chillifire hotspot router installation guide...

Chillifire Hotspot Router Installation Guide Version 09.10

This procedure is for Linksys routers WRT54GL, WRT54G, WRT54GS, WRTSL54GS and WRT54G3G

Contents Firmware Installation .............................................................................................................................................................. 2

Method 1 – Load Chillifire through web interface of the original Linksys firmware (Normal Mode) ............................ 2

Method 2 – Load Chillifire through TFTP upload (Expert Mode) .................................................................................... 4

Router Registration ................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Router Configuration .............................................................................................................................................................. 9

Setting your timezone ..................................................................................................................................................... 7

Define a “Walled Garden” ............................................................................................................................................... 9

Define your custom splash page / homepage ................................................................................................................ 9

Change your router’s password .................................................................................................................................... 10

Change your router’s SSID (name of the hotspot the end‐user will see) ..................................................................... 10

Add devices to the Whitelist to bypass hotspot authentication .................................................................................. 11

Change the wireless channel the Hotspot is sending on .............................................................................................. 11

Assign the Ethernet LAN connections to either Hotspot or Free Access ...................................................................... 12

Change wireless transmission settings ......................................................................................................................... 12

Establish Quality of Service (QoS) and establish maximum throughput rates ............................................................. 13

Chillifire Status, Add‐ons and Upgrades....................................................................................................................... 13

Additional Configuration ............................................................................................................................................... 14

Show Active Hotspot Connections ................................................................................................................................ 14

Backup and Reload Settings, Reset to Default Settings ........................................................................................................ 15

Upgrading older Chillifire Versions ....................................................................................................................................... 15

Revert back to Linksys Firmware .......................................................................................................................................... 16

Method 1 – Load Linksys firmware through GUI .......................................................................................................... 16

Method 2 – Load Chillifire through TFTP upload .......................................................................................................... 16

Appendix: .............................................................................................................................................................................. 18

LINUX TFTP Client Instructions for TFTP ....................................................................................................................... 18

MAC OS X Client Instructions for TFTP .......................................................................................................................... 19


Firmware Installation Note: The Chillifire firmware will only work on older models of Linksys router WRT54G versions 1-4, WRT54GS versions 1-4. It will NOT work on newer models of these routers.

Method 1 – Load Chillifire through web interface of the original Linksys firmware (Normal Mode) Before proceeding with the installation, download the latest software version for the install http://forums.chillifire.net/viewforum.php?f=38. To see get an overview of all currently supported routers please go to http://www.chillifire.net/downloads.php. Not: the required file differs in this method depending on the model:

chillifire-wrt54g-squashfs.bin for Linksys WRT54GL and WRT54G version 1-4 chillifire-wrt54gs-squashfs.bin for Linksys WRT54GS version 1-3 chillifire-wrt54gs_4-squashfs.bin for Linksys WRT54GS version 4 chillifire-wrt54slgs-squashfs.bin for Linksys WRTSL54GS chillifire-wrt54g3g-squashfs.bin for Linksys WRT54G3G chillifire-wrt54g3g-em-squashfs.bin for Linksys WRT54G3G-EM

Note: We assume for this tutorial that the router you use brand new out of the box. If it is not, we recommend you first reload the Linksys firmware and reset it to Factory Settings before you proceed. Once you have successfully downloaded the Chillifire firmware, remove the sticker on the back of the router. Do NOT run the software on the DVD as requested on the sticker. Instead connect the router to the internet (via your ADSL modem or other internet connection) and your computer through the port marked 1 at the back f the router as shown in the diagram. Once these two connections are successfully made, connect the router to its power source. You will see the LCD labeled ‘Power’ on the front of the router flashing. Once this light has stopped flashing you can open your favorite browser on your computer. Type in the address http://192.168.1.1 into the address bar of your browser and press ‘Enter’. You will now see a pop-up window. Enter ‘admin’ as user name and again ‘admin’ as password and press the ‘OK’ button. Press the ‘Administration’ tab, and then the ‘Firmware Upgrade’ tab. On the ‘Firmware Upgrade’ tab press the ‘Browse’ button and locate the Chillifire software you had previously downloaded onto the laptop. Press the ‘Upgrade’ button.

