scumm_boy | An exchange of Routers. (Reply)

Originally published at ScummBlog. You can comment here or there.

My network at home has been dependent on a Linksys Router with a 4 port switch built in for connectivity. It is the BEFSX41 Router with VPN Endpoint, and it has served us well for over two years.

Recently at my (now ex-) job, we’ve started testing IPv6 deployment to end users. I am in this test pool, and sadly the router we have doesn’t support IPv6 in any way, shape or form.

Enter the Linksys WRT54G Wireless G Router (Version 3, for those that care) and OpenWRT. OpenWRT was made possible by Linksys violating the GPL by using a linux distro as the OS on the WRT54G and not releasing the source code. Once the dust had cleared on that debacle, people could write and install their own OSes for the device.

OpenWRT is very easy to install (just flash the proper image to your router) and is package based, for easy expandability. Among those packages are IPv6 stack and announcement packages. It is theoretically perfect for my needs!

Now, you might be wondering why I put “theoretically” in there. The one problem with IPv6 being so bleeding-edge is that nobody has a tutorial on how to configure OpenWRT to handle a Native IPv6 connection. Plenty of information on tunneling IPv6 over IPv4 connections, but bupkis on what I need. If I figure out the proper way to configure it, I’ll be sure to post it here.

A couple quick hints about getting Wireless connections to work properly with the stock OpenWRT install. First: change the default wireless channel from 6 to Auto… Channel 6 is a popular one for many 2.4ghz cordless phones. Second: If you are going to use some sort of WEP security, be sure to install the nas package. You will have no end of problems without it.

I’m quite impressed with OpenWRT thus far… and the sheer number of packages available for it is just staggering. There is Asterisk (VOIP PBX software) packages, HTTP server packages, RADIUS (authentication) packages… too many to list.

If you’re feeling adventurous, and not afraid of potentially “bricking” a router, I’d highly recommend checking out OpenWRT