Can't ban a website with linksys WRT54G

that's a pretty intuitive form there bud. Just read the instructions on the right-hand blue sidebar and you pretty well can't get it wrong.

Try it. I did. I doesn't work. Did you try it? When ever I try to set the form up to always deny access, the fields for the web site to be banned disable themselves..

Not tried it with one of these but did you create a "Policy" for what you wish to do? Internet Access Policy 1 Status enable Policy Name Webb1 List of PC'S 192...2 TO 192...20 Web Block...URL

save settings

"SpreadTooThin" hath wroth:

You're not alone:

What firmware version are you running in your WRT54GL? The latest for US is 4.30.5. If you read the release notes on this version at:

you'll see that: "Resolves issue with filter name" was fixed. This might possibly be what you're dealing with.

I don't have a WRT54GL handy to try the filter rules, but I can try it with DD-WRT v23 SP2 on a WRT54GS v4. Close enough. Blocking by IP address worked just fine as in: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/ or xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx However, blocking by URL in various forms doesn't work at all.

I just tried blocking microsoft.com and example.com. Doesn't work by name, but works by IP address. Oh, think I see what's happening. Microsoft.com first points to an Akamai internet cache (akadns.net) which returns a DNS address. It never really goes directly to the web site. It might be necessary to block the cacheing server, the DNS load balancer, and the Microsoft site in order for this to work. Same problem with my own web sites which use URL redirection. Argh.

Well, blocking by keyword also seems to fail. I tried various forms and combinations (including quotes) and nothing works. This is not good.

I'll play with it some more later, but it appears that you're correct. Filtering either doesn't work or requires some secret incantation.

I've just read Jeff's response to you and have replicated his failures with my WRT54G...damn. My wife and I are the only users at home so blocking isn't an issue but I have an extra 54G that I was going to set up for use at work. I think it pretty great to have such knowledgable people in this forum. His supplied link was interesting reading.

Great... So its a known bug and no fix.

I do have 4.30.5. Unfortunantly the link I provided seems to be 4.30.0 and isn't identical and I can't find the link to the 4.30.5 web page... (I don't mean the firmware)

Why would the DD-WRT be good enough?

Ya.. Thanks Jeff... I think I'll just buy a Motorola or DLink. Too many issues with this router.

"SpreadTooThin" hath wroth:

The firmware emulators at:

not always the latest versions.

1. Because it's all that I have handy.
2. Because the various alternative firmware releases are based on the original Linksys open source code. Many bugs were fixed and features added to DD-WRT and OpenWRT, but some of the more obscure functions tend to remain the same as the original.

What other issues? I have a mess of similar Broadcom based routers in service, and have had very few problems. However, I don't use the stock Linksys firmware. Before you give up, I suggest you try one of the alternative firmware versions such as:

may not have a functional URL and keyword filter (or I haven't figured out the trick), but everything else works just fine.

Jeff Liebermann hath wroth:

I give up. I can't make either the URL or keyword filter work. I was also wrong about filtering by IP address in the URL filter (typo error). That also doesn't work.

On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 12:16:46 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

Which would probably have undesired side effects on other web sites that use those services. Akamai in particular is likely to be a problem.

On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:15:46 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

Please file a bug report against DD-WRT.