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Announce: WLUG Meeting Wed 11/13 7PM: OpenWRT

by Chuck Anderson

Hi folks, The next Worcester Linux Users' Group (WLUG) meeting will be held NEXT Wednesday, November 13 at 7PM. The location will be the WPI Campus Center, Mid-Centry Room 331. We will have a discussion of people's experiences with OpenWRT, and perhaps a demo of how to load OpenWRT on a Netgear home wireless router and configure it for Bufferbloat avoidance/improvement. Wednesday, November 13, 7:00 - 9:00 PM WPI Campus Center, Mid-Centry Room 331 Afterwards, we will go out for pizza. See you there, Chuck President, Worcester Linux Users' Group http://www.wlug.org/

Nov. 6, 2013

Re: [Wlug] OpenWRT on WNDR3800 home router - my install thoughts

by Chuck Anderson

I think this would make a great November 13 meeting topic. We can share our experiences of loading OpenWRT and battling Bufferbloat. I may even get some time this weekend to try loading OpenWRT on my WNDR3700v2. On Mon, Nov 04, 2013 at 12:40:10PM -0500, Mike Peckar wrote: > At least 2 years ago, I flashed my Netgear WNR3500L with DD-WRT (build > 14929) and have been a very happy camper ever since. I chose DD-WRT over > OpenWRT because it adds SNMP support, which (at least at the time) OpenWRT > didn't. I remember I was able to improve wifi performance over factory, but > I can't remember what specific tweaks I made. > > > > Mike > > > > From: wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org [mailto:wlug-bounces@mail.wlug.org] On > Behalf Of joel d > Sent: Friday, November 1, 2013 11:32 AM > To: Worcester Linux Users Group > Subject: [Wlug] OpenWRT on WNDR3800 home router - my install thoughts > > > > Decided to try OpenWRT after Jim Getty's talk and strong recommendation last > month for improved security and reduced local buffer bloat. What follows is > my experience / thoughts from this process. I would happily bring the > hardware to demo at a future meeting if there is interest. > > Likely wouldn't be a full meeting but a 10-15 minute filler. More likely > Q&A than anything else. > > > > I decided to go with different router/firewall hardware so I bought a > Netgear WNDR3800 which Jim mentioned and is also a favorite of the OpenWRT > crowd. Mine was used and $50 shipped from e-bay. This model is one model > old and no longer available new. FYI: Netgear website lists it as "out of > support". > > My WNDR3800 was used prior, so I needed to do a hard firmware reset on the > bottom of router with a paperclip (didn't know the prior IP used or the > admin password). > > Once reset and rebooted, router worked fine and could login to the "default" > Netgear firmware and configuration. Default username & password is printed > under the router. > > Downloaded the recommended OpenWRT firmware for this model. Needs to be > full "factory" (instead of partial upgrade) and squashfs is recommended. > Netgear WNDR3800 Firmware download link gets you OpenWRT version 10.X > version which is not latest OpenWRT. > > Web browser login to Netgear webpage/firmware and followed "upgrade > firmware" link while pointing to OpenWRT download file on local disk. The > upgrade/re-flash took around 4 minutes and after a reboot worked fine. Set > password and reconfigured router and WIFI with my specifics. Was up and > working on OpenWRT v 10.x. > > Next day realized I had OpenWRT, but not latest stable version. Upgrade > firmware link does not go to Internet directly, so first download OpenWRT v > 12.4 with "upgrade" and "squashfs" and save to local disk. Second apply > this via upgrade button in OpenWRT web link. > > I could likely have saved a step by grabbing the OpenWRT v12.4 for WNDR3800 > with factory and squashfs. I bet this would have worked had I tried it > (and saved a step). > > > > General thoughts after use for a week: > > OpenWRT does not have an "update direct to mother ship" feature best I can > tell that downloads file and updates it from web interface. Not a show > stopper for me. Instead need to know your version of OpenWRT and download > an "upgrade" file and apply as two steps. This would only matter if router > was used/maintained by a non-geek. > > Prior problem occurred with similar hardware WNDR3700 with latest Netgear > firmware (happened with prior Linksys also). A few embedded WIFI devices in > home would disconnect and fail randomly and at least weekly. Thus far these > device annoyances have not occured since swap to WNDR3800 and OpenWRT. No > idea why, but definitely A win! > > OpenWRT has transmit power level settings for the WIFI radio transmit. Can > decide to bump up the WIFI radio settings if user chooses. Even if you > melt/destroy them, a cool option if needed & tested. > > Firmware update for OpenWRT works from a laptop on WIFI, which in my > experience Netgear & Linksys and other vendors do not support flash without > a cabled ethernet port. So the OpenWRT update scripts the 1) copy file 2) > apply file 3) reboot device. > > My Next Steps: > > In another week will likely repurpose the WNDR3700 likely as a WIFI gateway > for the "cheap WIFI radio" devices, (mainly TV, roku, DVD, etc.). Not yet > sure if I will use OpenWRT for this. > > Look into the option of external antennas for the WNDR3800. I live out in > the country and have few neighbors to notice/know/care. If I can get > there... improved & reliable WIFI signal at my mailbox would rock.

