[alambrose2561]

I thought it would be easy to flash ddwrt onto my linksys e1200 v2 and then use it as a universal repeater... but so far I'm stuck.

Here's what I'm trying to do: I have two cable bills (Brighthouse and Verizon, that I pay for monthly) that provide plenty of wifi hot spots in my area, but sometimes I'm out of range with my smartphone. So I want to setup my E1200 (with aftermarket antennas) and mount it in my vehicle as a UNIVERSAL WIRELESS REPEATER that will grab any of these open wifi signals (that I am entitled to as a paying cable customer) and repeat it so that I have access while I'm parked in my vehicle.

I thought this would be easy, and I had never heard the term WARDRIVING until I started searching how to do this.

Apparently even after flashing ddwrt it is not as simple as just setting the router to repeater mode and being done with it. There are a multitude of other setting changes to be made and even scripts to run under the "Administration" tab!

I want the router to be able to grab open wifi and repeat it to me. Is this really that difficult to do? Are there any units sold like this? or do they all require you to choose a specific SSID to repeat, instead of just grabbing the strongest open signal. I'm not looking to anything illegal here, just trying to get access to the wifi hotspots I'm entitled to.

After diving into this for the past few days, flashing ddwrt, setting up repeater mode and the admin script, and still having problems... I'm beginning to think my best option might just be to pick up the free 500mb wifi plan on one of those Freedompop gadgets and just throw that in the car for those times I'm out of range.