Reflash your FON Router
I won a free wireless router at the Irish Blog Awards a few weeks ago. Its a Linksys WRT54GL, but came with FON software pre-installed. I have nothing against FON and their aims but I found the software hard to use and configure. So this week I reflashed the router with the original Linksys software.
This is a straightforward process. First connect the router to a PC via a bit of ethernet cable. Now boot the router and login via http://192.168.0.1 (it might have been http://192.168.1.1). Go to the system table and look for the upgrade dialog. This upgrade dialog allows you to select a local file to upgrade the router. You can download the Linksys firmware from the linksys website. So download that file and feed it to the upgrade dialog.
The upgrade screen will print out some messages about unpacking the file and once it prints done you have completed the upload. The final step is to press the button on the front of the router to reboot the system. The light behind this button will flash furiously for a few minutes and when it settles down you have a fully configured and working original Linksys router.
Full docs are again available on the Linksys page.
April 22nd, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Did you consider alternative firmware, such as DD-WRT?
April 23rd, 2006 at 5:17 pm
James,
I looked at openwrt, but wanted a proper web-interface. The Linksys stuff was easy to find and worked first time. What does dd-wrt have over the standard linksys stuff?
April 23rd, 2006 at 8:09 pm
I’m not too sure - I never used it but I was told it had lots of other features. We put hyper-WRT on a router at work for a customer who needed extended range. I’d say the linksys firmware will probably do the trick perfectly, but a friend of mine just got a wrt54g, so I was wondering whether it would be worth putting alternative firmware on it or not.
April 24th, 2006 at 8:44 am
James,
The linksys software looks pretty good (interface could be better). It has all the different flavours of WPA authentication which is useful for future proofing.
Whatever works I guess….
April 25th, 2006 at 11:41 am
DD-WRT does have a web interface; OpenWRT doesn’t, but DD-WRT does.
fwiw, if you buy a FON router, you’re kind of expected to keep it as a FON hotspot rather than reflash it for private use. but then, I suppose you won it so maybe you can get away with it
April 25th, 2006 at 11:50 am
Yes, I agonized over this for about 30 seconds and then reconciled myself using the “I won it” argument. If the FON software wasn’t so poor and labelled all over the place as beta software I might have stuck with it a bit longer.
June 14th, 2006 at 10:09 am
Uhm, thanks for the article… now I need to come up with some excuse for my conscience as well! I won one too, so I hope to get away with it….
August 4th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
“connect the router to a PC via a bit of ethernet cable”
My computer doesn’t have an ethernet port, can I use a USB connection?
Your help is appreciated.
August 8th, 2006 at 11:21 am
The Linksys router only supports Ethernet connections, but there are ethernet to USB converters available for around ten to 30 bucks. Google for “ethernet USB adaptor”.
August 13th, 2006 at 8:38 am
I am on the wirded side of my fon router.
I have no ide how to log into it.
I have tried 192.168.1.1 and every variant i have seen.
Anyone know where the admin url can be found?
thanks
August 13th, 2006 at 8:40 am
“WIRDED” menas ‘wired’ in my universe…DOH
August 13th, 2006 at 8:41 am
OK I just quit…I need sleep (2:42 AM here)……zzzzzzzz
September 2nd, 2006 at 5:12 pm
I did this as well and now got the original Linksys firmware running.
But I wonder whether the cited “heartbeat” command (http://walter.schreppers.com/index.php?page=diy scroll all the way down) implemented in the FON firmware is still alive and will occasionaly ping the FON servers or even worse allow backdoors in my router?
September 2nd, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Hi Sam,
The reflashing replaces the firmware so that you now have the original router so no callbacks should occur. of couse you have breached your fon license, but thats a matter for your own conscience :-).
September 3rd, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Yeah but if that is the case, I wonder why Steve Anderson in his blog “irregular shed” (http://www.twindx.com) did such a great effort on analyzing the sources and dummying the “heartbeat” function if you could simply reflash the thing.
See: http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:xP4drPA3TdQJ:www.twindx.com/node/106/137%3FPHPSESSID%3Ddc9945a50add99189bf3e810213681ed+site:twindx.com+FON&hl=de&gl=de&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=firefox-a
and
http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:p_gyzTGtOr0J:www.twindx.com/node/109/147%3FPHPSESSID%3D390c3a5c7303edfefc129f3222a7fd24+site:www.twindx.com+FON&hl=de&gl=de&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=firefox-a
although the second report suggest the same you are saying if I’m reading correctly between the lines.
September 3rd, 2006 at 5:52 pm
The original analysis was on the FON code base. Reflashing the router replaces this in toto with the Linksys code. Ergo, no phone home functionality.
October 29th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Mitch,
try the IP 192.168.10.1 to access the admin interface on the linksys router.
April 12th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
joe, sam, and holger,
i’m also trying to reflash my linksys, but with no luck. i tried logging in to 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1, and 192.168.10.1 and couldnt get in .. admin/admin (as advised on the page) doesnt work. i havent tried configuring my router before so didnt change this at any time. do you guys have any advice on how to proceed?
much appreciated,
tarin
April 28th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
I am also puzzling here with the access to the fonera. just to change some config.
I connect by web on 192.168.10.1, fine. then no logging works. admin, root, my fon account email, my SSID, my dog’s name,….
also telnet or ssh V2 doesn’t answer either.
ideas?
July 4th, 2007 at 6:55 am
If you look up the “router” or “gateway” address in your IP configuration, and type that into your browser.
The default user/pass is “admin” “admin”
October 7th, 2007 at 7:23 am
For all you foneros out there, would you recommend me to FON so that I can get the router @ a discount rate. I want to join this movement. It’s a great idea! My mail is tdtran1025@yahoo.com.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Kevin pressed free xxx games downloads into kathryn’s ass, my compliment. No, trying to find him.