Turn Your Home Router Into a Super-Powered Router with DD-WRT

Here we can see, “Turn Your Home Router Into a Super-Powered Router with DD-WRT”

Wireless is everywhere, and routers are the force that creates it happen, so why not supercharge yours to require proper advantage of it? DD-WRT will allow you to boost your router’s range, add features, and more.

DD-WRT features a ton of features—more than we will cover during this guide, which is concentrated on helping you get your router upgraded. Stay tuned, as we’ll enter more depth during a couple more days on all the good belongings you can do with it, but DD-WRT is worth installing to form your router work better if you don’t use the extra features.

What Is DD-WRT?

Here’s our router. Behold the Netgear WNR2000, revision 2. It’s a mighty fine one, too, but it’s still not the simplest. Why, exactly? Your router is merely nearly as good as its firmware, the software that creates it tick. Once you buy a router from Linksys/Cisco, Netgear, D-Link, or others, you’re sure to their software. It’s a lovely arrangement; you respect their limitations and that they promise to assist together with your problems. But what if your warranty’s expired. Otherwise, do you want to shuck their constraints? Maybe you would like to require your hardware and push it to its most extreme limits. That’s where DD-WRT steps in.

DD-WRT is an alternative open-source firmware for routers. Its software unlocks features that aren’t present on all routers: static routing, VPN, repeating functions, the list goes on. It also unlocks settings that aren’t typically accessible, like antenna power and overclocking.

Router Support

Turning your home router into an almost professional-level tool may be a great project that has one major caveat: support. Not all routers are built or designed identically. Even two of an equivalent model can have different revision numbers with other internal components. due to this, the primary step is doing research. It’s best to possess a router that’s fully supported, so if you finish up buying one, make sure to see the DD-WRT Supported Routers page first. Also, please use their Router Database, which can assist you in finding particular instructions for your model and revision. Most devices have model and revision numbers on the rear panel, and if there’s no revision number, it’s safe to assume that it’s 1.0.

For our purposes, the critical spec to think about is NVROM or ROM. This is often where the firmware is kept, so albeit your router has 16MB of RAM, it won’t work with a 4MB image of DD-WRT without a minimum of that much ROM. Due to this, there are a couple of different versions of DD-WRT available at varying file sizes. Some are trimmed right down to slot in smaller ROM configurations. Others are built with specific features in mind, like VPN, SD card support, or a Samba client. For more information, inspect the File Versions table.

Preparation

The most crucial thing in any project is research. So do all of your homework for this one, because (here it comes):

DISCLAIMER: Changing your router’s firmware may result in unintentional consequences, like “bricking.” It’s unlikely, and we’ve never had a tool that couldn’t be fixed in how, but it’s essential to know that it’s a genuine possibility. To be clear: you assume all responsibility for love or money you do; we’re not responsible for anything that ought to fail.

As mentioned above, start with the Supported Devices page to ascertain if you’ve got a DD-WRT-friendly router. If you don’t see anything specific, or maybe if you are doing, check the Router Database. Here, you’ll find links to forum pages of those who’ve completed the method for specific models/revisions, also because of the setbacks and workarounds they’ve discovered. Most significantly, you’ll find links to compatible versions of firmware.

The friendly forum gave us some helpful info for our particular model. Our router, the Netgear WNR2000, is revision 2, suggesting it’s compatible (revision 1 is not). Unfortunately, it’s only got 4MB of ROM, so we had to stay to the mini version. We followed the download links and skimmed abreast of what to try to finish the procedure detail.

Almost all sources unanimously recommend three specific things:

1. Do a tough reset on your router before you update. This usually requires a 30/30/30 procedure.
2. Hardwire your router once you update the firmware. NEVER over wireless.
3. Use Internet Explorer (or Safari) unless stated explicitly that other browsers are okay.

There’s plenty of reasons which the documentation will divulge to you, but the primary two are written in stone, and therefore the last has held for nearly any router, and it won’t hurt either.

Most routers have a pinhole on their back, with you would like to push and hold to perform a tough reset. The 30/30/30 procedure is primarily directed for devices with DD-WRT already on them, but it’s also required for a few other models and won’t hurt to try to anyway. It deletes the Non-Volatile RAM. From the DD-WRT website, the procedure is as follows:

• With the unit powered on, press and hold the push button on the back of the team for 30 seconds
• Without releasing the push button, unplug the unit and have reset it for an additional 30 seconds.
• Plug the team back in, STILL holding the push button a final 30 seconds (please note that this step can put Asus devices into recovery mode…)

This procedure should be done BEFORE and AFTER every firmware upgrade/downgrade.

Do not use configuration restore if you modify firmware builds (different svn build numbers).

The Process

A hard reset, as outlined above, or per the instructions for your specific router.

• So after our hard reset, we waited for the lights to return to normal, and that we hardwired the router to our laptop. During this phase, we turned off the wireless connection so that just the wired connection to our WRN2000 was active. This prevents any mishaps and makes it simple to attach to the web interface through the defaults.
• Next, stir up Internet Explorer and attend your router’s default page, and log in.
• Use the default username and password, usually printed on your device’s back panel or easily found on the web.
• Click on the Router Upgrade link.
• Browse to the right image and click on Upload, and wait patiently. Very patiently. You’ll see the loading screen tell you to attend while the router reboots, and you’ll see the lights flash on and off for a short time. Wait about five minutes, and err on the longer side. When you’re ready, log in to your router. DD-WRT’s IP address is 192.168.1.1, the username is ‘root,’ and therefore, the password is ‘admin.’

You’ll be greeted together with your fresh interface.

Update: acknowledged that at now, we’d like to try to to another hard reset/restore to factory default settings. This may solidify your DD-WRT installation and can prevent any issues that might come up otherwise. It’s mentioned within the blockquote above, but to reiterate: perform another hard reset NOW.

If things didn’t compute, you’d have had a “bad” flash. Of course, your router could also be bricked, but odds are you’ll get over it in some fashion. the primary place to see out is the way to get over a nasty Flash, and therefore the second is the DD-WRT Forum. As long as you do your homework and be precise with the instructions, you’ll be fine.

Conclusion 

I hope you found this helpful guide. If you’ve got any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to use the shape below.

User Questions:

1. Can I flash my router with DD-WRT?

DD-WRT doesn’t support all router models so, make sure to settle on a router that features a current build available. A body may be a version of the firmware package for a selected router’s hardware. … DO NOT, under any circumstances, plan to flash a router over a wireless connection (Wifi).

2. Is OpenWRT better than DD-WRT?

OpenWRT offers even more fine-grained control than DD-WRT, but that also comes at the worth of simplicity. This firmware requires some knowledge to use correctly and quite a bit more to form it worthwhile. OpenWRT is best for more technical people that know precisely what they need.

3. Is DD-WRT legal?

Despite an FCC guidance to router manufacturers that seems to ban open-source firmware like DD-WRT and OpenWRT, FCC spokesperson Charles Meisch told Ars that there’s no such ban. … Manufacturers could prefer to achieve compliance simply locking out any entirely third-party firmware, the FCC acknowledged.

4. Homepass employing a DD-WRT Wireless Router (Specifically, Linksys WRT54GL)

Homepass Using A DD-WRT Wireless Router (Specifically, Linksys WRT54GL) from 3DS

5. Setting up my router as a wireless receiver

Setting up my router as a wireless receiver from techsupport