[ # ] Install DD-WRT Firmware on Linksys WRT150N, WRT160N Wireless Routers
/* Posted May 30th, 2008 at 4:46pm *//* Filed under Hardware, How-To, Mods, Networking */
/* */
Recently I bought a new Linksys WRT150N wireless router because I was fed up with my current one and because I had heard the famed DD-WRT firmware could be installed on it, effectively turning a cheap router into an expensive one. My old SMC router would drop connections about once a month and it really lacked the customizability that I required for my networking needs. For example, do you know how much of a pain it is to forward port ranges one port at a time with a 10 port limit? I also was not able to assign static IPs to my computers within the subnet (though to give my even older router credit, I could do this before).
I’ve documented the steps so you can follow along too should you decide one day that your standard router firmware just isn’t doing enough for you. Though these steps are for the Linksys WRT150N and WRT160N routers, they are pretty much applicable to any router (that can support DD-WRT that is).
- Find out if your router can support DD-WRT firmware or before you purchase a new router, check this list beforehand. It also helps to do a bit of research by reading user comments. I first found out the WRT150N could support DD-WRT by reading user comments on amazon and then later confirmed on newegg and confirmed the same for the WRT160N.
- To figure out which firmware version to download, you’ll need to know the chipset maker. For the WRT150N, it has a Broadcom chip so download the binary from the Broadcom folder. To find out which chipset your router has, figure it out from the supported devices list and use that to figure out whichi DD-WRT firmware to download. As of the time of this writing, I used the stable version of v24 firmware but this may change in the future. Always stick with the stable version, however.
- Since the WRT150N router is v1.1, it has a gimped flash memory size so you actually need to install the “mini generic” version first to remove this limitation, then the “std generic” (again this information was revealed by reading through user reviews on the product). Make sure you download those two binaries and save them somewhere on your computer. You will use them in the next steps.
- Connect the router directly to your computer and connect the power supply. Use any port but the blue Internet one. Do you see the picture above of that sticker taped over the ethernet ports on my router? Tear it off and laugh maniacally because you will not be following the instructions. Got a manual with a CD that you need to insert before you do anything? Toss it in the trash. These instructions are the only manual you’ll need.
- Access the router setup page by opening a browser and visiting http://192.168.1.1/. The default login and password for my new router was admin/admin. If that doesn’t work try logging in as admin without a password.
- Browse to the firmware upgrade page below
- Click browse to load the mini generic .bin to replace the stock firmware. Once the upgrade completes you will get a continue button. Wait 5 minutes before clicking continue. Why? I have no idea, it was revealed during my research which may have been old information. But I waited to be on the safe side and besides the Laker game was on.
- After the update successfully finishes, visit http://192.168.1.1/ again. Now that you have DD-WRT firmware installed, you need to login with default credentials as root/admin.
- Browse to the firmware upgrade page below
- Click browse to load the std generic .bin you downloaded earlier and reinstall the firmware. This will allow you to get over the 3MB flash memory limit and get a real tool on that router.
A notable tweak with DD-WRT is the Tx Power which allows you to amplify the antenna strength for a better connection throughout your house. Make sure you change your password as now you and everyone else who’s read this post now knows that root/admin can get into the router setup screen. Also check out an earlier post on a wireless speedup hack.
Images/Code Retard
Subscribe via email
everything installed and working right but i am in the eastern us time zone & clock will not set right i am iHr off????
tanks for you
i have a wrt160n version 2 and it uses ralink not broadcom . is there any way to get the firmware on this router?
