Re: Linksys WRT54GS v5.0 Wireless Router question

Unk <not@xxxxxxx> hath wroth:

Does anyone have an idea as to how, or why, my Linksys WRT54GS v5.0 Wireless Router
would suddenly revert to factory default settings on it's own?

Well, the full moon is 2 days away, so that's not it. When that
happens to me, it's usually the result of accidentally punching the
reset button, zapping the router with a static blast, power surge
through the DC power lines, or exposure to RF from one of my VHF/UHF
radios.

All was fine last night. Today, no connection, and it took almost an hour to figure out that
every setting reverted to out-of-the-box defaults. Logon password, encryption key, port
forwarding, SSID name, etc.

I haven't seen it with the WRT54GS v5.0. However, I've had several
customers WRT54G routers (various revisions) decide to reset
themselves. One did it twice. However, when I updated the firmware
to later versions or replaced it with DD-WRT, the reset to defaults
problem went away.

It's unlikely someone accessed it as the logon password was changed and the SSID wasn't
being broadcast. I know, I know, that doesn't mean that it wasn't hacked, but that, plus my
location, makes it unlikely.

So, try some exploit tests:
<http://www.pcflank.com/exploits.htm>
Most version of the WRT54G firmware that I've tried pass all the
tests, but I've had earlier junk crash and hang.

There was no power failures, spikes, or brownouts. (I have other devices to monitor that) and
it has been working fine since, but I wonder if something is failing in the router...

Overheating? RF? Static blast? Creative DC power supply (do it
thyself PoE)?

Fortunately, I had saved the settings so it only took a few seconds to get all back to normal.

Has anyone else run across this?

Not with the v5 mutation. I've returned all the v5 and v6 routers
that I've run across (or run over) to the vendor and bought something
else. I don't like them and have had performance and connection limit
problems that didn't go away with later updates or switching to
DD-WRT:
<http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/26843/51/>

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Power Management GPO?
    ... Frommherz provided that sets the active power scheme. ... that all of these settings must be picked up by the ... This showes that my batch file is being ... So then I created a GPO that runs a computer startup script. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.group_policy)
  • Re: Power Management GPO?
    ... changes to the power scheme as a standard user. ... settings into the default user profile. ... create a log file for my batch file. ... So then I created a GPO that runs a computer startup script. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.group_policy)
  • Re: Power Management GPO?
    ... My guess is that the two that are working are per-machine settings, but the power scheme settings are per-user and it doesn't like the system context I suppose. ... This showes that my batch file is being processed but my commands aren't taking I guess. ... The script checks for the existance of my batch file in the root of the target PC. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.group_policy)
  • Re: HIBERNATING/CMOS
    ... Setting the power failure wake-up to off is best for most people, it means that if there is apower failure the PC does not autorestart and you know what has happened. ... The only other wake up in bios I ... In my experience if you must use Windows Hibernate - rather prone to ... Reboot then hit the appropriate F key to enter the bios settings. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Power Management GPO?
    ... file using powercfg to set all the power settings the way I'd like them to ... So then I created a GPO that runs a computer startup script. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.group_policy)