DD-WRT firmware

Beyonder · Post by **Beyonder** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:26 am

I've been running DD-WRT on my Linksys WRT54G V4 router, and it's ridiculously awesome.

Features I've been using this far:

1. Static DHCP leases are really nice for setting up server internally
2. UPnP reporting page is awesome. Much better management/reporting
3. DDNS features--it supports a bunch of DDNS services, like no-ip.com, so now my router updates no-ip with my external IP address. Before I had to have it running internally on the server, which never made sense.
4. WPA2 (nice)
5. Overclocking, boosting rx and tx power, etc., although I haven't messed with these (yet). Probably won't, because there isn't much of a point at this time.
6. Reporting of router status/DHCP/connected computers is about a billion times better than the linksys firmware. It's like suddenly having access to real information.

Installing the firmware was pretty easy. I did have to do a hard reset after installing to get the web interface logon to work right, but it's been smooth sailing after that. It has a ton of other features as well, but I haven't had time to fully explore yet. Oh yeah--the help files are exceptional. I'd really like it if I could run LAMP (the unit is already running Linux) or something like that, and have a low power, low cost web server, but...that's probably asking too much.

Mr Evil · Post by **Mr Evil** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:55 am

I've been using Tomato on my WRT54GL. Less configurable than DD-WRT, but the interface is better (simpler).

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:17 am

Slightly off topic,

but,

I've got a Linksys WAP54G. I don't know any other info about it offhand. Are there any good, free, 3rd party firmwares out there? Everything I've heard of was made for the router versions.

I've heard alot about 3rd party firmwares and the extra features they have and am interested in trying one out.

Thanks!!

Beyonder · Post by **Beyonder** » Thu May 24, 2007 10:26 am

Mr Evil wrote:I've been using Tomato on my WRT54GL. Less configurable than DD-WRT, but the interface is better (simpler).

I haven't tried Tomato, but I personally think the interface for DD-WRT is really intuitive, simple, and effective. And the help files are truly amazing (so much better than linksys, one has to wonder why linksys is even writing their own firmware).

I do remember earlier versions of wrt54g firmware packages having mediocre interfaces, but the one on DD-WRT (V23 SP2) is really great.

Beyonder · Post by **Beyonder** » Thu May 24, 2007 10:37 am

angelkiller wrote: I've got a Linksys WAP54G. I don't know any other info about it offhand. Are there any good, free, 3rd party firmwares out there? Everything I've heard of was made for the router versions.

I've heard alot about 3rd party firmwares and the extra features they have and am interested in trying one out.

You might be able to run DD-WRT. See herefor supported models; I see that the WAP54G supports the mini versions of DD-WRT (probably because there isn't much flash memory), but the commentary is a bit sparse.

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Thu May 24, 2007 1:06 pm

I run DD-WRT on a Buffalo wireless router (forget the model number, but I believe it's the same internally as the Linksys).

It is ironic, it's the same story with Buffalo's default firmware: garbage. Locked up, had to be reset, randomly stopped working. The DD-WRT is truly "set it and forget it".

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Sat May 26, 2007 10:35 am

I use DD-wrt to an extreme

I have a home server that loads dd-wrt up in a VMware session, it handles the internet connection and provides acess and NAT to the computers in my home network...including the host operating system!

it's awsome

mb2 · Post by **mb2** » Tue May 29, 2007 3:52 pm

hmm, i tried installing DD-WRT on our linksys a while back to try and improve bit-torrent performance.. whilst it was good for that, it lead to loads of dropouts iirc (or crashes or something that stopped its fundamental use)

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:05 pm

yea, using DD-WRT with high traffic stuff like any p2p requires some real tweaking for it to run longer than a few days without choking. after all the goodies have been loaded there very little room left for handling the ports in the remaining memory space.

Tomato, or Open WRT (aka white russian) probably work better in that scenario but the sheer number of features in DD-wrt is really fantastic .

I have it loaded in a virtual machine with 128mb of ram and it runs very well.

while DD-wrt is starting to pick up steam as a well liked firmware to run on wrap and sokris type sbc's it still works on the wrt54g which is quite a feat.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Tue May 29, 2007 8:19 pm

Yeah, I haven't had the chance to run DD-WRT yet, but I bypass using a consumer box for routing and have a P3-450 running BrazilFW for firewall/routing. Those little boxes just blow up under heavy loads.

paramthegreat · Post by **paramthegreat** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:55 am

i tried DD-WRT on my WRT54GL, it worked fine for quite a few months. But then a couple of months ago, I began having problems like connection dropping, internet slowing down which could only be fixed by a hard reboot.

so i switched to x-wrt. It has been rock solid since then. agreed, its not as user friendly as say dd-wrt but i do see a small increase in performance.

quikkie · Post by **quikkie** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:13 am

DD-WRT (mini) user here on my wrt54g v2.2

- I tweaked the power output of the radio down to reduce interference with other wifi routers - plus you can't "borrow" that which you can't see.
- tweaked the ip stack to improve BitTorrent performance and reduce the load on the router - although later versions claim not to need that tweaking.
- installed freeradius on the unused flash with the intention of setting up enterprise level authentication of wifi (but that's a work in progress).
- I love the "site survey" which lets me see all the other access points around me.

oh and as an optional extra have a search for bwlog - it's a set of scripts and mini webserver that will give you a run down of the current and historical bandwidth and transfer stats.

Fruktsallad · Post by **Fruktsallad** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:02 am

Yeah, these little boxes sure can work wonders.

I'm running OpenWRT on my Asus WL-500G Premium, and doing so I've not only got a wireless printer server, storage server (printer and hdd attached via USB); I'm also using it as a homebrew version of Apples Airport Express which streams music wirelessly to my stereo via an usb sound card also attached to the WL-500G.

Me likes.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:26 pm

I'm using DD-WRT as well, because I have to in order to get my router working.

It will keep rebooting every half hour with tomato (the routers uptime goes down to zero, not just "connection dropping"). Right now I'm using DD-WRT to run my WRT54G V2.2 underclocked to 192MHz, because it seems more stable. It does, however, still occasionally drop the connection, and become unresponsive for some while (my computer sending packages, router doesn't) and the routers address does not respond either.

I just have to say this once and for all; I hate routers. Has man ever made something with such a low rate of success?

Beyonder · Post by **Beyonder** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:47 am

Ackelind wrote: I just have to say this once and for all; I hate routers. Has man ever made something with such a low rate of success?

Admittedly, they can be finicky. That said, I've had great success with my WRT54G. My router has been running steady for the last twelve days with DD-WRT, running a number of services. I'm pretty happy with it.

Now if I can just figure out a way to charge the neighbors for Internet access...