Router Firmware Question

[JacoFett]

I'm just wondering what programming language is router firmware usually written in? I may decide to go into firmware of some type because I enjoy writing low level code. This is just a question that I would like to be answered.

Thanks in Advance!!

 

[kanewolf]

Most of it is is C. Many router vendors release the source code to the open-source community. Second source firmware like Padavan -- https://bitbucket.org/padavan/rt-n56u/overview starts with the vendor release and extends.

 

[bill001g]

You can download the images from dd-wrt or open wrt. You can even get asus merlin source.

Unfortunately you will discover like I did all the really fun stuff in the wireless part of the router you have no access to. Anything related to the wireless communication is run on the radio chips and the firmware that runs on those is provided by the chipset manufacture in binary form. All you can do it load the radio cpu firmware into the chip. You are then stuck with whatever function the chipset manufacture allows you to access. It seems the FCC more or less forced them to do this so people would not violate the certifications the chipset has.

I just wanted a counter of how many times packets were retransmitted before a packet with no errors was received. So far that does not seem possible.

Pretty much the only stuff you can mess with are all the menus and the actually router function. This is kinda boring since linux based routers have been around for many years. If you have not done it before I would just load the linux based routers onto a PC it tends to be easier since you can run vm and stuff and not be restricted by the small memory and lack of permanent storage on a router.