Heard of Netgear’s open source router - WGR614L? The specifications are similar to that of WRT54GL (16mb RAM, 4mb flash) but WGR614L is using the newer Broadcom processor. Other than that, its specifications are similar to that of WRT54G and DIR-300:

• Wireless G
• 4 x 10/100 LAN
• 1 x WAN

I really like the slim design of the WGR614L and most important of all - It supports 3rd party firmwares (dd-wrt, tomato, openwrt)! The WRT54G supports all of the 3 mentioned firmwares while the DIR-300 supports dd-wrt and openwrt only.

Got to flash it to tomato and set it to filter some protocols on some segments of my network.

Setting up the wireless-N bridge seems to be pretty straight forward. Flipped through the guide a little and got the them paired up within 10 minutes!

Hooking up the wireless-N bridges

1. Connect one of the WNHDE111 (lets call it bridge A) to router
2. Connect the other WNHDE111 (bridge B) to device (wired NAS, multimedia player)

Setting device mode

1. Set the switch on Bridge A to “auto”
2. Set the switch on Bridge B to “auto”
3. Power on both WNHDE111

Pairing the wireless-N bridges

1. Push the WPS button on Bridge B for 10 seconds
2. Release the WPS button on Bridge B
3. Push and release the WPS button on Bridge A within the next 120 seconds
4. Wait for the WPS light to stablize

Yes! It is as easy as this! My multimedia player/pc is online!

I’ve a low end multimedia computer that is hooked up to the television. It plays all my digital medias (videos, photos, music, internet radio, …) to the TV. Well, the idea of multimedia players wasn’t so strong in the past when I got the scrape computer to do the job.

The problem is when I access multimedia contents on my NAS (DNS-313) over the wireless link. My room used to be a wireless dead spot until I rectified it using the DIR-655. However, the link quality isn’t really that great and streaming videos over the wireless link could be problematic at times. Since the DNS-313 mainly holds my multimedia content. I’ve though of moving it closer to the multimedia computer as it access it more often than other clients on my network.

Got a pair of Wireless-N access points (WNHDE111) from NETGEAR to do the job. Great thing is that it provides 2 Ethernet ports! One for the DNS-313  and the other to multimedia computer. So I would expect low latency and high speed between the DNS-313 and computer. At the same time enjoy better wireless link due to the 5Ghz spectrum.

Hope the wireless-N bridges (WNHDE111) does its job well.

The ReadyNAS is just like a regular computer system. The APT addon on ReadyNAS’s community allows end users to install or remove packages easily using the apt-get command.

Basically, you can get your compiling environment up and running by installing the following addons - APT,  ToggleSSH, EnableRootSSH. Following that, ssh to your ReadyNAS and install the following packages for compiling.

# apt-get update
# apt-get install libc6-dev gcc gdb libtag1-dev uuid-dev

Select Yes for those additional packages the system suggests.

Hurray! Time to compile transmission on the ReadyNAS.

640KB 256MB ought to be enough for anyone. I struck gold when I took apart the ReadyNAS Duo. Underneath the metal plates I found end-user changable RAM module! There doesn’t seems to be any warranty stickers on the chassis.

Upgradable RAM module on the ReadyNAS

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Did a simple speed test this morning by transferring some videos to my D-Link DNS-323 and Netgear ReadyNAS Duo. Being a simple home user, I kept the test environment simple which any home users can emulate without breaking an arm or two.

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