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Open Source Router To Replace WRT54GL? 344

jeremyz writes "With the inclusion of 802.11n in more and more Wi-Fi devices, the WRT54GL is losing its usefulness, even though it's still the de-facto standard for open source, Linux-running wireless routers. I've been looking around for a 802.11n router to replace the WRT54GL, but haven't really found anything besides the Netgear's WNR3500L. At first look, the WNR3500L looked great, but after some further investigation, I found that Netgear hasn't released all of the source, as they should have to comply with the GPL. Are there any good 802.11n routers to replace my aging WRT54GL?"
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Open Source Router To Replace WRT54GL?

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  • ALIX (Score:5, Insightful)

    by binarylarry ( 1338699 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:01PM (#31970356)

    PC Engines' ALIX routers are my favorite: http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm [pcengines.ch]

    (no I don't work for them, I'm not even from Europe)

    They have all kind of configuration options, removable storage, lots of case options, they're reliable and they're pretty fast. They run a few distros, including OpenWRT, so you can choose what your favorite Linux or BSD router distro is and have at it.

    • NO gig-e low number of ports and pci bus for most of them and most of them don't even have more then 1 pci slot.

      to make a one that can use gig-e and n wifi pci-e is better.

      • by binarylarry ( 1338699 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:09PM (#31970392)

        You realize it's a router, not a switch, right? This is going to be hooking up to your ISP... which probably isn't anywhere near fast ethernet, let alone gigabit. If you want gigabit, hook it up to a gigabit switch. If your network edge is gigabit, get real networking hardware because nothing netgear (or PC Engines) sells is going to handle that extremely well.

        As far as wifi, it's mini-pci, so you can choose whatever hardware you want. Want a really nice high watt atheros N card? You can use it and you can easily use any antenna you want as well.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by raju1kabir ( 251972 )
          More and more ISPs are offering consumer connections that would require gigE. Would be a bummer to get a gigabit connection for $25 a month and then have to lay out several hundred dollars to actually get that speed routed around my house.
          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            Where can you get a gig-e connection at home?

            Seriously, that's total bullshit. I don't think I've heard of a consumer connection that does over 100mbps let alone 1000mbps. Hell, even the new VDSL2+ that was reported a few days ago maxed out at around 250mbps.

            If you're going to make claims like this, at least have the sense to back it up.

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by neumayr ( 819083 )
              It's news to me too, but that 250 Mbps you're talking about indeed does require gigabit ethernet.
              • If anyone thinks they will get anywhere near 250mpbs of throughput without a SLA (and the $$$ premium that goes with it), then I would like to offer them some ocean front property I have in Colorado. The link may run at 250mbps, but 100BASE-T will choke the pipe in 3 seconds. The VDSL2 DSLAM will probably be up-linked by a OC4 circuit. It is, after all, the phone company.
            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by JWSmythe ( 446288 )

              I think there was one provider overseas who stated that they intended to offer 100Mb/s to the customer. Since most of us are in the US, we aren't going to see those kinds of speeds any time soon.

              I had a quick look at the Verizon FiOS site. 50Mb/20Mb was the fastest residential line they offer. For business customers, they offer a 35Mb/35Mb account if (for those serving or uploading), or the 50Mb/20Mb which would be more targeted towards offices who are downloading more than

              • by icebraining ( 1313345 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @10:00PM (#31970922) Homepage

                One of my local ISPs in Portugal is offering a home connection of 1gpbs (up and down), plus HD TV for 250E / month. Yes, it's expensive, but it's not a 5 figure, not by a long shot.

                • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

                  by Anonymous Coward

                  I'm also from Portugal.

                  Although you are technically correct, if you are referring to ZON's service, I should say that I highly doubt they'll deliver the 1Gbps they claim (given all my previous experiences with this ISP).

