one-day sale on hackable wireless router

[James Knott]

D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> | From: Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
> 
> | On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 11:53:47AM -0400, James Knott wrote:
> | > The source code is available from that site, so if you're so inclined 
> | > you can hack it.
> | 
> | Having source code is not the same as having the ability to generate and
> | load new firmware.  Just look at the tivos.
> 
> True.  But it is even worse than that.  Even if the system will let
> you flash firmware that you have built (i.e. has a flash mechanism and
> does not require the firmware to be signed with a key that only the
> manufacturer has), there are real practical problems that I've
> observed:
> 
> - the released software is generally incomplete.  Some of the stuff
>   built on top of Linux is usually proprietary.
> 
>   Sometimes one can replace this with open source, sometimes not.
> 
>   Sometimes one can grab the binary of the proprietary stuff from
>   inside a firmware load and put it in your firmware build.  A messy
>   job.
> 
> - Often the build system isn't provided and it is work to recreate it.
>   If you don't exactly recreate it, you may well expose latent bugs in
>   the source code.
> 
>   Often the build system requires a particular (unspecified) host
>   system.  That may be awkward to discover and provide.
> 
> - Some systems have no recovery system for when you flash buggy
>   firmare.  If you build it, it will be buggy.
> 
> - Too often, the released source doesn't actually match the released
>   firmware.
> 
> - the community of interested hackers is too small to spread the
>   required development load
> 
> I think that all of these have happened in the case of the Linksys
> WRV200.  A great disappointment to me.
> 
> I bought one on the strength of the downloadable manual.  It had a
> described an IPsec feature that was only implemented by FreeS/WAN and
> its successors.  I wanted this feature and I was amused to buy
> something off-the-shelf with code that I wrote.
> 
> - the feature was not, in fact, available.  Because the GUI didn't
>   support it (the code underneath certainly did).  When I phoned
>   support, they said the manual was wrong.  I should have returned it
>   there.
> 
> - they dragged their feet releasing source.  Even when they did, it
>   was for old versions.

The Asus site has the source code for the latest and older versions 
available.
> 


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