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From: Grant Edwards on 25 Sep 2007 21:12
On 2007-09-26, Ignoramus30458 <ignoramus30458(a)NOSPAM.30458.invalid> wrote:

>> You can get a brand new WRTG54 (or some other equivalent) for
>> $40 (used ones you can get for $0-$20), it's the size of a
>> paperback book, it's completely silent, it only burns about 5
>> Watts.
>
> That is indeed great.
>
>>> I have a network at home with NATs, private subnets, etc, all
>>> controlled by a regular Linux computer acting as a firewall.
>>
>> Which cost somewhere between $300-$1000, is a _lot_ larger,
>> has annoying fans, and burns about 20X the power.
>
> except the linux firewall box can do all sorts of other
> things, it does not have to be dedicated.

It does have to be on all the time, which can be annoying when
you need to rebuild/upgrade that machine and the others can't
get to the 'net until that job is done.

There are also people who are too paranoid to have a "general
purpose" Lintel box connected to the internet. The thought
being that a dedicated, single-purpose box (running a non-IA32
architecture) will be much harder to exploit than an IA32 box
with a lot of huge, complex applications and services running
on it. I'm not sure there's a lot to that argument.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I left my WALLET in
at the BATHROOM!!
visi.com
From: Richard Steiner on 25 Sep 2007 22:32
On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:46:53 -0500 in comp.os.linux.networking,
Ignoramus30458 <ignoramus30458(a)NOSPAM.30458.invalid> spake unto us, saying:

> On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:31:57 -0000, Grant Edwards <grante(a)visi.com> wrote:
>
>>> I have a network at home with NATs, private subnets, etc, all
>>> controlled by a regular Linux computer acting as a firewall.
>>
>> Which cost somewhere between $300-$1000, is a _lot_ larger, has
>> annoying fans, and burns about 20X the power.
>
> except the linux firewall box can do all sorts of other things, it
> does not have to be dedicated.

But it does have to be ON. :-)

I just picked up a Linusys WRT54G v8.0 (yeah, I know I should've gotten
the GL instead) WAP/router/firewall mainly to free up my old Linux f/w
box, and I think it's nice to be able to multiboot again w/o canning my
internet connection...

--
-Rich Steiner >>>---> http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner >>>---> Mableton, GA USA
Mainframe/Unix bit twiddler by day, OS/2+Linux+DOS hobbyist by night.
WARNING: I've seen FIELDATA FORTRAN V and I know how to use it!
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
From: Ignoramus30458 on 25 Sep 2007 23:31
On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:32:34 -0000, Richard Steiner <rsteiner(a)visi.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:46:53 -0500 in comp.os.linux.networking,
> Ignoramus30458 <ignoramus30458(a)NOSPAM.30458.invalid> spake unto us, saying:
>
>> On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:31:57 -0000, Grant Edwards <grante(a)visi.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> I have a network at home with NATs, private subnets, etc, all
>>>> controlled by a regular Linux computer acting as a firewall.
>>>
>>> Which cost somewhere between $300-$1000, is a _lot_ larger, has
>>> annoying fans, and burns about 20X the power.
>>
>> except the linux firewall box can do all sorts of other things, it
>> does not have to be dedicated.
>
> But it does have to be ON. :-)

I do not have a habit of turning computers off (except for my linux
laptop).

> I just picked up a Linusys WRT54G v8.0 (yeah, I know I should've gotten
> the GL instead) WAP/router/firewall mainly to free up my old Linux f/w
> box, and I think it's nice to be able to multiboot again w/o canning my
> internet connection...
>

Without a doubt.

How can I tell if my WRT54G supports embedded Linux? Maybe I should
take it off eBay.

