AsusWirelessBridge

Cheapo ASUS Plus DirecTV Equals Wireless WIN

I've got a DirecTV HD receiver that I want to get on the net. The problem is it comes with just wired ethernet, no wireless, and running a cable to it is not convenient. I could buy one of those special 'xbox wireless adapters', but they cost like $125. It's more fun instead to install dd-wrt on a $30 wireless router and convert that to a bridge. Disclaimer: my idea of 'fun' may not match yours.

Finding a Router

The first step was to find a cheap wireless router to use. Here's a protip: if you search for `dd-wrt` on newegg you get a list of all the routers which support an alternative firmware.

You might be wondering why I don't just use the router's stock firmware. The answer is I probably could have, because I think it does support wireless bridging. However it's always more fun to hack on a device than to accept the defaults. Warning: I am an emacs user.

That above search quickly brought me to the ASUS WL-520GC router. It just supports b/g networking, not n - which is fine for my needs. Remember it's also important to check the dd-wrt wiki for any router you are thinking of buying, to get a sense of how complicated the install might be. In this case the install is mildly annoying,a s you'll see alter.

Ultimately I ended up buying one of these routers from Amazon because it was $28 and I have Amazon Prime.

Installing dd-wrt

Also instructions for configuring it as a wireless bridge to but a Directv box on your network.

Assuming you have a ac laptop that's already connected to existing wireless network

Connect LAN1 port on Asus to wired ethernet on laptop

On mac, go to system prefs->network. Choose ethernet, then advanced. Set 'configure IPv4' to Manually.

IPv4 address 192.168.1.2
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Router 192.168.1.1

Click 'ok'. Back on main network preferences page, make sure 'airport' is still above 'ethernet' in the service order. If not, click the gear at thje bottom of the network listk, and choose 'set service order'. Use that interface to put ethernet below airport. Otherwise the system will set the default route to the internet over the ethernet, which you don't want because you are just configuring the device, not making it your router.

click 'apply' to apply all settings on the network sys pref page.

bring up a terminal (hard drive->applications->utilities->terminal) and ping the router ping 192.168.1.1. It should respond. If not, check if you connected the ethernet to the WAN port on the router instead of a LAN port.

Use your web browser to connect to the web interface of the router at http://192.168.1.1. The username is admin and the password is admin. Click 'cancel when prompted to start Quick Setup.

Click on 'system setup' and then on 'firmware upgrade' in the left navigation bar. This will give you the version of the existing Asus firmware, note this for later. Mine was 2.0.1.1.

Now you are ready to install dd-wrt on the device, following the instructions from the dd-wrt wiki http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/ASUS_WL-520GC

First get an older version of the Asus firmware: http://dlsvr04.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/WL-520GC/FW_WL520gc_2008_EN.zip Unzip that file and get the firmware image WL520gc_2.0.0.8_EN.trx out of the resulting folder.

This rigamarole is needed because current versions of the firmware don't allow you to install dd-wrt directly.

Rename that file to WL520gc_2.0.1.2_EN.trx. This needs to be a higher number than the existing firmware for the firmware loader to accept it as an upgrade.

Go back to the the firmware upgrade page of the router web interface at http://192.168.1.1. Under 'new firmware file' choose the WL520gc_2.0.1.2_EN.trx file you just renamed (remember it's actually version 2.0.0.8). Upload that file and wait for the router to reboot to the older version of the firmware.

Once the install completes the device will reboot. Go back to system setup->fimrware upgrade and confirm the firmware version is now listed as 2.0.0.8. You are now ready to actually install dd-wrt!

Download the 'micro' version of dd-wrt 2.4 http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/12-28-09-r13525/broadcom/dd-wrt.v24_micro_generic.bin. You do not need to rename this file. Note oyu have to use the micro version of dd-wrt because this device only has 2MB. What do you expect for $27?

Use the firmware upgrade interface to install the dd-wrt.v24_micro_generic.bin firmware. If all goes well the router should come back up running dd-wrt in a few minutes! Note that the dd-wrt wiki talks a lot about power-cycling the device between each step. I didn't bother to do any of that and it worked just fine.

Once the device comes back up, you should see the dd-wrt interface in your browser at 192.168.1.1. The very first thing you must do is set up a router username and password. Do that.

In below instructions, 'primary router' means your existing wireless router that is serving your internet traffic already.

dd-wrt wireless bridge instructions: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged

First, in the dd-wrt interface, go to wireless->wireless security and set the security mode to match your primary router.

Under wireless->basic settings, set the wireless network name and channel to match your primary router. Set the wireless mode to 'client bridge'. Set 'ack timing' to 0 (unsure about that one, but that's what the directions say).

Save all that and hit 'apply'. Then go to setup->basic setup in the dd-wrt interface and set local ip address to an unused address on your exiting network, such as 192.168.1.11. Verify subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, and set the gateway to your primary router, probably 192.168.1.1. Hit apply. Note that the device will act as a transparent bridge now, but will still be accessible through the web interface at 192.168.1.11.

Now for the Directv configuration. Connect LAN1 ethernet on the Asus box to the ethernet jack on your Directv box. Under Menu, choose 'Parental, Fav's & Setup'. Then go to System Setup -> Network Setup. Fill out the network configuration - first choose a free network address on your network, like 192.168.1.12 in our example. Subnet should be 255.255.255.0. Set the default gateway to your primary router (192.168.1.1). Set DNS to your primary router (or google, 8.8.8.8). Then choose 'connect now' and wait for the box to test it's connection status. If everything checks out, you'll see a congrats message from the Directv box. Your directv is now connected to the internet over a wireless bridge!