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Beef Up Your Wireless Router
Doctor High writes "Josh Kuo's article Beef Up Your Wireless Router talks about the OpenWRT embedded Linux distro for the the Linksys WRT series wireless routers (and more). The article lays out some of the amazing things you can do with your Linux-enabled wireless router such as using it as a VoIP gateway, a wireless hotspot, or even an encrypted layer 2 tunnel endpoint for remote troubleshooting."
DD-WRT offers overclocking facilities, as well as boosting number of IP connections and wireless transmit power. I really recommend it to anyone with a compatiable Linksys.
The main advantage of DD-WRT over OpenWRT is that it's more of an out-of-the-box solution. In fact, the default firmware would be recognizable to people familiar with moderate to advanced networking, web GUI and all. DD-WRT also retains some, but nowhere near all, of the amazingly powerful options offered by OpenWRT. Neither firmware is really appropriate for Joe User, but DD-WRT is appropriate for a far broader user base.
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I just installed dd-wrt on my Linksys wrt54gl router.
What's really nice is that it gives you a lot more control over routing, albeit with much more added complexity to the interface.
The new software enables snmp monitoring, ssh access, and VLAN control.
my question is, what's the difference between openwrt and dd-wrt?
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Today you get only Linksys routers with about 8MB RAM and 2MB ROM. You can't do anything with them. They're completely worthless. With a 2MB ROM you're forced to use the micro size image of OpenWRT which doesn't even include pppoe(!). Except that Linksys is selling the WRT54GL series routers, with 16 MB RAM and 4 MB ROM - which fits all firmwares. After all, the GL is basically a WRT54G 3.0 and it's been released SPECIFICALLY for modders and hackers. AFAIR, it is also cheaper than the regular G-series. Here's a convenient list right here.
DD-WRT is the most feature rich of the WRT firmwares, and the v24 promises of multiple, virtual APs with different encryptions will make me upgrade, but I like Thibor's Hyperwrt better if you don't need all the bells and whistles.
Thibor's HyperWRT is closer to the stock firmware than DD-WRT. It offers telnet and configured startup scripts. It offers static IP assignment, QoS, WDS, and client bridge mode. It switches between client and AP mode with much shorter reboots then DD-WRT and has a smaller footprint.
So I recommend Thibor's for most users, and DD-WRT for those running hotspots or VOIP.
It's like the difference between Linux and Ubuntu (well, sort of). OpenWRT is mostly a nice kernel - very basic package that doesn't have a pretty interface and all that stuff that people want. They do provide a minimal distribution, but (at least last I checked) it's not very polished. DD-WRT is the OpenWRT kernel with a nice web interface, some good defaults, etc. added on.
no...dd-wrt is not openwrt + webinterface.
dd-wrt is the old firmware - modified
openwrt - firmware written from scratch
x-wrt.org is a really nice webinterface to openwrt, btw
It's not cheaper than the G-series (unless you compare a GL from Newegg with a G from a more "mainstream" source, you would be better off comparing GL vs. G in price from the same vendor, and in that case, a GL is $62 from Newegg while a G is $49), but it's far harder to obtain.
You're better off getting a Buffalo WHR-G54S. Easier to obtain and cheaper ($49 at Circuit City), 8M RAM/4M ROM like the pre-cost-reduction WRT54G units, and very well supported by DD-WRT.
It's also really easy to recover from a bricking.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
no, no, no, no, no. Once again, if you didn't get it.... NO!
There are a number of funky things that DD-WRT will do - however overclocking it risks the unit being dead forever - unless you want to get into the lovely JTAG recovery for having an overclock fail.
There's also the small fact that when you increase the power output using DD-WRT you start spewing out spurious emissions all over the place. This basically means that you spew crap all over the 2.4Ghz band. Oh, and it'll also make the FCC license on these things void and open you up for charges. As well as screwing over the wifi band for everyone else.
You'd have to be a douche to recommend the average person do this unless they can measure how much damage they are doing to everyone else.
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