Back on July 22 someone found a vulnerability in the dd-wrt software and the folks over at dd-wrt created a fix and recommended updating to the fixed version. They also posted a solution that just involved updating the configuration and did not involve updating the firmware. Since I am running dd-wrt on both of the routers at home, I made configuration changes and added updating the firmware to my "to do" list. I have one router (a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54) setup with 802.11b and the other (a Linksys WRT54GL) with 802.11g. The Buffalo router is connected to the cable modem and we use it for devices that only support 802.11b (the TiVo) and for devices I don't want on the internal network. The Linksys router is connected behind the Buffalo router and is used for everything else.
Both have been pretty good routers. At one point our home network had a non-wireless Linksys router and a wireless 802.11b D-Link router. The Linksys was connected to the cable modem, and the D-Link router sat behind it. When the D-Link router died I started looking for a new wireless router that supported all the features that I was using on the D-Link. None of the (reasonably priced) routers I could find supported all the features with the native firmware (including the newer D-Link routers). I mentioned this to one of my friends and he told me he was running Tomato on his Linksys, so I did some searching and found dd-wrt and the list of routers it supported. I initially got the Buffalo router because it was the cheapest router I could find that had full dd-wrt support. I replaced the D-Link with the Buffalo router so at that point our home network had the non-wireless Linksys with the Buffalo router sitting behind it.
Eventually the non-wireless Linksys started acting up, so I figured I would get another Buffalo router and set up both a 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networks. When I started looking, the Buffalo router was not available, so I went with the Linksys. I swapped the wireless Linksys with the non-wireless Linksys, so the wireless Linksys was now connected to the cable modem and the Buffalo router sat behind it. At one point the Buffalo started acting a little strangely, I don't remember for sure, but I believe 802.11g wireless would no longer work, so I swapped it with the Linksys and it became the 802.11b router.
So, back to the update to fix the dd-wrt vulnerability... Last night I finally had some time to update the firmware. Everything went pretty smoothly. Since I had dd-wrt already running on the routers, I could do the firmware update via ssh (versus using the web interface). I ran the following commands on both routers:
Restore factory defaults:
root> mtd -r erase nvram
Flash the firmware:
root@DD-WRT:~# scp <user name>@192.168.1.102:dd-wrt.v24_std_generic.bin .
root@DD-WRT:~# md5sum dd-wrt.v24_std_generic.bin
root@DD-WRT:~# write dd-wrt.v24_std_generic.bin linux
<wait>
root@DD-WRT:~# reboot
Restore factory defaults:
root@DD-WRT:~# mtd -r erase nvram
Next I logged into the web interface and configured all the necessary settings. Once everything was configured I started testing the network. I could ping (and ssh to) both routers, but DNS was not resolving. I decided the first thing I would try was power everything down (cable modem, routers, VOIP box) and then power everything back up in a specific order. As I was unplugging them I thought to myself, make a note as to which AC Adapter plugs into which device, and then quickly forgot which adapter belonged to which device. I plugged in my Buffalo router and didn't see any activity on it, so I thought I must have plugged in the wrong adapter, I plugged in another one and then noticed the smell of burning electronics. Needless to say I had plugged in the (Linksys) 12 V adapter into the 5 V router. I wasn't too happy about it, but I was able to plug the Linksys directly into the cable modem and bypass the Buffalo router without losing too much functionality. I just ordered an ASUS WL-500G Premium V2 router (which can run dd-wrt) from Newegg which includes 2 USB ports to connect storage or printers to. It should arrive this week, I am looking forward to playing around with it and getting the network back up to full functionality.
