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Ask Slashdot: Life Beyond the WRT54G Series?
First time accepted submitter jarmund (2752233) writes "I first got a WRT54GL in 2007. Now, 7 years later, it's still churning along, despite only having one of its antennae left after an encounter with a toddler. As it is simply not up to date to today's standards (802.11N for example), what is a worthy successor? I enjoyed the freedom to choose the firmware myself (I've run Tomato on it since 2008), in addition to its robustness. A replacement will be considered second-rate unless it catered for the same freedom as its predecessor." Is there a canonical best household router nowadays?
just get comcast /duck
Been looking for another router for almost a year now, and still haven't been convinced of a better one than my WRT54GL
Have been using these 2 routers for more than 2 years, running dd-wrt... nothing to complain about :)
Personally I love my Buffalo routers running DD-WRT. I'm pretty sure you can run Tomato on them too, but I thought it wasn't maintained anymore.
There is a war going on for your mind.
Want a narrow list of choices? DD-WRT Firmware FAQ: Which router should I buy?
Want a lot of details? OpenWRT: Table of Hardware, or DD-WRT Wiki: Supported Devices
And, like any STI, it's guaranteed you'll never get rid of Comcast, too!
Go TP-Link. wr1043nd ; wr3600 or even bigger ones.
Vajk
I picked up 2 Asus RT-N66U thinking that I could have a high speed Wifi Bridge. Since this house is old it creates a lot of interference. WiFi at the router was 30+ Mbps ... in one of the rooms, down to less then 5 Mbps.
The stock firmware is crap. You can't port-trigger multiple ports, only port forward ONE port.
I highly recommend Shibby's Tomato firmware which is up-to-date to see which routers it supports.
http://tomato.groov.pl/
You should consider the Linksys wrt1900ac, it's a really good router and it's open source friendly. Though I have to warning you that OpenWRT still working on releasing a stable firmware. Thanks,
If you're gonna shill, at least try not to be so obvious about it...
the last post was payed for by comcast
Every time I've tried to figure out this question for myself, I've run into a maze of "router [foo 600] works but [foo 601] doesn't, unless you have [foo 601 revision 2, 3, or 5] with firmware version X but not firmware Y." If you just tell us a brand name or something, your post is fucking useless!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I use Mikrotiks for just about everything nowadays. I haven't really found any situation that it couldn't do the function I required, even when it was something as complex as L7 regexing on a URL to force specific requests into a different priority queue.
http://routerboard.com/RB951G-...
I am in exactly same situation, and don't find that I need anything more than G. Netflix streaming works just fine, and I have wired connection for my main workstation.
I really love my WRT54GL running Toastman Tomato. "It just works"- it is rock solid and does what I want. Sure it is not super fast, but for regular stuff it is fine. I liked it so much I installed dozens of them at work and directed my friends and family to use them also.
I need to knock on wood... not a SINGLE one has failed or had problems. They stay up "forever" without hanging or needed to be reset, even after seeing tons of various devices connected. Plus they were dirt cheap and have real antennas and with real connectors (so I can and do use different antennas for different applications). Just don't use the stock firmware- it is unreliable. It freaks me out that you can still actually buy the ancient things-- they are just that popular.
It is a tall order to find a suitable, more modern replacement. I have been on the lookout but haven't seen anything quite at the same level that could "carry on the torch". Some say Buffalo.
I've had one of these running DD-WRT for six months. Friends running them for almost a year. Its a great router and very stable. Works great with or without open source firmware.
I believe the answer is whatever The Company makes you buy. With local monopolies being the dominant decision making point for buying decisions. I know Verizon Fios pretty much mandates their equipment for interoperability with anything you buy being installed on top of their router. We are pretty much getting back to the days when Ma' Bell told you what phone to buy or you got to lease your fancy "touch tone" phone from AT&T leasing for 40 years and 128k was good enough for anyone.
This. I have installed probably close to 50 tp-link routers running openwrt in various businesses in my town. The 1043 is great, as it has a usb port. Openwrt runs very well on these routers.
I've moved over to a Mikrotik RB2011 series device and I have to say I'm loving it. Has all the features I need, and even though the hardware is 3 years old at this stage, it's still alot faster than the older WRT devices. Interface and command line are a little whacky, and hard to get used to, but once you do, you'll never go back. http://routerboard.com/RB2011U...
