WRT54G - Access Restrictions

[tru-line]

I just bought a new WRT54G and I am wondering if anyone has had problems using the access restrictions feature of the router. I had a WRT54GSX2 router but I could not get that feature to work on the old router, now I am having the same problem with the new one.

Any problems, suggestions, fixes?

[devildance]

What firmware are you currently running on the router ? That's the first thing that comes to mind

[meee123]

What problems are you encountering with Access Restrictions? I know the latest firmware has an explicit deny feature and therefore once you enable an Allow Policy, let's say for a specific PC, the PC not defined on the policy will automatically lose internet connection.

Or the implementation may be different. Let's say you set an Allow policy on a specific time, you will not need to add a deny rule to deny internet connection on the same pcs defined on the allow policy.  The explicit deny feature will automatically take effect.

What specific rules are not working? Maybe I can help you.

[bluecrab]

I'm having similar problems.

Trying to create access restrictions to keep the kids off the Internet from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and also want to block runescape.com. All other PCs should have unrestricted Internet access 24/7.

I created rule #1 as an "allow" rule and plugged in the kids MAC addresses. Then I set up the time as 6 a.m. - 9 p.m., and blocked the runescape.com URL.

Everything works as expected. The kids restrictions work great! But, now I can't use my PC to access the Internet... Ok...

I created rule #2 as an "allow" rule and plugged in my MAC accress. I allowed 24/7 access with no restrictions. You'd think it would work, right? Nope! I still can't access the Internet with my PC.

I've tried reordering the rules, etc., and I can't get the restrictions to work the way that I want them to.

Any suggestions? Thanks!!

Steve

Message Edited by bluecrab on 11-19-200603:55 PM

[pjotr123]

I experienced the same problems, with the WRT54GL version 1.1.
I wasted an entire evening on fruitless attempts to apply access restrictions. But an update of the firmware solved these problems!

Firmware version 4.30.9 will allow you (at last) to apply access restrictions that do their job properly. As I have teenagers in the house, these restrictions are essential for me.

Unfortunately version 4.30.9 is still only available on the Linksys USA website, and only for version 1.0 of the WRT54GL router. But it can also be used in version 1.1 of the router, and in other countries as well. I checked this with the Linksys helpdesk. Version 4.30.9 is designed for both 1.0 en 1.1.

According to the Linksys helpdesk, the only difference between the USA version of the firmware and the European version, is that channels 12 and 13 are disabled in the USA version. This is because those channels are (in the USA) restricted for governmental use. These disabled channels will have no detrimental effect on the practical usability of the router in Europe.

Hope this helps some of you. I am a happy user now of this excellent apparatus. Additional advantage: it runs on Linux, which means it's stable, reliable, safe and tweakable!

Have fun, Pjotr.

Message Edited by pjotr123 on 03-07-200711:44 AM

[rsnavarro98]

The Access Restrictions problem is that you don't have your "Edit List of PC's" configured. The default WRT54G configs leave the "Edit List of PC's" section all set at zero, so, if no ip addresses are set, and you apply the access restrictions, than you have essentially firewalled yourself out.

So in Access Restrictions window, click on the "Edit List of PC's" button and in the "Enter the IP Range of the PCs" section put in a range you want to assign... up to you, but you have to put in the range that you configured on the Set Up page.... could be 100 ~ 163, or whatever number amount of pc's you want to vend out over dhcp or static.

[cbalogh]

Thanks so much for this information.  I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out why my rules are not applying as I had expected them to.  LinxSys really needs to fix the help text on this subject.

[cbalogh]

I updated my FW to 4.21.1 which was the highest I could find for product version 4 and my rules don't work.  I have spent close to 10 hours on this subject and at this point am frustrated beyond reality.

Can anyone who has this feature working, please respond with their product and Firmware versions.

Thanks in advance.

[gv]

Please post the exact and complete settings you are trying to use...

[w00tnes]

Hm I'm also having some problems with access restriction. I want to ban all services from 1024-65534 from 12AM to 12PM every day of the week, except for weekends. There are 10 computers in the house and so I made 2 policies (1 for other people in the house and 1 for me), the first one blocks all services from 1024-65534 on IP range 3-254 (as most of the computers get their IP from DHCP) and the second one (set on my IP) allows everything. The problem is that the second policy works well (I have internet connection, no blocked services etc.) but the first one...well it backfires, no one in that IP range can browse or talk on msn or even ping our DNS server
Do I have to enter each and every mac/IP or is the IP range good enough? It's a bit weird...

Thank you for your help (in advance) and a nice day to you all

P.S. the router is linksys WRT54GL V1.1 with it's original firmware - v4.30.7 (should I upgrade it?)