Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a technology guy. Many would call me a geek, I prefer to think of myself as a lover of all things that allow me to expand my horizons. I'm intrigued by engines, electronics, software, hardware, and pretty much everything else that does something interesting. I love to learn.

Some cool stuff I want to talk about today:

Linksys Routers and Open Source firmware - This is a great topic. Gotta give props to Westy for the idea for this. He also mentioned this in his email. If you have a newer Linksys router, say a WRT54G for example, you owe it to yourself to look into Open Source firmware. Essentially, for those of you who may not understand the significance of this, it means that you can download firmware, developed by some very savvy people to allow your hardware (router) to do all kinds of cool things that the manufacturer may not include in their firmware revisions. Things like SSH/Telnet shell access, QOS, finer grained control over security features and my favorite, the ability to jack up the output of the wireless transmitter. This alone was reason enough for me to load a 3rd party firmware solution. WARNING! This is not for the unskilled PC dabbler. You need to know what you are doing. Read the instructions carefully and then re-read them 2 more times to ensure you know what you are getting into. If it sounds too complex, it probably is and you should ask me to do it for you, for a fee of course. ;) Check out the following links for some great information:

Linux or your WRT54G, yep, looks like it's doable.

Wi-Fi's Linksys Homepage - A great firmware alternative loaded with features.

Seatlle Wireless Website - Great information and a cool project to boot.

Wifibox firmware project site.

Sveasoft site - This is what I am currently running on my own Linksys WRT54G and it runs like a top. To be specific, I am running the Samadhi2 - v2.00.8.6sv build. The forums here are full of great information. You will need to register and for the record, this is a "pay for" firmware. There's some controversy on the street about whether their firmware is actually Open Source or not. I don't want to get into it because I think it's a great firmware option. I'll let you decide for yourself. Why do I get this feeling I'm gonna get flamed, sooner or later, for my "pay for" comment?

The OpenWRT Firmware Development Site - If you are interested in the dev side of firmware, this would be a good place to start.

Linksys GPL Code Center - Just in case you were wondering how this is all possible. Yep, the Linksys source code is under GPL so if you have the skills, get crackin'.

So I don't leave anyone out, there are several other hardware routers that also support alternative firmware. Google is your friend, why don't you use it.

I'd be interested in hearing about some of the experiences you've had related to your hardware hacking experiences, including alternative firmware. Feel free to comment.

-- Riker --