Any WRT54GL experts in the house?

I've been running my WRT54GL (flashed with DD-WRT sp1) for years without problems, and then a bizarre power outage/surge/something happened last night. Most of my hardware survived/rebooted unscathathed (although mt radioactive@home sensor needed some help) but ...

The router works fine. The hardware is fine. PSU voltage fine, routing, DHCP, DNS, everything works perfectly. Except the wireless connection doesn't work. No SSID broadcast, gives 100% TX errors :(

Yes, yes, I hear you shouting that the hardware is borked. BUT creating a virtual network works perfectly. Even 2 virtual networks work. SSID, no TX/RX errors. Same hardware! ;)

Tried everything I can think of (and then some), but I can't bring the primary wireless network back up. I've googled (believe me, I've googled until my fingers bleed) but I only find the usual "power cycle, hardware reset, reflash the firmware, take it back to the shop" 'advice' :hair:

If all else fails I'll just have to find a way of disabling the primary network connection (if nothing else to stop the TX errors ramping up) and use a virtual network.

It's all a bit weird :crazy:

Cheers,

Al.

Hmmm, even weirder, turning off security on the primary wireless network makes it work - Obviously not a sensible thing to leave running though :)

So, deffo not the hardware, just some bizarre hidden setting or NVRAM corruption.

Seems to be running happily with the virtual network, so I'll leave it until I get time to flash one of my spares with the same version, then I can quickly swap it in/out and see what happens.

Also, if anyone knows of a wireless router with per-MAC bandwidth throttling, I'd like to hear about it :)

Al.

Can't say I've looked into advanced features like that, at least not on consumer level hardware. I've had some exposure to high end stuff which would probably do it, but we are talking many $$$$ now.

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Originally Posted by Bok

but we are talking many $$$$ now.

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Yeah, that's what nice about the premium DD-WRT firmware - A $600 router for $60 :)

Also nice to be able to adjust the wireless TX power levels - An extra 30mw means I can get wifi in rooms that other routers fail to reach. Probably frying what's left of my brain though :)

Cheers,

Al.

It kind of sounds like a setting for the security is messed up. You might try to reconfigure it from scratch. a.k.a. NVRAM corruption.
As for the extra mW just the driver chip is cooked! :crazy: (more power=more heat.)

Urg. Got a 'free' broadband speed upgrade a few days ago. Except the router is throttling the thoughput. Remove it, full speed, put it back, it never reaches maximum.

So. New router time. Looks like $$$$ just to get the per-MAC bandwidth throttling I need :(

Oh, 'free' upgrade in this context means hike the price by 10%, then announce a free upgrade 2 weeks later. You've got to admire their cheek :)

Cheers,

Al.

Ah, note to self - It's the per-MAC bandwidth throttling that limits the unthrottled MACs :( Turn it off, and get full speed :)

So, running with QoS turned off unless our semi-resident bandwidth sponge starts soaking it up.

Also, playing with overclocking the router. Makes a noticable difference with QoS on, no difference with QoS off. I'll try ramping it up slowly over the summer months until something melts :)

Cheers,

Al.

Any update on overclocking? I have a WRT54GL sitting around here somewhere that I'd like to tinker with.

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Originally Posted by spjeff69

Any update on overclocking?

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No issues so far, but then I've only gone up to 216Mhz. However, that's made enough of a difference to not really need to go any higher.

But ... I've got a couple of spares, and I want to have a play with Tomato so I might try that one overclocked to the max with the RF power maxed out too :)

Also need to make a clone of the current router with DD-WRT SE - Just got to remember the convoluted process to install it :(

Cheers,

Al.

I've always wanted to use my dremal to cut some vent holds and add an 80mm fan on mine. I was always intrigued when I saw that on forums. Maybe I will one day. Really like to see how high I could get it

Edit
How cool http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/346/39dw.jpg/

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Originally Posted by spjeff69

I've always wanted to use my dremal to cut some vent holds and add an 80mm fan on mine. I was always intrigued when I saw that on forums. Maybe I will one day. Really like to see how high I could get ithttp://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/346/39dw.jpg/

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Well, forums are quite often full of rubbish ;) I read a very good blog written over a period of *years* by a FM who runs a farm of WRT54GLs (hundreds) all maxed out on o/c and RF power. Not one failure.

Having worked in embedded software and hardware for decades, and having used Broadcom CPUs for many years of those, I'm actually pretty sure a WRT54GL will happily run flat out. It's only because of the grief I would suffer from the wife if anything did go wrong that I'm not trying it until I've got a replacement ready to drop in instantly :) Oh, and it's worth googling about the 216MHz 'issue'.

Anyway, if people want to hot-rod their routers, good for them, looks cool (ish!) if nothing else! My network 'centre' is stuffed into the corner of a room, surrounded by books, and thick with dust. The only network hardware failures I've had over the years are a $20 8-port switch (some junk brand) and a cheap homeplug adapter that took me a week to track down as the villian in The Mysterious Case Of The Nuts Network Problem.

Just to add to the fun, the telecoms company have installed a FTTC cabinet at the end of the road. As ADSL is useless here, that gives me another option rather than having to use the cable company (which, to be fair, has been excellent, if a little expensive, and I have done contract work for them in the past, so have contacts if needed!).

One thing that I have discovered over the years is that DD-WRT is not actually brilliant. Lots of features just don't work, the forums are often less than helpful, and it's not even particularly fast.

Cheers,

Al.

Well we have 100mbps cable here and it is quite nice. I took the dive and bought an Apple Airport Extreme last year and it has been awesome.

I would love to use the WRT54GL as a repeater - but haven't found the time to fiddle with it. You are right about DD-WRT. The support is not the best.