                  Also, given the arbitrary download limits they have, I'm not so sure a 1Gbps pipe from ZON is a good idea (i.e. in the contractual fine print, they say you have unlimited data transfers up to "reasonable levels of consumption" but NOWHERE does it specify an actual objective limit; if you do

            • The important piece is that 250Mb/s won't fit on a 100Mb/s pipe, but it will fit on a 1000Mb/s pipe. So, if you don't have gigabit ethernet, you won't get the full bandwidth.
            • by icebraining ( 1313345 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @09:55PM (#31970908) Homepage

              Real 100mbps do require gigabit. If a router is rated for 100mbps, that's its theoretical limit. It won't actually support constant 100mbps.

              I don't think I've heard of a consumer connection that does over 100mbps let alone 1000mbps. Hell, even the new VDSL2+ that was reported a few days ago maxed out at around 250mbps.

              Not everyone is from the US, you insentivide clod. We have fiber to home [google.com] up to 1Gbps.
              200mbps + 116 HD channels + Phone w/ unlimited calls = 100E/month.

            • "Where can you get a gig-e connection at home?"

              Sweden, where an old lady has a 40Gbps connection. [slashdot.org]

              You must be new here.

            • by Algan ( 20532 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @11:19PM (#31971208)

              Cablevision's Optimum Ultra is rated at 101mbps. And they recommend a Gig-e router to get close to the rated speed. Docsis 3 standard is good for up to 171/343 mbps depending on the number of allocated channels so it's conceivable that most cable providers will be able to pass the 100 mbps barrier in the near future. So if one buys a router these days, it's a good idea to future proof it and get one that has gig-e ports.

            • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

              by bbn ( 172659 )

              I got a gigabit connection at home. So do all my 1650 neighbors that live in this apartment complex.

              Download test to a server local to the ISP (it is NOT on my home network):
              baldur@pkunk:~$ wget -O /dev/null http://bolignet.farummidtpunkt.dk/1GB [farummidtpunkt.dk]
              2010-04-25 10:32:37 (111 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [1073741824/1073741824]

              Download test to a server in a different country and a different ISP:
              baldur@pkunk:~$ wget -O /dev/null http://speedtest.tele2.net/1GB.zip [tele2.net]
              2010-04-25 10:36:42 (13,8 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [107

        •     You're absolutely right. Several years ago, we were looking at firewall solutions for our GigE pipes. Lots of people had GigE copper inputs, but when we pushed for details it always came down to the simple fact that their hardware couldn't push that kind of traffic.

              We looked at building our own PC based boxes to do it. It all came down to the fact that the cards couldn't really push the speeds.

              The only solution for GigE that can achieve full line speed is the proper hardware, and you're going to pay a premium for that. You want to route or switch GigE speeds, you're going to put in something like a Cisco Catalyst 6500 series switch (or better). You can pick up a 6500 fairly cheap these days on eBay. Well, cheap in relative terms. It won't be anywhere near the cost of a Linksys AP. :)

        • by RMingin ( 985478 )

          I have a router with gigabit ports. Know why? Because feeding a 300Mbit wireless link from a 100Mbit wired link is sad.

          If you need 802.11n, odds are you want more than 100Mbit/s into it.

          And yes, I do watch HD media over the air, so 802.11g with it's nominal 54Mbit is not enough. Granted, most of my media is under 20/30Mbit, but it also needs to read ahead to buffer at startup, and get a consistent throughput of at least the bitrate of the media.

          I'm sure your next snark would be to tell me to get separate 80

        • It's also going to be tying your wired and N speed wireless ports.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        If you need gigabit routing, soekris is coming out with some new boards that have it, but they're 2x+ as expensive as an Alix. They aren't listed on their main page right now, i believe i heard about it through one of the community forums.

