Pi-hole and DD-WRT

Pi-hole is a useful server that can filters ads for your local network.You can read more about it here. One of the required steps for configuring Pi-hole is to point the DNS entry in your router to Pi-hole's IP address. If you have DD-WRT, this is accomplished through the following instructions.

Once you have Pi-hole set up, log into your DD-WRT control panel.
Go to Setup->Basic Setup
Under Network Setup->Local DNS, enter the Pi-hole's IP address.

Accessing the CFE miniWeb Server page after installing DD-WRT

If you are accessing the CFE page from the default Belkin firmware, you should configure your client with a static IP of 192.168.2.x. However, if you have already installed DD-WRT and are trying to access the CFE page, you should configure your client with a static IP of 192.168.1.x.

See instructions here on how to access the CFE page.

Latest DD-WRT firmware for Belkin Share Max N300 (F7D7301)

In a previous post, I described how to install DD-WRT onto the Belkin Share Max N300 (F7D7301) router. Since then, a number of firmware revisions have been released. I have had success with the revision r21676. It can be found below.

Note: There are yet newer revisions available, but please be advised that some revisions could be buggy and may corrupt your router. If you have had success with another revision, please let me know and I will add it to this page. Thanks.

r21676 for the Belkin Share Max N300
ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/2013/05-27-2013-r21676/broadcom_K26/

Newer revisions
ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/

DD-WRT wireless bridging modes

DD-WRT supports various wireless bridging modes.

• Client
• Client Bridge
• Repeater
• Repeater Bridge

The following page from the DD-WRT wiki explains the differences.

Repeating Mode Comparisons

DD-WRT client bridge mode

DD-WRT supports client bridge mode. This mode allows you to extend your network via a wireless router. Note, this does not extend the wireless coverage of the master router. The additional wireless router uses the same subset as the master router. Since the same subset is used for both routers, devices connected to one router can talk directly to devices on the other router. There are many guides online. Some of them do not explain caveats and some lists unnecessary steps. Here is my experience with configuring DD-WRT for client bridge mode.

This guide assumes that you already have a router running DD-WRT with wireless support enabled. We will call this the master router. We will configure an additional router also running DD-WRT for client bridge mode. We will call this the client router.

The master router

In the remaining steps, we will assume your master router has the Local IP address 192.168.1.1 and wireless is enabled. No additional changes need to be performed on the master router to support client bridge mode.

The client router

• Access the network settings of your computer and give your computer the static IP 192.168.1.8 and connect your computer to the client router.
• Administration->Factory Defaults->Reset router settings
• Reset Factory Defaults
• Let's reset the router to the default settings
• Setup->Basic Setup
• Router Name
• Specify a different name from the master router.
• Local IP Address
• Specify a different Local IP Address from the master router. 192.168.1.2 is sufficient.
• Subnet Mask
• Specify 255.255.255.0
• Gateway
• Specify 192.168.1.1. Note, this is the IP of the master router.
• Local DNS
• Specify the same value as the Gateway: 192.168.1.1.
• Wireless->Basic Settings
• Wireless Mode
• Select Client Bridge
• Wireless Network Mode
• Select the same setting as your master router
• Wireless Network Name (SSID)
• Specify the same name as your master router
• Wireless->Wireless Security
• Security Mode
• Select the same setting as your master router
• WPA Algorithms
• Select the same setting as your master router
• WPA Shared Key
• Specify the same key as your master router
• Access the network settings of your computer and set your network preferences to receive an IP from DHCP.

For me, the above steps were sufficient to have the client router functioning in client bridge mode.

Checking if the client has established a connection

To check if you the client router has connected to the main router, on the client router, go to Status->Wireless. Under Wireless Nodes->Access Point, you should see an entry with a MAC address. If not, the connection has not been established, and you will need to troubleshoot why the connection has not been made. See below.

Troubleshooting

• Not all Wireless Network Modes work under client bridge mode. I was not successful at using BG-Mixed, for example. Try selecting other Wireless Network Modes.
• Not all Security Modes work under client bridge mode. Try selecting other Security Modes.
• If you are still having connection issues, try to test the connection by disabling both Wireless Network Mode and the Security Mode. This disables wireless security but this will confirm whether the problem is caused by the wireless security settings.

Additional Steps

It is not clear if these steps are necessary. I did not need to change them to have the client router function in client bridge mode.

• Since NAT is handled only by the master router, the client should not need this support
• Setup->Advanced Routing->Operating Mode->Operating Mode
• Select Router
• Since the Firewall is handled by the master router, the client should not need this support.
• Security->Firewall->Firewall Protection->SPI Firewall
• Select Disable

Optional Steps

• Since the WAN port is no longer necessary, you can assign it to be a LAN port.
• Setup->Basic Setup->Assign WAN Port to Switch
• Select the checkbox.

Rebooting DD-WRT devices from the command line

There are a couple ways to reboot DD-WRT devices from the command line. The following is the more well-known method.

ssh -l root 192.168.1.1 reboot

It turns out there is a user called reboot which runs reboot as its shell. The following command also reboots the device.

ssh -l reboot 192.168.1.1

Change the hostname of your DD-WRT device

It may be more convenient to access your DD-WRT device by hostname instead of 192.168.1.1. The default name given to the device is DD-WRT. Hence, you can use this name instead of 192.168.1.1. If you want to change this, you can do so through the DD-WRT configuration: Setup->Basic Setup->Router Name.