1. Pick your favorite firmware 2. Check the lists to see which routers are supported 3. Check forums and reviews on the equipment, with the firmware in question (many perform better with dd-wrt than stock) 4. Make your choice
I have long advocated for separating everything - the cable modem / DSL modem should JUST be an interface to the upstream provider, with no NAT and DEFINITELY with no wireless. See the issues with Xfinity and other providers who are now piggybacking their "free" Wifi on customers' connections - I bet it'll be shown in the near future that the already existing NAT table size issues, which already cause many consumer devices to be problematic, are being exacerbated by trying to maintain state entries for the "free" wireless, too.
So you have a cable / DSL modem which is in bridge mode. Then you have some sort of NAT device. If you like running your own OS, a Raspberry Pi or some other tiny StrongARM device is cheap and can run whatever GNU/Linux or BSD you like. Heck, you can even still use your WRT54GL if the CPU in it isn't limiting the speed of your upstream connection.
Then, you have your wireless device. Again, I strongly recommend something that just does bridging - you have the simplest setup because you're not using the wireless device for NAT or any other "features". With all the stories about consumer devices having poor security and intentional back doors, the less exposure, the better. Personally, I pay extra for Apple because the 802.11ac Airport Extreme does wonders with existing 802.11n clients.
The great thing about this is that you can have as many segments as you want without needing a switch which does VLANs. You can plug two USB-ethernets into a Raspberry Pi, for instance, and keep your wireless and wired networks on completely different segments. Or three, and you can have your old device provide a completely separate guest network.
The best thing about this setup is that if one device fails or is shown to be insecure and the manufacturers won't fix it, you can just replace that one device.
USB and 128 MByte RAM make many interesting things possible.
With OpenWrt there currently is an annoying problem with VLAN tagging, but there is a patch: https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket... making its way into trunk.
low power pc with several network interfaces, and openbsd.
http://routerboard.com/RB2011UiAS-2HnD-IN
"The RB2011 is powered by RouterOS, a fully featured routing operating system which has been continuously improved for fifteen years. Dynamic routing, hotspot, firewall, MPLS, VPN, advanced quality of service, load balancing and bonding, real-time configuration and monitoring - just a few of the vast number of features supported by RouterOS.
RouterBOARD 2011UAS-2HnD has most features and interfaces from all our Wireless routers. It’s powered by the new Atheros 600MHz 74K MIPS network processor, has 128MB RAM, five Gigabit LAN ports, five Fast Ethernet LAN ports and SFP cage (SFP module not included!). Also, it features powerful 1000mW dual chain 2.4Ghz (2192-2732MHz depending on country regulations) 802.11bgn wireless AP, RJ45 serial port, microUSB port and RouterOS L5 license, as well as desktop case with power supply, two 4dBi Omni antennas and LCD panel- all this for only $129! "
Marketing BS aside, it IS only 2.4GHz, but 5GHz AC has crap range anyway, due to FSPL (free space path loss), and the fact that obstructions attenuate 5GHz twice as bad as they do 2.4GHz.
It's (RouterOS) insanely configurable though - you can even run MPLS on the damn thing, or setup your own WiFi mesh network.
You will learn something.
One thing I've started doing is trying to diversify my networking gear. Instead of trying to lump a single piece of hardware for modem+router+wifi, or just router+wifi, completely shutting off the wireless parts of my WRT54gl then just buying a good wireless AP. This allows me to keep OpenWRT running on the WRT54gl just fine since I can't push more than 100Mb traffic through my ISP and keep all the nice routing, DNS, etc features working. It also means that when hunting for a wireless AP, I don't necessarily have to include open firmware compatibility as a requirement. It's also nice because if one piece bites the dust, I don't have to sink large amounts of cash into replacing the whole thing or if I need more hardline ports I can just change out the switch/bolt-on another one.
I very recently replaced my faithful WRT54G with an ASUS RT-AC68U router. Over several weeks, it has never had an issue. I am running a mix of 802.11ac/g/n clients. Range and performance are fine. I live in an apartment with a very crowded 2.4GHz band and it still blasts through fine. The 5GHz band isn't as crowded and is great for the N and AC clients--wish the Chromecast had support for N on 5GHz. And if you want a slightly-tweaked custom firmware, a hobbyist developer maintains the Merlin firmware that is widely admired and used.