i
From: jch on 26 Sep 2007 21:31
"Larry Finger" <Larry.Finger(a)lwfinger.net> wrote in message
news:P6BKi.140893$ax1.42745(a)bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Ignoramus30458 wrote:
>> On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:32:34 -0000, Richard Steiner <rsteiner(a)visi.com>
>> wrote:
>>> On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:46:53 -0500 in comp.os.linux.networking,
>>> Ignoramus30458 <ignoramus30458(a)NOSPAM.30458.invalid> spake unto us,
>>> saying:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:31:57 -0000, Grant Edwards <grante(a)visi.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>> I have a network at home with NATs, private subnets, etc, all
>>>>>> controlled by a regular Linux computer acting as a firewall.
>>>>> Which cost somewhere between $300-$1000, is a _lot_ larger, has
>>>>> annoying fans, and burns about 20X the power.
>>>> except the linux firewall box can do all sorts of other things, it
>>>> does not have to be dedicated.
>>> But it does have to be ON. :-)
>>
>> I do not have a habit of turning computers off (except for my linux
>> laptop).
>>
>>> I just picked up a Linusys WRT54G v8.0 (yeah, I know I should've gotten
>>> the GL instead) WAP/router/firewall mainly to free up my old Linux f/w
>>> box, and I think it's nice to be able to multiboot again w/o canning my
>>> internet connection...
>>>
>>
>> Without a doubt.
>>
>> How can I tell if my WRT54G supports embedded Linux? Maybe I should
>> take it off eBay.
>
> To some extent, they all do, but the V5 and later models have half the RAM
> and half the flash memory
> of earlier models. The V5 thru V8 models come from the factory running
> VxWorks. The others already
> run Linux, which is how the alternate firmware sources got started. Due
> the GPL, Linksys had to make
> their kernel sources available. Only the driver for the Broadcom wireless
> chip could be distributed
> in binary-only form. That driver file has been an important resource in
> the reverse engineering of
> the BCM43xx chips, which has led to the bcm43xx opn-source driver for
> Linux.
>
> If your WRT54G doesn't have a version listed on the name plate, then it is
> likely a V1, which will
> run 3rd party Linux firmware.
>
> Larry

Even V5 and above can be flashed with a 3rd party Linux firmware. As I
stated in a previous post to this very thread, http://www.dd-wrt.com
provides information on flashing v5 and above WRT54G routers. I
successfully flashed my v5. It involves more than flashing 1 file but it's
hardly difficult.


From: Ignoramus25760 on 26 Sep 2007 21:46
On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:31:09 -0400, jch <jch(a)nospam.com> wrote:
> "Larry Finger" <Larry.Finger(a)lwfinger.net> wrote in message
> news:P6BKi.140893$ax1.42745(a)bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>> Ignoramus30458 wrote:
>>> On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:32:34 -0000, Richard Steiner <rsteiner(a)visi.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:46:53 -0500 in comp.os.linux.networking,
>>>> Ignoramus30458 <ignoramus30458(a)NOSPAM.30458.invalid> spake unto us,
>>>> saying:
>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:31:57 -0000, Grant Edwards <grante(a)visi.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>> I have a network at home with NATs, private subnets, etc, all
>>>>>>> controlled by a regular Linux computer acting as a firewall.
>>>>>> Which cost somewhere between $300-$1000, is a _lot_ larger, has
>>>>>> annoying fans, and burns about 20X the power.
>>>>> except the linux firewall box can do all sorts of other things, it
>>>>> does not have to be dedicated.
>>>> But it does have to be ON. :-)
>>>
>>> I do not have a habit of turning computers off (except for my linux
>>> laptop).
>>>
>>>> I just picked up a Linusys WRT54G v8.0 (yeah, I know I should've gotten
>>>> the GL instead) WAP/router/firewall mainly to free up my old Linux f/w
>>>> box, and I think it's nice to be able to multiboot again w/o canning my
>>>> internet connection...
>>>>
>>>
>>> Without a doubt.
>>>
>>> How can I tell if my WRT54G supports embedded Linux? Maybe I should
>>> take it off eBay.
>>
>> To some extent, they all do, but the V5 and later models have half the RAM
>> and half the flash memory
>> of earlier models. The V5 thru V8 models come from the factory running
>> VxWorks. The others already
>> run Linux, which is how the alternate firmware sources got started. Due
>> the GPL, Linksys had to make
>> their kernel sources available. Only the driver for the Broadcom wireless
>> chip could be distributed
>> in binary-only form. That driver file has been an important resource in
>> the reverse engineering of
>> the BCM43xx chips, which has led to the bcm43xx opn-source driver for
>> Linux.
>>
>> If your WRT54G doesn't have a version listed on the name plate, then it is
>> likely a V1, which will
>> run 3rd party Linux firmware.
>>
>> Larry
>
> Even V5 and above can be flashed with a 3rd party Linux firmware. As I
> stated in a previous post to this very thread, http://www.dd-wrt.com
> provides information on flashing v5 and above WRT54G routers. I
> successfully flashed my v5. It involves more than flashing 1 file but it's
> hardly difficult.
>
>

Mine is V2 and is flashable. Could anyone explain in a couple of
sentences just what is involved in flashing one. Thanks

i
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