Routers aren’t just for routing network traffic any more. With the help of alternative operating systems such as DD-WRT, Tomato, and OpenWrt, routers are now extremely customizable and can be utilized to suit a number of needs. The main issue with projects built around routers is the need to telnet or SSH into them to get to a console. [Sven Killig] came up with a useful solution that utilizes the USB ports available on an Asus router to display video on a DisplayLink device, allowing a user to sit down and use the device as though it were a physical terminal. This would be a good DIY alternative to commercially available routers that display network graphs, system information, incoming email, and other data.
very nice project. I’ll have to start playing around with this for network load monitoring. Could really come in handy.
So many routers today are very crippled, but this router has 8mb flash/32mb ram, and usb!?
pretty soon you’ll see someone playing super mario world on a router….while torrenting to a NAS setup.
@_matt Great idea! I will have to start working on it.
is it possbile to run apache or smth simillar on a router? :D
thx.
@private: If your router comes with a Linux based OS, it probably supports web hosting even without firmware modifications (although they are probably helpful). For example, my MI424WR has lighttp in /bin, and therefore can be configured to host from any directory out of the box. I’m sure it would be easy to upload Apache as well.
Flat Panel Display link ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPD-Link
No, I think I’m wrong with the above, it’s some usb video tech.
got distracted walking this guys website…
I used a Parallax Propeller chip to make an ASCII terminal. Used a PS/2 keyboard and composite video display on an otherwise broken portable DVD player. Stuck a MAX232 RS-232 level shifter in my Linksys WRT54GL for a serial console port. Connected the ASCII terminal to the console serial port. Done. You can buy dead portable DVD players with working screens on ebaY dirt cheap. Now I need to remember where I got the propeller software from. Probably on the Parallax Object Exchange. Hmmm…
i used an old palm as terminal for my openwrt based router, does no even need a level shifter (check https://www.neophob.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/121-Reuse-your-old-Palm-as-Serial-Console.html).
WRT54G’s and WL-500G’s are ok, but I would highly recommend looking into a router that plays nice with Kernel 2.6. Up until recently Broadcom has not been the most loved in the Open source community.
https://dev.openwrt.org/wiki/platforms
http://oldwiki.openwrt.org/CompleteTableOfHardware.html
Also, for those using MAX232’s, it’s much cleaner and easier to hack the end off a 3.3V cell phone data cable (dku-5 or similar) and install an 1/8″ phono jack.
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=46231#p46231
Not all cell phone data cables are made equal so make sure it’s an active device with a compatible chipset!
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/AddASerialPort
this is an awsome idea could there be some way to do this on my openwrt wrt54g? mabye via serial somehow?
fuckin awesome, i had a dream HUBs had a little LCD on them,that scrolled a graph of throughput etc
Thanks for the awesome post, it helped me out a lot.