Matte232
join:2007-04-13
154884
| wrt54gl / DD-WRT and UPnP
Hey all,
Just bought a Linksys wrt54gl and i am thinking of upgrading to DD-WRT, replacing the original firmware, since it tends to be a little sluggish when people insists on using bt type downloading services.
One question though. I have looked at some featurelist / screenshots but i cant find any info about if this firmware creates a list of UPnP created firewall entries. It can be good sometimes to actually see which ports has been opened by UPnP applications. Where you could Enable/Disable ports/range of ports etc? Manage them a little more than just letting the application having total control, so to speak. You have incoming/outgoing port list of course but that is just a mix of all inputs/outputs os. The original Linksys firmware does not have this, as far as i have found anyway, does DD-WRT have a feature similar to what i am describing?
/Matte |
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Phil
Rojo Sol
Premium
join:2001-06-11
Camarillo, CA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| 
DD-WRT UPnP |
--
Correcting one "looser" at a time. |
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Matte232
join:2007-04-13
154884
| Yeah, that seems more or less what i am looking for  . Looks better than the "nothing" menu that is present in the Linksys firmware.
Btw, there seem to be different opinions regarding if you need to flash with the _mini first and then the _standard version of dd-wrt? I got a WRT54GL v.1.1 (S/N: CL7B##..) I read that with this version of the router you can flash with the _standard version directly from the Linksys firmware? Is this the case?
Also, i mainly use Firefox 2.0.0.1. Anyone know if this will cause a problem during the update process? I have read people having problems during the update process with firefox. Seems a little bit weird to my though but, better safe than sorry.
/Matte |
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Phil
Rojo Sol
Premium
join:2001-06-11
Camarillo, CA
·Verizon FIOS
| I did the mini version first, then standard on my WRT54Gv2, but you may not have to on the GL.
Firefox both works and updates just fine behind this router.
Reference both: »www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Li···/GX#v1.1
and
»www.mandladventures.com/2007/04/···irmware/
--
Correcting one "looser" at a time. |
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liquidzyklon
join:2001-06-24
Scarborough, ON
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
1 edit | reply to Matte232
Hi Matte232. I bought the WRT54GL 8 days ago (no reboots yet I just flashed the standard version directly from Linksys firmware page. I used IE7 for the flash.
I followed the steps from this page: »www.mandladventures.com/2007/04/···irmware/
edit: Phil beat me to it. |
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koitsu
Premium
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
| reply to Matte232
Be aware that DD-WRT's UPnP build is known to be flaky. It'll work just fine for a while, then suddenly will stop working entirely.
Telnetting into the router and looking for the upnp process will show you if it's running -- in many cases it dies off on its own (likely segfaults, but is impossible to debug because there isn't room on the router for gdb and other debugging tools).
Other times the process will be running, but utilities like uTorrent will report "Unable to map port" and doing a Properties on the Internet Connection will result in Windows Explorer stalling indefinitely.
I haven't run into either of these problems using the Tomato firmware (which is what I use now).
Also, if your Internet connection relies on PPPoE, be aware that there are many issues with DD-WRT and PPPoE. I won't go into them here, but I hang out with someone on IRC who has been going through the code pertaining to the pppoe portion of DD-WRT and we're both disgusted at how it's done (lots of hard-coded options, some necessary protocols/features disabled that're hard-coded into the code).
This isn't a note telling you to avoid DD-WRT -- it's a fantastic 3rd party firmware -- but if you have issues, you'll know where to look.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977. |
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Matte232
join:2007-04-13
154884
| Phil, liquidzyklon - Thanks for your replies.
koitsu - Ok. Since all of them seem to be equally stable in themselves and you actually know this for a fact that UPnP is flakey with DD-WRT then maybe Tomato is the smartest way to go for me. Personally i dont really like UPnP applications, but other people that will be on this router will use it. The kind of people that goes "Is this the powerbutton?", if you know that i mean . So i need a firmware that can handle it without big issues all the time.
