I begin this post with a dilemma: Your wireless router is on one end of your estate, and your nerd-o-phile self wants to get online whilst on the other end of your estate, which is in fact out of wireless range.
Lets imagine for a second that your wireless apparatus is working fine, and there are no hard lines to run from one side of you house to the other.
Now, lets discuss your options in this hypothetical scenario.
Option 1: You could run some cat-5 to all corners of your property/home.
Option 2: You could move your modem and router to a more central location which would also involve running more ethernet cable to your computer(s) unless you moved those as well.
Option 3: You could hack one of your old routers to make a wireless repeater, there by expanding your wireless range and raise your geek factor by at least 2.
I don’t know about you, but, option 3 sounds the cheapest, and the most fun and rewarding. I have been facing this exact dilemma for some time now, and finally got around to doing something about it.
I decided to use a linux based firmware that has been around for some time and has a big community of followers and developers, which means that information is abundant; DD-WRT.
DD-WRT replaces the software on your router with a chock full of features you might expect to find in $400-$600 units. Depending on your router, the process of installing it can vary, make sure you find a detailed write up on installing it on your particular model.
Mine is a Linksys WRT-150N v1.1, a fairly new model which was replaced by my Airport Extreme (I needed wireless printing, storage). Here are the steps I took:
Step 1
Download the software, which in my case was version 24-mini, and version 24-std-generic. (First the install the mini, then upgrade to the full standard version)
Step 2
Using the web administration, I upgraded the firmware and told it to use the mini dd-wrt I had downloaded previously.
Its documented, but I had a hard time getting it to work with Firefox, so I used Safari, and it worked out pretty well.
After the update, I followed the instructions (DD-WRT Wiki) and reset my router, then updated to the full standard version. Here is what the web interface looks like:
Step 3
Configuration. For this I followed the instructions also from their wiki. You have to tailor the instructions you your network setup, in my case I had both routers WPA protected and had the repeater set to use DHCP.
I set up my repeater to repeat the SSID of my main router and set the password in the wireless security tab (which is AES encryption, in case you are using Apple hardware).
Then I set up a virtual device, which is the repeater I will use to connect to.
Then just set up any security you might want. You could leave it open as a hot spot and keep your network safe behind your primary router.
Step 4
Test it out, in my case I had to make a few changes to some IP addresses, but I got it working in short order.
Now I can get online no matter where I’m at. Especially usefull when I want to stream music while I work on my hot rod.
Now my useless router has been given a new lease on life, and I’m loving it. Geek it up!
PS There is a danger of bricking your router, but there are ways to resurrect it if that should occur. Just be careful, and follow the instructions.
