Flashing a Linksys router with linux?

[kain000]

Has anyone herd of flashing the firmware on the linksys wireless routers with linux to do such things as make it into a hardware firewall?
anyone have any experence with this? really i've replaced the old router with an apple airport extreeme and was hopeing that i could do somthing usefull with it still.

 

[skidooosl]

its already a hardware firewall even before flashing....

Both DDWRT and OpenWRT are very nice options... DDwrt(gui based with limited need for CLI) if you dont know much linux and OpenWRT(all CLI) if your a linux master



http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php


http://openwrt.org/


of the two I perfer openwrt just due to the fact that it is smaller and lighter than ddwrt... I believe this is actually what DD-WRT is based on

 

[VinnyTAMU]

I believe that you can implement iptables on dd-wrt, however I am not 100% sure.

 

[nd4spdbh2]

dd-wrt is pretty tight... much MUCH easier to use than openwrt.... there is also Tomato firmware... but i have never tried it.

 

[skidooosl]

both ddwrt and openwrt use IP tables

 

[Sony190]

From what I have heard the only Linsys router that can use linux is the WRT54GL the L is for Linux

 

[VinnyTAMU]

From what I have heard the only Linsys router that can use linux is the WRT54GL the L is for Linux

Not entirely true, most (not all) WRT54G and WRT54GS models can run DD-WRT. However the WRT54GL is the router to get.

 

[kain000]

alright then how do i flash the firmware?

 

[VinnyTAMU]

alright then how do i flash the firmware?

This link will get you started: LINK

Also as stated before I recommend the WRT54GL for the fewest hassles.

 

[kain000]

This link will get you started: LINK

Also as stated before I recommend the WRT54GL for the fewest hassles.

thanks. i've sorta become a secureiety freak in receient days, I work in a dental lab with a CAD/CAM machine and computer, and because 3M (makes the mill and software) wants complete control over "their" systems (we bought the system) they retain the admin account and hence decide what antivirus to install. they cheaped out and we ended up with the mighty F-Secure Pc protection... witch i've dubed F'd -Forsure pc procection... it goes down at least once a week and only they can put it back up. so anyway while it was down a virus crawled out of the internet and onto my computer, and of course f'd for sure couldnt remove it. i convinced their tech guy (3M's tech is a joke, i was literally telling THEM how to install/uninstall ect...) as soon as AVG tried to get rid of said virus, CRASH! system failure and HDD errasure. and whats the biggest pain is that i backup all the scans/mill files to DVD the 1st of every month.... this all happened yesterday, 3/31 so there goes an entire months worth of zirconia crown milling files. i've convinced my boss to let me shop for a RAID 1 setup for the rig so if it happens again i wont be out a day for 3M to re-install the system.

 

[JigPu]

Ouch... That really sucks

As a note, RAID-1 would not have saved you from this particular incident. If the system crashed, both HDs in the RAID would be affected since the RAID controller writes to both drives simultanously -- both drives would have mirror copies of the corrupt data. RAID only really saves you when one of the drives fails physically. I'd still get a seperate system though, if anything just to make nightly backups. You can never have too many backups, and Murphy's Law pretty much dictates that you'll need them *just* before you've made them (so its best to make them as often as possible!).

JigPu

 

[kain000]

Alright so the linksys routers are themselves firewalls, what about an apple airport extreme?