D-Link DSL-2640S/Mel
Saturday, 2 October 2010 D-Link DSL-2640S. I managed to get hold of an almost new d-link sky router today. It didn't cost much as it is locked down to sky, but I was hoping I'd be able to flash it with a standard firmware, so that I can use it as a backup while I try to fix one of my other routers, both of which have hardware issues.
Meanwhile I've got the D-link sat on the side of my desk and am using it as a Wifi access point, while having a go at extracting the password generation code.
Here's a picture of the innards.
It is built around a Broadcom BCM63281KFBG, which according to a pdf I found on the Broadcom website, is a cost effective, low power chip, with support for power management. The Wifi chip is a BCM4313KML1G - single-band, IEEE 802.11n, with dual antenna support, although the router itself is only b and g capable.
As you can see there's minimal shielding on the wireless section, and judging by the PCB, the bcm63281 has an integrated switch. The inclusion of a power button at the rear, proved to be very useful while I was trying to access the shell.
It has four external Ethernet ports, and supports wireless 802.11b & g. The sky firmware includes support for WPA & WPA2, although you can't select WPA2 only. The firmware seems pretty good at automatically selecting an unused wifi channel, however it sometimes picks a channel used by a neighbour, possibly because they have their SSID hidden, so I found it necessary to manually select one.
The wifi signal is a little weak compared to my other routers, probably because of the internal antenna - the bit of steel with a wire attached at the bottom of the picture. I also wonder if they've limited the power output, to avoid causing interference issues due to the lack of shielding. There are unused solder pads on the PCB for a second antenna.
Mounting the router vertically improved the wifi reception by about 15%, and also makes the router run much cooler. It gets quite toasty while sitting on it's rubber feet, as the vents are at either end of the case. The wifi signal still doesn't match that of my other router's though, or even my neighbour's, it is however, more than adequate to reach opposite ends of my house.
Anyway, before trying to flash it, I wanted to try to access the shell, which, as it doesn't seem to have a telnet or ssh server running, requires a little hacking...
Getting root access didn't provide me with that much of a challenge, although the procedure I used did get a little complicated.
Needless to say it runs busybox under linux: |
---|
BusyBox v1.00 (2010.06.23-05:56+0000) Built-in shell (msh)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
# ls
bin dev lib mnt proc sys usr webs
data etc linuxrc opt sbin tmp var
# ls /bin
adsl dnsproxy iptables ps true
adslctl dnsspoof kill pwd udhcpd
brctl dsldiagd ln pwr umount
busybox dumpmem ls pwrctl upgrader
cat eapd mcpd rawSocketTest upnp
chmod ebtables mkdir rm urlfilterd
consoled echo mknod sendarp vlanctl
cp epi_ttcp mount setmem wl
date ethctl msh sh wlctl
ddnsd ethswctl nas sleep wlevt
deluser false nas4not smd wlmngr
df fc nvram sntp xdslctl
dhcpc fcctl nvramUpdate ssk xtm
dhcpd flash_eraseall ping sysinfo xtmctl
diapd hotplug ping6 telnetd
dmesg httpd pppd tftpd
# ls /sbin
ethctl ifconfig insmod logread rmmod syslogd
hotplug init klogd reboot route vconfig
# help
Built-in commands:
-------------------
. : break cd continue eval exec exit export help login newgrp
read readonly set shift times trap umask wait [ busybox cat chmod
cp date deluser df dmesg echo expr false flash_eraseall ftpget
ifconfig init insmod kill killall klogd linuxrc ln logger logread
ls mkdir mknod mount msh nc ping ping6 ps pwd reboot rm rmmod
route sendarp sh sleep sysinfo syslogd test tftp tftpd top true
tty umount vconfig wget
<small><pre>
cat cpuinfo
system type : 96328avng
processor : 0
cpu model : Broadcom4350 V7.5
BogoMIPS : 319.48
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 32
extra interrupt vector : no
hardware watchpoint : no
ASEs implemented :
shadow register sets : 1
core : 0
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available
</pre></small>
Mem: 24400K used, 36880K free, 0K shrd, 2676K buff, 9752K cached
Load average: 0.13, 0.08, 0.01 (State: S=sleeping R=running, W=waiting)
PID USER STATUS RSS PPID %CPU %MEM COMMAND
158 admin SW 0 2 1.7 0.0 bcmsw
1098 admin R 404 1096 0.5 0.6 exe
1002 admin S 140 1 0.1 0.2 telnetd
844 admin S 1576 187 0.0 2.5 httpd
188 admin S 1448 187 0.0 2.3 ssk
531 admin S 1392 187 0.0 2.2 wlmngr
187 admin S 724 114 0.0 1.1 smd
233 admin S 640 187 0.0 1.0 mcpd
608 admin S 532 187 0.0 0.8 upgrader
1005 admin S 500 1 0.0 0.8 pppd
114 admin S 464 1 0.0 0.7 sh
1096 admin S 448 1002 0.0 0.7 sh
195 admin S 416 187 0.0 0.6 syslogd
1 admin S 392 0 0.0 0.6 init
196 admin S 344 187 0.0 0.5 klogd
197 admin S 340 187 0.0 0.5 sntp
609 admin S 288 187 0.0 0.4 dsldiagd
250 admin S 216 1 0.0 0.3 dnsspoof
803 admin S 212 1 0.0 0.3 nas
799 admin S 124 1 0.0 0.2 eapd
^C#
#
Running the PPP daemon manually, reveals that "ps" masks the chap password with a couple of asterisks.
1005 admin 500 S pppd -c pppoa0 -a 0.0.38 -u mel@btbroadband.com -p **
1096 admin 448 S /bin/sh
1103 admin 388 R ps
If you've bought one off ebay, and want to check it works before flashing,
the typical format of the pppd command is:-
/bin/pppd -c pppoa0 -a 0.0.38 -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD -f0 -z1500&
Obviously you'd need access to the shell first (I've written a program to provide telnet access and also to extract
the password) and I suspect "pppd" will need to be run before connecting the router to the telephone line.
Finding a compatible firmware may prove to be very tricky though, I was hoping it would be the same hardware
as the broadcom based dsl-2640b, however this router's design seems to be a new one.
Update
D-Link have released the GPL source code
Posted by Mel at 10/02/2010 03:23:00 pm
Labels: DSL2640S
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