DD-WRT on a D-Link DIR-615

About a month ago (April 2013) I ran into an article suggesting my home wifi network is unsecured (HERE). A security firm tested 13 routers from various manufacturers (HERE), and found several vulnerabilities. I was happy to see that my home router was not on the list (D-Link DIR-615), but that doesn’t mean it’s secure. Since the the bottom line for protecting your home network is “update your firmware”, I went to D-Link’s website (HERE). Unfortunately, 2 out of the 3 firmwares were the shipping firmwares (unchanged since the product shipped), and the single firmware upgrade was for hardware version E1 only (I have E4!). No latest firmware for me 😦

So I started looking. On the internet. Thankfully, Open Source is a thing.

Some sites suggested running Linux on a home computer instead of using a router (HERE). This seemed overkill at first. A desktop would take too much electricity, space, and would be loud (fans). A laptop would be a good idea, and I have an ASUS EEE lying around. It runs a Celeron 800Mhz processor, which is pretty weak (for today’s standards), so I was skeptical. I tested it out, installing several Linux distributions, before deciding this was not the solution for me (also, I didn’t have another laptop to spare). Perhaps more on this in a later post. Suffice it to say that I had other plans for this little machine.

Back to the internet.

Why run Linux on a laptop, when you can just upgrade your router to an Open Source firmware? Once I found this, this, and this, it was clear what I needed to do. One of the recommendations for better security was to “consider replacing your router’s doubtless buggy internal software with an open-source alternative such as DD-WRT, Tomato or OpenWRT”. So I did.

Starting with the DD-WRT wiki (HERE), it was pretty straightforward. Basically it shows you how to load this custom firmware (in BIN file format) using the built-in “update firmware” option in the DIR-615 web interface.
This tutorial was for revision E3, but it was compatible with my revision (E4). The difference between E3 and E4 is the signature at the end of the BIN file: AP99-AR7240-RT-091105-01 for E3, and AP99-AR7240-RT-091105-05 for E4.

If you try to upload with the wrong signature, the router will inform you that the firmware BIN is incompatible and won’t continue.
In order to get the E4 version, I traversed the router database (HERE), looking for DIR-615 and E4.

The E4 page included a link to the E3 BIN, with the wrong “Magic number” ending with 01 instead of 05. You can either change the number using a hex editor (Visual Slick, emacs, etc), or look for the bin through the DD-WRT site (HERE).

After uploading the BIN, the router takes 120 seconds to load. What’s left is to access it through 192.168.1.1, change the default username and password, and setup the WiFi (with WPA2+AES).
Precautionary tweaks I’d recommend would be disabling UPnP, telnet, ftp, and any other feature that theoretically allows access to the router/network.
Also, I found that setting up static IPs for each computer/phone is useful. For example, Port Forwarding, QoS (Preferring my Xbox session over a file download). If you don’t usually allow guests to connect to your WiFi, you can even restrict access to a list of predefined MAC addresses.

Besides security, what more does DD-WRT provide? Graphs! The GUI includes graphs for current Bandwidth Monitoring. That’s ok, but what’s MORE interesting, is the Traffic by Month graph, which shows the internet usage in the current month. As I just started using DD-WRT today, it’s pretty empty:

There are many more features to be explored, some are useful and some are purely anecdotal.

What’s certain is that now my router will be updated regularly, enjoying the power that is the Open Source community. Who knows, perhaps after enough time I’ll even delve into the source code myself!

Related articles

• readwrite.com (readwrite.com)
• I’m Dong Ngo, and these are my personal Wi-Fi routers (reviews.cnet.com)

Microsoft is closing down Office Live Small Business

Office Live Small Business was a service providing web site hosting, email, online documents, and more. This service has been shut down by Microsoft, and users were offered to move to Office365 instead. Not the end of the world, right? WRONG.

1. Users can’t migrate their website to the new service. Years of web site development, and web search customization, have gone to waste.
2. The new service doesn’t have a light/free version. That’s a great way to lose a customer base.

