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Router Hacking (OpenWRT n stuff)

  1. #1
    LiquidIce Houston
    Have any of you toyed around with putting OpenWRT on routers?

    I got my home router running OpenWRT and I feel a bit safer already. Can't trust that ISP provided one, probably full of backdoors and holes, not to mention the absolutely horrible signal range (shitty antenna most likely).

    I also have a pair of TL-703Ns lying around until I figure something cool to do with them. They run off battery power easily so I thought of turning one into a travel router and another into a pirate library box kind of thing. Or maybe I could use these to track wifi-beacons in my area? Track the coming an going of people n stuff. These things are tiny, easily fit in the palm of your hand, even if you add an external battery. They cost about 20$ a pop.

    I'm making this thread because I just saw this in my newsfeed: https://wiki.hackerspace.pl/projects...fi-card-reader (attached pic)
    It's a wifi-enabled sd card reader and some poles managed to get OpenWRT running on it, which means this is a thumb-sized router/hotspot/mitm device. They cost 10$ a pop from ebay so you buy a dozen an just drop them in a few spots around the hood and let them do whatever you want them to do. I'm tempted to get like 6 and create a simple mesh network or try to do some outdoorsy stuff with them.

    These devices are pretty limited (think 16mb storage + 32/64mb ram), but it's enough to run bash/C/lua. Maybe even erlang. It's shit easy to get OpenWRT running on them usually and OpenWRT gives you essentially a linux environment.

    Anyone got any experiences? Or ideas?

  2. #2
    EasyDoesIt Tuskegee Airman
    Quality post.
  3. #3
    Been thinking about some sort of network of routers which act as libraries and communication centers (i.e.you can upload a message for another to retrieve or download information on various topics).

    Dont know how id go about it. Im pretty sure if I get the right type of router id be able to just install a linux kernal which supports its hardware and has some sort of ftp server configured on it. Power em by car battery or fashion it into the grid some how with reasonable stealth.
  4. #4
    SBTlauien African Astronaut
    They cost 10$ a pop from ebay so you buy a dozen an just drop them in a few spots around the hood and let them do whatever you want them to do. I'm tempted to get like 6 and create a simple mesh network or try to do some outdoorsy stuff with them.

    How are you going to power them though? Battery?
  5. #5
    notreal Yung Blood
    How are you going to power them though? Battery?


    You could easily run it from any rechargeable battery, the pictures in the link use a portable USB "bullet" charger sold at must grocery stores.
  6. #6
    LiquidIce Houston
    How are you going to power them though? Battery?

    Yep, one of those 5-10$ rechargeable usb batteries. These use <100ma, so each battery should be good for 4-8 hours. The 703Ns last for 4 hours on a 1200mah battery.

    Been thinking about some sort of network of routers which act as libraries and communication centers (i.e.you can upload a message for another to retrieve or download information on various topics).

    Dont know how id go about it. Im pretty sure if I get the right type of router id be able to just install a linux kernal which supports its hardware and has some sort of ftp server configured on it. Power em by car battery or fashion it into the grid some how with reasonable stealth.

    OpenWRT is exactly what you're looking for - it uses busybox to give you "the linux experience", along with actually supporting the weird router hardware. It works for most routers out there, since it require 4mb of storage space (most have like 8 or 16 now) and like I said, usually, it's easy to install - select software upgrade on the router, upload the OpenWRT zip, the router restarts and bam, you got yourself a tiny linux box humming along.

  7. #7
    Yeah I have OpenWRT on my home router now that I'm actually paying for internet again and not just using my neighbour's network
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