[RichieB]

I have been running DD-WRT 2.4 preSP2 build 14896 (dd-wrt.v24_mega_generic.bin) ever since it was released in 2010 without any issues.

Last night lightning hit, which tripped a circuit breaker. I reset it, but later noticed I had no internet connection. The logs show I still received E-mail about one hour after the power cycle though.

I did a quick check and found there was no response from the router to DHCP requests. So I power cycled it again (usually fixes any problems). Still no luck. I logged onto the DD-WRT web interface and found wl1 (5GHz wifi) missing. Simply not there. wl0 seemed fine though (although no DHCP). Static IP configs still worked great. No matter what I tried, I could not get wl1 back. I also noticed a different WAN IP address, probably caused by a different WAN mac address.

So I decided to flash back to the original FW_WRT610N_1.00.03.15_20090514.bin from Cisco. Everything works again, including 5 GHz. WAN IP back to the one I had for years. Very strange. I did a 30/30/30 reset, flashed DD-WRT again (same version as before). wl1 gone again, dhcp server not working (both old and dnsmasq version). This time wl0 showed up with the radio off. The only modes it had were Disabled and Mixed. Even with set to Mixed the radio stayed off. The whole router felt unstable, not always responding to ICMP ECHO or even ARP requests.

I gave up for now, and I am running the original Cisco firmware. Luckily I do not depend on the advanced DD-WRT features, but this really puzzles me. If the hardware is broken, I expect the stock firmware to have the same issues.

I would replace this router in a heartbeat (served me well for 3 years), but it seems ok without DD-WRT on it.

[buddee]

Few things i know of that may cause your aforementioned problems:

1) nvram is getting to full and makes the router become unresponsive.

2) could be that your power supply could be possibly going bad, and lightning striking around you never helps an ailing power supply, the brown-outs (or black-outs) have a bad effect of course.

3) 14896 wasn't the best of builds, you should be on atleast 14929 as recommended in the announcements.

[RichieB]

Thanks a lot for your reply.

1) I guess the 30/30/30 reset cleared the nvram, and rules out it getting full right after the fresh DD-WRT install? How can I check if the nvram is full?

2) Very possible, but the Cisco firmware has no issues with the power supply for 10 hours now. Still puzzling.

3) I read about build 14929 when I was writing this post (and already given up for the day). The DD-WRT router database is showing 14896, maybe this should be updated to recommend 14929?

I might try build 14929 when I have a few hours to spare.

[Murrkf]

Four broadcom forum announcements answer all your questions...