        I've got an Alix 2D13 with an Atheros 5416 card in it, works fine with pfSense but the 802.11n rates don't work yet so it's still doing 54g at the moment, stable though. Hopefully once freebsd gets 802.11n rate support it will be a good router for years to come. 802.11n on

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by raddan ( 519638 ) *
      There's also Soekris [soekris.com] stuff. I've had my trusty net4801 for many years now, running off the same 2GB CF card. I'm running OpenBSD + PF. I originally set it up to provide wireless to my house from a cable connection. Recently I moved into a place that already had wireless, so by simply changing a couple macros in PF, I am now feeding wireless into my wired PC, essentially the same thing as a wireless gateway, but in reverse. Try that with a wireless router you get at Best Buy.

      Soekris gear is a bit on
    • Larry, do you mind answering a question for the clueless?

      You're talking about building your own router, right? Not just buying some Linksys and putting DD-WRT or something but getting a regular pc case and a motherboard, power supply, etc?

      Do I have that right? If I wanted to have 802.11n all around my house (which requires me to use a router in bridge mode), would I be able to do that by building the kind of router you're talking about? I've been wondering the same thing that I believe the poster of this

      • You can do it, you just have to be picky about the hardware. Only a handful of wireless-N cards on Linux can work as an AP, and a lot of them are a bit older and harder to find. Though your options open up a bit if you're willing to settle for ad-hoc mode.

        Personally, I went with the WNR3500L. Despite the problems noted in the summary, DD-WRT has worked very well for me on it.

  • Here you go (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:02PM (#31970364)

    DDWRT Supported Devices [dd-wrt.com]

    CTRL+F

    "b/g/n"

    Conversation over.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by sakdoctor ( 1087155 )

      Build your own out of Mini-ITX with, compact flash, mini-pci wi-fi, PCI etherenet switch.
      For the lulz.

    • seconded.

    • Re:Here you go (Score:5, Interesting)

      by TeamSPAM ( 166583 ) <(flynnmj) (at) (gmail.com)> on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:25PM (#31970506) Homepage
      Also from the news [dd-wrt.com] on the dd-wrt site. It looks like Buffalo will be shipping some of their high performance routers with the dd-wrt firmware.
      • by karnal ( 22275 )

        My memory is a little fuzzy on this - but it seems to me that there was some patent issue with Buffalo and they weren't allowed to sell their b/g routers in the US for a while?

        I have a Buffalo B/G router - bought specifically for it's high compatibility with DD-WRT. Best purchase of a router that I've ever made, rock friggin solid - even with the Buffalo stock firmware, never had a day of downtime unlike my netgear that would freak the moment I opened up utorrent.

        • Buffalo finally resolved their patent issues and is back after a long hiatus. I have one of their whr-g300n wireless n routers. I've had it for a few months and sadly today it crapped out. dd-wrt is on it so no warranty for me either. Worked great until today.

    • Re:Here you go (Score:5, Informative)

      by Baloo Uriza ( 1582831 ) <baloo@ursamundi.org> on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:42PM (#31970598) Homepage Journal
      Not quite. DDWRT's also got some proprietary issues. I think you meant OpenWRT [openwrt.org], from the same people who brought you Debian.
      • Re:Here you go (Score:5, Insightful)

        by mrmeval ( 662166 ) <jcmeval@NoSPAM.yahoo.com> on Saturday April 24, 2010 @10:31PM (#31971032) Journal

        Yes 'openwrt' which mocks new users and slams any questions with RTFM yet there is no manual and other obnoxious crap. Also their 'product' is as immature as they are with many user reports of bricked routers which the 'developers' h00t and h0ller and mock the user about.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by bcrowell ( 177657 )

      DD-WRT isn't as open as it could be: http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/3816236 [wi-fiplanet.com] This is the reason that I'm currently running openwrt+gargoyle on my wrt54g. Gargoyle (the browser-based interface) actually isn't all that great -- very bare-bones.

      My experience is that the real problem with consumer-grade routers has very little to do with the quality or openness of the software. The real problem I've always had with the damn things is that the hardware seems to be crap. I've been through three

      • by BLKMGK ( 34057 )

        Ya' know when I saw that Brainslayer was moving to X86 platforms with DD-WRT I felt a bit of joy... then I saw he was going to charge for it and the builds weren't freely available and I felt a bit of Sveasoft angst. :-( At that time I also began to have some issues with my WRT54G running the code and moved to Tomato and have had few issues ever since.

