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Ask Slashdot: DD-WRT Upgrade To 802.11n?
First time accepted submitter krinderlin writes "My home network consists of a Linksys WRT54GL for WAN access and a WRT54G version 8 for a wireless bridge for my Blu-Ray and old XBox 360*. Due to a recent move and coaxial jack placements, I can't run Ethernet to the office, so I'm now looking at about 8 wireless clients at any given time. I'd like to start piecing together a network upgrade to 802.11n, but want to keep the flexibility and power of DD-WRT. So what 802.11n routers do you have with DD-WRT? What would you recommend for PCIe x1 and USB adapters? *Because $100 for a 802.11g adapter is pure insanity."
Quite a powerful router, I use it heavily for my VPN. It also allows you to upgrade to DD-WRT right through their interface.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320038&Tpk=asus%20rt-n16
The Netgear WNDR-3700v2 is powerful, reasonably cheap, and well-supported. It also is the target of the CeroWRT project, which deals with bufferbloat, and should be of interest to advanced users at this point. Bufferbloat changes are also being adopted into stock OpenWRT and the Linux kernel, so eventually will make it to more routers.
Bruce Perens.
Check out the WNDR3700v2. The folks doing serious research into home network performance have settled on this unit. Check out the prices on Amazon's refurbished stock - equivalent to what I was paying for 54GL's back in the day. I picked up a new for the office and a refurb for home.
They have lots of RAM, a decent processor, and dual-band radios. I think it's the 54G for the new decade.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
These TP-Link USB Wireless Adapters have been great for me.
G: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704046
N: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045
So what 802.11n routers
I've ended up replacing most of my previous kit with acquired-from-eBay Apple kit. 802.11n over 5Ghz for some devices, and over 2.4Ghz for others, with fallback to 802.11g for older devices. Airport Extreme for the main routing, with some Airport Express units for the music system. I used one as a wireless bridge for the PS3 for a while, but, since switching to an old Apple TV for playback, everything's streamed fine over Wi-Fi.
Was there particular functionality you wanted, which led you to DD-WRT? Or might other routers be able to do what it is that you need?
do you have with DD-WRT?
None :)
DD-WRT development is basically dead. There hasn't been an update on their homepage in over a year.
There are unofficial builds in the forums, but even those are at this point old. For example, the "Recommended" version for Broadcom-based devices still includes an ANCIENT release of inadyn that doesn't work with most dynamic DNS providers at this point (nearly all implemented SSL security which breaks with older inadyn.)
Tomato/TomatoUSB are the way to go at this point. (Tomato itself isn't updated much either - TomatoUSB has improved support even for non-USB devices.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
+1 for this. OpenWRT is better if you want to do some serious fancy stuff, but if you're not doing anything exotic DD-WRT will do the job and is more convenient. Just keep in mind this model has a problem getting a gigabit link on the WAN port with DD-WRT, probably not a problem for most applications but keep it in mind.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
DD-WRT isn't what it used to be anymore, the build environment is a mess, a lot of drivers are binary only and often you have to dig around in the forums to find which builds are stable. I had a lot of bad experiences with consumer grade wireless routers (Linksys WRT610N... $#!&) and building my own router was the best choice I ever made. You can use OpenWRT on a broad range of devices and it has similar features as DD-WRT and also a very nice web-interface. It runs perfectly on low power embedded PC's such as PCEngines Alix (X86) or Ubiquity RouterStation (ARM). Nice enclosures and also complete pre-built systems can be found on eBay. The best choice for wireless network cards would be Atheros based, using the ATH9K driver in Linux. Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) makes some very decent high power versions (SR-71 series) and Wistron DNMA92 is perfect as a budget solution (can be found on the pcengines online store). The RouterStation Pro and some of the Alix boards allow you to connect multiple wireless network cards for Dual Band radios. I would strongly suggest to use 5 GHz in addition to 2.4 GHz for the devices that support it. The 2.4 GHz range is overcrowded.
The plan is to find a Firmware that supports making the extra router into a wireless bridge and run Ethernet from XBox 360 and Blu-Ray to a second router acting as a bridge and forwarding DHCP and what-not back and forth. As I've stated before, "Supported" does not mean "Good experience". I've seen that database burn plenty of people. :-)
I have been using dd-wrt/tomato for years and I agree with some of the other posters, that development is nearly at a standstill.
IMHO, you should switch to a different platform - MikroTik!
The software is *way* more powerful than dd-wrt, has been more stable and performed exceptionally for me. I must admit, there is a bit of a learning curve but there is a lot of guides out there now and they have added a windows-based GUI, as well as significantly improved their web interface, so most basic stuff is point and click now. You can do some really powerful stuff that you would have to shell out big bucks for a cisco or the like.
