Ask Slashdot: Best Open Source Project For a Router/Wi-Fi Access Point?

An anonymous reader writes "My wireless router just died. I have an old netbook lying around that has a wired network interface and a wireless one. The wireless card is supported in master mode by Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD. What does Slashdot recommend I use to turn it into a router/wireless access point? DD-WRT? pfSense? Smoothwall? Fedora/Ubuntu/OpenBSD with a manual configuration? I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty and I know what I'm doing, but I want as close to zero maintenance as possible."

OpenWRT

[Knuckx]

OpenWRT Attitude Adjustment 12.04; loads of packages available from official repositories, nice webinterface, and no commercial side selling product activation keys for certain features (like DD-WRT).

Fix possible?

[jones_supa]

My wireless router just died.

Well, can it be fixed? Maybe it's just a dead AC/DC transformer or blown cap.

Just get a router

[SQLGuru]

Using an old laptop as a router isn't the most efficient use of your resources (time, money, energy, etc.). Sure, it can be done......but a router can be had for around $20 that is probably as good or better (I'm assuming your old laptop is at least 5 years old and probably G at best). Spending more would get you a better router (and if you shop around, even open-source compatible), but if the goal is to go on the cheap (assumed because you want to reuse a laptop), I'd still get a stand-alone router.

But if you insist on going that route, go with Linux and manual configuration. Then you can use the laptop for other things as well. Print server, web server, etc.

But in the end, giving the laptop to a group such as this: http://www.interconnection.org/ [interconnection.org] is better use of the technology.

Re:DD-WRT on Buffalo hardware

[AmiMoJo]

That's why I recommend Buffalo hardware. Their main market is Japan where symmetrical gigabit connections are quite common, so their hardware is capable of routing that. I find it to be reliable long term (5+ years).

Re:OpenWRT

[jonsmirl]

OpenWRT is the way to go. Just buy a new, cheap commercial router and replace the software with OpenWRT. Don't mess with the laptop. It chews too much AC power and the wifi is probably not as powerful as the radio in the commercial router. You can buy fine 2.4Ghz router hardware for $30.

DDwrt is a mess, OpenWRT project organization is much better.

Re:zero maintenance

[Anonymous Coward]

DD-WRT in my experience can make "flaky" routers on default binaries suddenly WORK AS ADVERTISED.

I've had both linksys and dlink routers that rebooted themselves constantly, DDWRT solved whatever was causing it and they're now rock solid!

Re:DD-WRT on Buffalo hardware

[mcgrew]

You guys all seem to be missing the point. He wants to repurpose old hardware without spending anything. I used to do something similar in my teenaged years (this was in the analog era) when I'd turn used transistor radios into guitar fuzzboxes. "But you can get a professional one for only $250!" Yeah, but I could turn a broken radio into one for $2.50.

If my aging router dies before this notebook does I'll probably do something similar with it. Plugging a new router in is no fun, building your own out of useless junk is.

Re:DD-WRT on Buffalo hardware

[saleenS281]

DD-WRT for all intents and purposes might as well be dead. At this point they've essentially stopped releasing updates unless you're paying for a subscription. And their last release for most hardware platforms wasn't even GA code, it was "pre-SPX".