Chillifire Hotspot Router Installation Guide Version 09.10 Please note the warning on the screen which says ‘Upgrade must NOT be interrupted’. Failure to comply may result in your router becoming unusable. Wait until the ‘Upgrade was successful’ screen shows AND the LCD labeled ‘Power’ has stopped flashing AND the LCD labeled ‘DMZ’ is off, (this may take up to 10 minutes). To be sure un-plug and re-plug the LAN cable connecting your computer and the router. Close the browser and open a new browser window. Type in the address http://192.168.12.1 into the address bar of your browser and press ‘Enter’. You will be presented with another logon screen. Enter ‘root’ as user and ‘shae-4’ as password. (You can change the password later to anything you like.) You will see the initial System Info screen, giving you details about version and status of the firmware. You were Successful!


Method 2 – Load Chillifire through TFTP upload (Expert Mode) This method is safer in many ways and also the preferred method for upgrades. Windows XP/Vista TFTP Client Instructions Steps one and two (download and connections) are the same as in method 1 above. Make sure your router is not connected to the power supply when you start. Windows Vista does not come with the TFTP client installed/activated in standard. Check that TFTP client is activated by going Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features On or Off -> Make sure TFTP Client is clicked, Presss OK

Set your computer’s IP address to static IP 192.168.1.22. Obtain IP address automatically MUST be switched off!


Open two command windows (XP: Start-Run-Enter "cmd", Vista: Start-All Programs-Accessories-Command Prompt)

In one window, type ping -t -w 10 192.168.1.1

and press enter. 192.168.1.1 is the router IP. Ping will continuously try to contact the router with 10 ms timeout instead of default 4000 ms. In the ping window it will start saying “Request Timed out”, “Destination host unreachable” or “Hardware error” or General failure”. Keep this running In the other window, go to the directory in which the downloaded firmware is located. In this example this is D:\Download. The command is D:

to move to the D: hard drive and cd \Downloads

to go to the Downloads directory. Now prepare the tftp command: tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT chillifire-wrt54g-squashfs.bin

Do not press enter yet! Now plug in the router’s power supply (unplug it first for 10 seconds if it was plugged in). Return to the tftp window. As soon as the ping window shows a successful reply (something like “Reply from 192.168.1.1: 32 bytes, time=2ms TTL=100”), press enter in the window with the tftp command. The image should now be flashed onto the router. If the transfer was successful, the system will let you know. The transfer takes between 7 and 20 seconds. Allow the router to do its thing. It will process the new image, reboot and configure itself. This will easily take 5-10 minutes. Now set your computer back to receiving an IP address through DHCP again (setting “Obtain IP address automatically”)

Chillifire Hotspot Router Installation Guide Version 09.10 Close the browser and open a new browser window. Type in the address http://192.168.12.1 into the address bar of your browser and press ‘Enter’. You will be presented with another logon screen. Enter ‘root’ as user and ‘shae-4’ as password. (You can change the password later to anything you like.) You will see the initial System Info screen, giving you details about version and status of the firmware. You were Successful!


Router Registration Please note: For the registration process to work your router MUST be connected to the internet and have a valid connection. If you cannot access the internet from the computer connected to the router, you are most likely not connected to the internet and this registration process will fail.

Setting your timezone Log in to your router with your username and password. Please select the timezone that is relevant for you or the one closest to you. Selecting the timezone will automatically reschedule the daily reboot to between 3-4am of your local time. It will also determine the most appropriate Chillifire server to connect to so that your users have the fastest possible online connection facility. Press the ‘Save and Apply’ button.

Link your router to your Chillifire account On the menu move your mouse over ‘Chillifire’, then press ‘Router Registration’. You now need to press the ‘Register Router’ button. 2. Next you will see the Chillifire login screen. If you already have an account created on our website or you are adding another router to your existing account, please type in your account name and password and press the ‘Login’ button. If you do not have an account yet, please press the ‘Signup Now’ button and create a new account (see step 3).


3. (Only if you had not yet created a Chillifire account) If you pressed the ‘Sign up now’ button, you will the Chillifire Control Panel Login screen. Choose an account name (up to 10 characters), enter the billing address details of your account (can be different to the physical address of the router(s), choose the default currency for your router(s) and finally, enter an affiliate code, if you have been given one (otherwise, leave empty). Press the ‘Register’ button on the screen and you will see a success message.

4. The system will direct you automatically to a screen that allows you to register the router against your account (regardless whether you pressed the ‘Login’ or the ‘Sign up now’ button in step 3. IMPORTANT: If you just Signed Up Now as described in step 8 be sure you activate your account first via the activation email you will receive. You cannot logon before you activated the account!

