[John Clark]

I love it! Lots of reading beforehand so as not to brick the router and all went fine. I have had UMA drop to EDGE a couple times but seems much stronger now. It's nice to have all the different settings (even though I don't know what to do with many of them )

Also, better help files in the DD-WRT than with the Linksys firmware.

[absoluteevel]

I am using the Thibor variant of HyperWRT on a WRT54GS...

I think it would be interesting to see what the settings are on one of the T-Mobile/Linksys routers. I wonder if they utilize these same settings and if there are any other settings that could be optimized based on those models.

[update]
I have set this on both the WRT54GS in Mesa and the DIR-655 here in Phoenix and it does seem to make the voice more clear. I did not have a problem keeping connected before, but the voice would get messed up, now it does not. I do live in areas with quite a few other routers neighboring me, so maybe the lower settings make it deal with interference better.

Maybe this should be a sticky.

[ashleyneiltaylor]

Just installed DD-WRT on my WRT54GS and it has enabled me to use it as a wireless repeater. Just what I needed as I have now got my whole house WiFi enabled.

[John Clark]

Rivvie...or anyone else...Are there settings in DD-WRT that optimize battery life on the wireless device? It seems like my battery is taking a bigger hit with the DD-WRT. I have WMM enabled but left all the defaults in all the settings because I didn't really know what they all meant.

[John Clark]

I saw in another thread that Channel 3 is recommended by Linksys for UMA so I added that to Rivvie's post. We also have all this here.

[flash24]

wow this setting work great so far.

[flash24]

I have notice, after changing it to this setting. Everything has been stable, but when I changed it to Channel 3, UMA started dropping again, so I changed the channel back to 6.

[John Clark]

Hmmm...Channel 3 has been very stable for me, so far. Whatever works best.

[flash24]

Originally Posted by John Clark

Hmmm...Channel 3 has been very stable for me, so far. Whatever works best.

Yup, whatever works.

I'm happy with the adjustment though, it seems to connect to UMA instantly.

[kasperapd]

Originally Posted by rivviepop

How's yours doing? On my end it feels like I acquire the connection a lot faster (no more death pauses turning on Wifi when I get home, connects almost instantly now) which is good. I don't really have a scientific way to test it though, could just be luck of the draw that it's playing nice right now.

Seems to be working much better for me.

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by flash24

I have notice, after changing it to this setting. Everything has been stable, but when I changed it to Channel 3, UMA started dropping again, so I changed the channel back to 6.

This could be interference from anything under the sun, there's a *lot* of crap that uses the same unlicensed spectrum in the home (microwaves included!). Try going the other direction towards channel 8 or whatever; the best channels are 1, 6, and 11 (as they are unique and don't overlap frequencies) but everything in between them shares the channel up and down a bit on the scale.

Here's a 5-second survey at my house:

          Cell 01 - Address: 00:03:93:ED:4C:6D
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:14:51:69:84:3F
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
          Cell 03 - Address: 00:14:BF:32:7F:97
                    Frequency:2.427 GHz (Channel 4)
          Cell 04 - Address: 00:14:6C:43:7A:84
                    Frequency:2.427 GHz (Channel 4)
          Cell 05 - Address: 00:0F:66:52:35:AF
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
          Cell 06 - Address: 00:D0:9E:F3:D7:61
                    Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
          Cell 07 - Address: 00:13:10:A8:F2:D4
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
          Cell 08 - Address: 00:1C:B3:AE:B4:1E
                    Frequency:2.452 GHz (Channel 9)
          Cell 09 - Address: 00:14:95:A4:30:29
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
          Cell 10 - Address: 00:14:6C:41:5D:76
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
          Cell 11 - Address: 00:18:3F:F3:8C:71
                    Frequency:2.427 GHz (Channel 4)
          Cell 12 - Address: 00:18:3F:CD:7D:E9
                    Frequency:2.447 GHz (Channel 8)
          Cell 13 - Address: 00:17:9A:8F:44:8D
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
          Cell 14 - Address: 00:11:24:0B:5D:CB
                    Frequency:2.442 GHz (Channel 7)
          Cell 15 - Address: 00:1B:63:21:1C:5D
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)

I'm that lone soldier (Cell 14) on channel #7 and don't have any problems at all.

