DHCP from Linksys WAG54G Router

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2007-08-06 01:52am

My router for some reason has decided to either not hand out IP addresses or hand out garbage.

I've got DHCP enabled, starting address 192.168.1.100, maximum DHCP users 50.

When I try to connect something to it I get 5.169.146.212 with a subnet mask of 255.0.0.0.

I'm trying this from a linux machine at the moment but my windows machines have picked up similar numbers so I had to switch them all over to static.

Could someone please tell me why my router wants me to jetison it?

EDIT: And yes I tried resetting it back to factory settings.

RThurmont · Post by **RThurmont** » 2007-08-06 02:10am

I've had two routers with DHCP problems. One of them was a cheap D Link Dl-624, but I realized the problem was occurring due to its poor range...computers that were in the same room with it could get IP addresses, but computers in other rooms, while able to detect the router, couldn't get addresses from it for some reason. The other one was a WRT-54GL that I flashed with DD-WRT firmware, and for whatever reason, the DHCP daemon did not want to work for me. My solution was to flash it again, with Tomato firmware, which has worked supremely well. I now am running three seperate WRT-54GL routers with Tomato firmware on a wireless bridge+wds setup.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2007-08-06 02:47am

Doesn't look like Tomato works on the WAG, I might try flashing it with linksys firmware at some point.

Tomato looks interesting though, can it provide a breakdown of how much external traffic each IP address has used? I've been toying with the idea of setting up a gateway using ntop to monitor the flat's bandwidth useage.

Random side question, would you happen to know if ntop can differentiate between traffic passing externally and traffic just between the machine its running on and the rest of the network? I was thinking it might be neat to have it double as a file server if I got it running.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-08-06 02:49am

EDIT: And yes I tried resetting it back to factory settings.

Have you tried reinstalling the firmware?

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-08-06 03:21am

Yeah best bet is to flash the firmware I think.
Also try to set it into a simple mode, only allowing it to give out a single address to a single PC e.t.c.

Also see if it can handle a computer with its own static IP address set.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2007-08-09 12:27am

Wee, upgrading the firmware on the router seems to have fixed the DHCP problem, however it's taken to making a constant whining noise. I think I'm going to need a new router before too long.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-08-09 02:21am

I need a cheap and nasty modem/router too, but I've only used personal or enterprise routers so I don't know if the ~$250 units are significantly better than the ~100 ones. I was looking at the successor to the WAG54 line (the WAG200) and it suits the need fine (it lacks the VPN endpoint, but my parents are never going to use one anyway). I've heard it has connection problems (in AU, the EU/US reviews I've seen are all positive) and requires power cycling occasionally, so... meh.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2007-08-09 12:42pm

Spyder wrote:Wee, upgrading the firmware on the router seems to have fixed the DHCP problem, however it's taken to making a constant whining noise. I think I'm going to need a new router before too long.

A high pitched whine? The PSU in it may be giving up the ghost. You'd be probably better off nabbing yourself an older Linksys WRT54G (V4 or older) and flash it with a third party firmware to really open it up.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-08-09 04:53pm

Vertigo1 wrote:A high pitched whine? The PSU in it may be giving up the ghost. You'd be probably better off nabbing yourself an older Linksys WRT54G (V4 or older) and flash it with a third party firmware to really open it up.

WRT54GL also accepts custom firmware.