Or is the only router ever produced that actually looks good is the wrt54G line? I have yet to see another that does not look really bad.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
There is no modern equivalent. Sadly, I'm getting rid of the Orinoco because:
a) It's slow
b) It doesn't support WPA/AES
c) It requires a PC Card slot, which nothing modern has anymore.
But I still remember driving down the highway through Dallas with an external antenna hooked to that card, cataloging hundreds of APs as I passed by, many of them wide open. Ah, the good 'ol days.
Follow the herd: RT-N16 running Tomato or similar firmware. Gigabit, 802.11N, USB, open-source.
One of the most popular routers ever made and the natural successor to the WRT54.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
I've gotten along with DD-WRT and the Linksys E1200. It runs DD-WRT and supports Client Bridging.
I recently replaced my third generation Airport Extreme with a new Netgear R7000 "Nighthawk." I loaded Tomato "Shibby" branch, and was able to replace my firewall, webserver, openvpn, and a few other services with this bad-boy. Also, I get QoS.
Two weeks later, everything is fine. I am satisfied. It is interesting to me that the range of the Airport Extreme (despite being seven? years old), is comparable to this new wireless router. However, I am happy to invest in a repeater unit using this free software, rather than sinking more into the good--but infinitely proprietary, and less feature-ful)--Apple hardware.
Claim: the routing and security features on the edge devices your ISP provides as CPE are not sufficient
Claim: You want the ability to reset the shitty CPE your ISP gives you without losing LAN connectivity
Claim: Specific purpose devices are often better suited to their tasks than all-in-one devices
Solution: Treat your ISP-supplied CPE as a dumb device. Put a smarter device behind it that does routing, segmentation, translation, dhcp, etc, the way you want those things done.
Ideally, do PPPoE or something from the smarter device across the CPE, because CPE firmware is so often just terrible, but if not, double-NAT is often fine.
Critically, make your wifi APs a separate function both from your core home router and your edge device.
For a trivial amount of money, you can keep buying Ubiquiti APs and place them all over your property, as needed, and get an arbitrarily high level of speed and coverage. The configuration is completely painless, and this setup is completely independent of your edge device and edge connectivity.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
I abandoned the toy routers a while ago, bought a used Firebox X700 on ebay for dirt and installed pfSense. Is it fast enough to route a 10,000Base T internet II connection? nope, but it's fast enough for anything that Comcast can throw at it, plus there is a metric buttload of add-on's plus you get epic street cred with your digital posse'.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Well, I know Belkin started releasing the spiritual successor to the WRT54GL, but from what I heard from the initial reports, the third-party firmware selection is a bit lacking, as they are still working on releasing a port.
If I were to forced to buy a new router now, I would look at the ASUS series of RT-N/AC routers mainly because they are supported by Tomato by Shibby. Other than some additional features (like supporting the USB for external HDD/flash storage, printing, APC UPS, mobile stick), it feels just like the original Tomato. I use it myself on my Linksys E3000/E3200 back when I was looking to replace my WRT54GL.
But the price is pretty bonkers
http://store.linksys.com/Links...
Apple's AirPort.
Fixed-function devices are the only way to go - set it and forget it, man.
You don't have to hack them, you don't have to bother them. I've had mine for about 10 years now, to replace my old 1st-gen WRT54g, where I was doing stupid shit like trying to build an HTTP & media server into it, which was a conceptually flawed idea for an wireless-access-point.
You should never make devices more complicated than their physical requirements.
The problem a lot of people have is that they believe a device should do more, instead of less. This is the feature-creep that cause devices to be badly designed and complicated.
Apple has they user-experience model down in their Airport, where they say "Nope. Just use it for an WAP, not as a server." which was the correct decision.
I hear these onion routers are all the rage now.
I have an Asus RT-N66W (same as N66U, only white). The latest stock firmware is decent, and if you don't like it you can install a host of others. Asus develops the firmware as GPL, and is friendly to outside developers. I believe DD-WRT runs well on it, but I haven't tried, the stock firmware does what I need.
