r0kanon
03-09-2006, 03:26
1
It is very nice to be able to switch off your computer, hear the silence in your room and just see the rapidly blinking lights on the router. Thanks marcnesium, I did recently set up one router with the help of your tutorial and it works very well! I did encounter a few problems, but I was able to get around them.
I wrote some comments and additions hoping they might help somebody with no or little command line experience on unix like computers. So I intended my additions to be read together with your tutorial, perhaps in 2 windows - while setting up the router ;) In fact that's how I posted it on one of the PDA related forums - also linking marcnesium's tutorial so that the two might be read together.
So excuse me if I am explaining the obvious and I will be grateful for corrections and suggestions.
Summary of what you will need to do is:
01-> Choose router
02-> Choose external HDD
03-> Get telnet / ssh client to connect to your router
04-> Flash firmware into your router
05-> access your router via command line (telnet)
06-> Enable extra memory
07-> set up ssh access
08-> Set up your external hard disk drive
-> detect your HDD (if not done automatically)
-> partition your HDD
-> format your HDD
-> set up your HDD to be attached at boot time
09-> Set up ipkg installation mechanism
10-> install additional necessary and just nice packages
- nano (simple to use text editor - alternatvie to a bit cryptic vi)
- screen (necessary for you to be able to inconspicuously disconnect from router)
- cron (scheduler - to set up programs to run at some intervals)
- ntpclient (to keep router's clock precise)
- nload (to watch bytes going in and out on your terminal)
- ctorrent (well - for torrents download)
- enhanced-ctorrent (same but improved version - can download files > 2 GB)
11-> configure your SAMBA (Windows network) server for access from lacal network
12-> download torrent files to the SAMBA share
13-> downlad torrents
-> use screen so you can leave your router in peace, open 2 screens
-> start the command line enhanced-ctorrent in one screen
-> start nload in another screen to look at what you have done :)
-> stop nload by Ctrl-c
-> detach from screen by Ctrl-a + d
-> exit from putty
-> switch off your PC
14-> Watch your router, DSL modem and External HDD lights blink. It is your torrrent being downloaded. You feel proud of yourself, don't you? And by going a little deeper into all the commands you entered you might be able to do further configuration tweaks - allowing to download your new torrents automatically - as soon as you save them on your SAMBA share. This has been described on the net, but I have not got into it yet.
Some history : - I started by looking for routers that actually could use custom made open source firmware. Linksys, ASUS, Buffalo make very nice ones. I think all they are based on a Broadcom chip that is meant for running linux on it. So the manufacturers have to release the code with an open source license - which is picked up by the development community and usually something nice comes out. The best known projects are dd-wrt and openwrt. A bit less known but very relevant and respected is Oleg's firmware for ASUS routers. There are more.
I started off with dd-wrt and hoped to make it work with its nice web based interface. I got stuck at the point where one has to install and use USB HDD then make that available on Windows network (SAMBA). Packages for samba would not install in dd-wrt due to dependancy and version problems. Then I went to Oleg's firmware - and it works very well.
INITIAL SETUP NOTES (not covered by marcnesium):
-> 1) Choose router:
- ASUS wl-500 G Premium (aka wl-500Gp) - on eBay
- you can choose other but please verify
- that custom firmware exists
- it is still being developed
- good starting points are:
http://wl500g.info
http://www.dd-wrt.com
http://openwrt.org
http://www.wrt54g.net
Wikipedia
-> 2) Choose your external HDD. For example Seagate USB 2.0 model with 300 or 400 GB capacity. What you want to have is s simple external drive that would have good capacity and low noise. If the shop assistant tries to tell you this you need to install any drivers for it - be suspicious and go away.
-> 3) Have puTTY ready on your computer. It is a telnet and ssh client http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html It will be actually better for you perhaps not to type every command, but rather copy them from marcnesium's tutorial and mine and paste into puTTY. Pasting is performed by the left mouse button. A command will be executed after you press enter.
-> 4) FLASH THE FIRMWARE: You need to obtain the correct firmware for your router. In our case you go to http://oleg.wl500g.info/ - at the bottom of the page you will find the latest Oleg's firmware - in January 2007 it is 1.9.2.7-7f. Your ASUS Premium image will be It is WL500gp-1.9.2.7-7f.zip
4.1 Flash it onto the router.
- put your router in recovery mode by disconnecting power, then keep reset button pressed (with a paper clip), conncet power, then wait about 5 seconds until router power light starts to blink slowly. This is recovery mode when router is awaiting an incoming tftp connection which will upload the new firmware,
- open the ASUS recovery utility - that is basically a tftp client and I suspect it has a few extras with it - maybe it clears nvram or des something similar. It is available on your CD and on the ASUS support site with driver downlads.
- choose your firmware file you downloaded to your PC e.g. WL500gx-1.9.2.7-7e.trx
- press upload button
- IMPORTANT: your PC must be connected to the router by a cable not by wireless cnnection. I don't think the wireless might work in recovery mode, but still this is an important point to observe when uploading any firmware to any router, therefore I mention it here.
- wait until it says "upload complete, router rebooting" or something like that.
4.2 CAVEAT - uploading some experimental firmwares may not reboot the router (it happened to me) :) - it will stay in recovery mode and do nothing. If that is so you can still use 2 firmware images to clean up, then you can upload the firmware of your choice again. Those images are: http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500g-clear-nvram.trx and then after the power-off reboot-in-recovery mode use the other one: http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500g-recover.trx This is almost 100% certain you will end up in a working router condition and then you can attempt a firmware upload again.
4.3 some people say it is best to upload firmware through the web interface. Well, I think is there is an easy to use tftp utility - why not use that.
