dd-wrt

How I Made the Airport Extreme Base Station “Play Nice” with an ASUS WL-520GU Wireless Router

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A while back I discovered that the Airport Extreme Base Station wouldn’t properly handle an incoming PPTP VPN connection. Recently, because I moved my home automation setup to an ASUS EeeBox PC, I decided to switch back to PPTP by using an ASUS wireless router.

My goal was to have the AEBS continue to manage the wireless network and provide the included high-speed Ethernet ports. On the other side, the new ASUS router would handle the typical functions of a resdential router (firewall, DHCP, port forwarding, etc).

So far this setup has worked without any hiccups.

Configuring the AEBS for this setup was simple. I only had to change one setting.

  1. Open the Airport Utility
  2. Choose Manual Setup
  3. Select the Internet button at the top
  4. In the Connection Sharing drop-down choose Off (Bridge Mode)
  5. Update

I made one other configuration change, though this is optional. I wanted to manually assign the AEBS’s LAN IP so I went into the TCP/IP tab, changed the Configure IPv4 option to Manually, and set the appropriate IP information (in this case the Router Address points to the ASUS router).

Updated 09/14/2011: So far I haven’t had any problems with this setup. The two devices seem to be working well together.

Removing DD-WRT from a WRT54GS v.7 Linksys Wireless Router

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I just lost two and a half hours of my life trying to restore a Linksys WRT54GS (v.7) from DD-WRT to the official firmware. None of the restore/reset options I tried worked during that time. Despite various attempts the router always returned to the DD-WRT configuration.

Finally, I managed to find a solution by installing the VXWorks-revert firmware (via DD-WRT router database) for this router (available on the DD-WRT site for this router’s downloads). After rebooting and uploading the firmware via TFTP the router fell back to a recovery mode from which I was able to load the official firmware (via Web GUI). Starting with the same method using the official firmware never worked until after installing VXWorks-revert.

Airport Extreme Base Station Initial Impression: Home Run!

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Updated 08/03/2011: The Airport Extreme Base Station has a major flaw for anyone planning to use a PPTP VPN connection to access a computer behind the router. I’ve added a new post that details my current view of the AEBS.

I finally had enough of dealing with my router problems and it was time to upgrade to 802.11n, so I purchased the AirPort Extreme this week. It came today and I just hooked it up. So far, I’m very impressed.

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Up Next: Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station

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I’m considering purchasing an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station… My Linksys router has served me well over the years but I’m ready to upgrade to 802.11n support and gain additional features that are more relevant (and reliable) these days.

The thought of replacing my router has occurred several times, especially since, on a few occasions, I’ve come home to discover the firmware settings had reset and my wireless network was wide open. It’s only fair to point out that this probably isn’t a problem with the router itself. I’ve been running DD-WRT on it instead of the factory Linksys firmware.

Lately, I’ve also been thinking about adding network-enabled storage to my setup. The Extreme Base Station has a built-in USB port for that I could attach a USB hard drive to, which would allow me to connect shared storage without having to buy a stand-alone device or leave another computer on. In addition, I’m also attracted to the ability of creating a “guest” wireless network on-the-fly, which would be good for visitors so they don’t have to type in my very long and cryptic wireless key.

Having built-in gigabit ports is also a plus (though it’s also a slight negative that it only has three). Obviously that won’t make a difference when accessing the Web any time soon but it will help with local, high-bandwidth file transfers.

Overall, Amazon customer reviews are very positive and several have also stated that the signal strength is excellent. It just might be good enough to properly cover our home, which means I could remove an AP that is located on the opposite end of the house and thus reduce some unsightly tech clutter.

This is probably a purchase I’ll make very soon, but I need to give it some more thought. At $170 I’m hesitant to drop the cash right now but I think the feature set will win in the long run.

Update 03/17/2011: Due to another failure of the Linksys/DD-WRT setup I went ahead and purchased the AirPort Extreme.