I Talk To Machines
Posts tagged router
Get your netgear wpg606 to support WPA-2 (nerds only)
010 months ago
So this title might be a bit misleading, as this setup will require you have a spare router that will support the dd-wrt firmware, I wanted to say this up front to avoid anyone reading this to get upset by letting you know half way through this post.
I had to hack this together because my I run a windows domain, and my roomate’s new laptop has windows 7 home on it, so of course, he can’t be brought onto my domain but I still wanted to share out my printer with him.
I have random hardware laying around so I came up with this solution as it didn’t cost me anything to do. Sure I could have waited until Fry’s opened tomorrow, but I’m saving for a new car, and like I said, I’d rather put the hardware I have to work!
Here’s the breakdown, I can give more detailed instructions if you like, but I figured that would be better suited for the Forums as all those instructions would make this a very dry post.
You will need:
- Wireless Access Point that supports at least WPA-2 Personal (TKIP or AES both work) and broadcasting it’s SSID
- A Second wireless router that has dd-wrt installed
- A Printer that accepts USB
- A netgear wpg606 wireless print server (or any networked print server on second thought!)
Your wireless Access Point I’ll assume is working fine, and you have DHCP running on one of your servers or router. We won’t be making ANY changes to your wireless access point! All the heavy lifting will be handled by the secondary dd-wrt router.
Configure your dd-wrt router to be a wireless bridge. I followed this guide but would recommend you change your IP’s last, just before you join your wireless network from the site survey. Just my two cents, it seemed to go easier for me if I disabled everything first. It’s a very informative guide, so read through it first, then you’ll see that making a wireless bridge is actually really simple. (and it’s saved me a lot of work on random projects, especially old hardware just having a bridge lying around let me tell you!)
Next, in the print server setting’s I disabled the wireless radio, and set a static IP then just plugged in my printer. That’s it!
In windows 7, the way you actually add this printer is a little confusing, as you’ld think it’s a networked printer now right? Sorry, windows doesn’t recognize it as such, you’re going to want to create a local printer then define a Standard TCP/IP Port. Also it’s not a raw printer communication, it’s LPD so I’ll just show you in some screenshot’s how this works in windows 7.
From Devices and Printers, Add a printer.
Like I said before, Add a LOCAL printer.
Next we’re going to create a new port, pick “Standard TCP/IP Port” from the dropdown.
Enter in your printserver’s static address you set earlier, and give this port a name.
Then windows will try to do the right thing and detect the printer for you. This will fail. Don’t get discouraged!
You’ll then be asked for more port information. Being we’re going geeky, let’s choose the “Custom” Option and then click Settings…
Now in my case, the netgear wpg606 can support 2 different printers at the same time, make note of which usb port you used, in my case I used the first port. USB1. This get’s referenced in the “Queue Name” Port 1 is referenced as “L1″ port 2 would be, yep, L2. Also choose LPR for the printing protocol.
Click OK, and you’ll be taken back to the previous window. Click Next.
Everyone’s favorite part, Find your drivers. I’ll leave this up to you, I usually just choose have disk, and download the latest drivers from the manufacture’s page. If it’s an .exe file, you can usually extract it using your preferred app (I like winrar and have purchased a license years ago) you’ll need to end up with a .inf file somewhere to use the have disk option.
This is the file I’ll end up using.
Select it and click OK in the install from disk window.
Your printers driver should be selected now. Click Next.
Because I’ve already installed this driver before, I’ll get this window. In my case I’ll go ahead and use the driver that’s already installed, as I know it’s up to date. Click Next.
Name your printer if you like…
Decide if you want to share this printer. I’m not going to as it’s already a networked printer!!!
Now click Finish! Your printers installed!!! Go ahead, try it out, Print a test page. Yep your old hardware can still be used, if you want it to badly enough!
If this hasn’t helped, at least get this out of it, there’s always a way, sometimes you just have to keep thinking of how to make it happen!
Untangle on the Edge
012 months ago
So my new employer is very generous on the old hardware that is going to be recycled and let me take home an old desktop (sans hard drive of course).
Awesome! Now what to do with it…
Wait, I remember a cool router I used to use a few years ago when I first moved out of my parents house.
So I ran down to my local Fry’s Electronics, picked up a new hard drive (IDE is really expensive!) more ram (so is ddr ram…) and two gigabit network cards. (pretty cheap!)
Viola, a great and very powerful new router!
Untangle offers you two options to setup your untangle router, either as the edge device (directly connected to the internet) or as a transparent bridge (behind a firewall or router just doing traffic filtering). I went with it as my edge device.
The UI is great and I’ve always liked the interface, it looks like a rack of independant network devices that you can configure the same way, independantly.
It does everything a good UTM router does, and then some, and most of the options are available for free. (I did end up buying the web cache as it really does help speed up most web browsing.) and the pay for additions are pretty averagely priced.
The “lite” package is made out of entirely opensource software, and provides a great platform for free,
It also does reporting, generates a key based VPN connection for each client independently using OpenVPN (there’s also an IPSec VPN available for purchase as well.)
If you haven’t heard of it, check it out. If your looking for a new router for your network, they also provide hardware appliances as well, if you have an old beige box lying around, why not add a nic card or two and give it a shot yourself!
Asus wl-330gE Antenna mod.
42 years ago
First off I’d like to give credit where credit is due.
I only found out about this awesome mini wireless router due to the PirateBox project that I’m currently in the middle of building. In the information on their site they link to a picassa photo collection on modding the antenna of this router. However the info and recommendations we’re left to be improved upon in my opinion so I figured I’d do it myself.
To start you need to get the router open. If your still kinda new to modding hardware often times the screws are hidden under the rubber feet. This happens to be the case on the asus wl-330gE. There are two screws under the feet closest to the “top” if it were hanging on a wall using the included slot.
After you remove the 2 screws the unit simply unfolds in half.
The hookup is the same as in the other post, ground wire is the shielding on the antenna cable, antenna is the small center wire.
Measure out enough wire that it will make both contact’s however the insulation is as close to the solder point’s as possible so that no shorting will happen due to the exposed shielding touching something it’s not supposed to. If you cut off too much insulation, adding some heat shrink tubing to the wire before you solder it on is a good alternative.
Then just take a razor knife and make a parallel cut up the side of the shielding (that braided wire showing in the pic above) so that you can twist it up into it’s own wire.
If your going to be making a slot you can do this later, if you want a nice finished hole drill a hole and put your wire through it FIRST! (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve soldered something and forgot to put it through a cover first…)
Once you have the two wires ready, put a dot of extra solder on each of the antenna points *use a rosin core wire!* so that you don’t have to keep alot of heat on the board, you’ll be soldering close to other connections, 2-3 seconds max! Then apply the soldering iron to the wire get it to where it’s soaked up some solder on each wire (center and shielding) then touch the iron to the points already on the board and let the wire squish into the beads. Cut off any extra wire.
blurry I know but it's the best of the 4 I tried to get :/
Now that your antenna’s connected you just need to put it back together! If you have any zip ties laying around putting one inside your case attached to your antenna wire with a little slack is a good idea. It keeps the strain off of your soldering connections.
Zip tie in the top right for strain relief.
A little dremel work to get rid of the stock antenna holders (they get in the way of the new soldering points and wire)
Put your two halves of the case back together and viola! Your pimping new asus mini router with a not so mini range! Put dd-wrt firmware and boost the output a little (I’d keep it under 90 myself) and this thing really pumps it out!
Showing off the size differences
I really like how this one came out 
