[ale] Was Re: DSL static IP; now Linksys WiFi/Routers

[Jeremy T. Bouse]

Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> This reminds me.  I have a LinkSys WRT54G WAP/Router that I haven't even
> really used yet.  It's a v5.0, which apparently is a bad version to have
> if you want to use third-party firmware; I've seen at least one path
> forward for third-party firmware for the v5.0 but the installation seems
> very hairy, the software seems arcane enough that ongoing development
> and bugfixes don't seem likely, and a good many installation failure
> modes seem to result in a "bricked" router.
> 
> That being said, how bad off would I be in using the WRT54G as-is as my
> Comcast cable Internet firewall and WAP?  I'm leery of home WAPs in
> general and I may even leave it disabled most of the time, but how
> unsafe is it for a cable Internet firewall?
> 
> - Jeff
> 
	Actually a v5 WRT54G is marginally supported. A v4 or earlier is
certain to work. The issue was like many Linksys models they changed
chips on the board. In this case they started reducing the amount of RAM
and flash on the board and moved from using Linux to vxworks which has a
smaller memory footprint. I'd stick with the stock on a v5 or newer if
you're worried about a brick. OpenWRT "Kamikaze" is supposed to be
better supported but as you mentioned it's under development. I've got
one unit running White Russian and another running Kamikaze.

	The stock firmware isn't that bad, I just personally like using full
open-source if possible and having SSH access to configure it instead of
web only is nice. I wouldn't run without a firewall in place on my DSL
line, the fact I refuse to use a cable modem connection I'd probably put
2 in place if I were forced to go that route. Stock firmware is better
than none.

	I picked up my second WRTSL54GS (marketed as the "Media Storage Link
Router with SpeedBooster") for about $90 as Frys recently. I do like
it's arch better than the other Linksys models as the WiFi, LAN and WAN
interfaces are separate ethernet devices to the system on chips (SoC).
It also has the USB port that you can use for external storage for a
central file server if you like and also makes handy for installing
extra OpenWRT ipkg's without being online.