In terms of other settings/features would you say Tomato got everything that DD-WRT has? Is there anything that Tomato misses that DD-WRT has etc? Does Tomato presents the same kind of UPnP information log that the above DD-WRT seem to have? Got a screen? Anything special to think about when flashing with this firmware etc?
/Matte |
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Matte232
join:2007-04-13
154884 | Anyone else that has experience using Tomato/DD-WRT is of course also welcome to express your opinions .
/Matte |
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swinn
join:2001-02-16
Clarksville, TN
| I have six routers running DD-WRT. If you run the beta versions then you have to expect that there could be problems with certain builds.
v23 SP2 final hasn't ever given me issues with UPnP or anything else. One of my routers have been up for 229 days now with constant traffic.
I've been testing SP3 lately (using the 05/02/07 version currently). UPnP is working fine with it (uTorrent, XBOX, XBOX 360). |
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Loker
Premium
join:2004-07-11
Fargo, ND
clubs:
1 edit | said by swinn  :I have six routers running DD-WRT. If you run the beta versions then you have to expect that there could be problems with certain builds. v23 SP2 final hasn't ever given me issues with UPnP or anything else. One of my routers have been up for 229 days now with constant traffic. I've been testing SP3 lately (using the 05/02/07 version currently). UPnP is working fine with it (uTorrent, XBOX, XBOX 360). I have been running v24 betas without any issues...but I know that there is always a possibility with each new release something could blow up...so far though v24 is top notch...
as for WRT54GL 1.1 flashing, I went straight to standard and did not worry about the mini...there should not be any adverse affects going straight to standard I just know in the earlier versions of the GL the Linksys firmware would reject firmware images over 3.5 MB's which of course left you with dd-wrt mini...
(the screenshot is of my UPnP on v24...have not had it die once...)
--
"While preceding your entrance with a grenade is a good tactic in
Quake, it can lead to problems if attempted at work." -- C Hacking |
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wavracer
join:2003-09-17
North Battleford, SK
| reply to Matte232
I just bought a Linksys WRT54GL v1.1 yesterday and am curious about UPnP as well. It shipped with firmware version 4.30.7, which I promptly updated to 4.30.9. It ran overnight without problems using UPnP with heavy BitTorrent (BitTornado T-0.3.18) use from 2 separate machines, which is more than I can say for my old Linksys BEFSR41, and D-Link DI-524 and DI-624 routers.
Anyways, today I flashed straight from the Linksys 4.30.9 to the DD-WRT v23 SP2 (09/15/06) std - build 3932 generic firmware via the web interface (XP SP2 & IE7) without problems.
The steps I followed were from: »www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Li···/GX#v1.1
1. Reset the router to factory defaults (hold reset button for 30 seconds)
2. Flash with new firmware in web interface. (I got a success screen, you may not)
3. Reset the router again. (reset button for 30 seconds again)
4. Log into router at 192.168.1.1 with default user and password (U:root and P:admin)
I must say that the many extra features the DD-WRT firmware offers are very impressive. It has been stable for over 6 hours now, but I will report back in a while with more complete results after heavier usage (UPnP torrenting from 1 wired and 1 wireless PC, surfing/streaming with a wireless notebook, and wireless gaming with a Nintendo Wii - all using WPA-PSK TKIP).
Mark |
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Loker
Premium
join:2004-07-11
Fargo, ND
clubs:
1 edit | reply to Matte232
am I the only one on the boards that flashes the GL with the WRT54G DD-WRT as opposed to the Generic DD-WRT? |
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wavracer
join:2003-09-17
North Battleford, SK
| From the hwsupport.txt file in the dd-wrt.v23_sp2_standard.zip file:
-For flashing via the web GUI interface, always use the included 'generic' binaries. The other Linksys router specific binaries are only meant for tftp upgrades.
Hope this helps,
Mark |
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jsmiddleton4
join:2003-11-13
Glendale, AZ
| reply to Matte232
I also flash via web with the specific version for my router, 54gs version 2.1.
