Category archives: WRT54GL

Tomato Firmware Option for WRT54GL

19Jan08

Lifehacker has an interesting post on the Tomato custom router firmware. When a friend emailed me about the Lifehacker post, I first dismissed the article because when I was deciding on which firmware to flash my Linksys WRT54GL
with, I looked at Tomato but didn’t think it was as powerful as DD-WRT or OpenWRT. My interest in Tomato firmware was rekindled after reading Lifehacker’s article. The author acknowledged DD-WRT had a more robust feature set and polished admin interface. However, he said Tomato had a nicer layout, better Quality of Service (QOS) support, and better looking graphical charts than DD-WRT did. For what it is worth, the average user probably wouldn’t use the more powerful DD-WRT features anyway.

I wish I had the time/patience to re-flash my Linksys WRT54GL with Tomato just to try it out. Its very unlikely that I will because I don’t want to risk bricking my perfectly functioning DD-WRT enabled router. I also really like dd-wrt. Too bad flashing a router is a lot more complex than just installing software.

I decided to switch from DD-WRT to Tomato because it has all of the features I need. Additionally, DD-WRT has had some issues with several security vulnerabilities. While most vulnerabilities have likely been patched, finding a stable and patched new version proved complicated. Because most other sites I’ve found only describe how to flash to Tomato from the default Linksys firmware, I decided to write a tutorialabout how to switch from DD-WRT to Tomato.

Also, the Lifehacker article doesn’t mention OpenWRT (a couple of commenters do) but OpenWRT seems to be the hard-core geek’s choice. I’ve considered trying it out, but do not need all of the features. OpenWRT management system appears to be a Linux shell (i.e., command line). However, x-wrt is a method to attach a web front-end (i.e., gui).

If anyone wants to send me a Linksys WRT54GL so I can experiment with it and write more tutorials on firmware flashing, let me know and I can add it to my Amazon Wish List so you can send it to me easily.

Filed under DD-WRT, WRT54GL| | 13 Comments

How to Flash the WRT54GL with DD-WRT Firmware

12Apr07

**DISCLAIMER** The following instructions are provided without warranty of any kind. Flashing firmware does not come without risk. I will not be held responsible for any resulting equipment failure or otherwise undesirable results. Proceed at your own risk.

This tutorial explains how I successfully flashed my Linksys WRT54GL version 1.1 with the open source DD-WRT version 23 SP2 VPN firmware (generic).

Before proceeding, verify your WRT54GL is version 1.1. Per Wikipedia entry and DD-WRT Wiki), you can tell which version you have by checking the serial number. The serial number should be located on a sticker underneath the router. The serial number prefix CL7B corresponds to version 1.1 and CL7A corresponds to version 1.0.

Don’t despair if your router is version 1.0. You can still flash to the DD-WRT firmware. However, the process will be different due to a flash file size limit on the version 1.0 WRT54GL firmware. The main difference is that you will need to flash to a smaller version of the DD-WRT firmware (the mini version) first and then re-flash to the standard, VOIP, or VPN versions.

As a bit of background information, used a fully patched (as of April 6, 2007) Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Internet Explorer 6 during the firmware upgrade process. The OS and web browser shouldn’t matter, but I have heard reports of Firefox causing some problems with the Flash for some people in the past though others have claimed to use Firefox without any problems.

Before you begin, download the package and version of the DD-WRT firmware best suited to your needs. This tutorial walks through flashing to the open source DD-WRT version 23 SP2 VPN firmware. Once you’ve downloaded the file, go ahead an unzip the files. The zip package contains several files, you will only need the “DD-WRT.v23_vpn_generic” file. We’re going to be using the generic file rather than the wrt54g file because we’re going to be using the web GUI to upload the file. Continue reading

Filed under DD-WRT, Tutorials, WRT54GL| | 201 Comments