This guide explains how to configure your Tomato-powered router to run trouble-free on a typical home network. Most broadband connections use DHCP, so at the end of this procedure you can just connect your router to your modem and restart both devices to provide wired and wireless connectivity to your network.
This page started as a setup log for a specific freshly-flashed router running Tomato firmware by Shibby. It can be used as a guide for any router running Tomato firmware.
First Steps
Turn off / disable your computer's wireless adapter and set your computer's Ethernet adapter to IPV4->Automatic/DHCP if it isn't set that way already (most are). Write down original settings if you'll want to return to them later.
Connect a cable from your computer's Ethernet port to a LAN port on the router. This should be the only network cable connected to the router during setup.
Request the main administration page with your web browser. By default it's at http://192.168.1.1/ and you can log in with root/admin. If you don't know the IP address or login credentials do a hardware reset.
A thorough factory reset will ensure the router's starting from the defaults with no leftover cruft from previous settings lurking in nvram.
Administration - Configuration Restore Default: Erase all data in NVRAM (thorough)
After a 90-second countdown click the "Continue" button.
The first order of business will be to disable wireless (for the time being).
Status - Overview Scroll down and disable "Wireless (eth1)"
If your router has two radios, disable both.
Next set the default password. At the same time we'll disable telnet and switch Web Admin to HTTPS.
Administration - Admin Access Web Admin: HTTPS (only) Disable telnet Set Admin Password <Save>
After a countdown you'll be redirected to your router via HTTPS. Your browser will display a warning because the router is using a self-signed certificate for the secure connection. View the Technical Details, click through, and log in again. Next go back to the default page.
Status - Overview
You will be presented with a notice about TomatoAnon, Shibby's information-gathering project. Click the link, make your choice, and click Save.
Network Settings
Next (optionally) set a MAC address for the wireless interface so the router's manufacturer will be evident by leaving the first three hex-pairs (Organizationally Unique Identifier or OUI) at the factory values. The other three hex-pairs will be randomly generated from 16,777,216 possible values.
Advanced - MAC Address
Wireless Interface: Random
Set the first three hex-pairs back to what they were originally.
<Save>
If your router has two wireless interfaces do this for both of them.
Next (optionally) set the network number from 192.168.1 to something else because using a unique network will avoid address conflicts if you use VPN or if your router is connected to another reserved private subnet. Choose a number between, say, 11 to 250 and replace the third number with your choice. If you choose 33 then everywhere that was 192.168.1.<something> will now be 192.168.33.<something> for you.
I also prefer to move the DHCP address range to 101-200 and use Static DNS servers. (OpenDNS server addresses are shown below. IP addresses for dns.watch servers are 84.200.69.80 and 84.200.70.40)
Basic - Network - LAN IP Address: (192.168.nn.1) DHCP Range: (192.168.nn.101-200) Static DNS: 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220 <OK>
Basic - Network - WAN Settings
DNS Server: Manual
DNS 1: 208.67.222.222
DNS 2: 208.67.220.220
Be sure to click OK to save your new settings for the br0 adapter.
Next re-enable wireless with some appropriate settings.
Basic - Network - Wireless
Pick a Radio Band (Not sure? Pick 2.4)
Pick a Wireless Network Mode (Not sure? Pick Auto)
Change SSID ("linksys" is, believe it or not, a good choice)
Leave Channel on Auto (for now at least)
Set Channel Width (Not sure? Use 20MHz for 2.4GHz; 40MHz for 5GHz)
Security: WPA2 Personal
Encryption: AES
Set a passphrase (20 or more characters recommended)
<Save>
If your router has two radios, use N-Only for the 5GHz radio. For the 5GHz radio's SSID maybe use the same SSID with something appended (e.g. if wireless is your SSID for 2.4GHz set wireless-50 or wireless5 for the 5GHz radio).
Your SSID string can be up to 32 characters long. There are reasons to add either "_nomap" or "_optout_nomap" to the end of your SSID string (e.g. wireless_optout_nomap / wireless5_optout_nomap).
After you Save, unplug your network cable, wait a few moments, and plug it back in before hitting the Continue button. Re-establishing the connection will cause the DHCP server to assign a new IP address that's on the new network. Your browser will display the warning again because of the network change. Do the same thing as before (view, click, log in).
Administrative Settings
Now set some mundane administrative settings...
Basic - Identification Router Name: <same-as-SSID> (<-- except no spaces) Hostname: <same-as-SSID> (<-- except no spaces) Domain Name: <your-network's-name>.lan (or leave blank) <Save>
The router name and hostname should not have spaces.
Basic - Time Time Zone: [your time zone] NTP Time Server: [your area of the world] <Save>
For rock-solid reliability, reboot your router once a week. If you do a lot of gaming, maybe reboot it once a day.
Administration - Scheduler Reboot once a week (e.g. Sunday @ 3:45am) <Save>
Optionally enable web usage monitoring.
Administration - Logging Monitor Web Usage <Save>
Device-specific Settings
Set some special settings for your router's hardware, if appropriate.
Advanced - Wireless Transmit Power: (50mW for E2000) <Save>
Set the CPU Frequency by logging in with SSH and executing these (E2000-specific) commands:
nvram set clkfreq=300,150,75 nvram commit reboot exit
Final Steps
That's it. Your router is ready for reliable service. Consider saving a backup of your configuration with
Administration - Configuration Backup Configuration
Return your computer to its original network configuration if you changed it at the beginning of this procedure.
Installing the router is typically a simple matter. Turn off both your router and your cable modem or DSL modem, wire them up (modem Ethernet port -> router WAN port), then turn on the modem first. When the modem is finished booting, turn on the router.
Enjoy your Tomato-powered router.