Nov. 4, 2013

Re: [Wlug] OpenWRT on WNDR3800 home router - my install thoughts

by Mike Peckar

At least 2 years ago, I flashed my Netgear WNR3500L with DD-WRT (build 14929) and have been a very happy camper ever since. I chose DD-WRT over OpenWRT because it adds SNMP support, which (at least at the time) OpenWRT didn't. I remember I was able to improve wifi performance over factory, but I can't remember what specific tweaks I made. Mike From: wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org [mailto:wlug-bounces@mail.wlug.org] On Behalf Of joel d Sent: Friday, November 1, 2013 11:32 AM To: Worcester Linux Users Group Subject: [Wlug] OpenWRT on WNDR3800 home router - my install thoughts Decided to try OpenWRT after Jim Getty's talk and strong recommendation last month for improved security and reduced local buffer bloat. What follows is my experience / thoughts from this process. I would happily bring the hardware to demo at a future meeting if there is interest. Likely wouldn't be a full meeting but a 10-15 minute filler. More likely Q&A than anything else. I decided to go with different router/firewall hardware so I bought a Netgear WNDR3800 which Jim mentioned and is also a favorite of the OpenWRT crowd. Mine was used and $50 shipped from e-bay. This model is one model old and no longer available new. FYI: Netgear website lists it as "out of support". My WNDR3800 was used prior, so I needed to do a hard firmware reset on the bottom of router with a paperclip (didn't know the prior IP used or the admin password). Once reset and rebooted, router worked fine and could login to the "default" Netgear firmware and configuration. Default username & password is printed under the router. Downloaded the recommended OpenWRT firmware for this model. Needs to be full "factory" (instead of partial upgrade) and squashfs is recommended. Netgear WNDR3800 Firmware download link gets you OpenWRT version 10.X version which is not latest OpenWRT. Web browser login to Netgear webpage/firmware and followed "upgrade firmware" link while pointing to OpenWRT download file on local disk. The upgrade/re-flash took around 4 minutes and after a reboot worked fine. Set password and reconfigured router and WIFI with my specifics. Was up and working on OpenWRT v 10.x. Next day realized I had OpenWRT, but not latest stable version. Upgrade firmware link does not go to Internet directly, so first download OpenWRT v 12.4 with "upgrade" and "squashfs" and save to local disk. Second apply this via upgrade button in OpenWRT web link. I could likely have saved a step by grabbing the OpenWRT v12.4 for WNDR3800 with factory and squashfs. I bet this would have worked had I tried it (and saved a step). General thoughts after use for a week: OpenWRT does not have an "update direct to mother ship" feature best I can tell that downloads file and updates it from web interface. Not a show stopper for me. Instead need to know your version of OpenWRT and download an "upgrade" file and apply as two steps. This would only matter if router was used/maintained by a non-geek. Prior problem occurred with similar hardware WNDR3700 with latest Netgear firmware (happened with prior Linksys also). A few embedded WIFI devices in home would disconnect and fail randomly and at least weekly. Thus far these device annoyances have not occured since swap to WNDR3800 and OpenWRT. No idea why, but definitely A win! OpenWRT has transmit power level settings for the WIFI radio transmit. Can decide to bump up the WIFI radio settings if user chooses. Even if you melt/destroy them, a cool option if needed & tested. Firmware update for OpenWRT works from a laptop on WIFI, which in my experience Netgear & Linksys and other vendors do not support flash without a cabled ethernet port. So the OpenWRT update scripts the 1) copy file 2) apply file 3) reboot device. My Next Steps: In another week will likely repurpose the WNDR3700 likely as a WIFI gateway for the "cheap WIFI radio" devices, (mainly TV, roku, DVD, etc.). Not yet sure if I will use OpenWRT for this. Look into the option of external antennas for the WNDR3800. I live out in the country and have few neighbors to notice/know/care. If I can get there... improved & reliable WIFI signal at my mailbox would rock.

