OpenWRT on a Linksys WRT600N v1.1

Note: At first blush, it does not appear that OpenWRT supports the 5GHz radio. This is fine for my application, as I have another wireless router.

I've been running OpenBSD as my firewall, but have often had performance problems on the old hardware on which I run it. While searching for an alternative, I decided to revisit possibilities for the Linksys WRT600N wireless router I've had in storage since I replaced it with something with better 5GHz and 802.11n performance. I had been running DD-WRT on it, but maintenance of that release fell by the wayside several years ago.

OpenWRT, on which DD-WRT is reported to be based, appears to have a more active development community. I discovered that version 1.1 of the WRT600N, with serial numbers starting with "MNR0", has been supported since version 14.07 of OpenWRT.

I still had a copy of the original firmware, downloaded from Linksys when they made it easy to find, so I loaded that, replacing the DD-WRT image. I set the load to switch to factory defaults.

The latest version of OpenWRT is distributed in the TRX format, so requires conversion for the stock Linksys firmware to be able to process an update, which must be in BIN format. The OpenWRT ticketing system has a case concerning this and here is a direct link to the conversion tool in base64 format. This tool is a 32-bit x86 Linux executable, so I had to install 32-bit glibc.

The resulting file installed smoothly from the Linksys firmware's update page.

A subsequent post will discuss configuration of features of interest to me.

Watching SG-1: Thirteen years in the execution

Thirteen years ago a friend introduced me to Stargate SG-1 after I'd said I'd liked the original movie. It took me a while to get started on the show, then I slowed down, then I picked up speed again after finding it offered by one of the streaming providers. Last night I watched the proper finale for SG-1. I have the remainder of Stargate Atlantis to watch, then the not-as-well-received follow-on show Stargate Universe. For the moment, I'll likely skip the animated spinoff Stargate Infinity, as I tried to sit through the first episode and couldn't stick with it.

It's been difficult to do research on the shows while avoiding spoilers and that avoidance hasn't been entirely successful. I don't like spoilers.

Maybe I'll finish them all before year-end. It's been a fun ride.

Borrowed from a comment on Slashdot

If your religion requires others in public to change their behavior, your religion is broken.

Nearly one year

It's nearly a year since I started this blog. And it's still small.

The day job is stressful and it saps creativity. I would like to find more mental quiet time to offset that.

For a good blog, see http://www.cringely.com/.

Cutting the cord, one month later

It's been a month since we ditched cable. Some channels are spotty, but that's okay. Not having the frustration of abysmal customer service and ever-rising prices make their own reward.

Cutting the cord part 5

Most of the time, recordings are completing successfully. It's better than it was with cable, though, because I control it, end to end.

I'll still be watching that cable company, to see how they manage to survive, alienating customers like that.

Cutting the cord part 4

I have an antenna and I've canceled cable TV. Reception isn't perfect and we're still working on that, but the deed is done. Cable TV rejected me by trying to force me down a path I didn't want to follow.

Cutting the cord part 3

Found an installer. Hoping for the best.

Cutting the cord part 2

I've tested with my old, tree-damaged antenna and have discovered that I can indeed receive all the channels I want to receive. But. There's always a but.

I'm having a devil of a time finding an installer to do what I want.

Pretty soon I'm going to have to start making phone calls. I don't like making phone calls to people I don't know.

Unbreakable

I've become drawn into Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. I really like Tina Fey's writing.