Anyone hack their Linksys or other router?

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98EXL

98EXL

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Just curious. I've been diddling around with DD-WRT, and now I have 2 more routers, a better Linksys and a Buffalo that I'm told I need to hackup, buff up my Linux usage because we are essentially building a wardriving machine, eventhough it won't leave the house. Hacking a LInksys WRT54GS/L with a SD card (maybe small web or ftp server) and GPS puck (for getting time, duh) just for the hell of it. I'm thinking about trying our OpenWRT because it appears you can install packages on it with the SD/MMC card mod to it.

Just wondering if anyone else is tinkering with stuff like this or I'm just a crackpot.:tank:

*edit* and for those wondering, I have FIOS, and totally bypassed their craptastic ActionSuc router with the teeny, tiny mac table
 
Good gawd. This forum is mostly for English speakers, yah?

But, now I'm curious. What is a wardriving machine?
 
blacklab said:
Good gawd. This forum is mostly for English speakers, yah?

But, now I'm curious. What is a wardriving machine?
Click to expand...

That's enough outta yous! ;)

Basically wardriving is when you drive around looking for open access points because people are dumb. Period. They log where it is, and then sometimes share that location with others.

So, you can build yourself a hacked up (but looks stock) Linksys router that plugs into your cig lighter in your car that when you drive around, constantly scans for access points, and logs their GPS location so you can come back later. Then import into google maps, and presto, free interwebs whenever you need to check HBT on your PSP or laptop or whatever.

However, I'm probably not going to do that because I want to harness the power of this little toy in the house.

Wardriving is pretty fun so they say, I've never been on it, but want to for the hell of it
 
Huh, interesting. I'm assuming you can only scam bandwidth from the suckers who don't use WEP encryption?
 
blacklab said:
Huh, interesting. I'm assuming you can only scam bandwidth from the suckers who don't use WEP encryption?
Click to expand...

yes and no, and that's all I'm going to say

However, as long as you can get into the router, you could turn it off...but that's just wrong *looks over shoulder*
 
I am on the road 6 days a week, for work, and I do "wardriving" all the time. I even have a aircard, but a open wrt54g is still faster, and there is millions of them all up and down the road. It's not illegal as long as it's not encrypted, it's like "free beer" When it's there it's yours for the taking.......
 
I use DD-WRT on my buffalo router because it gives you tons of features that the normal firmware doesn't. QOS is very nice as is being able to increase your transmit strength.
 
i have hacked a few of my friends and my routers and access points but nothing as elaborate. i just did it for the power boost and for my friends to give flexibility to check thier kids surf habits.
 
That's kind of a bummer because I was feeling rather secure with my password and all. Anything else I can do to protect my bandwidth / computers? We work from home a bunch and the computers are usually on, so I guess if someone could get onto our network they could mess with our computers.
 
blacklab said:
That's kind of a bummer because I was feeling rather secure with my password and all. Anything else I can do to protect my bandwidth / computers? We work from home a bunch and the computers are usually on, so I guess if someone could get onto our network they could mess with our computers.
Click to expand...

turn off sid broadcasting
use the router to prevent other computers access by allowing the mac address's. set static ip's and only allow them. use a hard password such as something like this

&u1G#4bW
 
yup, olllllllllllllllllllllllllllo and pen15 (I had to say it) are right.

I'm getting ready to put DD-WRT on a WRT54G version 2...I have a craptastic one (v5) that I wanna see if there is any difference because on the v5 one I can only run microDD-WRT.

Oh, and I'm drinking out of a champagne bottle filled with over a year aged Apfelwein, holy hell it's good
 
wow, that was freaking easy as hell! Test 1 confirmed, v2 way easier to do than v5, holy smokes
 
98EXL said:
Just wondering if anyone else is tinkering with stuff like this or I'm just a crackpot.:tank:
Click to expand...

I once installed an entire Asterisk telephone exchange on a Linksys router. It was fully functional, but the lack of memory and horsepower limited it to pretty basic features. Still, a cool hack. Not my hack, mind you...I'm just a dumb brewer. ;)

I run Alchemy firmware on my Linksys at home, and Tomato on the Buffalo routers I use at work. Both are outstanding, a huge leap in functionality over the stock firmware.
 
BlindLemonLars said:
I once installed an entire Asterisk telephone exchange on a Linksys router. It was fully functional, but the lack of memory and horsepower limited it to pretty basic features. Still, a cool hack. Not my hack, mind you...I'm just a dumb brewer. ;)

I run Alchemy firmware on my Linksys at home, and Tomato on the Buffalo routers I use at work. Both are outstanding, a huge leap in functionality over the stock firmware.
Click to expand...

hmmm, I've heard of tomato....and I have a Buffalo to hack as well. I may have to look into that...hell, I'm just glad I finally got off my lazy ass and installed firefox on this machine, I can tell when I misspell words now. However I'm not liking whatever happened to my google.com/ig homepage and FF3 is [not yet] my cup of tea...