Enter the router location and press ‘Insert’. The system will return a message to confirm the successful registration of the router.

DONE!


Router Configuration This section describes how to change some configuration settings of the Chillifire Hotspot. While this list of configuration options is by no means exhaustive, it gives guidance to the most popular configuration options. All the configuration options described in this guide occur on the router. Please open your favorite browser, type http://192.168.12.1 into the browser’s address bar and press enter. You will need to log in with your user name admin and the password. The standard password is ‘shae-4’.

Define a “Walled Garden” A ‘walled garden’ is a facility that allows hotspot users access to selected sites without having to be logged on. This makes sense if you want to give access to your own website, i.e. your hotel’s or café’s information pages. The sites the users are allowed to have access to can be defined by entering them into the allowed sites filed and pressing the green button next to the entry field. You can remove allowed sites by pressing the red removal button next to the allowed site. On the Pages tab you can allow complete websites like, say, www.google.com. On the domains tab you can allow entire domains like .google.com (including www.google.com, maps.google.com, mail .google.com etc.) Press the ‘Save and Apply’ button.

Define your custom splash page / homepage In standard mode the Chillifire system will bring up a login page for users who have connected to the hotspot, open a browser, but are not yet logged in. However, this behavior can be changed with the Custom ‘Splash Page’ setting. Go to Chillifire->Custom Splash Page Enter your home page with the leading protocol http:// or https:// for example http://www.yourdomain.com/yourstartpage.html or https://www.yourdomain.com/yourstartpage.html You MUST include a link

Chillifire Hotspot Router Installation Guide Version 09.10 https://192.168.182.1:3990/prelogin into your home page. This link leads to the Login Page (if the user is connected to the hotspot network) so the hotspot user can buy tickets and can login. Press the ‘Save & Apply’ button

Change your router’s password Go to System->Admin Password The system will prompt you to enter a new password (twice identical) for the user ‘root’. Press Subimt to save and continue.

Change your router’s SSID (name of the hotspot the enduser will see) Go to Network->Wireless Change the SSID to any value you like. Allowed characters are large and small letters [A…Z], [a…z], [numbers [1…9], underscores and dashes [_-]. Please do use not any other characters and spaces, as this can cause issues. We recommend leaving all other settings as is, unless you really know what you are doing. To change channels, please see point 2 below. Press the ‘Save’ button


Add devices to the Whitelist to bypass hotspot authentication Devices that have been put on the whitelist will bypass the login procedure completely and have straight and unlimited access to the internet. The devices that are on the whitelist are defined by their MAC Address, which can be entered on the Chillifire Configuration Screen. Note: The MAC address of a device (laptop etc.) can be found on the bottom of the Chillifire login screen. Just enter the MAC address in the field and press the green ‘add’ button. Confirm your settings by pressing ‘Save &Apply’. To remove a device press the red ‘remove’ button next to it and press ‘Save & Apply’.

Change the wireless channel the Hotspot is sending on In an area with a number of wireless networks present it can be beneficial not to allow the router to select a channel by itself, but to look for other networks present in the area, and to select a channel that is not yet used. This will avoid interference and improve signal range and clarity for the receiving clients. In a wireless extender scenario, sending and receiving on the same channels between routers is essential. Go to Network->Wifi Press the ‘Scan’ button After scanning the environment for other networks the system will give you all the other networks it found and their channels. You can now select a channel that is not yet used in your specific environment. Press the ‘Save’ button To set more sophisticated Wifi settings refer to ‘Change wireless transmission settings’ below.


Assign the Ethernet LAN connections to either Hotspot or Free Access Go to the Administration section. Go to Network->Switch You can now assign the 4 LAN ports at the back of the router either to free internet access (VLAN0) or to Hotspot controlled paid internet access (VLAN2). The standard configuration has the inner two ports 2 and 3 assigned to the Hotspot, while ports 1 and 4 are guaranteed free internet access. We strongly recommend granting always free internet access to at least one port, preferably port 1, in case more significant repairs are required. Please observer the following rules, or you may break either specific ports or even the entire Hotspot configuration.

The Internet port must always be assigned to VLAN1 Do not assign ports 1 through to 4 to VLAN1 All VLANs must have port 5 assigned VLAN eth0.0 must have a star against it.