        However, I would REALLY like to be able to grab a low powered, spare, X86 computer and run it as a router. Dump all the issues with "flashing" and just find a

        • However, I would REALLY like to be able to grab a low powered, spare, X86 computer and run it as a router. Dump all the issues with "flashing" and just find a good set of hardware I could run that was powerful enough I didn't have to worry so much about memory or CPU getting in the way.

          Yeah, this thought has occurred to me as well. The thing is, it would definitely eat up a lot of space on a shelf. Also, you don't find too many garage-sale or hangar-queen x86 systems that are energy-efficient, quiet, and

    • by MoFoQ ( 584566 )

      enuf said.
      Cmdr Taco would be proud.

      I usually recommend Linksys hardware (and DD-WRT as the software); though finding a newer Linksys with the ability to hook up an external antenna is ...well...not as easy. (plus some models are prone to overheating)

    • DDWRT Supported Devices [dd-wrt.com]

      That's what I thought too. Until I bought an Asus RT-N10 and till today, no wireless. It's basically a cheapskate home router, with the words "Open Source" on the packaging.

      The Asus RT-N10 is listed in 3 different places as dd-wrt compatible.

      Ergo, this router is fully compatible, until you buy one. Then you find out:

      • Not listed in the OpenWRT [openwrt.org] list.
      • Forum Discussion [dd-wrt.com] on getting wireless to work. Till today, it couldn't.

      Therefore, do not just rely on the dd-wrt l

  • Soekris Engineering (Score:3, Informative)

    by DaMattster ( 977781 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:05PM (#31970372)
    Soekris Engineering [soekris.com] makes low power computers that you could easily turn into a router using whatever choice of free/open source operating systems that you like. I have used OpenBSD on one of these with amazing success.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by jgreco ( 1542031 )

      The Soekris platforms are getting a bit dated. You may have some of the same problems with the Soekris that you'd have with a WRT54G: slow CPU, only 10/100 ethernet, etc. On the other hand, the Soekris are i386-compatible, generally have more memory, and you can add gobs of flash and other options. The latest stuff (net55xx) is somewhat faster, but even that's a bit dated and limited performance-wise, sadly.

  • I built my own... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by corychristison ( 951993 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:07PM (#31970382)

    I was in the same situation... WRT45GL just wasn't cutting it anymore.

    So I bought a small ITX board that supports PCI-E, at least 1GB of RAM, a dual-interface PCI-E network card, a case that could house it and a good gigabit switch. I currently run pfSense 1.2.3 off a 1GB USB flash drive.

    I deal only with wired clients in my network so this doesn't address the Wifi portion of the question.

    I'm not listing any hardware because it changes all too often.

    This is the expensive route to go but I felt it was worth it for my needs.

    More than likely you won't need the PCI-E dual-interface network card and an onboard dual-nic ITX board would suffice. I just happened to have mine from a previous project.

    I built mine before the Intel Atom craze hit the streets. I don't know if they are powerful enough from experience although I'm sure you'd be fine.

    As always with hardware and networking, YMMV.

    • by Cylix ( 55374 )

      I doubt any of the atom processors would even blink at a little firewall chain. A modem pentium chip has more then enough power to handle most routing needs.

      Now, if you want to support some really high end traffic then you have other things to worry about other then processor limitations.

    • In my experience with the D945GCLF2 (using an onboard Realtek RTL8111/8168B), it will only send about 400 Gbit/s and receive 720 Gbit/s. The CPU is pegged in both cases. Sending and receiving on the loopback device yields 720 Gbit/s too.
  • No, really, I want a direct WRT54GL successor with ADSL, n and USB for external storage or webcam. Its look, its industrial form, is simply too good to abandon... ;/

    • Most DSL providers will give you a bridging adapter when you subscribe, i'd rather they just give me the equipment i need to terminal an ethernet connection and take it from there.