DD-WRT redirecting to http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci

If you have switched from OpenWRT to DD-WRT, you may find that accessing http://192.168.1.1 from your browser redirects to the http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci resulting in a "Page Not Found" message. This redirection is being done by the browser and is probably a bug. To get around this problem, try the following. Point your browser to http://192.168.1.1/index.asp. This should bring you to the DD-WRT configuration page. A more permanent solution for this problem is to clear your browser caches.

DD-WRT on Belkin Share Max N300 (F7D7301)

The Belkin N300 model F7D7301 supports running DD-WRT. This model is also supports running Tomato, another WRT variant.

Upgrading to the DD-WRT firmware from the default manufacturer's firmware

Download the 'mini' build of DD-WRT from the link to the firmware page (see below). It has the following name.

dd-wrt.v24-18946_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini_f7d7301.bin

Access the CFE page using the 30-30-30 method (see below).

Select the firmware file and flash the unit with the DD-WRT firmware. Wait no less than 10 minutes. They may be no signs of activity, but have patience. Do not power off the unit during the flash process.

After a full 10 minutes have elapsed, set the static IP of your computer to 192.168.1.8 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0. Point your web browser to 192.168.1.1. This is the default network of DD-WRT. You should see the DD-WRT page. If you do not, reboot the device by unplugging and plugging the power cord. Try to access 192.168.1.1 again.

Note: After rebooting the device, if you cannot see the DD-WRT page, repeat the procedure starting from accessing the CFE page using the 30-30-30 method. Thanks Sri Chirav for this hint. Don't forget to change your static IP configuration for accessing the CFE page.

Now that the 'mini' build of DD-WRT has been installed, you can upgrade to other DD-WRT versions that suit your needs. Many folks on the Internet use the 'mega' build. If you want NTFS support (see below), you should use the 'big' build. More information on the supported features of each build is available on this page. Make sure you scroll to the section titled V24_pre_sp2 K26. You can update to other versions of DD-WRT through the DD-WRT Administration->Firmware Upgrade page.

Good luck!

File system support for external USB storage

The 'mega' build of DD-WRT supports ext3 and fat filesystems. The 'big' build additionally supports the NTFS filesystem.

The 'big' build has the following name.

dd-wrt.v24-18946_NEWD-2_K2.6_big.bin

The 'mega' build has the following name.

dd-wrt.v24-18946_NEWD-2_K2.6_mega.bin

Mounting USB storage

Make sure the external drive has already been formatted. Connect the external drive to the USB port of the device. Access the DD-WRT configuration and configure USB as well as NAS.

Go to Services->USB
Enable Core USB Support
Enable USB Storage Support
Enable Automatic Drive Mount
Click on Apply Settings
Reboot the device

Go to Services->NAS
Enable Samba
Click on Add Share
The Path drop-down box should contain the mount point for the external drive. Select it. Give it a Name. Make sure the Public check box is selected, and change the Access type to Read/Write.
Click on Apply Settings
Reboot the device

In Windows, you should be able to access the shared drive. The shared drive will not show up automatically when you browse your network. To access it, open a new folder, and set the address of a folder to the following.

\\192.168.1.1\

You will see a folder for each share that you have created in the Samba configuration.

Miscellany

DD-WRT firmware page for the Belkin Share Max N300
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/other-downloads?path=others%2Feko%2FV24-K26%2Fsvn18946%2F

DD-WRT firmware build features (see section titled V24_pre_sp2 K26)
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F

Accessing the CFE page using the 30-30-30 method
With the power connected, hold the reset button for 30 seconds. While holding the reset button, unplug the power and hold the reset for another 30 seconds. While still holding the reset button, plug the power into the unit and hold the reset for another 30 seconds. The reset button should be held for a total of approximately 90 seconds.

Set the static IP of your computer to 192.168.2.8 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0. Now point your web browser to 192.168.2.1. You should see the CFE page. If you do not, power off the unit and power it back on. Try to access the page again.

Networks
The default network of the Belkin firmware and CFE is 192.168.2.1 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0. The default network of DD-WRT is 192.168.1.1 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0. If you need to set a static IP, make sure you choose one for the appropriate network.

Bridged client with Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT

I've had the opportunity to set up a small network consisting of two Linksys WRT54G routers running DD-WRT. The client router was set up to run as a bridged client. The instructions from the web were confusing. Fortunately using the configuration menus of DD-WRT was easy. I'll post the instructions in a future post. After a couple days of running flawlessly, the master router would lose connectivity to the client router even though the client router was running and pingable by cdevices attached to the client router. I did not debug this and decided that running wires to connect the two routers was a much simpler solution.

In summary, I do not recommend using DD-WRT on a Linksys router to expand your network. When the network does down, wireless connections introduce another component to debug (or said in another way, it introduces another level of potential frustration).