No, DD-WRT cannot be installed on the v2 Ralink router.
is there a special version of ddwrt for ralink (wrt160n v2) as it is listed under supported devices? http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Linksys
I have WRT160N (firmware ver. 1.53.0) and it worked several months perfectly. But now it just disconnects very very frequently until the time it stops connecting at all and it says it cannot get an IP from the server. I tried to resolve this problem with my network administrator in real time, and he said that my router isn’t sendind request to connect to the server at all. On his recomendation I put the router to it’s Factory Defaults, and after that it worked for half a day and the same thing started all over again and again and again. I can read what realy good features the DD-WRT firmware offers but does it solve this problem, bacause other guys in the thread here had the same problems but I couldn’t read anywhere that flashing to DD-WRT resolved this issue. Any clever suggestions you guys?
Thanks.
BAH:
While it’s listed on the page, it doesn’t mean it’s supported. In fact if you read the comment you see it specifically says the Ralink is not supported.
Darko:
I can’t vouch for DD-WRT’s effectiveness because I never used the original Linksys firmware. Have you got anything to lose by switching to DD-WRT because your router sounds pretty useless right now anyways? Plus what you said is not true, Will said installing DD-WRT stopped his wireless from cutting off.
I bought a WRT-150N to flash with DD-WRT v24 last week and I think this was a little over my head. I literally know nothing about networking. I tried originally to connect before flashing and I couldn’t get past my modem. I decided to go ahead with DD-WRT and see if it would fix that problem. My plan was to hardwire my current pc to the router and connect my secondary pc to wireless. I was able to sucessfully flash my router with mini, then generic. Sadly the router seemed still unable to bypass the router. My current problem is that I can no longer access my router’s config page @ . Now IE says I have to connect to internet to view my router’s config page and when I click “work offline” it goes to the cannot display webpage screen.
I am extremely ignorant in this field as this is my first time setting up a network, all help and patience is greatly appreciated.
i have question.
size of flash and memory?
i search a n-draft linksys with 4mb flash and 16mb memory for linux usage aka 54gl or 54g before v5.
works the mimo tech and 300mode on openwrt
is it a problem if i connect to it wirelessly as opposed to connecting with a wire? my guess is there is because it might stop transcieving when it uptdates but i was just wondering
Actually I don’t think your router will even let you update the firmware through a wireless connection.
I’m having a problem with stock firmware on a WRT160n v1, and I’m wondering if the DD-WRT firmware would help.
I’ve got G & N devices that connect just fine, but I can’t get a new PSP 3000 to connect. I THINK it’s because the PSP require a B connection only. I can get the PSP to connect if I drop the router down to B only, but Mixed Mode results in an immediate connection error on the PSP even wih no other security enabled.
Can anyone confirm that the DD-WRT firmware does indeed support simultaneous B, G, and N connections?
Or is it a PSP problem?
Has anybody run into this?
Thanks!
I installed DD-WRT on my WRT160N not expecting the kind of results I got. I’m impressed. Thanks.
The only thing I noticed was a yellow light in front of the Cisco button. Is there a setting that needs tweaked to fix this or is it normal?
I don’t know what it is for.
Thanks again
I purchased a refurbished a WRT-150N from Tiger Direct just to try this DD-WRT 24. I followed the instructions and so far its working great. I read horror stories about using the regular Linksys software and was curious about this DD-WRT. So far no complaints.
After setting up the DD-WRT firmware on my Linksys WRT-150N, the text in DD-WRT menus turned to rectangles e.g. “000000 0000″ (totally unreadable). The language option was set to English. Luckily I was able to find the “update” menu from memory and install Linksys OEM firmware again. What happened? I would like to give DD-WRT a try.
Hi
i have upgraded my wrt150n to this firmware and it has a lot of features y really love, but i have a problem, i like to use subnetting in my network, basically for security reasons, but as soon i change the network config to subnets the DHCP server stops working and i have to configure my interfaces manually wich i really hate to do so.
my config is as follows:
net: 192.168.x.x
mask: 255.255.255.240
anyway the DHCP server works fine with a netmask like:
255.255.255.0 or /24
Is there any way to solve the problem? i would appreciate any help thanks!!!
thegreat48:
Try a different browser, maybe the language encoding was screwed up.