      What do you gain by keeping the ADSL connection itself inside the router?

      • by sznupi ( 719324 )

        In part of the world I live they offer either USB "modems" or, via ridiculous premium, a router with ADSL of their choosing. Of course a model which is a complete shit usually anyway.

        Less clutter (also control-wise), less PSUs, less energy used is no gain?

      • by Polo ( 30659 ) *

        I would love this too, and would buy it in an instant.

        There is benefit to a smart unified home gateway.

        Not everyone wants multiple devices to power, administer and troubleshoot.

        Now, people who live with just one device are usually stuck with whatever their DSL provider give them -- a device with limited features or configurability.

  • ASUS RT-N16 (Score:4, Informative)

    by TheDawgter ( 152771 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:15PM (#31970438)

    The ASUS RT-N16 is the best consumer product I've found for dd-wrt so far. 128Mb RAM and 480mHz processor, 802.11n and 2 usb ports.

    • the Asus WL-520GU and GL models are available for less than $30 and run DD-WRT flawlessly. I picked up multiples for WDS and they have been up 24/7. Performance is awesome, stability is perfect, and cost is less than dinner.

    • by BLKMGK ( 34057 )

      Unfortunately it's 2.4GHZ only. Isn't 802.11n supposed to also support a higher less congested frequency? 5GHZ right? Aside from the Appple offering what other 802.11n based router supports that? 2.4GHZ is pretty congested and my microwave blasts it but my higher frequency phone shrugs it off...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by BobPaul ( 710574 ) *

        Wikipedia is your friend. 802.11n supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, using the same channels as b/g and a. This means that on 5ghz not only do you have fewer devices competing for resources, but you also have non-overlapping channels. So when you want to take up 2 channels for the higher speed 40MHz mode, you can often find a section on 5 that has 0 conflicts.

        Look for a router that supports a/b/g/n. The best ones are "simultaneous dual band". Just "dual band" means it can use 2.4GHz or 5GHz, but not neces

  • Keep in mind that the WRT54G's have a relatively slow CPU and couldn't even max out G. Bridging between the wifi and the built in switch is, AFAIR, a software affair, so even using it as a pure AP is less-than-full-throughput.

  • WNDR3700 + dd-wrt should fit well once dd-wrt is out of alpha/beta.

  • Buffalo Technology http://www.buffalotech.com/ [buffalotech.com] is my starting point for all my future networking needs. I don't need anything more than a windows compatable 802.11g router for the foreseeable future, so I have no experience with linux compatability or open source availability.

    I bought a WHR-HP-G54 a few years back and am thrilled with it. I think I've only needed to reboot it twice since I bought it and neither time was the routers fault. Possibly the simplest to get working, user friendliest, least problem

    • by c41rn ( 880778 )
      I second the vote for Buffalo. I've been running my WHR-HP-G54 for a couple years with no problems and I've been using the Tomato firmware.

      I was just shopping last night for a similar router that would support 802.11n and I found the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH router. It looks like this router supports DD-WRT and it appears that it will even ship with DD-WRT as the default firmware in a month or two [dd-wrt.com]. That's what I'll be buying.

      • by BLKMGK ( 34057 )

        Unfortunately it doesn't support 5GHZ frequencies. It's not high priced though and their supporting DD-WRT is awesome but I really would liek a dual band router if possible. The NETGEAR WNDR3700 seems to support what I want but I've yet to try it. I too have been using Tomato on a WRT54G and would like a good replacement that MUST support 3rd party firmware...

  • by Some1too ( 1242900 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:24PM (#31970504)

    I'm very happy with the unit for the following reasons:

    1) crack it open and you can remove the wireless card and replace it with your own.

    2) will run with openwrt

    3) I'm shocked at the amount of abuse mine took. The wireless card had been glued to the router board using some kind of foam. I think the combination of the glue used and the heat from the device made it stick together strongly. I ended up using a pair of scissors to pry them apart and I thought for certain I had ruined either the card of the router board. Much to my surprise when I unbent the clips for the card it started working fine (I was prepared to trash the router in order to try and get the card out).

