Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:17 Post subject: 2 questions on linksys wrt54g
Hey all.. Long time user 1st time poster..
Okay, I'll try to keep this short, but it probably won't be.. Please try and follow along
Q1: My house has had 2 Linksys WRT54G routers for years. One unflashed (Router A), and one flashed with dd-wrt (Router b). Router B acts as a bridge (Access Point / AP) to connect wired devices in a room wires don't go to, to router A (which is where the internet and my home's switch are all located). Operationally this has worked flawlessly, until... Router A died. I'm not sure why yet (was going to try to re-flash it in case the firmware got corrupted, but lovely Linksys no longer has the firmwares on their site, LAME!) and I needed the internet back up asap, as an aside, the router seems to not be doing anything with DNS at all.. Anyway, I digress.. The problem is.. I had a backup router laying around (a WRT54gs), which I mini-flashed and then but the vint mega on it. We'll call the new one Router C. Router C is up and operational and working mostly great (see q2). The problem is, no matter what I do now, I cannot get Router B to link up with Router C. No matter what settings I desperately try to alter, the wireless light just blinks slowly on and off (which, from another wireless AP (yes, I have three routers running, there is a Router X upstairs - When I first set that one up, I forgot to give it the WPA2 password, and the router's wireless light blinked the same slow pattern). I have even tried running the router (C and B, trying to get them to talk) without any password, which changed nothing. So.. Is there something special that must be done to get two dd-wrt's to communicate? FWIW I tried both the wifi scan / join button, as well as manually setting up the info (the manual way being the first way I tried it).. It makes no sense that dd-wrt to stock worked great but dd-wrt to dd-wrt fails completely, yet I've gone over every setting I can think of on the Router B and cannot get it to talk to the main 'new' Router C.
Q2: This has been answered somewhere else, in part, but I seek more detail. Supposedly with the dd-wrt's dhcp server, unless you set up static leases, you will only (mostly) see an '*' as the hostname, and not the devices actual hostname (like the PC name..). I don't understand why. The stock (crappier) version has no problem telling the hostname. I don't understand why dd-wrt is completely incapable of doing it.?? Is this old/outdated info, is there a way to get it to show the hostnames associated to said IP leased out like the stock firmware does?
Thanks everyone for your time, and for your assistance in advance.. Tnx also to those who are part of the project - It's been a blessing for years
I'm not sure who moved this post from general to Broadcom - But I specifically put it in general because the questions are related to the dd-wrt firmware in general, not specific hardware-related issues with Linksys. Yes, I mentioned it's running on a Linksys router, not to have it moved, but so people know what hardware the dd-wrt is running on..
If you read the broadcom forum announcements, and follow all the advice there, and also follow the steps in the wiki for linking routers it will work unless you have a hardware failure.
Linking routers is very different with dd-wrt on devices using atheros as compared to broadcom. The first post in the general section tells you not to post this type of question there, so you are lucky the post wasn't locked or deleted.
Why is it so hard to get two dd-wrt routers working in (main-dd-wrt) and (client-dd-wrt) mode together, when it is effortless to get a main (stock-firmware) and (client dd-wrt) working together?
As for the FAQ/Stickies.. Been there, done that when it didn't work after the main(internet accessable router, Router A) was replaced. Specifically http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged that guide.
It doesn't say a thing about dd-wrt being configured on the main (Router A) side, so, as with the stock firmware, I left it alone. Followed it to a 'T', and like I said, I'm no moron, I had this thing running for years, and I use a total of 4 wrt's in the house. I've not moved on to 'wreck' other connections for fear that there is some inter-operability issue with dd-wrt talking to dd-wrt (what else could it be, than some rogue setting on one of them, since it worked fine with stock firmware)..
