Gargoyle Router – A Not So Ugly Solution to Bandwidth Monitoring and Quotas ...

GARGOYLE- [gahr-goil] NOUN – a grotesquely carved figure of a human or animal

Gargoyle Router  is an alternative firmware for a number of different routers that allows you to monitor bandwidth usage by user  and set and enforce bandwidth quotas on particular users.

Let me preface this review with a warning. I’m an alternate firmware junkie. Any device I’ve got that has an alternative firmware available has been flashed.  My HTC Desire was flashed straight out of the box, my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ the same. My various routers have had multiple firmwares installed on them over the years. Note that flashing an alternate firmware WILL void your warranty, and a bad flash has the potential to brick your device and make it unuseable and unrecoverable.  If you are not comfortable with the whole procedure and risk of flashing an alternative  firmware then please don’t. 

In Australia, almost all ISPs have set download/upload limited plans with some form of shaping if you exceed the limit.  So how do you stop that one ( selfish? ) family member or flatmate from chewing up all your available bandwidth and getting you shaped in the first week of your plan or even  tell who’s been downloading the most youtube, bit torrent or other stuff ?? This is the issue I had at home with my three boys.  Of course I had my suspicions which of them it was but no firm evidence*.  So my search to find a router that would allow me to gather and maintain some control over bandwidth consumption began.

Garygoyle router is a derivation of OpenWRT  that runs on a variety of different routers, everything from the very old and reliable Linksys WRT54G to much newer hardware. I’m currently running it on a  TP-Link WR1043ND ,  a cheap sub $80 router.

As you’d expect from a router it does all you standard routery stuff….sets up your connection with your ISP, controls your Wireless and security ,QOS,  dishes out DHCP addresses, gives you control over what time’s wifi or internet is enabled or disabled etc.  I’m going to skip over all these “standard” functions and just concentrate on what’s special about this firmware.

It seems these days that any device is capable of connecting to the internet, whether it’s your notebook, your phone, your ipod, your DS……..so the first thing I needed to do is to setup some static DHCP addresses.

WRT54G Firmware Upgrade Notes

For some time I’ve been wanting to upgrade the firmware (built-in software that controls most modern electronic devices) in my wireless router. I use a Linksys WRT54G, which is a typical wireless router that acts as a wireless access point, 4-port hub and internet router, all in one small package.

To some degree the reason for performing an upgrade like this is simply because it’s possible, though there’s no doubt that the new firmware does offer a much cleaner design than the factory default software; almost every interface screen is improved compared to the original. In addition, there are bug fixes and new, advanced features such as the ability to increase the transmitter’s power, more informative status pages and the ability to manage bandwidth usage by application (so that bit-torrents don’t consume the entire network, ahem).

Additionally, while on vacation I haven’t checked my work email (not even once) for the past week (a true rarity for me!) and this mini-project (3-4 hours last evening) provided a bit of a technical outlet for me. Also, I suppose this report is related to the concept of experiential learning we’ve discussed at work; I hope it’s useful for someone contemplating upgrading their router.

I began by refreshing my memory about the topic of wireless router firmware upgrades and found an excellent article that provides a good history and overview of the subject: The Open Source WRT54G Story .

The Linksys Routers Tricks, Tips and Firmware page provides some very useful background information.

A variety of firmware upgrade options are available, and this 3rd Party Firmware Comparison provides details about 4 of the most popular choices.

After a while I began zeroing in on a selection, and this first-hand account of someone’s experiences upgrading their own router helped solidify my choice: DD-WRT .

I quickly found a great (clear and accurate) set of WRT54G upgrade directions and shortly thereafter was back on the internet via a router that had just had the electronic equivalent of a brain transplant. After I finished my upgrade I found another page with upgrade directions that looks pretty informative and includes a photo gallery of screen-shots taken during the upgrade process.

Just in case there were any problems, I had a great router firmware upgrade troubleshooting page open for reference; thankfully it wasn’t needed.

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