Hi, I have the WRT160N. It was acting up so I started looking around online and found out about the DD-WRT. Very impressed with what it is supposed to do. However, I got the mini flashed with no problems but now it fails flashing the standard. It goes for a few seconds and then gives a message saying:
“Connection Interupted
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading”.
I can go back into the router with no problems but even after a hard reboot of router and my computer it still does the same thing. Anyone else have a problem getting the standard to flash?
Sorry guys, spoke too soon. I kept looking around after that last post and it turns out that Firefox causes the problem and once I tried it in IE it worked just fine. Another one up and running!!
Thanks for the step by step, worked like a charm. Gave ya a link.
[...] some research, (I read the step by step @ code retard), I decided to go for it. I downloaded the firmware from the links provided, I needed both. The [...]
Hi!
I have a LinkSys WRT160Nv2 (version 2) router.
An alternative firmware exists to model??
Thanks
LinkSysUser, your version 2 won’t work period with this firmware. Your’s has the Ralink chip, look for an older version perhaps at a rural walmart. I had a electronics manager let me open a box to find a version 1.
Hii..i have WRT160N Linksys Router.I have 1 Desktop and 1 laptop.I have connet router to the Desktop and i m using wi_fi in my laptop both are on the same place.My Router has WEP optio but my 2 nd laptop has not WEP option …..so what to do at this time…Pls Do the needfull ASAP….
Pls give me firmware setting.What i should setup in the router so it can work in Desktop and also in My laptop VIA WI-Fi……
Its on Urgent Bases….PLs
HELP! Can anyone out there help me with this? I did what you said above and entered “root” and “admin” for the user name and pw to login to the new dd-wrt firmware and now I need to get in again and update to the standard binary file (per your instructions) and it is asking me to enter a username and pw and it won’t take root/admin or anything else? any ideas? Please! Thanks!
Did you solve the issue . I have the same problem. I am not able to log back in after I fashed the factory fw
Bashir:
Get yourself a new laptop that supports WEP, a new wireless network adaptor that supports WEP, or turn off encryption.
dolphinman1964:
As per the instructions, it’s admin/admin to get in, or admin/<blank>
Followed all the steps and everything came up OK but when I go to System information the radio reads error. What does that mean and what do I need to do to fix it?
Check the default language of the router, maybe chinesse is selected. Then try change to english or another language.
NM Hard reboot fixed it My PS3 is now connecting thanks for the info.
Thanks for the clear instructions.
I had my WRT150N (bought refurbished on a good deal) – and I was having multiple “hang ups” during the day which required me to do a cold boot/restart to restore both my wired and wireless internet.
After the changeover – and the changeover was smooth following the instructions here – everything has been rock steady !
Thanks again.
Having issues making it connect through PPOE since i use dsl
I bought a refurbished 150N from Tigerdirect yesterday, went home and did everything step by step although I used firefox, I am not sure if I screwed up but everything seem to have gone well except for the ERROR message on the tab of the firefox windows, but everything was uploaded successfully, although it asked me to connect to the internet and I connected the Ethernet to the blue jack and hit continue. At the end everything changed to Chinese and I switched back to English. I am still on the original screen for DD, I changed the name and the password. I still cant get anything to work, any ideas?
I have question regarding WRT160N V1
(European)Firmware Version: v1.02.2
-wireless connection works fine for laptop connection, and cable sockets also work fine
-the Playstation has wireless access, update and gameupdate, interactive (not live) play.
(limitation is connecting in direct play with another playstation through internet)
UPnP functions is not accessable when Playstation sends request, game communication mention NAT type 3 as problem?
maybe another Firmware version, or can DD-WRT work?
Thanks for the help/tutorial. This firmware rocks! All the bells and whistles I could ever ask for!
How can i reset de user and pw to the default ones… root/admin again? for some reason they worked first time but they dont work anymore.. now i cant log into my router do u know what can i do?
