helping you stay protected in the digital age

I absolutely LOVE to hack Linksys routers. They provide their code as open source so any wanna be computer tweaker can get their hands on it and violate every FCC rule in the book. Me? I just like to expand the reach of my wireless network. However I’m also a HUGE PC security guru and no, not the “gurus” you find living next do that just did a quick Google search on “how to secure a pc” either. I take this stuff seriously. I’d say a hardware firewall with RADIUS authentication, WPA2 TKIP+AES, and on my laptop fingerprint ID with hopes of a smart-card addition in the near future just to get access to my laptop and, in addition to the above, I’m in the process of having a custom, tailored-made hard drive hardware encryption device made for my laptop as well.

Although this tweak isn’t a “catch-all” for would-be Wi-Fi thieves, nor should it be the ONLY intrusion prevention system (IPS) for your network (actually, don’t use it as an IPS, that would be stupid) this tweak sure does add a little coolness to your DD-WRT firmware WRT54G wireless router.

What? You aren’t running DD-WRT? You’ve got to me kidding me! If you have a Linksys WRT54G version 1-6 router check out http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php and get it now!
Anyway, on WRT54G routers with that annoying secure easy setup (SES) button there are actually two LED colors behind that piece of plastic; the default orange LED and a white LED. I used to have a command that would change the LED to white permanently because white is so much better than orange but I found this script while looking for the same command at http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showpost.php?p=13883376&postcount=2

Simply copy and paste the below script into the commands section of the DD-WRT firmware administration page and select “Save Startup” and anytime there is a network connection the LED will be orange and anytime there is data transfer across the network the LED will turn white. Cool huh? Oh and if your brick your router or otherwise mess it up because of the below code I’m not responsible, use it at your own rise
*******Copy Code Below*******

#!/bin/sh
I=`nvram get wl0_ifname`
while sleep 1; do
if [ "`wl assoclist`" != "" ]; then
XFER=`ifconfig $I|grep bytes`
if [ "$XFER" != "$PXFER" ]; then
LED(){gpio disable 3
gpio disable 2}
PXFER=$XFER
else
LED(){gpio disable 3
gpio enable 2}
fi
else
LED(){gpio enable 3
gpio enable 2}
fi
if [ "$LED" != "$PLED" ]; then
gpio $LED
PLED=$LED
fi
done
*******Copy Code Above*******
For more information on Linksys WRT54G routers see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRT54G

~ by johndball on December 27, 2006.