Oh well, life goes on
 
hehe i have astrisk on my sme server right now. got it working with my phoneline and my tilt for sip. now i can make a call from anywhere and originate from my house. i have i softphone at work as well so i can make and take calls from there. what can i say im a geek.

haha its all about the pen15 i have had the nick for a very long time so used to it by now. and yes the last one i did was a v5 and it was slick. need to do my new router though since i cant find a reasonable card for my real cisco router.
 
98EXL said:
hmmm, I've heard of tomato....and I have a Buffalo to hack as well. I may have to look into that...hell, I'm just glad I finally got off my lazy ass and installed firefox on this machine, I can tell when I misspell words now. However I'm not liking whatever happened to my google.com/ig homepage and FF3 is [not yet] my cup of tea...

Oh well, life goes on
Click to expand...

oh dont forget to load opendns to your dns field

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

forgot i am not using my sme server as my gateway any longer and well sbc has apperently not been able to look up this site and a couple others. fought it and remembered i dont have my dns built right. youll thank me later when you never have a problem with connecting ;-)
 
pen25 said:
hehe i have astrisk on my sme server right now. got it working with my phoneline and my tilt for sip. now i can make a call from anywhere and originate from my house. i have i softphone at work as well so i can make and take calls from there. what can i say im a geek.

haha its all about the pen15 i have had the nick for a very long time so used to it by now. and yes the last one i did was a v5 and it was slick. need to do my new router though since i cant find a reasonable card for my real cisco router.
Click to expand...

I just ditched the v5...not enough memory for my liking, and v2 seems to run a bit better, but I need to run it for a week or so.

I need to see what this astrisk is...sounds fun

pen25 said:
oh dont forget to load opendns to your dns field

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

forgot i am not using my sme server as my gateway any longer and well sbc has apperently not been able to look up this site and a couple others. fought it and remembered i dont have my dns built right. youll thank me later when you never have a problem with connecting ;-)
Click to expand...

I'm using verizon's DNS right now, and so far *knocks on wood* I haven't had any problems. Worse case scenario is I'll use my web server's DNS, it's bitching and has a history of 'borrowing' an old school [for me] DNS server's entries which are updated every 2 hours or so.

Next thing on my list is to either a) break into a XP box with no admin PW and get admin rights on it or b) put some flavor of Linux on it. Only problems are the fact that a) it has no floppy and b) it has no CD-ROM. However, it does boot from a USB device so hello CF cards.
 
oh and a plus note, DD-WRT uses my no-ip.com account so I have DDNS setup so I can get in to my network when I start forwarding ports.

Did you know they have *.servebeer.com? It's pretty cool
 
98EXL said:
oh and a plus note, DD-WRT uses my no-ip.com account so I have DDNS setup so I can get in to my network when I start forwarding ports.

Did you know they have *.servebeer.com? It's pretty cool
Click to expand...


yea back when i first learned of no-ip i had a servebeer domain but had nothing to do with it. this was back in like 99 i think. come to think of it that just might be what i do is put up a servebeer domain on the sme server. thx.
 
I was planning on hacking mine to make it a basic WAP because I am going to build a hardware firewall when I can find someone to give me a spare NIC or two.

IPCOP or Smoothwall are my soon to be firewall OSes; anyone have any experience with either of them?

... It might be a feature of the linksys router I never really pay attention to it but I would rather just hack it for more functionality at any rate.
 
pen25 said:
turn off sid broadcasting
use the router to prevent other computers access by allowing the mac address's. set static ip's and only allow them. use a hard password such as something like this

&u1G#4bW
Click to expand...

I use static IP's for our computers and my Iphone, and have a funkadelic password, not the stock one.

Am I good? Or is 98exl going to roll by later and fill my work computer with copies of 2 girls 1 cup?
 
MattMann said:
It's not illegal as long as it's not encrypted, it's like "free beer" When it's there it's yours for the taking.......
Click to expand...

That's totally untrue (except for coffee houses and such of course) - it would be like someone using my car just because it was unlocked.
 
Ive thought about doing this with an old linksys but decided instead to take an old dell desktop and install a linux firewall, router, wireless access point, file server, print server, etc...
If you've got an old pc kicking around and just want a good router for home use installing a firewall linux distro like clarkconnect is a good way to make a cheap/free router and make use of an otherwise unusable pc.
The only hurdle to overcome is setting up the wireless, finding a wireless card(s) that work well with linux is a pain in the ass, and setting up the software side isnt any easier. but you'll be able to make a very full featured router with out the memory/software limitations of using a linksys router that wasnt really designed to run linux.
 
nealf said:
I was planning on hacking mine to make it a basic WAP because I am going to build a hardware firewall when I can find someone to give me a spare NIC or two.

IPCOP or Smoothwall are my soon to be firewall OSes; anyone have any experience with either of them?

... It might be a feature of the linksys router I never really pay attention to it but I would rather just hack it for more functionality at any rate.
Click to expand...

You can get NIC's on eBay for a couple of dollars, and I used Smoothwall, but converted to DD-WRT because of less power and equipment

blacklab said:
I use static IP's for our computers and my Iphone, and have a funkadelic password, not the stock one.

Am I good? Or is 98exl going to roll by later and fill my work computer with copies of 2 girls 1 cup?
Click to expand...

