Protect me from my internet-addicted self.

April 9, 2005 5:26 AM

Is there a firmware hack for the WRT54GS that will turn WiFi on and off independent of the 10/100bT, according to a predetermined schedule?

I spend way too much time on the 'net, perhaps I'm suffering from borderline internet-addiction, but I still need occasional 'net access for my banking and schooling. My Linksys router is stashed upstairs with my landlord (whose 'net connection I share) so I don't have convenient physical access to it. I'd like for the 10/100bT connection to remain active while the WiFi is disabled, since my landlord's PC is connected via 10/100bT and I use the WiFi. That would restrict the time I waste on the net, especially since I don't have a landline for dialup access.

I haven't hacked OpenWRT or its equivalents before but might be willing to try if this is easy to do -- i.e. through existing packages, cron jobs or shell scripting. I am not up to the task of kernel hacking or writing a new package.

posted by randomstriker to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I don't actually use OpenWRT (I use DD-WRT), but OpenWRT will probably lend itself better to doing such a thing. First of all you'll need to get cron and time synchronization working. This HOWTO tells you how to do both. Then you'll have to make a couple crontab entries to do the WiFi enable/disabling. Say you want access off from 9-5 Monday through Friday. You'll need crontab entries like these:
# m h dom mon dow command
0 9 * * 1-5 ifdown eth1
0 17 * * 1-5 ifup eth1

I haven't actually done this as I don't have OpenWRT running, but it should get you started in the right direction.
posted by zsazsa at 8:38 AM on April 9, 2005

Search for Alchemy - it has a Internet Access Policy where you can restrict a MAC address during certain times of the day. It works on the WRT54G. You might want to look at DD-WRT or look for the free "Alchemy".

The nice thing with Alchemy is that one can Telnet (or SSH) into the router, and add a cron job. Maybe a simple cron job to move the Wireless interface into a non-routed VLAN, and then back again. No kenel hacking needed - just use cron. (Or you might want to use a cron job to change the routing table for the Wireless interface to null.)


Check out www.dd-wrt.com - I have read good things about it. Also check out the the traffic flow program on the same site.
posted by bright77blue at 9:01 AM on April 9, 2005

After seeing bright77blue's answer, I'd recommend to heed his and ignore mine unless you're extremely interested in OpenWRT. DD-WRT does indeed have the time-based traffic restrictions.
posted by zsazsa at 9:43 AM on April 9, 2005

Is there a particular reason you want to shut down the wireless interface entirely? Because otherwise, you can get the result you want with the standard firmware. Just go into the Access Restrictions tab, enter the MAC addresses of all your wireless devices (surely there aren't that many?), and turn off their access for the time range you want. No need to fool around with changing the firmware.

Unless you're trying to prevent yourself from borrowing other people's laptops or something...

Even in that case you could make it work with the standard firmware. Just give static IPs to the wired connections (landlord), always use DHCP on the wireless, and block out the entire DHCP address range in the Access Restrictions.
posted by mcguirk at 12:05 PM on April 9, 2005