And like I said, I wasn't aware that the firmware project dd-wrt rules/guides/methods varied from hardware to hardware, hence my post in the general section. The post I read about the static lease didn't specify which hardware, be it broadcom or atheros, etc, so I didn't see any harm, but whatev'.. Any ideas on why they won't play nice together? Is there any preliminary main dd-wrt router configs not mentioned in the guide that need to be done/set up? (again, there is no mention of main router config(main meaning the router with the internet/wan active), and I assumed this was normal as nothing special had to be done when it was running stock firmare..?
Also - Is there any code / index / key to the lights? Like.. The slow flashing that my wireless is doing? I take it it means there's an error connecting to the ssid of the main router, since that's what it's not doing currently, but I've also noticed while tinkering and testing other setting/options that the cisco/linksys ses light (orange led, front left) comes on from time to time when I've altered something.. What is controlling that and why does it come on? Is it trying to alert me of some form of issue?
EDIT: Also - Guide needs updating, or added information.. Example.. On client router (regardless of client or client bridge) it says absolutely nothing about what to set 'network configuration' to. Options are bridged and unbridged, which then prompts for ip/subnet. I tried both, neither worked, but would be grand to know which I 'should' be using.
Got bored and frustrated, so I tried re-configuring one of the other routers running dd-wrt as a client and it worked fine! Baffled by this, I then went back to router B, and tried, and retried and reset, and reflashed, etc.. Ended up corrupting something and had to do the pin 15/16 short revive technique. I tried flashing dd-wrt.v24_micro_generic.bin on it first, then I tried dd-wrt.v24_micro_olsrd_generic.bin. Both firmwares installed just fine, mind you, but they both do the exact same thing when the router is put in client mode or client bridged mode. (that thing being not working, just a slow flashing wireless led).
So to recap:
Router A(doa): Original router running stock firmware, all thee other routers could connect to it just fine, no problems.
Router A(new): Runs dd-wrt, seems fine/solid, it is the Internet connected, dhcp serving router of the house.
Router B: Connected to (doa) fine, for years. Refuses to connect to (new) at all. AP mode works on it, can see/connect to it, though can't do much other than access the router, lol. Slow blinking wireless LED which I'm convinced is giving me an error msg about inability to connect. When in AP mode, the SES orange led is on, when in client mode, it is not. Another clue?? As implied above, ran probably not the latest/greatest firemware previously, but now runs the listed above firmwares, as I hoped there was some sort of firmware version issue or something going on preventing proper connection between the two.. Still does not connect, however, as noted.
Router C: Connected to (doa) fine, also for years. Connects to Router A(new) ALSO just fine. Works as it did before Router A replacement, as it should
Router D: Haven't been there yet, it's an infrequently used PC in a remote location in the house, and given the 50/50 odds I've experienced, holding out on that one.
You better Go BACK there and DO that again, because you are seriously screwing up both in what you are choosing to do, and the information that you are failing to post.
OLSRD!?! WTF!
There are four broadcom forum announcements. READ them.
Dude.. I *DID* read them. Note that they are all incredibly long and full of detail that may or may not apply to my specific models. So why don't we quit playing games and just get down to what it is you seem to know that I'm missing, that I've looked, and relooked up. Cuz I don't get what you are telling me. I DID read the Stickies, AND the announcements. I've successfully got Router B with dd-wrt on it.. I had the ENTIRE system working for years, years ago, up until last week when the internet router (Router A) died, and when replacing it with another I decided to stick dd-wrt on it instead of stock (it was the ONLY router here running stock). If you'd like, I'll unplug each and every one, bring it here to my desktop and give you whatever the status claims as the version, but I kinda think we're past that, since, especially now, every one of the routers here has the latest/greatest firmware as listed here for each version as applicable. That info will do nothing additional for you, but if you want, I will do it. But you best not be giving me more cryptic "read the faq" crap. I cannot tell you any more times that I have done that. I have successfully set up this, and other routers. If you are trying to help I appreciate it, you are the only one posting anything, but I cannot grasp what step it is you think I missed!!!!
EDIT: There HAS to be some issue with going dd-wrt to dd-wrt. I just connected to yet another router laying around here (stock linksys firmware) just fine with router B. I cannot fathom what the prob could be.