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by John Clark

Rivvie...or anyone else...Are there settings in DD-WRT that optimize battery life on the wireless device? It seems like my battery is taking a bigger hit with the DD-WRT. I have WMM enabled but left all the defaults in all the settings because I didn't really know what they all meant.

It's most likely the Beacon interval that we all adjusted from 100ms to 50ms -- this means the client <=> server connection (the heartbeat - beacons are management packets of about 50bytes) is operating twice as fast as it used to; as you can surmise, this means the phone has to work "twice as hard" (not really, but more than it did before) which I'm *sure* equates to slightly more battery use. That's my theory at least.

One possible outside shot (I don't think it is this, but it's a valid premise) is that the encryption/decryption code is not as clean as in the stock Linksys code, so perhaps while using WEP/WPA/whatever the device's need to encrypt/decrypt is somehow affected and it has to do more work. You could try using the MAC limiting features of DD-WRT then turning off encryption completely, so all the work (MAC matching) is done by the router and the phone is just pumping out bits, unencrypted.

YMMV and every other acronym that means "I'm drinking coffee in my jammies and haven't tested any of this".

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by kasperapd

Seems to be working much better for me.

Same here - my wifi was idle overnight and I picked it up to test another issue (BeamBerry thread) and it worked perfectly without a hitch; this is usually where it used to stall and cause me to go and bounce the wifi. I haven't had to bounce yet! I do turn it off when I leave the house to save on battery, but so far coming home and turning it on is an instant association with my router.

*crosses fingers*

[pyrosee]

Alright I finally got to changing these settings. All set up, will report up and let you all know Only weird thing I had to do was delete my saved router and re-add it. It wouldn't connect back, but after I did that I'm back on UMA. Props for finding these settings rivviepop!

[hotburnttoast]

Can somebody please explain how I enter those settings into my Linksys
WRT54GS router, also how do I install that other software DD-WRT, and where to find it, you guys are installing in your Linksys Routers as well. ( Will these new settings screw up my Xbox 360 Settings in my router?) I really don't want to add the TMO D-Link router

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by hotburnttoast

Calso how do I install that other software DD-WRT, and where to find it, you guys are installing in your Linksys Routers as well.

As John mentioned, you want to read and be sure you know what you're doing before installing this on your router - it's not *dangerous* but you have to get nerdy for a bit, and if you make a mistake (due to not reading ) you can brick (ruin) your router.

Main:
http://dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php

Wiki (start here)
http://dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

[ericthebikeman]

The settings worked for me with 4 APs. The handover between the APs works better now that I reset the beacon to 50.

As for installing DD-WRT, the directions vary depending on your hardware revision. The firmware website has directions that worked for me and two different hardware revisions. Follow the directions precisely, don't skip steps, and keep a copy of the original firmware just in case you may need it to recover.

[John Clark]

I read over the instructions for doing the flash quite a few times before actually doing it. I read instructions from several different places, one of which I posted above. You can just google DD-WRT and TONS of hits will come up. There are several good ones on the first page of results. Again read through the process, pay attention to the version you are downloading as it varies quite a bit by model. I noticed that for most routers you flash the mini version of DD-WRT first then when that is successful, you flash the full version. Don't get in a rush and follow the instructions carefully. If you do it right you'll be very pleased with the results.

[sgtcasey]

edit

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by sgtcasey

But then I found the option in the router GUI to update the firmware so I just downloaded the new file and used that route to update. It only took a few minutes and I was back up and running with the latest version.

Yah, this is normal - the whole idea of the Micro thing is because Linksys somehow does something to the stock firmware - on some models only - that limits the physical size of a new upload using the stock GUI. Once you install the Micro one time and get it running then you're no longer locked into a physical size limits, future upgrades can be larger and you skip the Micro step(s).

EDIT: for completeness I should mention there are some routers which can only run the Micro version due to limited flash memory in them, but that's not what I'm referring to here.