Somebody linked a Slickdeals post to this article today…good job, you outlined the proper procedure perfectly. I just did the same last night on my own router. Only one thing I might take exception with, and if you know better than myself, please email and let me know. 150mW xmit power? You can burn out your radio over time if you amp it up that much. 70 is the default for a reason with DD-WRT.

Nice job - thanks for educating our Slickdealers.

Duly noted Clifford. Thanks for your input.

If I bought a wrt160n router, would the dd-wrt installation instructions be the exact same?

Brett the 160N has the same Broadcom chip and initial memory restriction so the exact same procedure to install DD-WRT will work on the WRT160N as well.

THANKS FOR POSTING. It totally worked, CODERETARD ROCKS!

What does this firmware actually do? I have the WRT150N.

Russ, a better question is what doesn’t DD-WRT do? Even if you don’t need all that extra configurability in your router, DD-WRT is much stabler than the Linksys firmware so it is worth it to install just for that.

So it extends range?

And, I’ve installed the latest Linksys firmware, 1.01.9. Can I still install the DD-WRT one? BTW so far I’ve had no problems at all with my WRT150N.

You can extend the range by tweaking the Tx power if necessary. If you’ve had no problems with the Linksys firmware and you don’t need all the extra configurability that DD-WRT offers then there’s no need to upgrade. Regardless of what Linksys firmware you are on, you can always install DD-WRT by following the procedures. For me personally, even if the Linksys firmware was as stable, I would install DD-WRT just for all the things it can let me do that a dumbed down stock firmware can not.

My firmware dd-wrt is in chinese. How do I change it back to english?

Thanks so much for this !! I bought the WRT150N so I could use DD-WRT, however after reading some how-to (including on the DDWRT site), I just stuck with the stock Linksys firmware.

Today, I used your instructions, and was up and running in minutes. In fact, the 5 minute wait after flashing the mini was the longest step ! Thanks

CHUCK, click the “administration” tab (and its not clear in Chinese, but its the second tab from the RIGHT). Scroll down to the bottom half of page, you will see a drop-down box, select “english” from here. Then “SAVE”, which is the far-left button at the bottom of the page.

If you want some screen shots of what Jim’s talking about:

Admin tab is the second from the right on the top.

Language selection, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the admin page, is the 6th box from the bottom. And the drop down will contain “English.” Then hit the “Save” or “Apply Settings” buttons to make the change.

Can the xcvr power also be reduced below the default? I’m only interested in saturating a small area and don’t want to blanket the neighborhood. Wireless vs. wired for other reasons (g/f laptop).

Thanks.

My DD-WRT reports “(Default: 70, Range: 0 - 251mW)” as the valid range for Tx power.

Hello,
am I able to restore the original firmware of the WRT150N if I need to in case of sell it later on?

That’s a tough one. It could be as simple as loading the Linksys firmware through the firmware update interface in DD-WRT or as complicated as using TFTP or command line to reflash the firmware. You’ll have to research that. My recommendation is to stick with the original if you’re going to sell it later. Russ reports Linksys firmware 1.01.9 is stable.

I’ve installed the firmware one week ago and it really works fine. I’m really surprised what that Router can do with the right firmware.
But I can’t understand why there is less oppurtunity in settings by the manufacturer

Thanks alot…I had read some conflicting info on the proper way to upgrade but with this simple step by step approach, it was painless & quick…I’ve had some connectivity issues w/dropouts so I’ll be interested in seeing how this affects my wireless connection..I did freak for a second when I changed the login details and upon saving thought I had bricked it when it came back with mostly question marks (?) in all the tabs but finally realized it had changed to Chinese (like previous post)…thanks for the easy to read/understand instructions

Hey Guys, can someone help? I have dd-wrt on a WRT150N. Works pretty well, but I can only connect my laptop with a Wireless-N d-link card to it. Can’t connect either of my roommates laptops to it, nor my work laptop. All of them only support wireless G. Is this because I am using WEP2?

