I recently moved into a new apartment that included Internet service as part of the rental agreement. Of course, the landlord’s idea of included Internet amounted to my handing him my laptop while he surreptitiously typed his WEP password into my wireless connection settings in OS-X. I won’t even comment on how long it took me to open the KeyChain utility and find the key for use in my BlackBerry Bold, UMA enabled Nokia 6301 from Fido and so on, and all was well with my WiFi enabled electronics… except for one small problem…

For many years I have been a subcriber to Vonage’s VOIP service. I know there is much mixed feelings about Vonage out there, but they have served me incredibly well since I signed up in 2003. Vonage however, works though an ATA that only has an ethernet connector, so there was no way I could hook it to the landlord’s free Internet. Remembering that DD-WRT, the alternative firmware for the very common Broadcom and Atheros based WiFi routers that one can buy for about $40 – $50 at most consumer electronic stores today, can operate as a bridged client, I thought I would give it a try. [Read more...]