Turning a Modem into a Router
About a week ago I bought a cheap £18 Linksys ADSL2+ ethernet modem (code ADSL2MUE).
I connected this to one of my belkin cable routers and everything was going just fine but a bit slow. Then I decided I needed a port forwarding to my PC.
I forwarded it in the Belkin to no avail so I thoguht I'd check on this Linksys ADSL "modem". Turns out its actually a 1 port adsl router with full NAT support (can be disabled to make a pure modem but my belkin cable router can't make PPPoA connections)
But the thing about this Linksys modem/router thingy is it has no features like port forwarding. Indeed it's admin screen makes out its a modem.
A quick visit to ftp.linksys.com reveals a compataible linksys ADSL router firmware. Hmmm... isnt the router hardware just the same with a 4 port switch bolted on?
A quick firmware flash and I now have a fully working ADSL2+ router (with NTP server and really smart port forwarding) for £18 inc vat.
(OK there is a problem - its DHCP server doesn't give out the ISPs DNS server detials but it never managed to get the DNS from the ISP before I tweaked it and this can easily be configured on the PCs manually)
Once again, a quality hackable Linksys product
click to enlarge
Use at own risk - new firmware
comments