    4) I've flashed the unit several times between the stock and various other images. The thing always comes back from the dead if you take your time and understand what you're doing. I guess it's firmware has some issue in how it addresses the interfaces which causes a conflict when trying to run something like FON (or so I'm told. Not certain how this applies if you're running openwrt). I bought mine a few years ago now when the N standard wasn't on a lot of hardware at the time. I haven't tested it's functionality in that regard.

    I'm planning on buying a decent Atheros based card for it and use it in Sept. Hope this was helpful in some way.

    Cheers, S.

  • http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=185_TEW-652BRP&cat=41 [trendnet.com]
    Usually goes for $35
    Nearly Identical to the more expensive Dlink DIR-615
    Runs incredibly well on DD-WRT firmware

    --or--

    Compile your own firmware from Trendnet's source code.
    http://www.trendnet.com/downloads/list_gpl.asp [trendnet.com]
  • by bsharitt ( 580506 ) <(moc.ttirahs) (ta) (tegdirb)> on Saturday April 24, 2010 @08:36PM (#31970560) Journal

    Lack of free firmware(I need Tomato) is the reason I'm still on 802.11g in my home. I have an WRT54G as the main router and an ASUS WL-520GU creating a wireless bridge to the living room.

    • by chill ( 34294 )

      dd-wrt on a Linksys WRT600N (atheros chipset) has had N for quite some time now.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by kms_one ( 1272174 )
      Look to the Teddy Bear build of Tomato. It supports USB and N depending on the router. It's what's running on my WL-520GU and my new RT-N16. The RT-N16 has wireless N, 4 gigabit port switch, and 2 USB ports. The wireless is limited to 2.4GHz but that is the only difference between it and the theoretical dream router. The site is being upgraded right now, but this is the guide to use to get tomato working on the N16 http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63587 [linksysinfo.org].
    • There are Tomato branches that support 802.11n (and Linux 2.6-based kernels). The linksysinfo.org forums are performing maintenance at the moment, so I can't give you a link. However, checkout the Tomato sub-forum, and it is a stickied thread.

  • WRT54GL is great.... I've even got two setup in a wireless bridge that's 400meters apart.

    the link says 36Mbps while actual throughput on the graphs is 18-19Mbps, half duplex of course.

    A direct replacement with GigE and 802.11n along with the change-able antennas would be perfect.

    C'mon Linksys, bring it on!!!!
    • by Obyron ( 615547 )
      Linksys quit producing good hardware the second they were bought out by Cisco. This is why the older versions of the WRT54G are the most desirable for flashing, because they had better hardware, more RAM, etc.
  • TP-Link WR1043ND [tp-link.com] can be installed with OpenWRT or DD-WRT (beta right now, I think). This wifi router supports 802.11n and gigabit LAN. You might wanna check it out.
  • by sciurus0 ( 894908 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @09:02PM (#31970688)

    The ASUS RT-N16, Linksys WRT610N, and Netgear WNR3500L look promising. They're all supported by dd-wrt and in theory could work with openwrt. The Asus is some nice hardware [openwrt.org] for $90.

  • The WRT160NL [linksysbycisco.com] was designed to be the direct successor to the WRT54GL. It doesn't seem to have taken off, though, and while it supports Wireless N, for whatever reason, it doesn't support Gigabit Ethernet.

  • guruplug (Score:2, Informative)

    by macaulay805 ( 823467 )
    Kinda interesting no one mentioned Guruplug yet. http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-guruplugdetails.aspx [globalscal...logies.com]
  • Tomato? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by schnikies79 ( 788746 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @09:22PM (#31970778)

    Any chance that any of these support tomato? Can't use dd-wrtafter running tomato.

