Archive for January 6th, 2009

Cheap “open” WLAN router: D-Link DIR-300

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

It’s been a while since the last post here, but I just quickly want to mention the D-Link DIR-300. It’s currently the 2nd cheapest WLAN router at the Austrian price comparison site Geizhals – 24 EUR. Of course you can flash it and run alternative firmware such as OpenWRT or DD-WRT.

Just for kicks I got a hardly used one for 10 EUR at eBay. After checking out the D-Link firmware I quickly flashed DD-WRT v24-sp1 on the device. First I tried following the DD-WRT guide for the DIR-300, but it’s a bit misleading, as it tries to catch a sub-second boot prompt to send a break signal. Instead I used a method that’s way easier: Just keep the device’s RESET button pressed while powering it on. It will then halt at the boot prompt – now you can continue following the usual device-flashing guides.

The device seems to work fine, with signal strengths similar to those of my Asus WL500Gp (mind you, that was just a quick in-house distance measurement, not a scientific signal strength study).
Quite a nice device with a very attractive price tag.

Posted in Technology, Wireless | Comments Off