Re: Questions about Routers
 

Then ditch It the linksys is a hardware firewall and will operate much better. :-)

Re: Questions about Routers
 

Do you know whether a downgrade is possible?. The wrt54g seems to have quite a few versions about. I've looked at the firmware on the US site and its mentioned V4 in the filename... Can I overlook this or is router version important?
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Not really sure how well the Router's firewall works to be honest. It's not really customisable so I can't tell how it detects what should and what shouldn't be allowed in/out.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

It protects you because it uses NAT (network address translation). It hides your private IP.

ie people see you x.x.x.x ip addres and can do all they want to try access that ip but they will be trying to access a router not a pc. You pc is on a private y.y.y.y address which is invisable. What the router does is note down what service you request and opens the require port only for that service. It can allow access externally but only if specifically programmed to do so.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

I believe you can. I have upgraded a v1.1 to run on the 4.20.7 firmware.
There was a while back (see the bit in bold below) where this was not possible.
I went to 4.20 for the reason highlighted in italics (port based QoS) which i needed to plug the Vonage device into it.

EDIT - it would appear you cannot roll back to firmware prior to Firmware 3.01.3

Linksys, A division of Cisco Systems, Inc.
Product: WRT54G
Classification: Firmware Release History
Firmware Date: 8/18/2005
Release Date: 8/25/2005
Last Firmware Version: 4.20.7
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Firmware 4.20.7
- Resolved issue with SecureEasySetup button delay
- Resolved issue with SecureEasySetup overwritting current wireless settings
- Resolved issue with not being able to disable SecureEasySetup button
- Resolved issue with Diag light being constantly lit after upgrading to 4.20.6 on v.1 hardware
- Resolved issue with iDefense security vulnerability
- Resolved issue with L2TP disconnect
- Resolved issue with SecureEastsetup long button push not resetting wireless settings

Firmware 4.20.6
- Resolve issues with setup wizard
- Updated wireless security menu
- Resolve issues with port based QoS

Firmware 4.00.7
- Adds SecureEasySetup push button support
- Resolves large file transfer issues
- Resolves issue with enabling TKIP after enabling WEP
- Updated QoS features
- Resolves issues with multiple Access Restrictions policies
- Resolves issue where multicast breaks when MAC filter status changes

Firmware 3.03.6
- Supports hardware version 3
- Updated help file

Firmware 3.03.1
- Wi-Fi certified

Firmware 3.01.3
- Updated wireless driver
- Supports hardware version 2.2 (cannot downgrade to previous versions)
- Resolves issue with VoIP adapters
- Resolves issue with long domain names

Firmware 2.04.4
- Updated wireless driver
- Updated certificate generation for https access

Firmware 2.04.3
- Resolves issue with disabling firewall
- Added QoS function
- Added Port Triggering function
- Added L2TP option for WAN connection type
- Added ability to back up and restore configuration files
- Added Wireless isolation function
- Added ability to filter internal NAT redirection
- Added ability to restrict access to web GUI from wireless clients
- Added ability to filter IDENT port 113
- Resolves issue with HeartBeat WAN connection
- Added support for 40/56bit cipher to support old browsers to use https
- Resolves issue with PPTP passthrough
- Changed WPA Group Key renewal time range to 600~7200 seconds
- Added IGMP proxy support
- Added ability to allow web GUI access only through https or http


Firmware 2.02.2
- Updated wireless driver to support all versions of WRT54G hardware
- Adds support to allow WAP54G connect as a repeater
- CTS protection mode set to disable by default to improve wireless performance in normal environments
- Resolved issue where the WLAN LED stays on even when wireless is disabled
- Resolved security vulnerability causing the web server in the router to crash

Firmware 2.00.8 (WRT54G v.2 only)
- Updated wireless driver

Firmware Version 1.42.2
- Updated wireless driver to 3.31.15
- Added URL and contents filters
- Added L2TP passthrough
- Added HeartBeat Signal support
- Resolved issue with Connect on Demand

Firmware Version 1.41.2
- Updated GUI format and layout

Firmware Version 1.30.7
- Adds UI control to enable/disable frame bursting
- Resolves issue with firmware upgrade error in Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633, on Windows XP pro.
- Send 192.168.1.1 to disable DynDNS
- Resolves issue with using the 4th tx key for WEP
- Resolves issue with disconnecting PPPoE causing WPA to be disabled