Altogether, I’m pretty disappointed with Microsoft. I expected more from the people who brought you Windows, Office, and Xbox. Apparently I was wrong.

I moved my web site to Google Sites. At least I know THEY won’t delete my web site in the future.

Here’s the new link for Idan Kedmy’s Website: http://sites.google.com/site/idankedmy/

שירות אירוח אתרים של מיקרוסופט נסגר. השירות היה מיועד לעסקים קטנים שרצו להעלות אתר, לקבל אימיילים, ולעבוד על מסמכים ברשת.

1. השירות החדש לא מאפשר לייבא את האתר הקודם, כך ששנים של פיתוח וקידום האתר הקודם יורדים לטמיון.
2. אין אופציה חינמית או קלה בשירות החדש, כך שמיקרוסופט מכריחים את כל המשתמשים להתחיל לשלם. זאת בהחלט דרך טובה להרחיק משתמשים.

אני די מאוכזב ממיקרוסופט. ציפיתי ליותר.

העברתי את האתר שלי לגוגל אתרים, בידיעה שהם לא ימחקו את האתר שלי סתם כך.

כאן תוכלו למצוא את האתר החדש של עידן קדמי:  http://sites.google.com/site/idankedmy/

הנה תמונה יפה כדי שהפוסט הזה לא יהיה רק משמיץ:
Here’s a pretty photo so that this post isn’t a total rant:

Related articles

• Goodbye Microsoft Office Live, Hello WordPress (djhconsulting.com)

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Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Blog Entry II – The Importance of Being an Organ Donor

As a direct continuation to my last post, I’d like to emphasize the importance of being an Organ Donor.
I’ve had my ADI card for some time now, so the next thing to do is spread the word.

 

Why is this a direct continuation of my last post? As you may remember, my laptop died. My laptop was pretty young, and had new parts (organs – if you will indulge me in this analogy). My girlfriend’s computer on the other hand, was a very sick machine. It already went to the lab for a faulty motherboard, and the hard disk was barely 80GB, with 1GB of 2nd grade RAM.

 

I installed (transplanted) the memory, hard drive, and even my wireless mouse. Now this once sick computer has a new, healthy future ahead of him/it. Running a clean install of Windows 7, which enjoys 2GB of top notch RAM, together with 200GB of hard disk space…
My girlfriend says it’s a brand new computer.

 

If you didn’t get the analogy, I’ll spell it out for you: Being an Organ Donor can save lives.
Anyone can be an organ donor, even up to age 75!!
So if you haven’t signed your ADI card yet, here’s a link:

http://www.health.gov.il/transplant/

 

* – If you live in the USA:
http://www.donatelife.net/CommitToDonation/

 

Flickr Tags: ADI,health,laptop,אדי,transplant,organ,donor,organ donor

Blog Entry I

I’ve wanted to write a blog for some time now. Problem was, I didn’t really have something to write ABOUT. Thankfully (or not!) the universe stepped up and provided me with a subject that stirs strong emotions for me, enough to write my first blog entry:

 

I have sad news. My laptop passed away. It wasn’t short, it wasn’t sudden, but apparently – it was inevitable.

 

My first laptop was a HP TX1220. A beautiful machine, truly the perfect laptop for a new Computer Engineering student. It has a dual core AMD 2.2Ghz CPU, 2GB memory, and 200GB hard drive. It ran Matlab, Visual Studio, Photoshop, OneNote, played DVDs, even Counter-Strike: Source, with flawless fluidity. This was the computer for me. Small, had a lot of “horse power”, and of course, it had a touch-screen.

 

As a computer enthusiast, I always wanted a cool laptop. So during the summer before my first semester, I worked and saved enough to get my first laptop. As I wasn’t sure what I would need, I waited until my 2nd semester to get it. When I felt the time was right, I read through countless review web sites, and feedbacks. Finally, I found the one for me. It had the right price/coolness ratio. And when I write “coolness” I mean the ability to use it in the same way I use my desktop, but have the luxury of doing it anywhere I go.