What wireless network mode are you in? Make sure it’s not set to “N-only.” I don’t have any N-compatible wireless devices so I can’t say for sure, but “Mixed” mode seems to be the only mode that support G and N devices. I’m going to assume you’re talking about WPA2 since WEP2 does not exist. If so, set your wireless security mode to WPA2 as it automatically switches to WPA if necessary. And just stay away from WEP period.

i tried to install dd-wrt to my router wrt150n and now i can´t enter to the firmware and i dont have internet, so i press de reset button and now dosen´t work i cant reinstall or do something how can i fix it?

Glad I found this as the wrt150n does not perform as well as i was led to believe when i bought it. I will give this firmware a shot for sure… however, I really wish it could utilize some of the saved info like the list of permitted MAC addresses I will need to retype lol…

@ dgs, you may have fried your device! you need to take it to a computer store and ask them if they can save it.

RE: post 2644, don’t know where i got the idea that it wouldn’t keep the previous settings!? Worked like a charm!:) once I enabled MAC filtering.

@dgs, you should read the FAQ’s for more info on your situation, you may be in luck!

Hi, thanks for the great guide. Everything works but I can’t turn on WPA. Anytime I try it doesn’t connect at all. WEP works but only at 54 Mbps. N only mode only works with no encryption.

I just bought this today , hooked it up . it ran just fine for like 6 hours , then the wireless started cutting off and on . So I followed your steps . And now it works perfect , even gives a stronger signal in default . So please keeps this page up for the people who got problems with this router . And thanks for the srep by step directions .

Installed DD-WRT on a 150N and having a problem with wireless connection. Signal strength is strong but it takes forever to connect to the internet. Did not have this problem with my previous G router. Can anyone shed some light on what I can do to correct this situation?

Gary i have the same problem with my 150N, when i connect with a cable everything works fine but wireless it takes forever. When i try to ping to my gateway i sometimes get a time-out…can someone help me get rid of this problem?Thanks…

Bart, I got fed up and went back to my Netgear router, where the wireless works fine at 54mbps. I read somewhere DD-WRT on the 150N does not work well for wireless. So I have a brand new 150N I cannot use or return, since I don’t think you can revert back to original firmware.

if you want i can send you my back-up config file so you can reflash your router :) or you can go to http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1169671597537&packedargs=sku%3D1175233984378&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=9753738400B03&displaypage=download#versiondetail

click on firmware > firmware and then the disk then reflash it that way

does reflashin it put it back to linksys access page.

THX. your post are very good. i just brough the WRT150N and follow your instruction, i had successfully installed DD WRT. But i have problem with wireless setup. This router suppose make things go faster. but it is doing the opposite. my laptop is acting slower than usual.
I hope you can post another post about wireless advance setup to help those newbies like me. =p
And again, this post has been very informative.

I bought a WRT310N and a WRT160N at Future Shop last week and installed the DD-WRT firmware. The firmware flash procedure was identical in both. Afterwards both also had identical bugs. For example, at one point I could get a changed IP address to stick. I would change the IP address and it would change back. I then connected from IE instead of Firefox and I was able to change the IP address of the router. Another bug is after enabling wireless, no traffic was actually routed though the wireless. My laptop could not connect to the internet even after cold booting the router several times. I then added a second SSID and my wireless worked on the original SSID. I then removed the second SSID and my wireless continued to work. However, the second SSID persisted even after I removed it, until I cold booted the router.

After my tests, I decided to return the 310N back to the store, as it had no advantage for me over the 160N. I used the firmware upgrade to restore the original firmware (which you have do download from Australia due to a bug in the Linksys website). After installing the Linksys firmware, I had to use the reset button to restore to the factor Linksys settings.

Hello is it normal for wrt150n to run really hot i mean hot

Nermin, mine doesn’t run hot at all and i even expected it to since i boosted the Xmit to 150 at first then 100. I reduced it to 100 after some clients were complaining about connection and i was also seeing many packet errors.