After days of messing, i've finally got my WL-500gP doing pretty much what I want. However, the one remaining annoyance is that the USB hard drive won't spin down, and to remove it I need to login to the web interface just to say "eject"... which isn't particularly helpful.

So, i'm looking for a new firmware with that implemented. I'm currently using the standard Asus FW and happy enough with that - i need to keep the ability for it to operate as a router (share the WAN connection with several wifi devices), to share a printer, to share a hard drive, and for a wired network device to be on the network too. Other than that, i'll happily lose all the other features.

Are there any firmwares out there that can do that, and that are suitable for a linux-novice (i've played a teeny bit with Linux, and can get a friend to explain bits of it over the phone, but not experienced myself).

I have read around this and other forums about the problem, and it does seem to be possible, but I can't do anything with the standard firmware, and the most common Oleg one doesn't seem to include sharing the USB drive. Also, I only have a laptop so can't directly connect the drive to an IDE interface to change the HDPARAM settings.

Any suggestions very gratefully received!

David