It is very nice to be able to switch off your computer, hear the silence in your room and just see the rapidly blinking lights on the router. Thanks marcnesium, I did recently set up one router with the help of your tutorial and it works very well! I did encounter a few problems, but I was able to get around them.
I wrote some comments and additions hoping they might help somebody with no or little command line experience on unix like computers. So I intended my additions to be read together with your tutorial, perhaps in 2 windows - while setting up the router ;) In fact that's how I posted it on one of the PDA related forums - also linking marcnesium's tutorial so that the two might be read together.
So excuse me if I am explaining the obvious and I will be grateful for corrections and suggestions.
Summary of what you will need to do is:
01-> Choose router
02-> Choose external HDD
03-> Get telnet / ssh client to connect to your router
04-> Flash firmware into your router
05-> access your router via command line (telnet)
06-> Enable extra memory
07-> set up ssh access
08-> Set up your external hard disk drive
-> detect your HDD (if not done automatically)
-> partition your HDD
-> format your HDD
-> set up your HDD to be attached at boot time
09-> Set up ipkg installation mechanism
10-> install additional necessary and just nice packages
- nano (simple to use text editor - alternatvie to a bit cryptic vi)
- screen (necessary for you to be able to inconspicuously disconnect from router)
- cron (scheduler - to set up programs to run at some intervals)
- ntpclient (to keep router's clock precise)
- nload (to watch bytes going in and out on your terminal)
- ctorrent (well - for torrents download)
- enhanced-ctorrent (same but improved version - can download files > 2 GB)
11-> configure your SAMBA (Windows network) server for access from lacal network
12-> download torrent files to the SAMBA share
13-> downlad torrents
-> use screen so you can leave your router in peace, open 2 screens
-> start the command line enhanced-ctorrent in one screen
-> start nload in another screen to look at what you have done :)
-> stop nload by Ctrl-c
-> detach from screen by Ctrl-a + d
-> exit from putty
-> switch off your PC
14-> Watch your router, DSL modem and External HDD lights blink. It is your torrrent being downloaded. You feel proud of yourself, don't you? And by going a little deeper into all the commands you entered you might be able to do further configuration tweaks - allowing to download your new torrents automatically - as soon as you save them on your SAMBA share. This has been described on the net, but I have not got into it yet.
Some history : - I started by looking for routers that actually could use custom made open source firmware. Linksys, ASUS, Buffalo make very nice ones. I think all they are based on a Broadcom chip that is meant for running linux on it. So the manufacturers have to release the code with an open source license - which is picked up by the development community and usually something nice comes out. The best known projects are dd-wrt and openwrt. A bit less known but very relevant and respected is Oleg's firmware for ASUS routers. There are more.
I started off with dd-wrt and hoped to make it work with its nice web based interface. I got stuck at the point where one has to install and use USB HDD then make that available on Windows network (SAMBA). Packages for samba would not install in dd-wrt due to dependancy and version problems. Then I went to Oleg's firmware - and it works very well.
INITIAL SETUP NOTES (not covered by marcnesium):
-> 1) Choose router:
- ASUS wl-500 G Premium (aka wl-500Gp) - on eBay
- you can choose other but please verify
- that custom firmware exists
- it is still being developed
- good starting points are:
http://wl500g.info
http://www.dd-wrt.com
http://openwrt.org
http://www.wrt54g.net
Wikipedia
-> 2) Choose your external HDD. For example Seagate USB 2.0 model with 300 or 400 GB capacity. What you want to have is s simple external drive that would have good capacity and low noise. If the shop assistant tries to tell you this you need to install any drivers for it - be suspicious and go away.
-> 3) Have puTTY ready on your computer. It is a telnet and ssh client http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html It will be actually better for you perhaps not to type every command, but rather copy them from marcnesium's tutorial and mine and paste into puTTY. Pasting is performed by the left mouse button. A command will be executed after you press enter.
-> 4) FLASH THE FIRMWARE: You need to obtain the correct firmware for your router. In our case you go to http://oleg.wl500g.info/ - at the bottom of the page you will find the latest Oleg's firmware - in January 2007 it is 1.9.2.7-7f. Your ASUS Premium image will be It is WL500gp-1.9.2.7-7f.zip
4.1 Flash it onto the router.
- put your router in recovery mode by disconnecting power, then keep reset button pressed (with a paper clip), conncet power, then wait about 5 seconds until router power light starts to blink slowly. This is recovery mode when router is awaiting an incoming tftp connection which will upload the new firmware,
- open the ASUS recovery utility - that is basically a tftp client and I suspect it has a few extras with it - maybe it clears nvram or des something similar. It is available on your CD and on the ASUS support site with driver downlads.
- choose your firmware file you downloaded to your PC e.g. WL500gx-1.9.2.7-7e.trx
- press upload button
- IMPORTANT: your PC must be connected to the router by a cable not by wireless cnnection. I don't think the wireless might work in recovery mode, but still this is an important point to observe when uploading any firmware to any router, therefore I mention it here.
- wait until it says "upload complete, router rebooting" or something like that.
4.2 CAVEAT - uploading some experimental firmwares may not reboot the router (it happened to me) :) - it will stay in recovery mode and do nothing. If that is so you can still use 2 firmware images to clean up, then you can upload the firmware of your choice again. Those images are: http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500g-clear-nvram.trx and then after the power-off reboot-in-recovery mode use the other one: http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500g-recover.trx This is almost 100% certain you will end up in a working router condition and then you can attempt a firmware upload again.
4.3 some people say it is best to upload firmware through the web interface. Well, I think is there is an easy to use tftp utility - why not use that.