Any WRT54GL experts in the house?

[ChertseyAl]

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'

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

Cheers,

Al.

[ChertseyAl]

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.

[Bok]

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.

[ChertseyAl]

but we are talking many $$$$ now.

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.

[kmanley57]

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! (more power=more heat.)

[ChertseyAl]

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.