I did a bittorrent test on DIR-300 on its D-LINK firmware earlier this month. Well the router seems capable of handling moderate bittorrent load then.

Recently, Brainslayer released DD-WRT firmware for DIR-300. Hence it prompted me to redo the bittorrent test. 3rd party firmwares are often touted to be more robust and have more functionalities. Let see if the robustness feature holds true.

Like the previous test, I tried to maintain the number of connections above 500. But I have increase the number of global connections to 1120. Allowing up to 5 concurrent downloads of 280 connections.

The number of torrents (from ubuntu and openoffice) allowed the number of connections to be around 700 to 800 range. Maintained the number of connections until the files were completed (roughly 3 hours).

The router survived the test! If your router is still on default firmware and hangs during bittorrenting. You might wish to flash your router. Do take note that this is just a conservative test. It is to check if the 3rd party firmware improve bittorrent condition so you might wish to test the limit of DIR-300 by setting higher connection values.

If you are flashing to DD-WRT v24 RC7. Check out this flashing guide instead.

Similar models: DIR-301

If you are using DIR-400, check out Mini Flashing Guide for DIR-400 instead.

FAQ

The FAQs for Flashing DIR-300 to DD-WRT can be found here

Note: It seems like x will not be represented as alphabet “x” after copy and pasting. Do take note of this.

Required

1. Temporary RedBoot (ap61.ram): Download file
2. ap61.rom, linux.bin from DD-WRT v24 RC4 or newer
3. TFTP Server up and running, ready to serve the required files, e.g. PumpKIN
4. Putty (telnet client) – Chosen because it helps you to Ctrl + C

Getting into RedBoot

1. Connect the network cable to your ethernet port and the WAN port of DIR-300.
2. Configure your System IP address (static) to be 192.168.20.80/255.255.255.0.
3. Hold on to the reset behind the DIR-300.
4. Power on the DIR-300 while holding on to the reset button. Hold the reset button for 30 seconds while it is booting.
5. Release the reset button
6. Telnet to 192.168.20.81 on port 9000
7. You should be greeted by the RedBoot prompt. RedBoot>

Loading in the temp boot loader

RedBoot> load ap61.ram
Using default protocol (TFTP)
Entry point: 0x800410bc, address range: 0×80041000-0x800680d8
RedBoot> go

It is normal to be disconnected from the telnet session.
Note: Do not reboot the router.

Loading a new boot loader
Before proceeding, set your system IP to 192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0 and then telnet to the new address 192.168.1.1, port 9000.

Note: You may need to connect to the LAN port instead of the WAN port on the DIR-300

After you are connected, follow the steps below

DD-WRT> fconfig -i
Initialize non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
Run script at boot: false
Use BOOTP for network configuration: true
Default server IP address:
Console baud rate: 9600
GDB connection port: 9000
Force console for special debug messages: false
Network debug at boot time: false
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0x80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> fis init
About to initialize [format] FLASH image system – continue (y/n)? y
*** Initialize FLASH Image System
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0x807f0000-0×80800000 at 0xbffe0000: .

DD-WRT> ip_address -h 192.168.1.2
Default server: 192.168.1.23

DD-WRT> load -r -b %{FREEMEMLO} ap61.rom
Using default protocol (TFTP)
Raw file loaded 0×80080000-0x800a8717, assumed entry at 0×80080000

DD-WRT> fis create -l 0×30000 -e 0xbfc00000 RedBoot
An image named ‘RedBoot’ exists – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbfc00000-0xbfc30000: …
… Program from 0×80080000-0x800a8718 at 0xbfc00000: …
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0x807f0000-0×80800000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> reset

Your DIR-300 will reset at this point.  Telnet to it (192.168.1.1, port 9000) after it has finish resetting. (approximately 30+ seconds)

Note: You may need to connect to the LAN port instead of the WAN port on the DIR-300

Configuring the Putty Client

1. Right-click on PuTTY Client’s title bar
2. Select “Change Settings…”
3. On the “PuTTY Reconfiguration” window, change close window on exit to Never
4. Click on the Apply button

Loading in the new firmware
It is important that you don’t disconnect the power or ethernet cable for this section. Those fis create commands take quite some time to complete, so do be patient and don’t interrupt the process.

DD-WRT> ip_address -h 192.168.1.2
IP: 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0, Gateway: 0.0.0.0
Default server: 192.168.1.2
DD-WRT> fis init
About to initialize [format] FLASH image system – continue (y/n)? y
*** Initialize FLASH Image System
… Erase from 0xbfc30000-0xbffe0000: …………………………………………………..
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0x80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> load -r -b 0×80041000 linux.bin
Using default protocol (TFTP)
Raw file loaded 0×80041000-0x803cffff, assumed entry at 0×80041000
DD-WRT> fis create linux
… Erase from 0xbfc30000-0xbffbf000: …………………………………………………
… Program from 0×80041000-0x803d0000 at 0xbfc30000: …………………………………………………
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0x80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> fconfig boot_script true
boot_script: Setting to true
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0×80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> fconfig boot_script_timeout 4
boot_script_timeout: Setting to 4
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0×80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> fconfig bootp false
bootp: Setting to false
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0×80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> fconfig
Run script at boot: true
Boot script:
.. fis load -l vmlinux.bin.l7
.. exec
Enter script, terminate with empty line
>> fis load -l linux
>> exec
>>
Boot script timeout (1000ms resolution): 4
Use BOOTP for network configuration: false
Default server IP address:
Console baud rate: 9600
GDB connection port: 9000
Force console for special debug messages: false
Network debug at boot time: false
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration – continue (y/n)? y
… Erase from 0xbffe0000-0xbfff0000: .
… Program from 0x80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xbffe0000: .
DD-WRT> fconfig bootp_my_ip 192.168.1.1
DD-WRT> fconfig bootp_my_ip_mask 255.255.255.0
DD-WRT> fconfig bootp_my_gateway_ip 0.0.0.0
DD-WRT> reset

