Router Follies

In an act of unmitigated hubris, I decided to try upgrading the firmware on my router today. I’d read about a security issue that could affect DD-WRT last week, and checked my router. I saw that I was running a pretty old build, and that there was a newer one. I had installed DD-WRT on that router about a year ago, and haven’t had any trouble with it. So I figured upgrading it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Long story short, I guess I maybe bricked it. I think I might have been able to get it going again by doing a complicated restart and TFTP procedure, but I checked Best Buy, and I could get a new router for only $50, so I did that instead. The old router dates back to 2010, so I was due for a new one anyway.

The new one is a Netgear N600, pretty similar to old one. I have no immediate plans to try DD-WRT or any alternate firmware on it. I’ll probably do something like what I did with the last router: when it’s more than five years old, and Netgear isn’t updating the firmware anymore, then I’ll look around at open source alternative firmware. But for now, Netgear is likely to keep this one up to date.

Now all I need to do is reconnect all my wireless devices to the new wireless network. (I seem to have a lot of wireless devices, now that I’m making a list. MacBook, iPhone, iPad, TiVo, Apple TV, Volumio…)

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