Perl programmer for hire: download my resume (PDF).
John Bokma's Hacking & Hiking

Flashing a Linksys E1500 with DD-WRT firmware

June 4, 2017

Today I flashed a Linksys E1500 router with DD-WRT firmware. The router got originally decommissioned because it had a backdoor in the original firmware and to me it was easier to buy a new but different router and flash it with OpenWrt. So the E1500 ended up in a box until I decided to turn it into a wireless bridge so my mother-in-law, who lives across of us, could use our network as well.

Below follow the steps I took to flash the router, which is mostly a more concise version of the Flashing instructions for the E1500 section of the Linksys E1500 wiki page.

  1. Visit the Router Database and enter "E1500". Download the "E1500 v1 Firmware - Webflash image for first installation".

    The SHA256 digest for the file I downloaded is given below:

$ shasum -a256 -b dd-wrt.v24-21061_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-e1500.bin 
260bd9f6713a3ebf313e745bc24cc3bc10902b2445dbb5e62291c6053e260c14 *dd-wrt.v24-210
61_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-e1500.bin

  1. Assign a static IP address to the computer that is going to be connected to the Linksys router in order to flash it. As the router gets a default IP address of 192.168.1.1 and I want to assign 192.168.1.2 to it, I used 192.168.1.3.

  2. Disconnect all cables and wireless clients.

  3. Do a 30/30/30 reset on the router using a paper clip as follows below. I used Siri to set a timer for 99 seconds, which gave me enough time to be ready at the 1:30 mark to do the following steps:

    1. With the router powered on, press and hold the reset button located on the underside of the router for 30 seconds.

    2. Without releasing the reset button, unplug the unit and hold reset for another 30 seconds

    3. Plug the unit back in STILL holding the reset button a final 30 seconds

  4. Connect a LAN cable to LAN port 1 of the router. Make sure the computer you use is not connected to any other router, e.g. wireless.

  5. http://192.168.1.1/ login using your username and password, or use the default user admin. with default password admin.

  6. Flash the firmware as follows:

    1. Select 'Administration' in the Cisco Linksys E1500 web interface.
    2. Next, select the 'Firmware Upgrade' option to the far right.
    3. Browse to the file you just downloaded and select it.
    4. Select the 'Start Upgrade' button
    5. Wait 5 minutes to assure flash integrity.

  7. Power cycle by unplugging the E1500 for 10 seconds.

  8. Plug the E1500 back in and wait about 2 minutes until it finishes booting.

  9. Do a 30/30/30 reset on router. Another power cycle may be required after the hard reset.

  10. Wait 3 minutes and log into web interface.

Start configuring and using DD-WRT.