Violating any of these rules may cause the router to stop functioning. Press the ‘Save Settings’ button and confirm your settings by pressing ‘Save & Apply’ We recommend you reboot your router and also unplug the connected devices for at least 10 seconds before plugging them in again. This will enforce that the lease for a new IP address is enforced and that the tunnel for the chillispot connection is built up. We recommend you reboot your router.

Change wireless transmission settings Go to the Administration portal to Network->Wifi->Wl0. There you can set transmission power and other transmission and antenna settings. The settings will depend on the router’s capabilities and drivers. Recommended standard transmission power is 20dB equating to 100mW. Please take local health and transmission regulations into account when setting this value. Press the ‘Save & Apply’ button


Establish Quality of Service (QoS) and establish maximum throughput rates Go to Network->QoS You can set Q0S to 'Enabled' at the top of the Options section. Once that is done you have the option to set a maximum WAN upload and download speed. This will limit the speed for any connection regardless of settings you may choose as part of the Hotspot package setup. We do not recommend you manipulate the QoS firewall settings unless you have a thorough understanding of IP networking. The standard is configured to favor basic services like DNS traffic and SSH, treat web traffic as ‘Normal’ use, and treat P2P and other data intensive services as least priority. Press the ‘Save Settings’ button and confirm your settings by pressing ‘Apply Settings’

Chillifire Status, Addons and Upgrades Click on ‘Chillifire’ Here you can see the status of the Chillifire Hotspot, Restart your remote connection, force the upgrade of your router, and install additional modules. The list of add-on modules will be extended over time as requested by our client base.


Switch Configuartion The Asus routers have a switch tha can be configured via OpenWrt a switch allows you to split the four different LAN ports into different virtual LANs (VLANs). This is useful if you want to have some LAN ports to be controlled by the Chillifire Hotspot, while others have free access to the internet.

Go to the Administration section. Got to Network>Switch

Ethx.0 are the free ports (ports 1 and 4 in this example). Ethx.1 is the internet connection (the WAN). Ethx.2 are the Hotspot controlled ports (ports 2 and 3 in this example). As you can see the ports 1-4 are numerate 0 through to 3 on this router model.

Important: Never delete the 5, the * sign from the entries – it will kill your router’s switch and may stop your router from operating as expected.

Note: We also recommend you always leave at least one LAN port uncontrolled – in case you need to access your router through a LAN cable.

Additional Configuration Go to the Administration section. Got to Chillifire->Additional Configuration

Here you can set the default Idle Time-out period (the period of time an inactive user session on the hotspot is ended by the router) defined in seconds. The default is set to 2600 seconds which is one hour.

Clicking the anonymous button will disable the Chillifire logon during logon.

The Time of daily reboot define when during the day (in local time) the daily reboot is performed. Default is 4am in the morning.

Show Active Hotspot Connections Got to Chillifire->Connections

The system shows active usr connections and connected WDS routers. If users are logged in, there will be a ‘Disconnect’ link at the right hand side of the screen next to the logged in user. This button can be used to force a disconnection.


Backup and Reload Settings, Reset to Default Settings Go to System -> Backup / Restore Here you can save your current settings, reload old ones or reset to default settings of the Chillifire Firmware by clicking the appropriate link and following instructions.

Upgrading older Chillifire Versions First reboot your router. Wait for the router to be up and log in Go to System -> Flash Firmware Make sure you untick – ‘Keep configuration files’, Choose the firmware file that needs to be stored on your computer and press ‘Upload image’. It must be a firmware file ending with file extension .trx Note: In older version the path might be System -> Upgrade. There may also be a filed ‘Erase JFFS partition’ which needs to be clicked. The system will present you with an information screen and ask you to confirm that you wish t proceed. Press the ‘Proceed’ button. You then get update on the progress like so: Once the router rebooted you can close the browser, open a fresh browser window and reconnect to your router to login.


Revert back to Linksys Firmware

Method 1 – Load Linksys firmware through GUI Go to the Linksys support site and download the appropriate firmware for your router and region. Download the DD-WRT mini image from the DD-WRT website; at time of writing from http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/v24-sp1/Consumer/Linksys/WRT54GL_1.1/dd-wrt.v24_mini_generic.bin. Go to System->Upgrade, tick ‘Do not save configuration’, select the DD-WRT firmweare file dd-wrt.v24_mini_generic.bin and press ‘Upgrade. Wait… The system will reboot. Once finished, power down the router and power it up again. Enter 192.168.1.1 into the address bar of your browser and press ‘Enter’. You should the DD-WRT firmware loading. Click Administration. The system will ask you for a username and password. Enter user ‘root’ and password ‘admin’ (both without opening and closing quotes). In the field ‘Select file to upgrade’ the original Linksys firmware you downloaded. Press the ‘Upgrade’ button. The system will upgrade to the Linksys software and the next thing you will see is the Linksys firmware. Done!

