At the time this is written (4-FEB-2008), the only 3rd party firmware that will work on a Linksys WRT54GS v7 router is the micro edition of DD-WRT. Although the micro edition has been stripped down to fit in the 2MB flash memory of the router, it does come with a lot more features than the factory installed firmware.
The generic micro edition of DD-WRT will give you the same functionality you would get from the original firmware, including a web based interface. On top of it comes with a lot of extras that you won’t get from the original firmware.
The biggest change that comes with DD-WRT is the Linux platform, which is an improvement over the vxWorks platform that comes with this router.
Here are some of the extras that you will get after you upgrade your Linksys firmware with the generic micro edition of DD-WRT:
- Linux OS (as opposed to vxWorks)
- telnet access to router
- change transmission power
- view memory usage
- wireless MAC filter (white list or blank list)
- more QoS options
- graphical bandwidth monitor
- detailed LAN/wireless status
- ability to schedule jobs (cron)
- Wake-On-LAN (WOL)
- schedule reboot
- radio time restrictions
- Wireless Distribution System (WDS)
- hotspot gateway mode
- ability to use EZ-Setup button to turn off radio
- more wireless advanced settings
- display wireless clients signal quality
- many statistics, such as uptime, load average, number of IP connections, etc.
- many help pages in web interface
Here’s how a telnet session with your DD-WRT router looks like:
$ telnet 192.168.1.1
Trying 192.168.1.1...
Connected to 192.168.1.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
DD-WRT v24 micro (c) 2008 NewMedia-NET GmbH
Release: 01/02/08 (SVN revision: 8743)
BRICK login: root
Password:
==========================================================
____ ___ __ ______ _____ ____ _ _
| _ \| _ \ \ \ / / _ \_ _| __ _|___ \| || |
|| | || ||____\ \ /\ / /| |_) || | \ \ / / __) | || |_
||_| ||_||_____\ V V / | _ < | | \ V / / __/|__ _|
|___/|___/ \_/\_/ |_| \_\|_| \_/ |_____| |_|
DD-WRT v24
http://www.dd-wrt.com
==========================================================
BusyBox v1.4.2 (2008-01-02 11:32:06 CET) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
root@BRICK:~# help
Built-in commands:
-------------------
. : [ [[ alias bg break cd chdir command continue eval exec exit
export false fg getopts hash help jobs kill local pwd read readonly
return set shift source test times trap true type ulimit umask
unalias unset wait
root@BRICK:~# exit
Connection closed by foreign host.
$
Here are some of the external Linux commands available to you:
[ grep ntpclient sort [[ halt ntpd sputnik ash hb_connect nvram startservice brctl hb_disconnect pidof stats busybox hostname ping stopservice cat hotplug poweroff supplicant check_ps httpd pppd svqos check_ses_led ifconfig pptp svqos2 chmod igmprt process_monitor switch cp inadyn ps syslogd cron init radio_timer tc date insmod radius-client telnetd ddns_success ip radiusallow test dhcp_lease_time iptables radiusdisallow touch dhcp_release iptables-restore rc udhcpc dhcpfwd ipupdated reboot udhcpd dnsmasq kill redial upnp dumpleases killall resetbutton uptime echo klogd restart_dns vconfig egrep ledtool restore watchdog erase listen rm wc event logger rmmod wget fgrep login roaming_daemon wl filter logread route wland filtersync lsmod sendudp wlconf free misc setpasswd wol get_wanface mkdir setuserpasswd write getbridge nas sh wrt-radauth getbridgeprio nas4not site_survey gpio nas4wds sleep