec)
Skynet CFE creator
http://www.wlan-skynet.de >>> You can download also HairyDiary
Search Google for instructions
-Create the CFE.bin with skynet CFE creator
-Use WRT-dd general .bin
-Rename WRT-dd general to kernel.bin
-Disarm the router and conect the JTAG cable
Using HairyDiary
-Install and start the driver
-Copy CFE.bin kernel.bin into de hairymaid software dir
-In CMD use the wrt54g software and type
(After every comand disconnect and connect the power of your router)
(console)
(go to the dir of hairymaid software)
wrt54g -backup:wholeflash /noerase
(This will backup you flash ram)
wrt54g -erase:wholeflash /noerase
(Will erase the flash)
wrt54g -erase:cfe /noerase
(will erase the CFE of the router)
wrt54g -flash:cfe /noerase
(will upload your new cfe)
wrt54g -erase:nvram /noerase
(This will turn off the light of the LAN)
wrt54g -flash:kernel /noerase
(will upload your new kernel, this will take a long time so be patient)
If any of the commands listed above doesn’t work check the sintax or try instead of /noerase /noemw
After you conect and disconnect your router for the last time wait for a few minutes, and it should work again softly
Search for the right JTAG cable there is a few that dosen’t work in the web
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:59 am
[…] After flashing with the very nice DD-WRT firmware, I applied the changes noted on RoachFiend’s tutorial. Note, this guide is not for the light-hearted unless you’re somewhat familiar with logging into systems via SSH and other networking type customizations. […]
May 9th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
[…] If you happen to have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router… (tags: wrt54g linksys router firmware) […]
May 28th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Nuff Respect. Never noticed the IP Filter Settings would have made such a difference. Apparently P2P tie up alot of resources and cause the router to ‘hang’. Works like dream now for over 48 hours, no hangups. Thanks again.
July 12th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
After reading the post of router [linksys] getting bricked, I assume that people are tweaking setting and this can cause circuits [linksys] to jam [blue screen of death (bsod)]. My question is, would the linksys lockup [4 led lights lite with internet flashing intermittently] be caused by normal use or would somebody on the outside try to hack in. Linksys settings are changed from factory default and SSID is turned off. What gives or is this normail for linksys routers. jon
July 17th, 2007 at 1:34 am
[…] Special note for users with Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS routers, there are severe problems with them when running any P2P app (read for fix) … wifi,wireless,wifi amplifiers,wifi networking,wrt54g,wireless routers […]
August 6th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
[…] BitTorrent and you’re lucky enough to have a router that can run dd-wrt you might want to check this […]