Here’s one of the better Asterisk-related hacks I’ve seen lately (though it’s nothing really new). The Linksys WRT54G series is, after all, flash-able, and it’s mostly Linux-based (saved for some versions that use another firmware). So this essentially means you can flash and re-flash your WRT54G router with another Linux variant, and you can configure it to run various Linux-based software, such as Asterisk.

Here’s an old but useful guide on how to install Asterisk on your WRT54G (or variants) router. It basically involves installing OpenWRT on your router and then installing Asterisk. OpenWRT is a Linux distro specifically intended to run on these embedded devices (meaning they’re not really computers, but they run their own operating system), and this depends on how much space and processing power your router has.

Reportedly, a version of Asterisk 1.4.x for OpenWRT is already downloadable at the OpenWRT forums. These are also available for download here.

And what are the interesting applications of using Asterisk on a wireless router? For one, you can use your router as a wireless gateway, so yo ucan use WiFi-enabled VoIP phones as your VoIP clients. This works pretty much like how a cordless VoIP phone would, and even one that works with WiFi. But you no longer need a separate Asterisk installation on another computer connected to the network. The router takes care of that. Some communities have reportedly installed WRT54Gs with high-altitude aerial antennae so they can use their VoIP phones to communicate even when outdoors (particularly useful in rural areas or farm lands, where wireless is preferred to wired networks).

We’ll discuss the specifics of installing Asterisk on routers later on.

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