Very good, you is not stupid. I doubt I'll head over to your coast anytime soon, but if I find your house, you are definitely getting mad copies of 2 girls 1 cup, tubgirl, and goatse man...you don't have kids running around, do you?

k1v1116 said:
...using a linksys router that wasnt really designed to run linux.
Click to expand...

but they do run Linux though, or VxWorks
 
nealf said:
I was planning on hacking mine to make it a basic WAP because I am going to build a hardware firewall when I can find someone to give me a spare NIC or two.

IPCOP or Smoothwall are my soon to be firewall OSes; anyone have any experience with either of them?

... It might be a feature of the linksys router I never really pay attention to it but I would rather just hack it for more functionality at any rate.
Click to expand...

if your looking at building a firewall in a pc consider running sme from contribs.org it rox and has great community support. it does more then just firewall. i have been running sme for about 9 years now and havent had a lick of trouble. add 2 drives to ensure you have raid. the bigger the drives better since you can use it as a nas as well.

my sme server does the following

router
firewall
astrisk
ftp server
http server
video server
nas
music server
proxy
ssh tunneling for those times i need to surf undetected at work
 
blacklab said:
I use static IP's for our computers and my Iphone, and have a funkadelic password, not the stock one.

Am I good? Or is 98exl going to roll by later and fill my work computer with copies of 2 girls 1 cup?
Click to expand...

well there is always ways to gain access but usualy hard password will deture most from hopping aboard the blacklab for a free ride. if you set the ips static and then limit the amount of nics allowed and only allow by nic your good. there are some fun things you can do though such as mess with people. want to rickroll people who like to hop aboard? thats easily done i can find ya some links. and um watch out dont try to goatse anyone.
 
atarlecky said:
That's totally untrue (except for coffee houses and such of course) - it would be like someone using my car just because it was unlocked.
Click to expand...
its still open to debate. courts have ruled in favor of defendants and against for those using open access points. but who wants to find out? i dont want to be arrested like the guy in round rock for using the open access point to the citys network for looking up an address and getting directions.
 
The way I see it is, most folks are way too undereducated on the subject to be setting up a network...ESPECIALLY a wireless network. But then again, the companies have helped to fill those gaps.
 
legal stuff aside, "wireless security" is an oxymoron. if you want security use a wired network only.
 
zoebisch01 said:
The way I see it is, most folks are way too undereducated on the subject to be setting up a network...ESPECIALLY a wireless network. But then again, the companies have helped to fill those gaps.
Click to expand...

yes, absolutely. One of my biggest pet peeves is they come out of the box ready to go...I wish you had to 'set it up,' changing password at least before it works.

k1v1116 said:
legal stuff aside, "wireless security" is an oxymoron. if you want security use a wired network only.
Click to expand...

that's true, but you can still setup wireless to be totally separate from your wired network...just that most have no clue as to how to do that...basically my wireless is as good as it's gonna get, except if you gain physical access, but that's like anything
 
atarlecky said:
That's totally untrue (except for coffee houses and such of course) - it would be like someone using my car just because it was unlocked.
Click to expand...

Firstly, if the law matters to ya, it's legal. 2.4 ghz is so-called "public property" and it's a range that most standards-based wifi routers operate at. When you broadcast on this frequency, you're broadcasting publicly, just like when you use cell phones or a cordless phone. It is PERFECTLY legal for someone to utilize an unsecured network on the public spectrum. That said, you don't actually have to break the law to be arrested, you have to break the law to be convicted so it might land you in jail with the wrong police.

Keep that in mind when you set up a wireless AP - the court people have ruled that child porn and music downloads are the responsibility of the account holder, not the downloader.

I won't speak the the ethics of wardriving OR the court people's rulings, but that's the way the legal people have ruled, since they're by-and-large techo-illiterate.

That said... I know another guy who would respond to techy threads and uses that same avatar on other forums. You a Porc, or is that just a bizarre coincidence?
 
OhioBrit said:
I havn't understood a word of all this thread
Click to expand...

In short, 98EXL installed new programs on his router and he likes it. Wireless networks broadcast publicly, so when you can access your router without a password, so can your neighbor.

That said, MOST internet providers ship wireless routers with encryption (an added security measure) by default.
 
MattMann said:
It's not illegal as long as it's not encrypted, it's like "free beer" When it's there it's yours for the taking.......
Click to expand...

Better be careful with that assumption. It is quite illegal in certain states/counties and people get arrested for it on occasion.
 
Kevin Dean said:
It is PERFECTLY legal for someone to utilize an unsecured network on the public spectrum. That said, you don't actually have to break the law to be arrested, you have to break the law to be convicted so it might land you in jail with the wrong police.

I won't speak the the ethics of wardriving OR the court people's rulings, but that's the way the legal people have ruled, since they're by-and-large techo-illiterate.
Click to expand...

There are actually new laws popping up nailing people for using the network...The radio transmissions aren't the issue, its what happens after they hit the router. And your wrong in one respect. You don't have to break the law to be convicted either. You can get hosed over by a computer illiterate judge/jury and still end up in deep crap. If I get some time later I will find the cases that I have seen of actual convictions for using open APs
 

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