I moved overseas to undertake a position in Ireland and for my 'home broadband' I purchased myself a Netgear WGT634U wireless router to use with my NTL: Cable broadband connection. The router worked ok for a while, but it's DNS processes would crash every now and then. I went about upgrading the firmware from Netgear's site. Much to my disappointment, nothing was fixed so I took the next step. Putting on my development hat I broke my way in, removed the DNS tool that was causing the issues. This made me think about these devices a little more, especially with the USB option.
2 years later after moving back to Australia and with the recent purchase of a Australian 3G Wireless Broadband account which makes use of the Huawai E220 USB 3G/HSDPA modem my interest in this little project was reborn. I got the WGT634u out of the cupboard again and tried to get the modem working with the OpenWRT distribution and additional packages. It didn't work due to the nature of the USB modem having a Serial and USB Mass storage mode. I set about recompiling the operating system to include tools to better manage the device, but I ended up cooking the little router. I am now awaiting the shipping of a serial cable to fix it.
Having nothing to work on all of a sudden while I waiting for special cabling to arrive from the USA and China from Ebay I thought about some other hardware that might have been better suited. I found some of the emebedded Mini-ITX boxes that I was after and looking at the price tag of $700 i thought to myself, well I probably won't use this device all that often, so maybe I will get one with TV OUT and let it double as a media PC.
After digging around I could have put one together but it just wouldn't have the kick required for a HTPC displaying HD Content. Given the fact these devices are quite expensive, I priced up an alternative using more consumer based electronics and found myself leaning towards a proper PC.
After convincing myself I needed to spend the money I bought myself the hardware and I sit now awaiting its availibility for pickup!
This is my first blog ever and I hope that one day it becomes useful for someone.
2 years later after moving back to Australia and with the recent purchase of a Australian 3G Wireless Broadband account which makes use of the Huawai E220 USB 3G/HSDPA modem my interest in this little project was reborn. I got the WGT634u out of the cupboard again and tried to get the modem working with the OpenWRT distribution and additional packages. It didn't work due to the nature of the USB modem having a Serial and USB Mass storage mode. I set about recompiling the operating system to include tools to better manage the device, but I ended up cooking the little router. I am now awaiting the shipping of a serial cable to fix it.
Having nothing to work on all of a sudden while I waiting for special cabling to arrive from the USA and China from Ebay I thought about some other hardware that might have been better suited. I found some of the emebedded Mini-ITX boxes that I was after and looking at the price tag of $700 i thought to myself, well I probably won't use this device all that often, so maybe I will get one with TV OUT and let it double as a media PC.
After digging around I could have put one together but it just wouldn't have the kick required for a HTPC displaying HD Content. Given the fact these devices are quite expensive, I priced up an alternative using more consumer based electronics and found myself leaning towards a proper PC.
After convincing myself I needed to spend the money I bought myself the hardware and I sit now awaiting its availibility for pickup!
This is my first blog ever and I hope that one day it becomes useful for someone.
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