Thanks to the shoddy job that Linksys did with the WRT300N, I grudgingly purchased a new Linksys WRT610N. What a pleasant surprise! Finally another decent product from Linksys. Not that i’ve ever expected much from the bargain networking gear, but the WRT300N was very, very bad. Several of the features didn’t work consistently, new firmware was no where in sight, and the 802.11n was abysmal. The WRT300N made me regret ever upgrading from the WRT54GS, which was one of the best routers on the market and still is in the 802.11g game.
Fortunately the new WRT610N solves most of those problems. The simultaneous 2.4/5ghz radios make life really nice and performance is good. I’m now able to run all of my 802.11n gear on 5ghz while 802.11g stays on 2.4ghz. Each radio can also be restricted accordingly. Very handy. Well done Linksys. The updated features of the firmware are always welcome as well. More granular control over the system for those who need it definitely helps. And then there are those surprise features that we get from time to time.
I’ve recently started running IPv6 on my home network for the enhanced features that are offered. Things that were extensions in v4 are part of the standard in v6 and can make life nice, especially in high throughput situations. Imagine my surprise when I was updating my Ubuntu box and noticed that the WINE mirrors’ IP address was a v6 one! So apparently, the WRT610N does IPv6, it just doesn’t tell you! This is some scary stuff folks, imagine that modern operating systems come with IPv6 enabled and people go and buy this router, not knowing that their doors are now open via a whole new protocol. Granted, most home users will never know, but I seriously wonder if the firewall in the 610N has v6 support.
Let’s hope that Linksys is one step ahead of us here or a lot of users are about to get their horizons broadened when the hackers start coming in via IPv6. 
For those who are unfamiliar with IPv6 and would like to know more, Ars Technica has a nice primer. Read more here.
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#1 by Alex on February 3, 2009 - 12:53 am
What firmware is yours running, and can you actually configure IPv6 on the device or how were you connecting? 6to4? teredo (yes i know you said you used ubuntu)?
#2 by ekrunch on February 3, 2009 - 10:23 am
Firmware Version: 1.00.00 B18
No device level configuration required… it just started working. I had a standard IPv6 setup going on all of my machines already and was using Multicast DNS for the name resolution duties. Ubuntu just picked up the ball and ran with it once the v6 DNS entries started coming in. XP is a bit more touchy about it but it’s working. I can use ipv6.google.com and all of that jazz.
#3 by ekrunch on February 3, 2009 - 11:58 am
Forgot to mention, it’s the stock Linksys firmware, no DD-WRT or anything like that.
#4 by Jonas on February 9, 2009 - 3:17 pm
I think what has happend is that your Ubuntu is running a torredo tunnel through the NAT FW. Check with ifconfig to see it you have sitX interface that are running IPv6OverIPv4 tunnel.
#5 by ekrunch on February 9, 2009 - 3:24 pm
Normally i’d agree with you except for two things.
All of my XP boxes do it without the Ubuntu box being powered up.
I swapped it back to the WRT300N just for laughs and it breaks XP and Ubuntu’s v6 support.
And just for laughs, here’s the IPv6 traceroute from my XP box, the Ubuntu box is off right now.
C:\Documents and Settings\Ed>tracert6 ipv6.google.com
Tracing route to ipv6.l.google.com [2001:4860:0:2001::68]
from 2002:43af:1a87:0:f09c:5de5:5675:3289 over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * * 133 ms 2002:82f4:31::1
3 161 ms 159 ms 161 ms 2a00:800:0:1::28:2
4 161 ms 160 ms 161 ms 2a00:800:0:1::43:1
5 158 ms 154 ms 155 ms pr61.ams04.net.google.com [2001:7f8:1::a501:5
169:1]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 243 ms 244 ms 242 ms 2001:4860:0:2001::68
Trace complete.
#6 by Yrich on February 28, 2009 - 12:10 am
So, just for clarification – there is nothing in the management interface for the router that lets you configure IPv6? It just configures the 6to4 prefix, sends out RAs to any listening devices, and knows the anycast IPv4 addresses for the 6to4 relays?
It is nice to see some vendors get on the IPv6 bandwagon – but this doesn’t really seem like the right approach…….
#7 by ekrunch on February 28, 2009 - 12:51 pm
That is correct. Although i’m not sure what it’s doing and whether or not it’s doing any sort of 6to4. I may disable IPv4 on one of my machines and see if I can still get to any v4 sites. Right now i’m running a dual stack setup on all of my machines due to the lack of applications that support v6. If I could, i’d disable v4 on my local network.
I’d agree with you that this is not the correct approach because there is no way to configure/disable it. There’s a new firmware update out that says “- Resolved IPv6 and other security issues.” What that tells me is that it’s probably going to disable IPv6 altogether or at least add an option for it.
If anybody decides to buy one of these devices because of the IPv6 support, the firmware that i’m running is “1.00.00 B18″. Whether it is a mistake or not, it works.
#8 by ekrunch on February 28, 2009 - 1:26 pm
Update : I disabled v4 on my Windows 7 Beta machine and it failed miserably. I could no longer ping any v6 addresses even if I forced IPv6 using the “-6″ option. I even restarted the adapter and rebooted the PC in hopes that it was just a side effect from me disabling it, but no. There is either a tunnel going in the WRT610N or the W7 machine just doesn’t know how to exist without v4. I need to try it on my Ubuntu box.
The WRVS4400N that I have in my lab works via tunnels so it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s how the WRT610N was doing it, although the WRVS4400N has the proper configuration options for it.
I’m going to apply that firmware update this afternoon and see what happens.
#9 by Phil P on March 21, 2009 - 10:38 pm
The 2002::/16 address used as the source address of the traceroute shows that this is a 6to4 address. If you have NAT for IPv4 then this means that the NAT box is setting up the 6to4 stuff, because 6to4 doesn’t work through NAT. If it were Teredo, the source address would be in 2001:0::/32 instead.
The problem without IPv4 will be a lack of DNS service — if you can find some IPv6-accessible open resolvers, or if the 610N has a DNS cache built in and accessible over IPv6, then you should be able to put this in manually. At the current time, Router Advertisements don’t support conveying DNS resolver information and DHCPv6 client support is scarce.
If you’re pinging an address only, remember to disable reverse DNS queries for the results.
So there’s no configuration option to set up a static tunnel and you’re stuck with 6to4? That’s a shame, but better than nothing.
#10 by Yuhong Bao on June 26, 2009 - 5:36 pm
“I’ve recently started running IPv6 on my home network for the enhanced features that are offered. Things that were extensions in v4 are part of the standard in v6 and can make life nice, especially in high throughput situations.”
And most importantly, you will be ready when the 32-bit IPv4 address space is exhausted.
#11 by tom on May 22, 2010 - 10:34 pm
did you run your WRT610n wireless ?coz I have hell of a time to set up wireless network on ubuntu 10.04 ,open suse, fedora and BT4
maybe this dual band router is to new) i need a driver to make it work
#12 by ekrunch on May 23, 2010 - 11:39 am
I doubt the router has anything to do with your Linux setup problems. I ran several Ubuntu laptops with wireless on this router. It’s most likely your wireless card acting up or not being well supported by Ubuntu. I’d post in the Ubuntu support forums.