[WRT54G/S firmwares] Talisman vs Alchemy ?

Yes, I did. I created a forum account and when I went on the Talisman/Basic forum, I got the following message :

"Sorry, but only subscribed users can read topics in this forum."

So I had a very few info about it. Moreover, Google did not help me a lot. That is why I wanted a user's opinion. Moreover, users opinions are always more objectives than author's ones.

Actually, I have the public Alchemy (I do not remember the version) and my router is very stable (by stable, I mean that I can let it run at least one week without having to reboot it and I use my computer daily to work remotely) If I use Talisman, I will be able to compare if it is as stable as Alchemy.

Thanks for your advices.

Now, if I could only remember what the problem was that you solved...

Which log files are you using? The SNMP generated traps or the syslogd? The level of logging generated by syslogd is configureable. Enable it at on the Administration page and point it to a machine running a syslog server program. I'm having a bit of trouble finding the configuratio file. It's usually: /tmp/var/etc/syslogd.conf but I can't find it in the Alchemy distribution. Leave it at default for now. What you'll see is roughly the same stuff as in: /tmp/var/log/messages Use a syslog reporting tool to make the messages readable.

I don't use syslog for anything more than post mortem failure analysis. For monitoring, I use SNMP with MRTG and RRDTool for graphing.

So, what detail are you missing?

Let me guess... traffic analyis. Use SNMP and MRTG. See:

I haven't tried Talisman. No time. Sorry.

I guess you mean syslog, not SNMP. Well, I don't think it's such a great idea, but it might work for you. NAND flash ram will last about

Jeff Liebermann a =E9crit :

Sorry. This is the problem I asked help for in my last thread called "My Linksys WRT54GS router is losing its DNS configuration ..." in this forum. The problem was due to the fact that my ISP was doing what you called "DNS juggling". Alchemy can refresh the DNS addresses more frequently so my problem did not happen anymore.

I am not familiar with Linux so I did not know this way of reading the logs. I was only reading the logs from the Alchemy Web interface. Thanks for the tricks.

In facts, I want to switch off my computer firewall (which eat my CPU) and let the router firewall work instead. When something goes wrong (like someone doing a port scan or other bad thing on my computer), ZoneAlarm (my firewall) gave me a lot of information (like event time, DNS name, used port, number of tentatives .=2E.) I wanted to do the same with my router and the Web admin interface does not give so much details.

I did not think of traffic analysis and did not know it was possible to get information about it with this router/firmware. That seems very interesting so I am going to have a look at your links.

You are perfectly right.

Thanks Jeff.

I'm not sure you're going to get *more* information than the author? Have you read the forums on the site?

Yes if you want the features and support.

I don't really have an opinion, I have used both, both worked fine for me. I upgraded to Talisman to attempt to fix an issue with WPA although I can't remember whether the issue went away with Talisman in the end. :)

Mine works fine, don't ask which version it is, different people have different perceptions of what stable means. One bug to someone means it's unstable, to others, they couldn't tell whether it was stable anyway. If the wireless signal drops out, would you blame that on the firmware or RF conditions? It's a very subjective question.

Yes

David.

/tmp/etc/syslogd.conf seems logical

Yes but the bulk of the opinions are in the users forums ;)

I haven't had to reboot mine and it has run for weeks and weeks. I can't remember when I upgraded it from Alchemy now.

The reason why I was a little evasive is that you might want to use a feature that I don't, hence my experience may vary wildly from yours but as far as I can tell, the general consensus is that it works just fine for the majority.

David.

I downloaded the Wallwatcher which does everything I want (log server & bandwidth display). In facts, the router logs are more detailed thant the ZA logs. I switched off ZA and decided to use the router firewall instead.

Moreover, Wallwatcher get the bandwidth information from the SNMP agent packaged ib the router. I suppose this method is more efficient than polling the router for some data.

As far as I am concerned, Alchemy firmware is enough for what I need to do. I forget the idea of paying 20$ to get Talisman !

Where can I download Alchemy? Because

Yeap, I did it already, thanks anyway, by the way....what a great story has created the people from SveaSoft, do these dudes now what GPL mean???

For now, wrt54g.net

Looks like the registered owner of wrt54g.com was holding the site for ransom...

Google "alchemy firmware" ;)

The source code is available for download to keep the GPL folks happy.

David.

Not _easily_ available - I haven't managed to find anything at their site, yet (_and_ I'm a paid subscriber). Directing people to a site outside their control (and no longer available) for Alchemy is pretty week, too. And they manage to keep Talisman _unavailable_ by claiming it is pre-release software.

The source code is on the downloads page right along with the firmware.

It seems that plenty of people put it out on the P2P networks though in protest hence it's not difficult to find.

David.

But the downloads page is not available unless you're registered (since I subscribed before I figured that out, I can't tell if you can see it if you're not a subscriber). It might fit the letter of the GPL, but hardly the spirit.

Sure, that's where I found it first.