MyOpenRouter - Latest Articles

Installing USB Support on WNR3500 and Tomato (BETA) Firmware

Brandon C — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:59:51 GMT

If you saw my post here about the new Tomato Beta firmware for the WNR3500, you may want to give it a try for yourself. I did, and then ran the USB support through it paces. From my testing, it not only works well but is extremly simple to setup and configure. Here is how to set it up. Turn On USB Support 1) Click on USB and NAS in the left hand column. 2) Click on Core USB Support 3) Turn on or off the 1.0/2.0, Printer and file system support as needed. 4) Click on Save 5 ) After saved click on Reboot in the left hand column. 6) Plug in a USB device. If done correctly you will see your USB device shown at the bottom if the USB and NAS page and you are ready to go to the next step. FTP Server Configuration Setting up FTP is fairly straight forward. Don't be intimidated by all the options avaialble. For the average user most options are not needed. Here is the quick easy way to get it going. 1) Click on FTP Server in the left hand column. 2) Click on Enable FTP Server and tell...

Quick Review and Specs: NETGEAR XAV2001 and XAV2501 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapters

NETGEAR — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:05:42 GMT

Let's face it, running wires can be a real pain, especially if you're not an expert at home wiring and setup. NETGEAR comes to the rescue with its Powerline series of Ethernet adapters. Basically, they can turn any home outlet into a way to bring a high speed network connection to devices throughout your home. All you have to do is plug in the adapter, connect Internet via Ethernet, then plug in the second adapter where you would like to extend the connection. Pair the two adapters, and you're all set. The XAV2001 and XAV2501 Powerline AV adapters, announced at CES 2010, can provide speeds of up to 200 Mbps. The XAV2501 adds an additional power outlet and noise filtering, both of which can come in quite handy! Features of the XAV2001 Extends a high speed Internet connection to any power outlet Perfect for connecting HDTVs, Blu-ray™ players, DVRs, PCs and game consoles to your home network and the Internet Compact design with push-button security Just plug into any electrical outlet Specifications of the XAV2001 Performance Speed: Up to 200 Mbps† Physical Specifications Dimensions: 86 x 67 x 40 mm (3.38 x 2.63 x 1.57 in) • Weight: 0.13 kg...

Installing Tomato Early Firmware Beta to NETGEAR WNR3500L

Brandon C — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:42:21 GMT

teddy_bear the LinksysInfo Guru over at Linksysinfo.org has created a beta firmware that will run on the WNR3500L. You can read more about it here . I thought I would give it a test run even though it is still in early beta. He has created four different builds available for routers based on MIPSR2 (MIPS32 Release 2) CPU - USB/Ext, USB/VPN, no-USB, no-USB/VPN. He says all of them should work onÂ the Netgear WNR3500L . But he does warn that "more testing is needed for WNR3500L - as you can see from a few posts above there could be some problems with USB on this router. At the same time I got reports from other testers that it works fine." But since I have my trusty serial cable setup which makes it easy to unbrick my router I thought I would give it a shot. You can find the latest beta firmware files here under the K26-MIPSR2 folder. I was running DD-WRT before so it was easy to upgrade to Tomato. I decided to grab the Ext USB firmware file for my test. You can get it here. http://sourceforge.net/projects/tomatousb/files/Experimental%20%28beta%29 Before doing so I backed up my router and reset...

Quick Review and Specs: NETGEAR DGN2200 Wireless-N Router w/ DSL Modem

NETGEAR — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:40:42 GMT

Overview Fully compatible with most major DSL Internet providers Wireless-N provides higher speed and better range than your old DSL equipment ReadySHARE™—USB port provides fast and easy access for sharing an external USB storage device Push 'N' Connect securely connects devices at the touch of a button Built-in ADSL2+ modem for use with DSL Broadband (through the telephone line) Smart Wizard® installation CD with multi-language support makes setup easy Features of the DGN2200 Live Parental Controls, powered by OpenDNS™ Blocks unsafe Internet content and applications Flexible and customizable settings through Web interface Protects connected devices through the router such as PCs, gaming consoles, and iPod touch® And it's FREE! See CD inside for installation To learn more visit www.netgear.com/lpc Dedicated network for guests with restricted access without sharing your own security password Automatic Quality of Service (QoS) for reliable video, voice and gaming Broadband usage meter ensures accurate measurement of download Internet traffic with customized alerts Push 'N' Connect using Wi-Fi Protected Setup™ (WPS) NETGEAR Green Convenient power and Wi-Fi on/off switches conserve energy Efficient Energy Star-compliant power supply Packaging manufactured with at least 80% recycled materials Specifications of the DGN2200 Physical Specifications Dimensions: 173 x 128 x 33 (6.81...

