It’s been so difficult to get back into the swing of things (really, this is the reason why I hate leaving home for extended periods of time). I’m taking care of tasks, one at a time – and realize I’ve fallen a bit behind.

What I didn’t need last night was my Linksys Wireless N Gigabit Security Router with VPN (WRVS4400N) dying on me. It’s pretty much a brick through no fault of my own. I plug ‘er in, possibly watch the lights dance, then witness her fade to black. That’s if the LEDs illuminate on power up in the first place. The hardware is hosed.

I purchased the router at CompUSA under the “All Sales Final” banner. Great! I’m not so sure I’m ready to turn around and get the same model now, given that it is likely to fail on me just as quickly. I haven’t gone through traditional Linksys support channels because at this point, it’s just as easy to replace it with something that works.

I’m taking any kind of serious recommendations for an equivalent replacement. This device had excellent configuration options, and quite a solid wireless range with the stock firmware.

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When I registered my Vonage complaint the other day, somebody sent me a link to HyperWRT Thibor – suggesting that I flash to the community firmware and forego official Linksys code altogether. I was a little apprehensive about making the move, but ultimately decided to give ‘er a shot (believing I had nothing to lose).

HyperWRT is a GPL firmware project for the Linksys WRT54G/WRT54GL/WRT54GS and WRTSL54GS wireless routers based on the latest stock Linksys firmware. The original goal of the HyperWRT project was to add a set of features – such as power boost – to the Linux-based Linksys firmware, extending its possibilities but staying close to the official firmware. Over time, it has continued to be updated with newer Linksys firmware, and incorporated many more features typically found in enterprise routing equipment.

As documented, the upgrade was seamless – and my Linksys WRT54GS now has twice the amount of options:

• I can adjust the router’s transmit power, higher or lower
• The hardware now has 14 wireless channels
• There’s more Port Forwarding & Triggering fields
• QoS Device is now infinitely easier to configure
• Uptime and load average statistics are now visible
• A reboot button has been added to the ‘Management’ page
• Local domain names are now a possibility
• A much needed “site survey” utility is now built-in
• Dnsmasq for DNS is ready-to-go

Plus, dozens more tools and features that I have no idea what to do with (or how to use, since documentation is beyond sparse). Of interest to me is the “WDS and Wireless Bridge (WET) capabilities” – considering I have more than one router in this house. In combination with OpenDNS, my home network is tweaked.

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