I completed all the steps and see my wireless connection on my laptop, but my laptop will not connect. I have the Linksys WRT150N.
Please help!
Side note: the reason I installed the firmware is b/c my connection to the router was going in and out.
I have a WRT160N, with Firmware Version: v1.02.6-LA.
I would like to download it before trying to flash dd-wrt but can’t find it.
any help?
Thank you for your help!
I successfully flashed the firmware on my WRT150N and everything seems to work fine. I enabled the wireless security and what not, but I noticed the the Security LED does not turn on anymore. Is this common with DD WRT for the 150N? I flashed back to linksys and it works, but when I go back to DD WRT it does not light up. Any help would be great thanks
I think I messed up my Linksys wrt54gs trying to install different firm ware, now it doesn’t work. anybody have any suggestions? I’d like to use DD WRT
Hi all, I just realize after I purchased a WRT160N that it is a V2. I’m looking for a V1 if anyone want to trade I would like to exchange with you and throw in something extra.
Thanks,
Shing
Hi all, I’m just wondering if possible to configure the VLAN in DD-WRT with my WRT160n router?
This forum is very informative.
Thanks,
Kurt
Is it possible to make a customized notification message if the website is blocked in DD-WRT firmware?
(i.e)the default “The Page Cannot be displayed”.i want it to change this default.
Thanks
kurt
Thank you for your post. I have a WRT160N v2. I could upgrade to DD-WRT. The upgrading is always failed. I don’t know the reason. Maybe, my old setting is the network address is 192.168.50.0. Any help?? Thanx
To: Cong-Kien Dang
About Your [Linksys WRT160N v2] You Can’t Use The DD-WRT Firmware On Your Router…
I Tried Every Where For Info And Found Out That The Chipset Won’t Allow The DD-WRT To Work.. I Was Able To Use The DD-WRT On My [Linksys WRT150N v1.1] But, Not My [Linksys WRT160N v2] I Hope This Helps..
adm_snackbar,
RE: Try a different browser, maybe the language encoding was screwed up.
I tried ie explorer 7 and firefox – did not help. My DD-WRT menus and config pages read like this in explorer: “??” and “Internet??? and “???????ISP???????” and “?DHCP??DNSMasq” etc.
And FireFox displays little numbers and letters inside boxes where the text should be.
Any other ideas? Thank you.
The text problem is dealt with. It was switching the language to Chinese for an unknown reason. The router is working 2x better than it did with the OEM firmware. Thank you DD-WRT!
Basic Question: Is there a significant increase in speed with DD-WRT or is the benefit simply signal strength and in functionality? I read where a user increased his download speed from 6 Mbps to 20 Mbps by inceasing the max ports from 1024 to 4096.
ive installed this with no probs at all…but ever since i installed it (2 weeks ago) i find that my ports are not forwared anymore with utorrent..ive set them up to be forwared just like always but now iam unconnectable at certain sites…ill fiddle around with it more to see if i can get this resolved..any input would be appreciated
Perfect, works like a charm…..I almost messed my router at first but I was able to get round it. Use Internet explorer not mozilla!
Enjoy
Can someone explain me what the following statement means:
“Click browse to load the std generic bin you downloaded earlier and reinstall the firmware. This will allow you to get over the 3MB flash memory limit and get a real tool on that router.”
So in my understanding after loading these 2 DD-WRT bins (generic and std) I have to load OEM (factory) firmware or not. The phrase “reinstall the firmware” is confusing. Which firmware to reinstall?
Thanks for your comments.
[...] How to Install DD-WRT FW on WRT150N Router [...]
Hi! I took a look to the “support DD-WRT firmware” web page and it seems my router isn’t listed.
It’s brand new and it’s the WRT-160N V3
I won’t take any chance, so I won’t install DD-WRT for now. Is there any further release scheduled to work perfectly with my router?
At least I upgraded the OEM firmware to Firmware Version: v3.0.00 build 012Apr 23, 2009
Thanks!