Why Do You Need A Special Serial (USB-TTL) Cable to Debrick Your Router?

Brandon C — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:52:07 GMT

I have been asked a few times if there is a way to convert a basic USB cable to allow it to connect to your WGR614L/WNR3500L. The answer is basically no - allow me to explain. First of all I recommend the USB-to-Serial Cable: 3.3V TTL cables that are available here. They come with different types of connectors Bare Wire, 6 Pin SIP and Audio Plug Connector . But the business end, the USB side is very different than a standard USB cable. The key to these cables are that each one contains a small internal electronic circuit board, utilizing the FT232R chip, which is encapsulated into the USB connector end of the cable. They use FTDIÂ’s FT232RQ USB to Serial UART interface IC device which handles all the USB signalling and protocols. These cables require USB drivers to make them work, but they are available free from http://www.ftdichip.com which is then used to make the FT232R chip in the cable appear as a virtual COM port (VCP) on your computer. This allows you to communicate with the USB interface via a standard PC serial emulation port (for example TTY or PUTTY). You could buy a Mini-USB to Serial UART...

Review of NETGEAR Stora (MS2110) Media Storage and Sharing Solution

Peter Redmer — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:14:43 GMT

Like pretty much everyone out there, whether they be super-geeks, newbies, or average computer users, I have tons of data. I personally have over 100 gigabytes of music and podcasts, dozens of gigabytes of documents and other stuff, hundreds of gigabytes of videos... and that isn't even counting the hundreds and hundreds of high quality digital photos I have stored. Of course, it's important to keep all of this data backed up, and a lot of folks out there use external hard drives to protect those precious bits and bytes. More advanced users prefer NAS type solutions, like the NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo . The catch is that like most NAS products, the ReadyNAS Duo has lots of features the "average" user won't want, more complicated setup procedures, and so on. The NETGEAR Stora is designed for those folks who really don't want to mess with any advanced settings, those who don't need a built in web server or BitTorrent client, those who might not be interested in fine tuning CIFS and AFP file access settings; users who are interested in simply saving and sharing their digital media are perfect for the Stora. The Stora performs admirably at this, but don't...

How To Reflash Factory Firmware on the NETGEAR WRN3500L Without A Serial Cable

Brandon C — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:34:43 GMT

When you upgrade to DD-WRT on your WNR3500L, you'll find that the new firmware requires a file that ends with the BIN extension, if you ever want to upgrade or change your firmware from that point. So, if you decide, for example, to revert back to the original NETGEAR firmware - you can't because that firmware has a filename that ends in CHK. As such, this makes it harder to change back. One way to do it is to use a serial console, but if you don't have one... here's a way to accomplish it in Windows without one. Fortunately, included in the DD-WRT firmware is an erase utility that will wipe the firmware and allow you to upload a new one. Here is how it's done. You first have to Telnet into your router. To do this simply open up a CMD window and type Telnet 192.168.1.1 (or the location of your router) You will then need to type in the name and password for your router. If you have not changed it form the original setup, then they would be Name:admin and Password:password. Once in, you will be shown a prompt that you can use to erase the...

Easy Serial Cable Connection Hack for WNR3500L

Brandon C — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:17:40 GMT

I like to play around quite a bit with the fimrware on my WNR3500L router and more than once I have bricked it and had to turn to the directions shown here . But I have taken it a step further and made it so I can plug the special USB cable directly into the router. Now I don't have to have wires hanging out or leave the case open for easy access. Here is what I did. I purchased a threaded stereo mount jack, like this one, available at radio shack for $2.50. Then, instead of buying the special bare wire or SIP cable I bought this cable whcih features a stereo type plug in. With this, all I had to do was drill a hole in the side of the box and use the nut that comes with the jack and attach it to the router as shown here. Now, all I had to do was solder some wire from the jack to the router. After looking through the documents, I saw that the plug has outputs as shown here.Â The Jack then needed to be wired thusly. As a reminder here is where the Ground/TXD and RXD...