If you go to ddwrt's forum you can search on some of the posts about the install version/method confusion. You can use the web interface to install the specific, non-generic, version.
It is confusing however.
I think the only time you have to be very careful to follow the directions, proper versions, size, etc., is when you are doing a V4, 5 or 6 install. If you don't follow the steps specifically you will brick the router. Its not quite so tight with the earlier, larger memory, etc., vesions.
Jim |
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jsmiddleton4
join:2003-11-13
Glendale, AZ
1 edit | reply to wavracer
If you read their forum I think the general opinion is the V23 sp2 version is the most stable. That doesn't mean anything is wrong with any of the later releases or the current 5/2/2007 beta.
I don't know what the complaint is about UPNP being flakey. Never had one problem with it on my 54gs Version 2.1 with any of the V23, V24, final or beta releases.
I also play with Tomato. Have given both authors a contribution via PayPal. The only thing I've noticed with Tomato is intermittent drops when I was using WPA2 for wireless security.
Other than that Tomato is very nice. They have the bandwidth monitor stuff working very well.
Not so with DDWRT yet.
Also DDWRT does a better job of adding MAC Filtering, if you use it, as it mimics the Linksys original firmware for doing so. It is very easy. However Tomato does a better job of adding static DHCP addresses. Much easier in Tomato as adding static DHCP is a matter of clicking on the IP address and choosing "add to static dhcp...". But Tomato's adding MAC addresses in Wireless section is more like DDWRT's way of adding static DHCP. Its all manual.
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Matte232
join:2007-04-13
154884
| Thanks guy for all the extended information .
jsmiddleton4 - (About Tomato) As for adding static dhcp/MAC filtering. The actual input of the data isnt really that important to me, if its manual/automatic/clicking etc, doesnt really matter. You dont do these things that often anyway so. In this case iam more interested in how its functionality once everything is in place?
Also one thing i read in the Tomato faqs (i think it was there i read it anyway) is that since Tomato is very optimized for using javascript? How well does the webUI work on older versions of IE, Firefox, Opera ,Netscape etc with older versions of java by default etc? I mean if its just looks bad and still works, that doesnt bother me much, but it might be a problem if some functionality is not accessible/workable at all.
/Matte |
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jsmiddleton4
join:2003-11-13
Glendale, AZ | I don't have Firefox so I don't know. With IE 6 and IE7 no problems. |
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jsmiddleton4
join:2003-11-13
Glendale, AZ
1 edit | reply to Matte232
this case iam more interested in how its functionality once everything is in place?
I'm not sure if you are asking me specifically about it. I don't want to miss something. The only function I've had any problem with is as I indicated, WPA2 security on Tomato dropped a few times and I had to re log on. Have not had a problem with that with any of the DDWRT versions.
At the same time I am not a power user by any means. With DDWRT you can do so much stuff it is amazing. Brain Slayer has done a tremendous job of both coding and over seeing the code for the firmware. Both firmware's, Tomato and DDWRT, are worth every penny of a donation.
The xBox stuff, the VOIP and the VPN, I don't use.
Unlike one of the 3rd party firmwares, you don't have to donate to use the latest versions. But I think it is certainly a good idea.
Jim
Also if you have a newer version of the Linksys router you are limited to DDWRT Micro versions. I purchased my 2.1 gs version on ebay for about 50 dollars with shipping however. |
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jsmiddleton4
join:2003-11-13
Glendale, AZ | Also check this site out if you haven't already.
»www.linksysinfo.org/index.php |
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wavracer
join:2003-09-17
North Battleford, SK
| reply to wavracer
My Linksys WRT54GL v1.1 with DD-WRT v23 SP2 (09/15/06) std - build 3932 firmware has been solid as a rock with 4+ days uptime now, even while playing with all kinds of settings and never rebotting. Heavy usage includes UPnP torrenting from 1 wired and 1 wireless PC, surfing/streaming with a wireless notebook, and wireless gaming with a Nintendo Wii - all using WPA2-PSK AES.
Mark |
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