They have just released a new model that supports 802.11n, using a internal diversified/MIMO antenna that transmit up to 1 Watt! (Most AP's use a 10th of that)
All for only $59! They make the hardware and the software, so you know all of the drivers are going to work.
http://routerboard.com/RB751U-2HnD
You can do stuff like make a separate SSID for guests (without a password), put it on a separate subnet to isolate it from your home network, setup strict firewall restrictions based on bandwith/port/packet shaping rules so they can't run bit-torrent and suck up all your bandwith,etc.
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You could also buy a 802.11n router, turn off the router mode (disable DHCP) and just use it as an access point. Boom - you get all of the features of dd-wrt (by still using the old model for routing) but use the new one for wireless access. I've also done that for a number of years and it works great.
DD-WRT is not dead but the developers work in the strangest of ways and can't be coaxed toward sanity. If you browse the file directories on the server (many links in the DD-WRT forums) then you can find updated beta builds. The beta builds that we forum moderators recommend is getting old but that is because the newer builds have several major bugs, but you're free to run any build you want.
Just look at the DD-WRT Trac for proof that it's still being developed.
http://svn.dd-wrt.com/timeline
Have you tried HomePlug instead of wifi? I find the bandwidth to be a big improvement over wifi. I can at least max out my 50Mb cable connection and no ethernet cables running through the house.
I use HomePlug in my neighborhood network. The version 2 stuff (is that 'AV'?) is really good - v1, not so much. I get about 50Mbps between a garage and the house's basement, and didn't have to dig new conduit, so totally worth the price (I think those were Netgear too). It sits behind a 40Mbps VDSL link, so plenty.
I get complaints from my wife about having to plug in the laptop to recharge it, so different use cases - she's not plugging in to surf Facebook. My house has Cat5e haphazardly for access points, and I was going to do more HomePlug for, e.g. Roku, but 802.11 turned out to be good enough, so that was easy to not buy.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It's practically impossible to get a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH in this day and age. They are now selling the WZR-HP-G300NH2, even though the box says its just the NH. There is no DD-WRT support to speak of for the NH2, last I checked. But if you use the professional firmware, you can fix the broken NAT Loopback (or lack thereof)
Just go into the “Administration” menu and the “Commands” submenu. Save the text string below as a “Firewall command.” In other words, paste the command in, and then click the “Save Firewall” button. It will now apply itself after every reboot. Be sure to paste it as a single line. Be sure to change the network (“192.168.1.0) to the appropriate address of your network.
iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -o br0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -d 192.168.1.0/24 -j MASQUERADE
Definitely the one I would suggest as well.
Or it's dual-band big brother, the AP WZR-HP-AG300H. $89.99 for the router itself at Amazon, oddly enough. Nice little table at the bottom comparing the Buffalo router model features as well at that link.
Supports DD-WRT out of the box and support by the manufacturer.
My ONLY complaint is that the radio on my G300NH model is a little bit weaker than my old Linksys routers, since I could boost the signal. I don't think that option works in the firmware on the buffalo, but it might be the difference between the N and G signals that I'm seeing. Still covers my entire house quite well, however, and a little bit outside.
Many (most) Buffalo routers ship with DD-WRT if you want to go that route. They also tend to be decently priced. As others have mentioned DD-WRT is: A) A bit dead in development B) A bit unstable I would recommend going with either TomatoUSB or OpenWRT+ LucI.
Sometimes the news is not in the article but in the comments, actually scratch that slashdot is all about the comments.
Home networking is always of some interest to most of us, and a round up of whats available good reliable / unreliable of currently available gear makes for interesting (and mostly reliable) reading on slashdot.
Where else will you get this kind of update on what's current and what matters rather than the consumer view point which is just going to cover it lets me connect to my isp and didn't cost a lot.
I'd rate this topic as one of the best this month, seriously.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
Check out the WNDR3700v2. The folks doing serious research into home network performance have settled on this unit. Check out the prices on Amazon's refurbished stock - equivalent to what I was paying for 54GL's back in the day. I picked up a new for the office and a refurb for home.
They have lots of RAM, a decent processor, and dual-band radios. I think it's the 54G for the new decade.
Since the OP is intending to run DD-WRT on it, it doesn't really matter... but this router is a piece o' crap with the stock firmware. The external drive function has never worked properly, Netgear has known about the bug and never bothered to fix it. The drive(s) will go offline for no explicable reason and require a power cycle. If you aren't using that portion of the router, it's probably fine, but since I purchased this router for my parents house and purchased it explicitly for the extra drive connectivity, I am rather displeased. A quick scan of the Netgear forums reveals that it's a known issue, many people have it, Netgear just doesn't care and won't issue a fix for it.
Netgear can go piss up a pole.