  • by r6_jason ( 893331 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @09:25PM (#31970798) Homepage
    The Linksys Refurbished WRT610N-RM for $110 free shipping in the US. The router might not be "open source" but you can and should load dd-wrt onto it. http://homestore.cisco.com/viewproduct.htm?productId=83108078&categoryId=85185 [cisco.com] http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT610N [dd-wrt.com]
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Alereon ( 660683 )
      This is the best idea, I have a Linksys WRT610Nv1 running the current DD-WRT firmware and it runs great. It has dual-simultaneous-N so you can have 802.11n networks on both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands, and its routing throughput is excellent as well. You can also use its USB port as a NAS in DD-WRT and I think you can share some USB printers as well, which is cool.
    • I have dd-wrt running on a WRT610Nv2 just fine (stable and great performance):
      root@AptGetMooN:~# uptime
      03:26:38 up 46 days, 1:23, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
      root@AptGetMooN:~# uname -a
      Linux AptGetMooN 2.6.24.111 #785 Tue Feb 23 05:15:36 CET 2010 mips unknown
      Release: 02/23/10 (SVN revision: 13972)

      I had originally bought it because my apartment compelx has so many 2.4GHz access points and other devices in the band that I can't get any reasonable, sustained throughput and levels of packet loss on a
  • RouterStation Pro (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mulaz ( 1538147 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @09:28PM (#31970816) Homepage
    RouterStation Pro [ubnt.com] has everything:

    -gigE
    -mini pci slot for wifi cards
    -enough ram for pretty much anything

    (some assembly required :))

    I do not work for them, and am not payed by them, just a happy user
    • by Feyr ( 449684 )

      add my vote for ubiquiti gear. it's seriously great, their official firmware is linux based, and they even give instructions to install thirdparty fw (hell, the routerstation only as a thirdparty firmware)

    • by BLKMGK ( 34057 )

      Looks damned nice but won't that add up pretty good by the time you're done building it? NOT knocking it but I'd love to see a full build with hardware specs and testing documented somewhere!

    • Re:RouterStation Pro (Score:4, Informative)

      by Enry ( 630 ) <enry@@@wayga...net> on Sunday April 25, 2010 @07:07AM (#31972896) Journal

      I got a kit from Netgate [netgate.com] that has the board, case, and choice of wireless card for about $300. It's expensive, but so far it's worth it.

  • The TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND seems to be a pretty good deal.

    802.11n, gigabit ethernet, usb2 port, ath9k-based and pretty cheap. Anything else you'd need?
  • ASUS RT-N16 (Score:5, Informative)

    by 200_success ( 623160 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @10:15PM (#31970978)

    The ASUS RT-N16 is an awesome router that is supported by DD-WRT [dd-wrt.com] and has been reported to work with Tomato. The stock firmware is pretty good too. It has some impressive specifications:

    • 802.11 b / g / draft-N at 2.4 GHz
    • 128 MB RAM
    • 32 MB flash
    • Broadcom4718A
    • 2 USB ports

    You should be able to find one for about $100.

    • by Zerth ( 26112 )

      The ASUS RT-N16 is an awesome router that is supported by DD-WRT and has been reported to work with Tomato.

      If Tomato supports N on that, I'll need to get one. I've got a Asus 500 with Tomato that has been awesome blocking the annoyingly large amount of spam connection attemps(500/sec+) my mailserver gets, but it lacks the GigE ports the N16 has.

      Slight bummer it doesn't seem to do 5GHz...

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by BikeHelmet ( 1437881 )

      Here's some info on installing Tomato on the RT-N16.

      http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63587 [linksysinfo.org]

      The forums are temporarily down for upgrades. (good timing! :P )

  • by InakaBoyJoe ( 687694 ) on Saturday April 24, 2010 @10:24PM (#31971002)

    Keep your WRT54G, and just upgrade the wireless to 802.11n. I did it with an AirPort Express connected to one of the ethernet ports in bridge mode. In the real world, 802.11n rarely saturates the 100baseT ethernet, so you get almost all the speed, without having to reconfigure everything from scratch. As a bonus, you can still host a separate 802.11b/g network on the old router to support legacy devices without jamming up your N network.

