I purchased a Linksys WRT150N in hopes that it would be the end all wireless router for years to come.  I was replacing my old D-Link router that was reliable but didn’t have support for WPA.  Plus I tried to add new homemade antennas to it which was a big mistake, actually it solidified my needed a new router.  After some research I decided on a cheap WRT150N from Tigerdirect. I got it home, hooked it up and it did not have the connection speed or signal strength that I expected, in fact I almost returned it but managed to get it working.

Fast forward a year later and I am still not happy with this device.  So I did about 10 minutes of research and decide to flash the firmware with DD-WRT.  I figured worst case scenario is that I have to get a new wifi router, this time one that works.  Here is the steps that I took to update this firmware.  If you are planing on doing this read all of the documentation twice.  Do every thing that I have listed but dont let this be the last place that you search how to information and most importantly if you brick your route don’t blame me.

Offical Docs:Read these!

Also make sure that you have all of the websites saved, not bookmarked, just in case you brick your router and need to know how to try and unbrick it.

Steps I took:

  1. Restore your current router to defaults.  This option is located in the webGUI under administration
  2. In the webGUI under administration choose the option to update firmware.
  3. Now browse to the location where you save the the dd-wrt v2.4 mini file.  Yes you have to flash to the mini first
  4. Once the flashing begins DON’T TOUCH IT, don’t even breath for 5 minutes.  Even if it says that it done, wait 5 minutes!
  5. Now click the continue button.  Login with uid: root pwd:admin
  6. Go to the administration menu and click restore to defaults.
  7. Once that finished you will be prompted for the new admin user id and password, go ahead and set that
  8. Now navigate the the administration panel and upload the dd-wrt-v.2,4_generic.bin firmware
  9. After the count down go to the webGUI and restore back to defaults again
  10. Once again you are prompted for the new admin userid and password
  11. You are all set.

I have had great luck in the past few days.  I have had no drops and about 15-20% signal increase which allows me to browse the Internet and watch videos with out the constant buffering.

Good Luck!