Firmware Version 1.30.1
- Adjust PPTP max MTU value from 1400 to 1460
- The router is now certifiable for the UPnP logo
- Complies with final 802.11g standard
- Improved performance asymmetry between the transmit and receive paths
- Receive Broadcast packets from renew state. Some DHCP server (Dlink 300G+) send broadcast ACK after it receives a REQUEST
- Fix: The firmware upgrade will fail, if DDNS updates while upgrading
- Fix: If first DNS address fails, the second or third DNS address will be used to resolve domain names
- Added the following items under Setup Page:
- Router Name
- Manual Time Server
- MAC Clone
- wireless domain
- Security Settings
- Added the following items under System Page
- UPnP enable/disable
- Ping Test and Traceroute
- Added the following items under Wireless Page
- CTS Protection Mode
- Basic Rate
- Added the following items under Status Page
- Router Name
- Start IP Address
- End IP Address
- Added Wi-Fi Protected Access(TM) support including AES and TKIP encryption
- Resolves issue with Port Forwarding name showing up as garbage characters
- Added "B-Only" option to wireless modes
- Added "Default" option to Basic Rate settings

Firmware Version 1.02.1
- Incorporates updates found in the Draft IEEE 802.11g version 6.1 specification
- Resolves interoperability issues with legacy 802.11b devices under Mixed Mode
- Resolves a performance bug where the performance in a mixed b, g network did not go up once the last b client disassociated
- Resolves issue where WEP degrades performance
- Resolves issue with TZO DDNS Service
- "Domain Name" replaces "name"
- TFTP server will only verify image file name "xxxx.bin"
- MAC Address Filter under the Advanced tab works on both wired and wireless clients
- Fixed a bug that prevented wireless clients from connecting to the Internet if there was no active wired PC (PPoE customers in Europe and China only)
- Support for UPnP enabled applications such as MSN Messenger
- Fixed a bug that caused computers connected to the LAN ports to be dropped at some interval only to be immediately re-connected
- Fixed Dynamic Routing issue between 2 Routers
- Allows User to name Static Route Configurations
- Modified PC List Web Page to avoid confusion
- Stabilized Wireless-G to LAN and WAN Throughput
- Stabilized Wireless-B to LAN and WAN Throughput
- Improved LAN-WAN Throughput

Firmware Ver.: 1.01
- Initial release

Re: Questions about Routers
 

Thanks again.

Decided to go for it. Upgrade of firmware went ok, but the list of wireless networks kinda dissappeared off my laptop card, and a refreshs showed nothing.

Did a restart and forturnately its back on connected.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

I have the same router WRT54G but i cant seem to find the firmware updates im on version ver4.20.6 ?.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

Re: Questions about Routers
 

Thanks ;).

Re: Questions about Routers
 

Question for anyone who has the WMP54G PCI Wireless Card.

The one installed into my sister's computer seems to be working fine. The one installed into my brothers has been iffy. Once it stopped working, the card showed in the device manager but had a yellow exclamation icon (a conflict?), and I believe a error 10... Dunno what happened but it seemed to have fixed itself a hr or so later. Then today, my brother tried to use the net and couldn't and again he checked the device manager. This time, the PCI wireless card was nowhere to be found. So I got the card taken out and plugged it back in and it seems to have worked so far - I suggested trying a different PCI slot, but my brother has just two slots free, but one of the slot is too close to the graphics card installed into the AGP slot.. Any ideas why this could be happening to my brothers computer and not my sis. Or what could have happened in the situations above.

If it wasn't for the fact that the card works 95% of the time, i'd have thought it was faulty the card itself.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

one of the slots might be shared?

Some times the cramped motherboards slot share channels I'm sure some ISA PCI boards used to do this.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

Really!.

Anyway to unshare the slots?.

EDIT:

is it possible to get the MAC address of a wireless computer without having to physically do a cmd ipconfig /all on it. I've noticed ip addresses on my network seems to change a lot... desktop was ending with .102, then it changed last night to .104.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

You can look at them in the router screens (if they have connected to that router).

Re: Questions about Routers
 

Unsharing is not possible if thats what you have ie 2 physical data bus with 3 physical slots.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

I think i know what you mean. Thanks.
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Theres 2 PCI slots actually there, don't know how to check for physical data buses though.

EDIT:

Anyone a way to get program files folder shared? Under SP2 it seems that they've disabled it.

Re: Questions about Routers
 

Still having trouble with Internet Restriction settings. I think i have the following done right.

Click on the Access Restrictions tab.
Change status to "enable"
Enter a name for this policy.
Click the "Edit list of PC's" button.
Add mac address of PC you want the policy to effect.
Choose access or deny for what you want the policy to do.
Choose the day and the time (selecting AM/PM too) for the above action - either allowing these times to be access times or deny times.
Then save changes.

Does that seem right?

No matter how many times I set it to only allow access within a 5 minute window, it works both in the window and out of it. So i'm lost as to why its doing that.