liksys WRT54G

Wed Oct 22 07:14:08 MST 2014

If you lost the password (and don't see it cached in your browser), this is
a good time to UPGRADE to a real linux firmware, since you will have to
reset the router anyway......

The probable reason your router quit working, probably has to do with DHCP
lease times.  Occasionally, a RJ45 will come dislodged and connections
fail.  When you unplugged and replugged the hardware bus notified the OS
and the networking daemon reset the connection.

Generally in linux networking, if you swap the LAN and WAN input port
connections on any router, switches and OS, your router will not work in a
secure fashion since many of your iptables and firewall filtering will be
applied to the WAN interface.

The LAN input port often (in SOHO router terms) includes a "local VLAN"
attached to the LAN port but might just serve DHCP from this LAN interface.

The WAN port is assigned the default route "to everything" or 0.0.0.0.

The original *WRT54 series *came with a limited and insecure firmware and
it's possible that when used in bridged mode (no DHCP) while not getting
DHCP from the cable modem/HDSL router, there is no impact to switching the
ports.

[It's possible that when you plugin to the WAN port, the WRT54 happily
connects (albeit insecurely) since all of the security controls should be
interface configured.]

Open Source developers have created great router OS including Tomato,
DD-WRT, OpenWRT.

The very first thing I would do, if I were you, is update that firmware.
If you do not feel confident with this task, you can take it to the PLUG
Installfest and get some assistance, but it's pretty easy.

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/linksys/wrt54g

On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 8:53 PM, koder <iscreamkid at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Mike,
>
> My router came with a default password on it for the admin account.
> The exciting password for the 'admin' account is 'admin'
>
> I have always wondered if someone was trying to be funny or not.
>
> In any case, I changed it first thing, before I even exposed it to the
> Internet.
> As far as a password for the outside world, I don't think it needs one
> because your exposure is governed by the firewall. How someone gains access
> to install apps on from outside, is beyond my knowledge level but there was
> some discussion on PLUG about their being hacked.
>
> Unfortunately, I have just discovered that I no longer have a record of
> the password I put on the unit.
> Ooops. I am a bit red faced.
>
> Harold
>
>
>
> On 10/21/2014 05:43 PM, Michael Havens wrote:
>
> I've discovered that there is no passwd on this router.In otherwords it is
> open to the world. I googled it but all the results talk about the router
> password. Koder, you have the same device on your system..... how did you
> fix this?
>
> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>
> On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 7:57 PM, Michael Havens <bmike1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> thanks for the link.
>>
>> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 7:14 PM, koder <iscreamkid at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  The terms LAN, WAN, MAN, HAN and such are used very sloppily.
>>> They can be used to designate the physical (geographical) area covered
>>> by the network.
>>>
>>> Most of them were developed in the early networking days when computers
>>> and communication equipment was expensive and the physical distances you
>>> could communicate over were limited.
>>>
>>> Technically, that little Linksys gadget you can hold in your hands is a
>>> LAN server, because the cabling that it will drive can only go a short
>>> distance. Its input comes from a WAN. In today's case that would most
>>> likely, but not necessarily the Intenet.
>>>
>>> In your case you have chosen to put your LAN server between your LAN and
>>> your true server at your Internet Service Provider. In addition, as I
>>> understand it you have an additional modem server further dividing things
>>> up.
>>>
>>> If you care Wikipedia has a nice article that will tell more than you
>>> want to know.
>>>
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_network
>>>
>>> HM
>>>
>>> On 10/19/2014 12:31 AM, Michael Havens wrote:
>>>
>>> so the port I'm wondering about is an input port then. I thought I read
>>> that it is also a wan part.  How does that work? Like I know the internet
>>> is a wan but how does it work in this case?
>>>
>>>
>>> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 10:27 PM, koder <iscreamkid at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>  Mike,
>>>>
>>>> I have the same device in my networking system. My answer may not be
>>>> 100% correct, but here is my SWAG:
>>>>
>>>> The device was designed to serve as a router with DHCP server
>>>> capabilities, in other words it hands out IP addresses to requests that
>>>> come from one of the output ports.
>>>>
>>>> You can access the device using its web page and turn that feature off,
>>>> it then acts as a bridge router and the DHCP functioning will come from
>>>> further upsteam, from your other router.
>>>>
>>>> The network will not function correctly if you have two different
>>>> devices trying to pass out IP addresses using DHCP. Everything pretty much
>>>> quits talking to each other.
>>>>
>>>> While I have never tried using the device by plugging everything only
>>>> into the output ports, I am guessing that connection setup would use the
>>>> device as a bare dumb switch. No more double DHCP, only happy connectivity.
>>>>
>>>> I am reasonably sure my explanation is not technically correct, but is
>>>> functional. I was quite loose with input, output, upstream, and  downstream
>>>> analogies, but that is the way I think of them.
>>>>
>>>> By the way on a separate item, it is my understanding that most of
>>>> these devices are hacked and infected and should be either upgraded, or
>>>> replaced. I have yet to do either, but I think that is the case.
>>>>
>>>> HM
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 10/17/2014 03:08 PM, Michael Havens wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  That is the router I have. On the back there are 4 LAN ports and
>>>> another port labled Internet. My setup had the cable from the modem feeding
>>>> into that port and everything worked until a couple of days ago. Today I
>>>> switched that cable to a LAN port and everything worked again. I asked in
>>>> another thread the purpose of the internet port and MR Butash gave me an
>>>> answer but it is still a lot hazy. In my research to answer the question
>>>> myself I found a wikipedia article that states:
>>>>
>>>>  The original *WRT54G* was first released in December 2002. It has a
>>>> 4+1 port network switch <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_switch> (the
>>>> Internet/WAN port is part of the same internal network switch, but on a
>>>> different VLAN <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLAN>).
>>>>
>>>>  My questions: What is that port for if not to be an input port for
>>>> the internet
>>>> and
>>>> Why was it working as an input port for the internet and why did it
>>>> stop working as such?
>>>> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  ---------------------------------------------------
>>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------
>>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>>>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------
>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------
>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.phxlinux.org/pipermail/plug-discuss/attachments/20141022/79465f5a/attachment.html>