imported_94EG6HB

Found this hack from SeattleWireless.

It seems tha WRT54G default RF is 31mW, or 15dbm. It appears it is actually capable of up to 84mW, but is capped by the firmware at 31mW.

I believe IDA's max allowable RF for 2.4GHz is 100mW (these are the highest powered 802.11b WAPs/Routers in the market now).

Here are the steps. Of course, the usual disclaimer applies for tweaking/hacking...use at your own risk!


Open router setup page
Goto System Setup Tab
Click "Ping Test"
In the Dialog Box for Domain Name, key in exactly as follows: `/usr/sbin/wl -i eth2 txpwr 84`

Yes, inclusive of the two "`" characters. Then press the "Ping" button, then stop and close the dialog box. Note the "`" character is not " ' " quotation, but the character found at the top left most button of the keyboard.

Substitute the values anything between the default 31 to 84. I would suggest you go slow, try 48, and see if the gain in Link Quality and Signal Strength is good enough for your purpose. No point maxing out at 84mW, and risk overheating the router.

My result at one arbitrary point at my place:
31mW default: 66% to 73%
48mW: 73% to 86%
60mW: 89% to 95%
84mW: around 100%
I think a value bet 48 to 60mW gives more than sufficent gain over the default 31mW, without overly pushing it.

For those who couldn't get the ping hack to work, take note of your BIOS versions:

1.01.4 Running Linux kernel 2.4.5 (Linux version 2.4.5 (root@honor) (gcc version 3.0 20010422 (prerelease) with bcm4710a0 modifications) #4 ?g?@ 6?? 23 14:45:24 CST 2003) - WPA is broken(?)

1.30.1 wget removed, Ping bug added - Full support for WPA(?)

1.41.2 (US) Ping bug not fix yet Kernel and divers same as 1.30.1 - Change interface Web layout

1.42.2 (US) Ping bug fixed - Linux kernel 2.4.20 included - Cannot downgrade firmware (upgrade to 1.41.8, then downgrade) -

1.41.8 (EU) Firmware downgrade reenabled - DSLReports thread

I have just finished testing this for the last week and it is very stable at 60mW.

Real world range has increase 75 feet using OEM antenna's and a Cisco Aironet 350 adapter...

If you have similar hardware please try.

Its a nerd thing.

T-Shirt Ninja

That a good hack if it works, too bad I have netgear