 

As an aspiring engineer, I learned that everything has it’s price. If one wants speed on his laptop, it has to be accompanied with heat and noise. I was willing to pay this small price for what I wanted. Also, I made sure I used it on surfaces where the vents were clear. What about the noise? Well, I did received some in-class stares as the fan raced to meet the demands of the CPU.

 

My laptop died* after two years and two months. It started malfunctioning a few weeks before it finally croaked. First it wouldn’t start on the first attempt. Then the WIFI stopped working. I managed to use it for some time before it gave up on itself. Actually, on my quest to find the source, and maybe fix it (wishful thinking), I found a large group of people who were suffering from the same ailment. I tried cleaning the hard drive with special software, I tried physically cleaning the computer, I tried powering it solely on battery power. Nothing. The problems persisted. I had a feeling it’s days were numbered. So I gathered a half dozen empty DVDs and started backing up my life. Two years of files (Except the things I saved on Live Mesh or Flickr) were neatly packed into 8 DVDs.
As time was running out, I decided to experiment. I installed Windows 7 through the Technion’s MSDN program. In short- better than Vista, had everything one needs in an OS. So I’m convinced this will be my next OS, especially after going back to my desktop Windows XP (Searching in folders is SO time consuming here).

 

So what is this all about you ask? Always get an extended warranty on your laptop, ALWAYS. During these past two years during which I was a proud laptop owner, I’ve seen many laptops die prematurely (as in 1-2 years from purchase, outside the regular warranty, and before one got his money’s worth).
Some had the smarts to buy 3-yr warranties. Some were lucky to have the company (HP) admit the computer had a built in fault and replace it free of charge. And of course, the rest had either to fix it for probably half of what the laptop was worth, or save some dough to buy a new laptop (maybe from a different company!).

 

So finally, what will I do? I’ll look for a similar laptop, probably with better specs (hey! two years is a long time, look at Moore’s Law!). Why similar? Because when you take very good care of your laptop, you expect it to keep for several years. This may be naive of me, considering that computer manufacturers have a strong incentive to create short lived products. After the first year, the warranty wears off, and every dead computer is a new potential customer. My guess would be that his isn’t a corporate plan, but more a result of wanting everything. When they stretch the limits on how fast they can run a CPU/GPU on a laptop (remember, small size equals bad heat dissipation), and having the one year hurdle (end of warranty), this leads to short lived laptops.
The sad thing is that the computers I’ve seen die, have been from major laptop manufacturers (HP and DELL). Actually, now that I think of it, the only laptop I’ve seen stand the test of time, is my mother’s old ThinkPad T50 IBM. She’s had it for more than 5 years! And when her new DELL stopped working after less than a year, while she was waiting for her replacement, she had this old machine to fill in!

 

So the immediate conclusion would be to get an IBM (Lenovo these days). This leaves me with a dilemma. Lenovo computers are ugly. Sorry IBM designers, but this is my personal opinion. They also usually have the Intel GMA graphics chip, which isn’t exactly game friendly.

 

Should I buy another HP? And this time buy the extended warranty? Or should I forget about a tablet and consider a regular desktop replacement laptop? The tablet was nice, but didn’t constitute the bulk of my computer use. Actually, it was a very small part of it. I haven’t decided yet. Maybe considering Microsoft and Apple are both planning on introducing new tablets here and here – maybe I should just wait a little.
Waiting is always a good move in the computer hardware scene. If I wait enough, I can get something with a Core i7, or an AMD Tigris architecture.

Thanks for reading my first blog entry!
Check out my site at: idankedmy.tech.officelive.com

 

Idan Kedmy
עידן קדמי

 

NOTES
* – when I say my computer DIED, it sounds harsh. But think about it, a set up you’ve used for two years. A “place” where your work, some of your play, and a large amount of your communication takes place. When this set up is gone, it’s the end of an era, a phase in one’s life. That is why “dead” is the right phrase for this occurrence normally called “laptop failure”.

 

Flickr Tags: HP,Laptop,TX1220,Core i7,AMD Tigris,Dell,IBM,T50