DD-WRT is a really nice way to free your router. It has a polished web interface, gives you far greater control than most proprietary firmware, and is supported on a large number of devices. However, Open-WRT is better! In my installed version of DD-WRT, ssh doesn’t work, and I can not install an external driver like rtl8187 for my Alfa AWUS036H. After seaching Google for some time, I realise that I need to change the operating system, even though installing DD-WRT cost me several hours.
Why Open-WRT
Compared to DD-WRT, it provides more options to users or developers, so that we can customize it in a way we prefer. We can install packages, or even build customized version of firmware. I find a hope to combine Netgear WNDR4300 router with Alfa AWUS036H. In addition, I can install some cool packages to break the so-called Great Firewa11.
How to Install Open-WRT
Thanks to the Open-WRT forum and wiki, which is much better than those of DD-WRT, the installation may take less than 5 minutes. (According to Switch from DD-WRT to OpenWrt in under 30 minutes, it costs less than 30 minutes, but actually it wastes time by restoring to the original stock firmware.)
For this article, I will use my router Netgear WNDR4300 as an example.
Download Open-WRT Image
According to http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr4300, this router supports Barrier Breaker 14.07 RC1. By reading the release note of 14.07 RC2 to RC4, I think the most recent version of Open-WRT should work.
There seems less information for WNDR4300v1, but it’s similar to WNDR3700v4 but 3T3R, so why not read http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3700?
Then we find the right version of image to download: http://downloads.openwrt.org/barrier_breaker/14.07/ar71xx/nand/openwrt-ar71xx-nand-wndr4300-ubi-factory.img
Install by TFTP
Set computer network to static IP: 192.168.1.5 with gateway and router 192.168.1.1
Power off the router, wait 30s, and keep pressing reset button, power on, release reset button until power led turns green.
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cd ~/Downloads/
tftp -e 192.168.1.1
mode binary
put openwrt-ar71xx-nand-wndr4300-ubi-factory.img
quit
Wait until the power led changes to green.
Done. Open http://192.168.1.1 to configure.
5G radio
Wait the 5G radio not working?
Here is the solution.
Security is Important
To automatical encryption for a foregin IP while accessing domestic IP directly, just install some packages and do some configuration. Search Shadowsocks for Open-WRT and ChianDNS. There is a perfect solution there.
SSH
Of course it works. To prove it wroks:
leon@ls-mbp$ ssh root@10.0.1.1
BusyBox v1.22.1 (2014-09-20 22:31:09 CEST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
BARRIER BREAKER (14.07, r42625)
-----------------------------------------------------
* 1/2 oz Galliano Pour all ingredients into
* 4 oz cold Coffee an irish coffee mug filled
* 1 1/2 oz Dark Rum with crushed ice. Stir.
* 2 tsp. Creme de Cacao
-----------------------------------------------------
What about rtl8187
Well, it’s too late tonight, I will get it work some day, surely.