[Uchemist]

Mod note: This information is already elsewhere in the forum and Wiki. It is expected for forum users to read Announcements and Stickies and search the forum.

Trying to make a novice introduction for people new to DD-WRT to be able to make a simple home network. I found that sometimes experienced forum users don’t realize how much implied knowledge is needed to understand their posts. I hope to bring new users up to speed with some of the basics that I found to be helpful and I wished that somebody explained earlier.

Top 10 of my novice tips:

1) On the forum: There is a big difference in what you can read when you’re logged in or when not. Most attachments/pictures/ screenshots are only visible when logged in.

2) On the forum: Creating a (new) user account can be difficult, as the process requires an activation email, however this can take some time to arrive. Mine took 24 hours to arrive, other users ever report longer response times.

3) There exists a very useful guide to install DD-WRT on a Netgear R7800 router: https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=320614

4) There is no protection against ’stupid’ settings. There are so many options in DDWRT, and it is not intuitive to select the ‘right’ settings. Some combinations of settings are even contradictory and will cause the system to behave in an unexpected manner.

5) When configuring the DDWRT router via a cable connection, it is really useful to disable WiFi on your laptop. Being connected to 2 networks at the same time is asking for problems.

6) on my MacBook there exists a little program called Terminal (in the \Application\Utilities folder). From here you can initiate a telnet session to the router. It might be that you’ll need to install some development tools for MacOS (Apple) first (i.e. Homebrew- https://brew.sh). This unlocks the world of the router. See attached picture for a correct result.

7) Once connected (i.e. via telnet) into the router, there exists a whole range of linux commands/ tools that come standard (i.e. https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/20-essential-linux-commands-every-user). It is where code (from this forum) is meant to run. Sometimes third parties (i.e. VPN provider) will ask you to install an applet from here. Special attention for the file viewer/editor command ‘vi’ - powerful but not intuitive (https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/introduction-vi-editor).

8 connecting to a router (or network) without a DHCP server function (i.e. you are in the process of configuring it as an access point), requires you to manually update your laptop’s network settings (to match the routers range).

9) Logging opens the black box! How to enable logging: first enable JFFS2 under Management (this allows part of the routers memory to be used for storage of logs). Secondly enable ‘syslog' under Services. After restart, logs can be accessed via Status/syslog. This shows what the router actually tries to do in a nice color scheme (warnings in yellow, errors in red).

10) Read my post for setting up a simple small home network, consisting of a router with 3 acces points, with SmartDNS and adblocker enabled.