The Linksys WRT54GS or similar?

I have upgraded this wireless router (comes with 4 port 10/100mbps ports) to the latest firmware from Linksys.

Yet, my TC1100′s wifi connection (the B standard thought @ 11mbps max) keeps dropping out, especially when downloading files.

Today, while trying to update SpyBot, I tried different mirrors and each time it tries to update a 2mb file. The connection just dies 1/3 the download… the furthest I have seen is 1/2 way.

So I decided to give it the best firmware there is now – DD-WRT.

Q: What’s DD-WRT?

A: It’s just an open source firmware (software for the machine that doesn’t evaporate/disappear when you turn off the power), that you can use to give you $50 router many many features available in those $500 ones. Like VPN and others!

I have done this to all my  home routers [Linksys WRT54G v2 and WRT-610N] and they work like a charm!
Wifi signal strength jumps from intermittent to solid stable and you get lots of features if you want to mess with it..
Otherwise, the SOLID stable wifi connection is worth the trouble already!

So here’s how to update the Linksys WRT54GS. The one I flashed has the firmware 7.50.5 while the label has WRT54GS v7.

WARNING: You can brick your router doing this, so check you get the right firmware/instructions before doing this.

Official DD-WRT site

Quick jump: Find out if your router is supported by DD-WRT

METHOD FOR EOC, INTEL, AND POSSIBLY OTHER FLASH CHIPS

1. Configure my laptop’s local LAN ethernet address to

IP Address : 192.168.1.100
Subset          : 255.255.255.0
Gateway      : 192.168.1.1

(so instead of auto detect, type in the IP address in the properties page) and connect your local ethernet to your WRT54GSv7 on one of the four switch ports. Do not use a wlan connection!

2. Disconnect the power cord from the WRT54GSv7.

3. Push the reset button while reconnecting the power cord and hold the button for about 20 seconds.

4. I used Firefox [v3.5] browser and opened http://192.168.1.1

5. Use the firmware upgrade dialogue to flash vxworkskillerGSv7-v3.bin.

6. After the dialogue about disconnecting the power cord is shown, disconnect the power cord and reconnect it.

7. Wait for about two minutes. (Yes, really! Be patient!)

8. Again disconnect the power cord and reconnect it.

9. Goto RUN/ Cmd and Enter : “tft p -i 192.168.1.1 put dd-wrt.v24_11793_NEWD_micro.bin”

10. The file will now be transferred to your router and be flashed. After this is done, your router will boot automatically and you can reach your it at http://192.168.1.1. Wait for it to reboot automatically!

Enjoy the new wifi router and seriously… my wifi signal is now SOLID!

I was half suspecting an update is due, since the last one is more than 3 months ago and Firefox v3 has been officially released. BTW the browser on the tablet is based on Firefox v3 Alpha version.

But apparently the browser has not been updated to the full Firefox v3 but has lots of incremental updates to the whole device.

New firmware Update Observations

From what I have been reading from the forums; these are what the users are reporting.

1. The internal mail program has been updated to Modest. Though some prefer the old.
2. Reports of a more responsive overall usage.
3. Browser is also faster
4. No more flashing for firmwares… all updates are done OTA (Over The Air) via WLAN or Wifi as commonly known.
5. Support of IPv6
6. Built-in media player can play FLAC file
7. Support for Chinese fonts in the various built-in applications, e.g. RSS / Mail / Menus
8. Update for Adobe Flash – Youtube videos play better

Here’s the link for direct downloads.

Link to N800 download: http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N800.php?

Link to N810 download: http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N810.php?

Here’s the link to check out what’s changed (too long for me to list).

http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/changes/23-14_vs_50-2_changes.html

Remember to

1. do a backup of your phone before upgrading
2. fully charge the phone,
3. and use the USB cable connect (preferably direct and not thru a USB hub).

Here’s the changelog.

SB-014/29.05.08

New supported features:
* Mail for exchange: Version update to 2.3.
* WLAN: WPA/WPA2 pre-shared key support added.
* VOIP: VoIP – Interoperability and stability improvements.
* Telephony: AD-54 Headset support added.
* UTF-8 title decode support added.
* Multipart mixed support for WML1.X.

Changes and improvements
Bluetooth
* General interoperability and stability improvements.
* Improvements to car kit compatibility (CK-20W, BMW native kit).
* Improvement to BH-601/BH-900 interoperability.

Messaging
* SMS compatibility improvement.
* POP3 size setting support correction.
* SMS details correction (sending time).
* Preinstalled email account user experience improvement.
* Mail for Exchange and EL2 improvements.

Calendar / PIM
* Improvement of Mail for Exchange synchronization.
* Calendar stability improved.
* Contacts improvement (long names with accents).
* Contact search speed improved.
* Active notes used experience improvement.
* Switch application improvements.

Office tools
* Team Suite usability improvement.
* Notes: Email interoperability improvement.
* Sync stability improved.

Backup & restore
* Restore stability and usability correction.

Performance
* AT-command performance improvement.
* Flash playback speed increase.
* Contact indexing speed improved.

Telephony
* Improvements to IHF performance.
* Headset improvements (BH-601, AD-54, HS-36W, BH-900).
* Improvements to car kit compatibility (CK-20W, BMW native kit).
* Speed Dial improvement.
* Improvements to voice call stability.
* Call diverts improvement.
* SIM compatibility correction.
* SIM-ATK correction.
* Sim compatibility correction.
* Enhanced Line 2 improvements.

VOIP
* Increased stability for VoIP calls.
* Improvements in EasyVoIP application.
* SIP profile correction.
* SIP proxy registration correction.

WLAN
* WLAN roaming stability improvement.
* Improved EAP-SIM interoperability.
* Printing via WLAN stability improvement.
* WEP key query correction.
* Wi-Fi TLS authentication correction.

WEB browser
* General browser stability improvements.
* Full screen video playback improvement.
* Hotmail interoperability correction.
* Gmail interoperability support.
* Bookmark usability improvement.
* RFC compliance improvements.
* Several website user experience improvements
* yahoo, amazon, nasdaq
* Multiwindowing usability improvement.

WAP browser
* WTA Make Call correction.

Networking
* Emergency call HSDPA correction.
* Improved GPRS stability.
* Improved PDP management.

Diverses
* Real player MP4 correction.
* DRM support improvements.
* Time zone corrections.
* PoC functionality and stability improvements.
* Maps application user interface improvements.
* Active Idle improvements.
* Memory card operations stability and performance improvements.
* Music playback experience improvements.
* Several linguistic fixes.
* VPN correction.
* Volume hard key correction for embedded video.
* Welcome application correction.
* Enhancements to lipsynch.
* Chat application corrections.
* Instant messaging stability improvement.
* Java MIDlet security and installer corrections.
* OBEX push usability enhancement.
* APAC minor usability enhancement.
* Marlin interoperability enhancement.
* MMS sync and PCSuite correction.
* SVG support improved.