First impression of OpenWRT on the WRT54GL

WRT54GL shows up (why did Fry's put REQUIRE SIGNATURE on that?), rip it open, fire it up, flash the OpenWRT firmware on there - took about 5 minutes. Had to reboot the device in order to get it to let me login and change my password. Bet some follks have wasted some time there.

I went this route not so much for the wireless - nice benefit - but for the ability to run a web-manageable iptables firewall instead of the playskool firewall on my BEFSR41. Well, I started hacking around in it and I have only one overpowering impression - disappointment. I know that the underlying iptables mechanism supports the way I want to use this, but the firewall user interface of the default install on OpenWRT is CLUNKY when it comes to defining firewall rules. The UI on my 6 year old sonicwall soho is miles and miles and miles beyond this.

Okay - now the power of open source needs to show itself. There must be another graphical iptables manager that I can throw on there to make my life a little less miserable.

No progress on the fortigate.