Installing a custom firmware in a WRT160n v3 Router

FirmwareRouter WiFi

So got my hands with an old WRT160n router from Cisco, perfect for a bit of experimentation.
I’m going to show how to install two different router firmwares for this router, DD-WRT and OpenWRT.
Before everything, you need to be connected via ethernet to the router.
The installation consists in the following:

  1. Downloading the wanted firmware from it’s page.
  2. Doing a 30/30/30 reset.
  3. Uploading the firmware in the maintenance mode after doing the 30/30/30 reset.
  4. Doing another 30/30/30 reset and select reboot.

Downloading the firmware

OpenWRT

For the OpenWRT firmware, we have the Barrier Breaker 14.07, which is the most stable to this date.

DD-WRT

For the DD-WRT you’ll want to download the v24-14929 build.
This is one of the latest stable versions for this router, other versions seem to break Wi-Fi.

Doing a 30/30/30 reset

The 30/30/30 reset will clear the NVRAM and set firmware back to default values.
It’s performed by the following set of steps:

  1. Having the router on, press the reset button on the back of the router (you might need a pen to get it) for 30 seconds.
  2. Without releasing the reset button, unplug the router and wait for another 30 seconds.
  3. Plug the power on still holding the reset button for another 30 seconds.

Afther doing the procedure the router will get resetted and you will see by getting into 192.168.1.1 the maintenance mode for the router.

Flashing the new firmware

In the maintenance mode, click on upload, select the firmware you have downloaded and then wait for it to be rebooted.
After this, it is recommended to do the 30/30/30 procedure selecting reboot when the router reaches the maintenance mode screen.

Some thoughts about custom firmwares

  • DD-WRT and OpenWRT seem to work perfectly in the versions given before.
  • DD-WRT does not support WPS and OpenWRT does but a package is required to be downloaded and the limited space that the router has makes it impossible to achieve that.
  • DD-WRT supports out of the box Client Bridge type of functioning an OpenWRT doesn’t, it is required to download a package called relayd, the same problem with the free space happens here also. Having the chance of getting your router into Client Bridge means that you can repurpose your old router to extend a bit your range.