Alternative Router Firmware

[Midas]

For those who like to fiddle about with their hardware, here's a pretty good summary of OSS OSes for common commercial kit, which allow you to convert cheap devices into enterprise class Internet routers...

• The Top 6 Alternative Firmwares For Your Router
  http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-6-alte ... es-router/

(Free) Piece of advice: if you're just starting, don't use your primary device to test them out, lest you get cut off from the Internet (and thus from any recovery help)...

Note: For a comprehensive list, check Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wi ... e_projects).

[freakazoid]

Yeah, but what is the cheapest, decent router to use alternate firmwares with?

[NickR]

@freakazoid

I used
Linksys WRT54G-TM router (32MB ram and 8MB flash)
DD-WRT v24 firmware
it worked very well

[Midas]

Yeah, but what is the cheapest, decent router to use alternate firmwares with?

• Head over to Smallnetbuilder.com for in-depth router testing and reviewing (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/).
  
  In the meantime, here's a couple of well regarded and readily hackable suggestions from the medium range bracket:
  
  • ASUS Wireless-N300 Gigabit Router
    http://www.asus.com/Networking/RTN16/
  • Buffalo WBMR-HP-G300H
    http://www.buffalo-technology.com/en/pr ... em-router/
  My choice: rockbottom price with pretty decent performance -- meet the TP-Link WR1043ND (~50 EUR, I have two v1, the one shown is v2)...
  
  • 300Mbps Wireless N Gigabit Router
    http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/deta ... L-WR1043ND

[abacusFanboi]

"WRT54G-TM"... but careful about the wrtU54g-TM
one version uses uncommon infineon chip, so no 3rd party firmware, except maybe this work http://wiki.scottn.us/wrtu54g-tm

[carbonize]

Like NickR I use Linksys WRT54G-TM but I opted for Tomato RAF after years of using DDWRT. I just found WRT was getting to complex where as Tomato makes things like blocking easy as you can list what MAC address to apply blocks to or which to not apply it to.

[Midas]

Just in case someone is on DD-WRT or Tomato, here's something of interest (untested!): WRT Settings...

• What WRT Settings allows is to view (and edit) NVRAM configuration files for AsusWRT (including Merlin's variant), Tomato and DD-WRT. You can even save them as text which allows you to compare and merge different configurations. Comes in especially handy when you want to share settings between two routers without overwriting router-specific variables (e.g. MAC addresses).

  • 

Download WRT Settings no install ZIP package (currently v1.11) from http://www.medo64.com/wrtsettings/.

[Midas]

FYI, one of the more interesting offers specifically geared for 3G and 4G mobile wireless Internet access, unmentioned in OP article above, is FunnelWeb and MultiWeb, developed by an Australian outfit quirkly named "Of Modems and Men". More info at:

• http://ofmodemsandmen.com/

The purpose of this site is to provide the files and information necessary to convert a cheap router into one that supports 3G and 4G modems plus provide access to the modem to display signal and cell tower information. To accomplish this, we have created special firmware for the routers based on firmware from the OpenWRT project.

[Midas]

I hesitated about where to post a great story about a solution for the tech savvy (between here and http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... php?t=9241), before finally deciding to post it here, on account the ultimate goal of the author is manifestly to replace/upgrade his router farm.

• The Scooter Computer
  http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-scooter-computer/

• I paid ~$350 each for the ones I selected:
  [*]i5-5200 Broadwell 2 core / 4 thread CPU at 2.2 Ghz - 2.7 Ghz
  [*]16GB DDR3 RAM
  [*]128GB M.2 SSD
  [*]Dual gigabit Realtek 8168 ethernet
  [*]front 4 USB 3.0 ports / rear 4 USB 2.0 ports
  [*]Dual HDMI out

  Passively cooled computers are paragons of simplicity and reliable consumer electronics, but passively cooling a "real" x86 PC is the holy grail. To get serious performance you usually need to feed the CPU at least 10 to 20 watts -- and dissipating that kind of energy with zero fans and ambient airflow alone is not trivial.

  Power consumption, as measured by my Kill-a-Watt, ranged from 7 watts at the Ubuntu Server 14.04 text login screen, to 8-10 watts at an idle Ubuntu 15.10 GUI login screen (the default OS it arrived with), to 14-18 watts in memory testing, to 26 watts in mprime.

  I think this logic applies to a lot of dedicated hardware these days -- routers, switches, firewalls, and so on. You're often better off building up a modern high power, low TDP x86 box and slapping a regular Linux distro on there.

[Midas]

Quick note to mention the post about PirateBox at http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... hp?t=22959 ...