Convert a FON WRT54GL into a DD-WRT Repeater

One of my many projects for my weekend off was to create a powerful wireless repeater out of an old FON Linksys WRT54GL router. Before FON came out with the La Fonera device, they used standard Linksys routers for their hotspot equipment. They would have these deals where you could get a nice Linksys WRT54GL with the modified FON firmware for next to nothing and back then the firmware was in its early stages so turning it into a regular Linksys wireless router or installing 3rd party firmware is a relatively easy process.

What’s so great about the WRT54GL when compared to the WRT54G is the Linux backend that allows for easy hacking. The router also has the old style TNC antenna connectors, which means that my upgraded 7dBi antennas won’t go to waste. When I replaced my older WRT54G last summer with a newer 8th generation router they took away my ability to use the external antennas I had purchased (which were designed FOR the WRT54G, go figure.) so they have been sitting in my filing cabinet collecting dust until now.

I’ve always wanted to play around with 3rd party firmware without the risk of bricking my good equipment so I guess this router came in handy. Also it should be nice to have the entire house (and half the neighborhood) blanketed in Wi-Fi just in case I find myself using the laptop in the back yard or something. I chose DD-WRT as the firmware I wanted to use because I’ve heard and read a lot of good things about it and I knew it was designed for the Linksys hardware. I scoured the internet for information about installing DD-WRT on the FON router and I found that the easiest way is to first flash to the Linksys firmware, then DD-WRT micro, then onto the standard DD-WRT software.

So if you happen to have the same router and you want to get DD-WRT cookin’ here are some basic instructions on how to get it done -

The first thing you will want to do is access FON’s management console. Connect to the router directly with an Ethernet cable and browse into the router’s console using its IP address, the default is 192.168.10.1. Once you’re in click on ‘System’ at the top, at this point you should be prompted to log in, the default credentials are root/admin. Once your logged in, click on the ‘Firmware Upgrade’ link, check the ‘Clear NVRAM’ box and browse for the file named FW_WRT54GL_4.30.12.3_US_EN_code.bin (by the way, you can download the Linksys firmware for the WRT54GL here), the router will go though the “upgrade” process and flash back to the original Linksys firmware.

It’s easy to install DD-WRT with the older Linksys firmware, it’s basically the same process as before except the interface has changed a little. Once the router has restarted and settled in with the Linksys firmware, browse into the management console using its new IP address 192.168.1.1, it will prompt for a login this time its admin/admin. Once you’re in click on ‘Administration’ at the top, then ‘Firmware Upgrade’. This time you will want to browse for the file named dd-wrt.v24_micro_generic.bin (which you can download here). We need to use the micro version for DD-WRT due to the physical memory constraints of the router. Once the firmware upgrade has processed we move onto the 3rd and final upgrade of sorts.

Log into the router again by visiting 192.168.1.1 in your web browser. You will be greeted with the DD-WRT interface, click on ‘Administration’ at the top you will be prompted to log in and this time we want to go back to using root/admin for the credentials. After that click on ‘Firmware Upgrade’ at the top (we’re all quickly becoming pros at this!). This time we are looking for a file named dd-wrt.v24_std_generic.bin (download it here). Once the final firmware upgrade has finished you are ready to rock.

I’m going to leave off here because the rest of the instructions would be specific to the project I was working on. The interface for DD-WRT is fairly intuitive but keep in mind that there are advanced settings hidden all over that have the potential of bricking or melting down the router if used incorrectly. If you are looking to turn the router into a repeater or bridge like I did you can follow these instructions on the DD-WRT wiki. The wiki also contains information about the TX power modifications I took advantage of for this project which is how I managed to get wireless signal burning through walls and brick as if I lived in an open field. Please note that these instructions are from my experience and there could be other possibly quicker ways of pulling this off, best of luck finding a guide on how to do it though as information about converting from FON to DD-WRT is scarce unless you’re looking to do it with the La Fonera device.

Enjoy!