Method 2 – Load Chillifire through TFTP upload You can upload the firmware in one step with tftp. Just download the original Linksys firmware you want to revert to and set your PC/Laptop to a ststic IP address and netmask of 192.168.1.22 and 255.255.255.0. Connect the router to the computer via network cable. Open two command windows (XP: Start-Run-Enter "cmd", Vista: Start-All Programs-Accessories-Command Prompt). In one window, type ping -t -w 10 192.168.1.1

and press enter. 192.168.1.1 is the router IP. Ping will continuously try to contact the router with 10 ms timeout instead of default 4000 ms. In the ping window it will start saying “Request Timed out”, “Destination host unreachable” or “Hardware error” or General failure”. Keep this running


In the other window, prepare the tftp command: tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT <name_of_the Linksys_firmware_file>

Do not press enter yet! Now you can plug in the router (unplug it first if it was plugged in). Return to the tftp window. As soon as the ping window shows a successful reply (something like “Reply from 192.168.1.1: 32 bytes, time=2ms TTL=100”), press enter in the tftp window. The image should now be flashed without multiple tries. If the transfer was successful, the system will let you know. The transfer takes between 7 and 20 seconds.


Appendix:

LINUX TFTP Client Instructions for TFTP

(Thanks to OpenWRT WIKI)

First you need to make sure that you can reach the router on your network, and that it can reach you. If you are using an existing machine which is not on 192.168.1.x, you can temporarily add an interface alias (on most modern Linux distributions). Presuming that the correct network interface is eth0 (if you don't know, assume that it's eth0), run this as root: ifconfig eth0:1 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0

When you're done configuring the router, run this (as root again) to take the alias down ifconfig eth0:1 down

netkit's tftp commands: tftp 192.168.1.1 binary rexmt 1 timeout 60 trace Packet tracing on. tftp> put chillifire-09.07-wrt54gl-squashfs.bin

Or, for a single command, so you don't have to retype each time: echo -e "binary\nrexmt 1\ntimeout 60\ntrace\nput chillifire-09.07-wrt54gl-squashfs.bin \n" | tftp 192.168.1.1

Setting "rexmt 1" will cause the tftp client to constantly retry to send the file to the given address. As advised above, plug in your box after typing the commands, and as soon as the bootloader starts to listen, your client will successfully connect and send the firmware. You can try to run "ping -f 192.168.1.1" (as root) in a separate window and enter the line "put chillifire-09.07-wrt54gl-squashfs.bin"1 as the colons stop running over your terminal when you power-recycle your router. If you get an ACK from your router but don't send any data, try a different tftp client. atftp works well. This occurs with some netkit tftp packages. ATFTP (Advanced TFTP) commands: atftp connect 192.168.1.1 mode octet trace timeout 1 put chillifire-09.07-wrt54gl-squashfs.bin

1 Replace chillifire-09.07-wrt54gl-squashfs.bin with the correct file for your Asustek router model

Chillifire Hotspot Router Installation Guide Version 09.10 Or use the command-line:

atftp --trace --option "timeout 1" --option "mode octet" --put --local-file chillifire-09.07-wrt54gl-squashfs.bin 192.168.1.1

(atftp source code: http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/atftp-0.7.tar.gz)

MAC OS X Client Instructions for TFTP

(Thanks to OpenWRT WIKI)

On Mac OS X, you should be able to flash the router with the command line tftp client, which behaves identically to netkit's tftp above.

Some people have had problems with the command line tftp client, however, and recommend using MacTFTP instead:

Download, install, and open MacTFTP Choose Send Address: 192.168.1.1 Choose the chillifire-09.07-wrt54gl-squashfs.bin Click on start while applying power to the WRT54G

Many Macs will disable the Ethernet card when the router is powered off and will take too long to re-enable the card, causing the TFTP transfer to fail with an "Invalid Password" error. Many people have had success if they manually configure their network card (in the "Ethernet" tab of "Built-in Ethernet" in System Preferences' Network panel) to:

Configure: Manual (Advanced) Speed: 10 BaseT/UTP Duplex: full-duplex

chillifire hotspot router installation guide...

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