  • I don't have a specific model to recommend, but pretty much all the most powerful routers today are on the Atheros ar71xx platform. Atheros is much better than Broadcom at supporting open drivers.

    https://dev.openwrt.org/wiki/ar71xx [openwrt.org]

  • I had a WRV54G, which I always hoped would get DD-WRT support. There were some attempts, but it never really got off the ground. The WRV54G had hardware IPSec support in the Broadcom chip it was based on.

    I've never located another home wifi router which supported Linux and some form of VPN. IPSec or SSL-VPN would be nice. Anyone know of devices that can do this?

  • ASUS RT-N16 (Score:2, Informative)

    by MITpianoman ( 952963 )
    I was just considering the same question myself not even 2 days ago. I ultimately decided on the ASUS RT-N16 as others here have suggested, as it seemed to have the consensus of several users on the DD-WRT forum: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=70817&highlight=rtn16 [dd-wrt.com] The WNDR3700 would be nice if they manage to get it past what appears to be an alpha-release support
  • WRT320N (Score:2, Informative)

    by brutimus ( 779643 )
    I just bought a WRT320N a couple weeks ago and promptly installed DD-WRT. It has been solid as a rock. Full N speeds on wifi and full gigabit on wired.
  • Netgear hasn't released all of the source, as they should have to comply with the GPL.

    Sue the bastards! [eff.org]

  • Netgear WNDR 3700 (Score:3, Informative)

    by Fallen Kell ( 165468 ) on Sunday April 25, 2010 @12:56AM (#31971644)
    The netgear WNDR 3700 is running a version of OpenWRT out of the box with a custom interface. OpenWRT has a few builds of their standard distribution which work, with full support being rapidly added. DD-WRT is working hard on adding support for the router as well with at least two test builds being released. Full support should be there within a few months. Again, with it running a customized OpenWRT out of the box, it is only a matter of time for all the router based distributions to have ports which run on it. Add in the fact that it is one of the fastest routers (wan->lan speed, and lan->wan speeds), with some of the best dual band wireless N speeds, a decent amount of RAM, USB ports, gigabit switch/router, and the fastest CPU seen in a consumer class router, you have a very capable device.
  • DLink DIR-825 rev B (Score:3, Informative)

    by Eric Smith ( 4379 ) on Sunday April 25, 2010 @01:10AM (#31971708) Homepage Journal
    Although not marketed for open-source use the way the Linksys WRT54GL was, the DLink DIR-825 rev B seems like a great choice. It is supported by many of the third-party firmware distributions (I use OpenWRT), has an Atheros MIPS-based CPU that runs at 680 MHz, simultaneous dual-band Atheros WiFi which has good open source support (no binary blob driver needed), detachable antennas, gigabit ethernet, and isn't too expensive.

    Much though it pains me (as a former Ubicom employee) to say it, I would recommend avoiding the earlier DIR-825 rev A which uses a Ubicom processor. Although Ubicom now offers some kind of Linux SDK, as far as I know there is currently no third-party firmware that will run on the DIR-825 rev A. The hardware revision is on the label of the package, and also the rev A and rev B look somewhat different, so if you buy a DIR-825 at retail you can easily ensure that you get the rev B. I suspect that most of the major online retailers probably have exhausted their inventory of rev A by now.

  • Currenty I had to revert back to a "newer" version of the wrt54g as my v1.0 crapped out. Turned out to be a bad, bloated capacitor so I changed it, but when things like these start to happen I tend not to trust electronics.

    The version 8 (or 6?) WRT sometimes decides to freeze. With Linux (dd-wrt) sometimes, with Linksys firmware 1-2 times a DAY.

    I also run my Asterisk PBX on an NSLU2. This setup is pretty stable, but just not enough to run Asterisk, and a Perl HA program at the same time (* has 4-5 sip serve

It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.

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