Nov. 4, 2013

OpenWRT on WNDR3800 home router - my install thoughts

by joel d

Decided to try OpenWRT after Jim Getty's talk and strong recommendation last month for improved security and reduced local buffer bloat. What follows is my experience / thoughts from this process. I would happily bring the hardware to demo at a future meeting if there is interest. Likely wouldn't be a full meeting but a 10-15 minute filler. More likely Q&A than anything else. I decided to go with different router/firewall hardware so I bought a Netgear WNDR3800 which Jim mentioned and is also a favorite of the OpenWRT crowd. Mine was used and $50 shipped from e-bay. This model is one model old and no longer available new. FYI: Netgear website lists it as "out of support". My WNDR3800 was used prior, so I needed to do a hard firmware reset on the bottom of router with a paperclip (didn't know the prior IP used or the admin password). Once reset and rebooted, router worked fine and could login to the "default" Netgear firmware and configuration. Default username & password is printed under the router. Downloaded the recommended OpenWRT firmware for this model. Needs to be full "factory" (instead of partial upgrade) and squashfs is recommended. Netgear WNDR3800 Firmware download link gets you OpenWRT version 10.X version which is not latest OpenWRT. Web browser login to Netgear webpage/firmware and followed "upgrade firmware" link while pointing to OpenWRT download file on local disk. The upgrade/re-flash took around 4 minutes and after a reboot worked fine. Set password and reconfigured router and WIFI with my specifics. Was up and working on OpenWRT v 10.x. Next day realized I had OpenWRT, but not latest stable version. Upgrade firmware link does not go to Internet directly, so first download OpenWRT v 12.4 with "upgrade" and "squashfs" and save to local disk. Second apply this via upgrade button in OpenWRT web link. I could likely have saved a step by grabbing the OpenWRT v12.4 for WNDR3800 with factory and squashfs. I bet this would have worked had I tried it (and saved a step). General thoughts after use for a week: OpenWRT does not have an "update direct to mother ship" feature best I can tell that downloads file and updates it from web interface. Not a show stopper for me. Instead need to know your version of OpenWRT and download an "upgrade" file and apply as two steps. This would only matter if router was used/maintained by a non-geek. Prior problem occurred with similar hardware WNDR3700 with latest Netgear firmware (happened with prior Linksys also). A few embedded WIFI devices in home would disconnect and fail randomly and at least weekly. Thus far these device annoyances have not occured since swap to WNDR3800 and OpenWRT. No idea why, but definitely A win! OpenWRT has transmit power level settings for the WIFI radio transmit. Can decide to bump up the WIFI radio settings if user chooses. Even if you melt/destroy them, a cool option if needed & tested. Firmware update for OpenWRT works from a laptop on WIFI, which in my experience Netgear & Linksys and other vendors do not support flash without a cabled ethernet port. So the OpenWRT update scripts the 1) copy file 2) apply file 3) reboot device. My Next Steps: In another week will likely repurpose the WNDR3700 likely as a WIFI gateway for the "cheap WIFI radio" devices, (mainly TV, roku, DVD, etc.). Not yet sure if I will use OpenWRT for this. Look into the option of external antennas for the WNDR3800. I live out in the country and have few neighbors to notice/know/care. If I can get there... improved & reliable WIFI signal at my mailbox would rock.

Nov. 1, 2013

Re: [Wlug] Idiot Service Providers

by Randall Mason

On Oct 23, 2013, at 3:51 AM, kwright(a)keithdiane.us (Keith Wright) wrote: >> I actually don't see why you wouldn't want to totally >> switch over to hosted. You get perks like full IPv6 >> and dynamic updates to hosts; my laptop is always >> updating it's DNS info so that I can make sure I can >> find it. It also uses UPNP to punch SSH ports out. > > I don't really understand this. Maybe you should > give a talk about how to set up DNS on the modern > internet and what help is available. I have an > 2001 edition of the Cricket Liu & Paul Albitz > "DNS and BIND" book and RFCs. It works well > enough for this steam-driven computer. This is mostly a statement of the poor state of things with ISPs. A normal person gets 1 dynamic IPv4 address. You're going to need some sort of extra services in addition the the "Internet" that you're paying for before you get what I would consider Internet. The world is also more mobile since 2001. If I had to get to any of my hosts in 2001, they were all cabled into some internet connection that was fairly predictable. These days there can be a file on my phone and I don't feel that I need to know what connection is active at the moment or where it is in the world to get back to it. Dynamic DNS + UPNP help, but IPv6 totally solves the problem. A real internet connection with a static IP anywhere in the world without NAT traversal and port forwarding is why I need more than just what my ISP will ever give me which is why I will probably always need some sort of hosted DNS. I doubt MegaPath, Cox, or Verizon will ever enable [Mobile IP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_IP). -Randall

