alt.hn

8/2/2026 at 4:19:17 PM

Rooting, firmware analysis and persistent credentials of TP-Link TL-841N

 https://blog.juni-mp4.com/posts/42/rooting-the-tplink-tl841n-pt1/

by mindracer

8/2/2026 at 7:05:25 PM

Just in case it helps anyone else, tio (https://github.com/tio/tio) is a great featureful alternative to picocom.

by blutack

8/2/2026 at 7:06:39 PM

i was searching for it today.. not available in my arch, unfortunately..

by pelasaco

8/2/2026 at 7:25:29 PM

What’s your arch?

by dvdbloc

8/2/2026 at 8:53:44 PM

the one that i was trying, omarchy.

by pelasaco

8/2/2026 at 8:59:35 PM

You can use snap or brew or build from source?

by queenkjuul

8/3/2026 at 4:03:52 AM

snap is a Ubuntu thing, nobody else uses it. Even Ubuntu users don't want to use it.

Nobody uses brew outside MacOS.

tio is in the AUR. Recent controversies aside, it's as easy as installing a regular package. But maybe GP doesn't have 10GB to install the entire build chain.

by gertop

8/3/2026 at 10:46:36 AM

You can run snaps wherever you want. Brew is available for Linux.

Point being: their "architecture" is not preventing them from installing

Also: i have no qualms with snap. Genuinely don't get the hate.

by queenkjuul

8/3/2026 at 5:59:01 AM

I have the 10GB, but i don't like the idea.. sounds like BSD Ports to me..

by pelasaco

8/2/2026 at 5:06:21 PM

The 841N works with OpenWRT. But AFAIR pretty much an EOL device with not much flash/ram.

by BlackRabbit1

8/2/2026 at 7:05:32 PM

the idea is more to get into hardware hacking.. the hardware is kind of irrelevant ... the most important thing is a sane UART exposed, documentation, videos about it and etc..

by pelasaco

8/2/2026 at 9:53:28 PM

If this thread is about the same model then yeah.

OTH I have a DIR-612 somewhere which is just chugging. I do need to add some ip dilters, but not less the enterprise would pay me.

wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=161581&postdays=0&postorder=asc

by justsomehnguy

8/3/2026 at 4:34:41 AM

Presently it seems to be unlikely to find an inexpensive (<150 USD) router that will run OpenWRT, supports modern wifi modes, and is reasonably fast.

I settled for a MikroTik model when replacing my mom's router. It almost fits the criteria. I can even port forward via SSH on it.

The one thing it won't do natively? IPv6 6RD, the cursed legacy ISP junk CenturyLink has for IPv6 on DSL or, according to some posts I encountered looking for a solution, their rare fiber runs.

So now it has a script I found online, triggered to run every 10 seconds because the PPPoE interface doesn't provide an 'on change' event hook. If the IPv4 address has changed the script tears down and puts back up the IPv6 address on the 6in4 tunnel and lease blocks.

by mjevans

8/3/2026 at 7:01:20 AM

> Presently it seems to be unlikely to find an inexpensive (<150 USD) router that will run OpenWRT, supports modern wifi modes, and is reasonably fast.

There's a couple ISP branded units that fit those parameters, with caveats. (Mostly around OpenWrt installation difficulty and the always in development state of brand-new 11be platforms)

However due to the price (Depending on availability in the 2nd hand market, it's very possible to get tri-band 11be routers for USD$50-100, usually with one or two 10GBaseT interfaces), there are still quite a few that overlook some of the difficulties involved.

> triggered to run every 10 seconds because the PPPoE interface doesn't provide an 'on change' event hook.

Normally this should be handled by a hotplug.d script in /etc/hotplug.d/ but I'm not familiar with the stock Mikrotik firmware.

by Namidairo

8/3/2026 at 7:04:29 AM

Modern wifi has always been a killer for OpenWRT. Usually expect to be 1 gen behind for a few years.

I wanted Wifi 7e recently (upgraded to really fast fiber) and went with Ubiquity for that.

I did find the Totolink X5000R extremely good. 50€, WiFi 6 on both bands, fast. But I couldn't find a 7e upgrade I would be happy with.

by treffer

8/3/2026 at 7:52:09 AM

Cudy WR3000 cost like 30-40EUR and runs OpenWRT, not sure what you consider as modern wifi modes and being reasonably fast

by Markoff

8/3/2026 at 7:44:35 AM

I remember tp-link's devices uart need password to log in.

by raytracer1

8/2/2026 at 10:37:50 PM

This reminds me of my first experience messing with serial on a router haha! Also, cool website!

by caretrs

8/2/2026 at 9:02:09 PM

I had one of those sitting in a drawer for years. I think i did get OpenWRT on it at one point. Eventually it just stopped working altogether, but i felt like i got more than my money's worth out of it. Even brand new that router cost next to nothing.

Funny enough i have the same multimeter too

by queenkjuul

8/3/2026 at 7:01:02 AM

[flagged]

by wisdomtreelzz

8/2/2026 at 7:06:08 PM

[flagged]

by youareinsuffera

8/2/2026 at 10:43:57 PM

Not a bad idea ;)

by leothetechguy

8/2/2026 at 7:08:28 PM

:)

wait until somebody read it.. its one vibe coding session away from done..

by pelasaco

8/2/2026 at 9:56:09 PM

I've LOLed too but just an idea of a router FW in a memory safe language... is awfully convincing.

by justsomehnguy

8/3/2026 at 2:39:51 AM

router7 [1], written in Go, might interest you.

[1] https://router7.org

by Fnoord

8/3/2026 at 5:57:46 AM

nice, hopefully the hardware support get better.. or maybe that's the challenge for hardware hackers like us

by pelasaco

8/3/2026 at 5:56:33 AM

absolutely, but it was so unexpected, that i had to LOL too :)

by pelasaco