The default username and password are “root” and “admin” (without the quotes) respectively. Enjoy your new DIR-300!

Note: Don’t worry if you can’t get an IP from your modem (through the DIR-300 on DD-WRT). It is a bug of DD-WRT. Do the following steps to resolve it:

1. Disconnect the network (ethernet) cable between your modem and DIR-300
2. Reboot both the modem and DIR-300 and wait until they have fully booted up
3. Connect the network (ethernet) cable between the modem and DIR-300

Note: If you need to change the value of “Run script at boot:” from false to true, use the following command before running fconfig:

fconfig boot_script true

Like to buy shadowandy a cup of Starbucks for his work?

Brainslayer has released DD-WRT v24 pre-RC4 and it supports another two of D-Link’s router, namely – DIR-300 and DIR-320.

He’s kind to enclose this flashing guide. He flash his DIR-300 using console cable while I did mine without one. After skimming through the guide, I would say the process is similar to flash the fonera (which is also based on Atheros chipset + RedBoot). The tricky part would be breaking out of the boot script under 1 second. Nonetheless, I would say the flashing process is pretty safe (after I have flashed so many foneras and routers through RedBoot/Broadcom console)

The usual tools needed would be a tftp server, a telnet client which allows you to send Ctrl+C (hyperterminal on windows would work fine), an ethernet cable and the DIR-300 itself.

Check out the flashing guide

Miscellaneous
The required files: dd-wrt v24 pre-RC4 for DIR-300
My DIR-300 Flash Log: Download file

My little hobby of taking stuffs apart…

… and often forgetting how to put them back

cat /proc/cpuinfo

system type: Atheros AR531X_COBRA
processor: 0
cpu model: unknown V6.4
BogoMIPS: 183.50
wait instruction: no
microsecond timers: yes
tlb_entries: 16
extra interrupt vector: yes
hardware watchpoint: no
VCED exceptions: not available
VCEI exceptions: not available

cat /proc/meminfo | grep “Mem”

Mem: 14409728 12374016 2035712 0 1417216 5242880
MemTotal: 14072 kB
MemFree: 1988 kB
MemShared: 0 kB

Most people will mentally link “stability with bittorrent” to the D-Link brand name due to their successful GamerLounge or Gaming series of router, namely – DGL-4100 and DGL-4300. Next came the successful extreme series, the DIR-635 and DIR-655.

So I am pretty interested to find out how would this DIR-300 router perform. For this, I set up a pretty legal system for downloading torrents.

1. Bittorrent client – utorrent
2. Popular torrents – Fedora Core, Ubuntu, OpenOffice
3. Client – IBM T43 over wireless (Intel 2200BG)

The utorrent client is set up with the following configurations:

• Max global connection: 384
• Connection per torrent: 128
• Number of torrents: 3

The settings for the utorrent might sound normal to you. Yeah, I want to see if the DIR-300 can handle my normal bittorrent load.

There is no point setting the above mention values if it doesn’t stress the router at all during the test. Therefore I made several conditions to be met during the test. Namely they were:

1. Webpage set to auto refresh (30 sec interval) to emulate user surfing
2. continuous ping to check if there are any increase in latency

The DIR-300 fair well and didn’t give up during the day test. It is rather good for moderate bittorrent test. I had expected it to give me some problems. Ping values hovered between 96ms and 106ms. I guess I was too lenient with it. So it’s time to perform a harsher test.

A harsher test – Kill it!

The test was then repeated with the following utorrent configurations

• Max global connection: 896
• Connection per torrent: 224
• Number of torrents: 4

The conditions for this test is still the same except for the following addition:

1. Current connections count should be between 620 and 896

The setup went fine for the first hour without any feeling of lagginess (probably because my bandwidth has not been saturated) and the ping values were pretty stable (96~104ms) for www.google.com.

I checked the status at the second hour mark and realized that the downloading has stopped while the router is still blinking happily at the corner of my room. It seems like the router has hung. Double confirmed by looking at the ping log entries. The connection is dead. I couldn’t get a ping reply from the router as well. The last successful ping recorded was still within the range of 96~104ms. I guess that the router gave up out of a sudden.

Conclusion

IIt is pretty value-for-money (at S$79) considering the ease of setting up the device and capable of doing moderate bittorrent downloading. Don’t expect it to be very good as it is not part of the D-Link extreme series. It satisfy my needs of using it for my temporary internet connection.