Man… I feel great!

Why?

It’s not because I blasted through my del.icio.us links (which I did). Its not because I demolished the dirt in my house (which I did too). It’s not even because I’m in the process of upgrading my Ubuntu machine to 6.10 (which I am). Then why do I feel so good?

I flashed my Linksys router with a firmware from DD-WRT to make it a near professional VPN Gateway/Firewall/Router/Switch for my local network!!!! How freakn’ cool is that??!!??

Granted, I didn’t make the firmware – I only followed the instructions. But the new firmware is so cool!! First, it includes support for a RADIUS server used in VPN Authentication; I’m going to flash my other router (my main outside facing one) soon and set that up ASAP. Second, it has a lot more advanced router functions that many SOHO units just don’t have – like VLANs. It still has all the basic SOHO style web interface but with a lot more flexibility and power for the advanced user like command lines, SSH, SNMP, PPTP, and others. It supports DDNS for services like DynDNS and Sputnik Hotspot solutions. It also supports OpenVPN.

But what I like about it is the advanced wireless features that you cannot control in a SOHO Linksys router. For example, I can now control the transmit power – I wasn’t able to do that before. I could not control the preamble settings nor could I adjust the Tx and Rx antenna values. I was able to do this on the Cisco AP I used to use and it was helpful for me to get the best signal strength and health for my house; before, I was only able to get a reliable transmission from out to my kitchen and now I can get a great signal all the way to the bedroom – the reason I got a wireless access point in the first place.

So I’m psyched! I’m already seeing the benefits to the new code and I haven’t even started to play with the most of the cooler stuff. I’m going to flash my external facing router tonight and see if I can set up the VPN for my trip tomorrow.

I’m such a geek.

🙂