Author Topic: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT  (Read 8085 times)

jjarrettc

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WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« on: January 17, 2011, 05:54:58 PM »

I have had good success so far with OpenWRT versus the other firmware options for the WZR-HP-G300NH.  OpenWRT is little more command line that some folks may want but I encourage you to take a look at if you are fighting with current versions of firmware.  It seems very stable and my speed tests through wifi are as fast as my Internet connect permits (24 Mbits/down).  I will note however, I could not flash it with windows.  I had to use linux to do it.  The windows tftp clients I tried could never flash it.  Any version of linux should work.  Just follow the detailed instructions.

 

Using openwrt likely voids your warranty so proceed at your own risk.  I have not confirmed this though.

 

Let me know your experiences with OpenWRT if you plan to use it.

 

http://openwrt.org/

 

Regards,

John

 


snk

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2011, 01:20:20 AM »

I also use OpenWrt on WZR-HP-G300NH. Installing from the Buffalo branded DD-WRT is really easy, just follow this guide. Wireless is more stable and transmit power can be increased all the way to 27 dBm.


jjarrettc

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2011, 03:47:17 PM »

I am using samba with a USB stick formated as ext4 without issue.  Write/reads speeds seem appropriate for a usb 2.0 stick that is a few years old.  I enabled SNMP so I can graph a number of metrics.  I also got ssh key authorization working (you have to put the pub key in an odd place).  I was thinking of looking into Gargoyle  http://lwn.net/Articles/420066/.  I still need to set up remote syslog and ntp.  sshfs looked too cool but there was no package to be found via the wiki.  I have got too many servers at home so I really do not need usb support via my AP, but it is cool to set it up.

 

What do you have enabled?

 

John


CapnSmith

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2011, 04:09:16 PM »

Just to inform you, yes, installing OpenWRT on your router is not supported by Buffalo Technology, and technically voids your warranty.

 

If you run into any trouble, we can support you to a very limited degree, but you will be pretty much on your own.

 

You have been warned. :smileyhappy:


jjarrettc

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2011, 04:18:40 PM »

Thank you for raising this.  I was hoping someone from Buffalo would chime in.  Are there plans for updated firmware to be released from Buffalo and/or OpenWRT for the WZR-HP-G300NH in the near future?

 

Best regards,

John


CapnSmith

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2011, 04:35:00 PM »

Not to my knowledge.  We are working with DD-WRT to get an update to our version of DD-WRT, and we will post it to our website as soon as we are able to do so.


solo8788

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2011, 07:04:12 PM »

I've been using for over a month and love it.  It feels pretty good not having to constantly reboot the router to fix random issues.  It resolved my problems with my Motorola Droid 2 Global not being to connect, my zbox is now geting better connection speeds. Also the default build does have a web management interface(luci) that is pretty good. 

 

It definately gives you hope for the router and makes you wonder if dd-wrt was the right choice for open source firmware.


snk

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2011, 07:11:41 AM »

 


jjarrettc wrote:

I am using samba with a USB stick formated as ext4 without issue.  Write/reads speeds seem appropriate for a usb 2.0 stick that is a few years old.  I enabled SNMP so I can graph a number of metrics.  I also got ssh key authorization working (you have to put the pub key in an odd place).  I was thinking of looking into Gargoyle  http://lwn.net/Articles/420066/.  I still need to set up remote syslog and ntp.  sshfs looked too cool but there was no package to be found via the wiki.  I have got too many servers at home so I really do not need usb support via my AP, but it is cool to set it up.

 

What do you have enabled?

 

John


I have ntp, samba serving files from an external ext3 2TB USB disk, and DLNA server. I've also configured the switch to have two VLANs, one dedicated to IPTV and the other VLAN for the rest. No more flooding wireless with multicast packets! None of this was possible with DD-WRT. Of course there are some things I miss from DD-WRT, like a nice status page with the connected wireless clients, signal strengths and speeds, and traffic monitoring. OpenWrt is developing fast, so I'll bet we have these quite soon.

 


jjarrettc

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2011, 07:17:11 AM »

snk

 

We can  extend SNMP to get some of these statistics and graph.  If you would like to do this, contact me offline and we can work on it and post back to openwrt wiki.  john at mysnmp dot org


johnjohn46715

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2011, 02:01:23 PM »

Do you have an idea of when this will be available? I was on a dd-wrt forum and someone there was emailed a copy of the next release from someone at buffalo.

 

There is no ETA right now?


ehmoeok

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2011, 09:36:52 AM »

I've had my router over a year.  For the most part I was happy with the stock, "user friendly" firmware.  I had some issues with my MacBook Pro losing the wireless, but I blamed that on the MBP.  Then I recently tried OpenWRT (Backfire RC3).  It' seemed fine at first, but then I decided to work from home one day.  It was a disaster.  I was VPN'd into my company's network, and the wireless would just go away completely.  My work computer, my MBP, every device in the house would loose the wireless.  Reseting the router solved the problem, but the wireless would only stay up for 10 minutes before tanking again.  So that night, I learned how to use  the tftp method of re-flashing the firmware, because you can't easily revert back to the factory firmware after flashing OpenWRT.  This time I choose DD-WRT, the Buffalo branded version.  That didn't go much better.  It seemed to work OK for a couple of days, but then the wireless would slow to a crawl.  I believe it was dropping packets like crazy.  It would take 30 seconds to SSH into the router long enough to reboot it.  After the reboot, the router would act normally, but it wasn't long before it would start to drop packets again.  So, I've gone back to the user-friendly Buffalo firmware.  No OpenWRT or DD-WRT for me until I see some stability, which is a shame.  I think the WZR-HP-G300NH, is a great platform with 64mb of ram and 32mb of flash, you would be hard pressed to find a router as capable.


John_M

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2011, 09:10:02 PM »

I'm in the same boat as you with the wireless problems, except I've also got the router dropping my WAN connection.  Not sure if I should try the OpenWRT firmware or not.   Both the Buffalo firmware and the Buffalo DD-WRT had the problem.  Neither one exhibited a good wifi signal.  Was hoping that OpenWRT might be the right choice, but your experience shows otherwise.

 

The hardware shows some promise, but I can't afford to make this a software project.   Somehow this random behavior just screams out "memory leak", but who knows.  Maybe I just need a different router.

 

 


Colt725

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2011, 09:51:47 AM »

I have used the WZR-HP-G330NH with updated Buffalo firmware from day one (about 2 years ago) without any issues what-so-ever. When I was ready to replace my client bridge with a faster one I converted the WZR-HP-G330NH to a client bridge using DD-WRT.  I had issues but ato make this a short story...out of frustration I flash the router with Gargoyle (which uses openWRT) an the router just  works.  Very easy setup and no issues.  I use the WZR-HP-AG300H as my router with the "user friendly"  firmware.


controlade

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Re: WZR-HP-G300NH and OpenWRT
« Reply #13 on: August 10, 2011, 12:39:25 AM »

I cannot understand why after so much people has commented about problems with their routers, Buffalo has not even gave any response to such situations.

 

I have had the same problems with an WHR-HP-GN trying to use it as a simple router and as a client bridge.