Oct. 23, 2013

Re: [Wlug] Idiot Service Providers

by Keith Wright

> From: Randall Mason <clashthebunny(a)gmail.com> > > > What would you recommend? > > I use dns.he.net. It's free and it's good enough for > casual work. You can set them up as secondary DNS: Thank you. This was bacon-saving advice. I spent most of the day creating secondary servers on Hurricane Electric, and updating Godaddy to match for my three domains. It seems to work. > I actually don't see why you wouldn't want to totally > switch over to hosted. You get perks like full IPv6 > and dynamic updates to hosts; my laptop is always > updating it's DNS info so that I can make sure I can > find it. It also uses UPNP to punch SSH ports out. I don't really understand this. Maybe you should give a talk about how to set up DNS on the modern internet and what help is available. I have an 2001 edition of the Cricket Liu & Paul Albitz "DNS and BIND" book and RFCs. It works well enough for this steam-driven computer. -- Keith

Oct. 23, 2013

Barbarians at the gates...

by Tim Keller

This is a paper about High Frequency Trading, it's an interesting if not entirely terrifying read about what a crazy place the markets have become. http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2536492 Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Oct. 21, 2013

Re: [Wlug] Idiot Service Providers

by Michelle Vadeboncoeur

as a FYI, if you have a WPI alumni account at alum.wpi.edu, you can set up and use them as a secondary name server (as long as you're not a large company or ISP) https://alum.wpi.edu/cgi-bin/alumni On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 9:41 PM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: .... > Since I have only one IP address on one DSL line, > I never really saw the need for a secondary server > in the first place. I run a primary server because > (A) I like to think of myself as a programmer, > and it is self education to figure out how to > do it. > (B) Sometimes I create subdomains and run test > program servers in them. > > The RFC's require a second name server, and > the registrar asks for it, but who's going to > care really? If the primary name server goes > out, so do all other servers in the domain, > since it's all really just one computer. > > What would you recommend? > > If anyone else has the same problem, I could > be your secondary, and you could be mine. > > -- Keith > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Oct. 21, 2013

Re: [Wlug] Idiot Service Providers

by Randall Mason

On Oct 21, 2013, at 4:41 AM, kwright(a)keithdiane.us (Keith Wright) wrote: > The RFC's require a second name server, and > the registrar asks for it, but who's going to > care really? If the primary name server goes > out, so do all other servers in the domain, > since it's all really just one computer. Many people don't have totally redundant DNS because of this very reason. Some people have ns1 and ns2 point to the same IP/host, and that works fine. I would just make sure you somehow control whatever the 2nd ns is, so that you can be sure that nobody can answer before you about your DNS. That's why you have to change something. > What would you recommend? I use dns.he.net. It's free and it's good enough for casual work. You can set them up as secondary DNS: > Secondary domains that disallow AXFR's will be deactivated until they have been validated. > You can validate the domain by selecting it from the "Slave domains for this account." (click on the (i)nformation icon) This will attempt to pull the zone from the specified nameserver(s). If it is successful, it will validate the domain and will start listening to your nameservers NOTIFY packets as well as making periodic checks (depending on your TTL). I actually don't see why you wouldn't want to totally switch over to hosted. You get perks like full IPv6 and dynamic updates to hosts; my laptop is always updating it's DNS info so that I can make sure I can find it. It also uses UPNP to punch SSH ports out. If you don't want to depend on an evil corporation after what MegaPath did to you, I understand. A friend may be the best way. -Randall

Oct. 21, 2013

Idiot Service Providers

by Keith Wright

On recomendation from someone on this list, I signed up for Speakeasy DSL. The helped me set up a primary name server (DNS) and they ran a secondary name server for a few extra dollars per month. This has been working well for about a decade. Speakeasy was sold to MegaPath, who yesterday sent me a message that included this: > Dear MegaPath Customer, > > This email is to advise you that MegaPath is > migrating its legacy Speakeasy ISP, web hosting, > webmail and DNS services to a more advanced platform. > > <Braindead "customer-experience" > happy market-talk deleted> > > Going forward, we will no longer support secondary > DNS services. If your domain is set up in this > manner, please be sure to make the proper changes to > avoid a post-migration service disruption. This all happens next Tuesday. I read this is "We are breaking what has worked for a decade, there is nothing you can do, have fun finding a new ISP in two days." I was wall-punching cursing mad. When I calmed down a bit I began to think, if they don't break anything else, maybe it's not so bad. The system was designed to tolerate failure. _I_ was not designed to tolerate _intentional_ failure, but everything should still work if the secondary name server is broken. Since I have only one IP address on one DSL line, I never really saw the need for a secondary server in the first place. I run a primary server because (A) I like to think of myself as a programmer, and it is self education to figure out how to do it. (B) Sometimes I create subdomains and run test program servers in them. The RFC's require a second name server, and the registrar asks for it, but who's going to care really? If the primary name server goes out, so do all other servers in the domain, since it's all really just one computer. What would you recommend? If anyone else has the same problem, I could be your secondary, and you could be mine. -- Keith

Oct. 21, 2013