Thursday, March 20, 2008

DD-WRT Firmware on Buffalo WHR-G54S

I've had the Buffalo WHR-G54S router for about a year, but tonight I decided to install the popular third-party firmware DD-WRT.  I knew the router was compatible with DD-WRT when I purchased it (that was part of the reason I selected it).  I highly recommend the WHR-G54S; it has worked well for as long as I've had it.

Actually, it hasn't performed flawlessly.  In fact, I've been having problems since my new roommate moved in.  He likes to P2P when he's not here (which is usually when I'm here and want to use the bandwidth).  Tonight when I got home, my computer was having major connectivity issues.  Even after stopping his downloads, the problems continued.  I had to power-cycle my cable modem and router just to get a simple page to load.  Before rebooting it, even the web-configuration tools on the router couldn't load (so the issues were in the router?!?)  That's why after a year, I decided to give DD-WRT a shot.  Hopefully it will improve my connection (or contain tools to shape the P2P traffic/give me priority)!

I just wanted to give some pointers that helped me through the process:

  • As this article points out, dd-wrt.[version]_mini_generic.bin is the firmware file you want to use when first flashing from Buffalo's factory firmware.  That means you want to download dd-wrt.[version]_mini.zip from the DD-WRT Downloads Area.  At the time of writing, the latest stable version was 2.3_SP2.
  • The DD-WRT Wiki Installation Page was very helpful, especially the Precautions and Buffalo > TFTP Flashing Buffalo Routers under Windows sections.  I followed the instructions from the latter and successfully flashed the router on the second try. (the first try, I jumped the gun when the red light came on; when you see the first ping as the router comes back up hit enter immediately, I only got one successful ping during the TFTP window the first time around)
  • My reset button is labeled "init" and sits on butt end of the router, next to the "bridge" switch and directly opposite the antenna jack.  You will need something thin like a paperclip to press it.
  • When unplugging and re-plugging my router, I used the router (DC power) end of the power cable, since this was easier to do with the router sitting on the desk next to my keyboard.  I unplugged everything else except a singe Ethernet cable from my computer.
  • My Ethernet port (nForce 4 built-in) is auto-sensing, but came back well before the TFTP ping.

The installation went so smoothly, I'm wondering why I waited this long to try DD-WRT.  The answer is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"  Hopefully I'll have more to say when I've had a chance to play with some of the firmware's more advanced settings.  I can say that even the "mini" version has all of the features I used in the original Buffalo firmware.  Unfortunately I forgot to write down the port-forwarding settings I had for serving HL2:Deathmatch and Synergy internet games.  Oh well, I'm sure I can find the ports again.

The dream app?  Setting up a Cron job that pipes fortune to net send on the hour.  Imagine - every computer on the network (or maybe just your roommate's) gets a dialog box with a fortune every hour, courtesy of your local router and DD-WRT.  Priceless.

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