Pfsense in Netgear wnr3500L v2

mackieboy · Nov 26, 2012, 3:08 PM

Hi all. ;D

this is my first post and my first attempt at modding a router.
Can I install pfSense directly onto my Netgear wnr3500L v2, ie replacing the firmware. via my pc (Win7)
I know that others (dd-wrt and tomato) gives you a chk firmware file to replace via update.
Its a opensource linux router so it should work. The only install instr I found is about installing it onto a harddrive or usb…
And yes, Ive searched. but I guess Im not that good at it.

Sorry for the newb question, ::) but If someone could point me to the corret installation guide, or a few pointers, Id be glad.

Regards mackieb

johnpoz · Nov 26, 2012, 4:00 PM

No you can not install pfsense onto that sort of hardware.

You could use that router as just a wireless AP with your pfsense router - that you install onto say OLD pc hardware, or run on VM or install to some appliance type hardware.

Those boxes are very very low end hardware memory, cpu power, storage – specific firmware for them has is available, like the 2 you mentioned dd-wrt, tomato and openwrt, etc. You would have to look to see which 3rd party firmware supports your specific hardware.

Do you have an OLD PC laying around? It doesn't take much horsepower to run pfsense, but those types of devices just not designed to run freebsd, which is what pfsense runs on.

I am sure you would love the power and features that pfsense brings if you have the hardware available, then just use your wireless router as accesspoint.

mackieboy · Nov 26, 2012, 7:37 PM

Damn. then I guess I wasnt so bad at google:ing ;)

What I want to do is to set up a kind of light Captive Portal.
I want to redirect / point all traffic on 8080 to a specific site, and limit the internet access to that site.
pfSense had a that kind of feature… but perhaps I can achive that with one of the other firmwares.

Thnx for setting me straight on this one.

stephenw10 · Nov 29, 2012, 1:39 PM

OpenWRT has a number of captive portal packages available. Though I've never had cause to try any of them. ;)
http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/wireless.hotspot

Unfortunately it doesn't look like your router is supported.
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wnr3500l
Probably because of the NAND flash.

Steve

Edit: This website is linked to from the openwrt wiki: http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/list?cat=73
I've not seen it before looks like a lot of useful stuff there. Enough to get you started anyway. :)

mackieboy · Nov 29, 2012, 1:25 PM

thnx alot, I appreciate it. maybe Ill get a Cisco WRT54GL

johnpoz · Nov 29, 2012, 1:51 PM

pfsense not going to run on that either ;)

Why don't you just fire up pfsense on OLD pc, or some hardware it will run on - and then just use your wireless router as accesspoint. Then sure you can use the pfsense captive portal.

stephenw10 · Nov 29, 2012, 3:20 PM

The Linksys WRT54GL was the ideal platform for OpenWRT/DD-WRT etc a few years ago but these days it's looking a bit weak. The Netgear WNR3500L, that you already have, is far far more powerful:
480MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, 128MB ROM.

Choose one of the firmwares linked to above, say this one, configure captive portal on it. ??.??. Profit! ;)

Steve