I stumbled upon a pretty cool thing the other day.

My wireless router is in the front upstairs corner of my house, and
while it has served me well over the past few years, I recently built
a shop in the opposite corner of my backyard. The wireless network
just wouldn't reach that far.

I upgraded the router to a D-link Extreme N, but that only helped a
little. I was getting ready to think about external antennas or
repeaters, and found the web page for dd-wrt.com It's a web page for
open source software written to run on certain models of wireless
routers that adds (and uncovers) lots of settings and capabilities.

In short, I just got finished loading new code into a new Linksys
WRT54GL router, and then setting it up to be a wireless repeater. It
cost about half of what a decent repeater would, and took about 30
minutes of reading and 20 minutes or so of uploading, resetting, and
configuring to get it working. It's now sitting on a shelf in the
back corner of the house, and it's giving me about a 90% signal down
in the shop. Plus, I retained full WPA security both in the link to
the main router and in the repeated link to the shop. It just shows
up as a new SSID with a different IP address range. Pretty slick.

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 09:37:23 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I retained full WPA security both in the link to
the main router and in the repeated link to the shop. It just shows
up as a new SSID with a different IP address range. Pretty slick.

Good stuff. I'm sure some of us would be interested in more detail,
especially since it has some applicability on a boat.

Some questions that come to mind:

- Is there a good step-by-step tutorial on the process?

- If not, where is the best info on what firmware to download and how
to configure it?

On Jan 4, 1:54*pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 09:37:23 -0800 (PST), wrote:
I retained full WPA security both in the link to
the main router and in the repeated link to the shop. *It just shows
up as a new SSID with a different IP address range. *Pretty slick.

Good stuff. *I'm sure some of us would be interested in more detail,
especially since it has some applicability on a boat.

Some questions that come to mind:

*- Is there a good step-by-step tutorial on the process?

*- If not, where is the best info on what firmware to download and how
to configure it?

Wayne, it's a bit convoluted to find the info on the web site, but
here's a link to where you want to start:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

From there you can click on links for the FAQ (a good place to start),
and there are pages with lists for hardware compatibility, software
feature sets, step-by step instructions on how to configure for
different purposes, etc.

The repeater function can be setup to be locked down to a single
router, or can be setup to simply repeat the strongest signal. Unless
I misunderstand the functionality, that might be a good use for a
boat. With a directional antenna on the repeater, you could point it
towards the source at the marina, and let it repeat the signal for
your boat. Actually, once it links to the source, you can use the
wired ports on the WRT54GL router I used as well. That's how I
initially setup and tested mine.

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:54:28 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 09:37:23 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I retained full WPA security both in the link to
the main router and in the repeated link to the shop. It just shows
up as a new SSID with a different IP address range. Pretty slick.

Good stuff. I'm sure some of us would be interested in more detail,
especially since it has some applicability on a boat.

Some questions that come to mind:

- Is there a good step-by-step tutorial on the process?

- If not, where is the best info on what firmware to download and how
to configure it?

Cripes, Wayne! Offer the guy a free trip to the Bahamas and let him fix you
up on the way.

Damn!

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:05:00 -0500, John H
wrote:

Good stuff. I'm sure some of us would be interested in more detail,
especially since it has some applicability on a boat.

Some questions that come to mind:

- Is there a good step-by-step tutorial on the process?

- If not, where is the best info on what firmware to download and how
to configure it?

Cripes, Wayne! Offer the guy a free trip to the Bahamas and let him fix you
up on the way.

Free trips to just about anywhere are usually here for the asking.
Our trip to the FL Keys is already booked but we'll be going north
sometime late spring.

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:12:38 -0500, Gene wrote:


Crap. Mine isn't supported.....

Don't know what your router is, but it might be supported by other router
projects. For the past several years, there have been many Linux
enthusiasts who have been working on router upgrades. Do a search on
your router, you may get lucky. After all, most routers are just a mini-
computer. Most already run some form of Linux.

On Jan 4, 7:46*pm, Gene wrote:
On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:24:38 -0600, wrote:
On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:12:38 -0500, Gene wrote:

Crap. Mine isn't supported.....

Don't know what your router is, but it might be supported by other router
projects. *For the past several years, there have been many Linux
enthusiasts who have been working on router upgrades. *Do a search on
your router, you may get lucky. *After all, most routers are just a mini-
computer. *Most already run some form of Linux.

Good point! *I shall Google.....

Let us know what you find... It seems that this project only targets
Linux based routers with a certain chip-set. Let me know if you find
anything else out there. I have a couple of D-link routers that I
could experiment with.

wrote in message
...
I stumbled upon a pretty cool thing the other day.

My wireless router is in the front upstairs corner of my house, and
while it has served me well over the past few years, I recently built
a shop in the opposite corner of my backyard. The wireless network
just wouldn't reach that far.

I upgraded the router to a D-link Extreme N, but that only helped a
little. I was getting ready to think about external antennas or
repeaters, and found the web page for dd-wrt.com It's a web page for
open source software written to run on certain models of wireless
routers that adds (and uncovers) lots of settings and capabilities.

In short, I just got finished loading new code into a new Linksys
WRT54GL router, and then setting it up to be a wireless repeater. It
cost about half of what a decent repeater would, and took about 30
minutes of reading and 20 minutes or so of uploading, resetting, and
configuring to get it working. It's now sitting on a shelf in the
back corner of the house, and it's giving me about a 90% signal down
in the shop. Plus, I retained full WPA security both in the link to
the main router and in the repeated link to the shop. It just shows
up as a new SSID with a different IP address range. Pretty slick.

Just curious... What kind of a wireless nic do you have in your pc in the
shop? Did you try an "extreme n" nic? That may eliminate the need for a
repeater.

Good info on the wrt54gl though...

thanks
Dennis

On Jan 4, 9:12*pm, "dennis meissner" wrote:
wrote in message

...





I stumbled upon a pretty cool thing the other day.

My wireless router is in the front upstairs corner of my house, and
while it has served me well over the past few years, I recently built
a shop in the opposite corner of my backyard. *The wireless network
just wouldn't reach that far.

I upgraded the router to a D-link Extreme N, but that only helped a
little. *I was getting ready to think about external antennas or
repeaters, and found the web page for dd-wrt.com *It's a web page for
open source software written to run on certain models of wireless
routers that adds (and uncovers) lots of settings and capabilities.

In short, I just got finished loading new code into a new Linksys
WRT54GL router, and then setting it up to be a wireless repeater. *It
cost about half of what a decent repeater would, and took about 30
minutes of reading and 20 minutes or so of uploading, resetting, and
configuring to get it working. *It's now sitting on a shelf in the
back corner of the house, and it's giving me about a 90% signal down
in the shop. *Plus, I retained full WPA security both in the link to
the main router and in the repeated link to the shop. *It just shows
up as a new SSID with a different IP address range. *Pretty slick.

Just curious... What kind of a wireless nic do you have in your pc in the
shop? *Did you try an "extreme n" nic? *That may eliminate the need for a
repeater.

Good info on the wrt54gl though...

thanks
Dennis

The shop PC is a laptop with a built-in G nic. I looked into USB N
nics, but was worried that they wouldn't have a good enough antenna.
I found a USB G nic that had a removable antenna (so it could
accomodate an external directional), but then the cost is up there.
Besides, the repeater also gave me excellent signal on the deck, which
had a very weak signal before.