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
For a company headquarters job I did recently we looked at a bunch of options, and went with a dozen WNDR3800 refurbs for about $50 a piece. Running OpenWRT with luci-ssl and wpad (not mini, for WPA2) installed on them.
Great for doing multiple SSID's over VLAN's back to the routers/firewalls for handling. After doing another job with a "big company brand" central controller and "dumb" AP's, I'd go the OpenWRT route again in a heartbeat. You waste a few hours configuring a dozen instead of a few weeks debugging a nasty, buggy, proprietary deployment.
There wasn't a huge budget so instead of buying twelve new ones we went with 16 refurbs. The 4 spares are still on the shelf a year later, knock on RSSI.
This model has a lot of users, projects like CeroWRT have chosen it as a target, and the OpenWRT wiki has it very well documented (port numbers, VLAN setup, etc.) Even a real power switch (next to the integrated gigabit switch) and a USB port. What it doesn't have is external connectors for big antennas, so if you need to do long-haul, either solder them on or look elsewhere.
N-range is not good on any compliant hardware, so for a typical house I just get two of these and give them the same SSID's on different channels and then there's great signal everywhere. The OpenWRT wiki's HOWTO on deploying a Guest SSID works well (I've done those for neighbors) but given the option I prefer to send the traffic back over a VLAN to a pfSense firewall and handle it there instead. That's fine for commercial but makes less sense in a typical residential install.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
If you're gonna shill, at least try not to be so obvious about it...
I dunno. It's so damn obviously over-the-top it's got to be sarcastic.
You know, there were occasions where Jonathan Swift was taken seriously, too....
I've been running the R6300 for a year, initially with OpenWRT, and now I'm back to stock firmware. It works, but I wouldn't say it's living up to expectations given its high price. It could not use a Mac OS Extended formatted harddrive for NAS and share via AFP. OpenWRT installation was a mess, and I had to unbrick it by hooking up a USB/serial interface to its internal ports. OpenWRT support is limited to the builds created by some individuals, and I was unable to upgrade it to the latest version. The stock firmware works, but doesn't give me features like VPN. So far I'm just living out my sunk-cost bias, because it works OK as a router. Do I get more out of it than you do with your old Linksys? No, indeed not. (and I keep that sort of Linksys around for emergencies.)
It's a little on the spendy side, but the Soekris net6501s are fairly small and reliable. They have a proper RS-232 serial port console too. Standard x86 cpus. The 6501 will boot both 64bit and 32bit kernels(even though the Intel Atom E6XX line only officially supports 32bit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122581
NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band Wireless Gigabit Router (R7000)
Just got one of these. I loaded the DD-WRT firmware from Kong on it. I tried to flash back to stock, and it would not flash. Kong gave me some simple instructions (log in to ssh, run "erase linux" and "reboot", and wait for the light to flash... which means it is in TFTP mode waiting for you to upload the stock firmware) to put it back. He said that bug will be fixed very soon (if it isn't already).
I will go back to DD-WRT in the near future. I believe this router also runs Tomato, but I haven't looked into it deeply.
I recently purchased this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ... I LOVE the router. no issues whatsoever and amazing/blazing speeds.
g0t b33r?
I've seen a few posts recommend Mikrotik, and the RB2011 specifically, and I'd have to agree.
I know the OP talks about something that'll run open firmware but I really don't see the point in wasting your time messing around with custom firmware. Just buy a router that does the job it's supposed to, and RouterOS can do just about everything you'd ever want to do with a router. There's not much you could ever want to do with a router that it won't do out of the box with a few minutes configuration in Winbox.
I have the 10 port desktop RB2011 with wireless (the red one) and can't think of any router I'd rather use.
They think everything is a nail.
RaspPi is fine for people who aren't up to using an Arduino or something, but for a router replacement, especially in the GigE era, you need something with more throughput and ideally more expansion.
I'm someone disappointed nobody has produced a 100 dollar Arm board with a dual to quad cpu, either integrated GigE switch, or 3xPCIe x1 slots, and 1-2gig of ECC DDR3. The tech is all out there, but no company has been enterprising enough to produce it. Such a device would be fully capable of 802.11n, possibly capable of 802.11ac/n 5/2.4 when a mini-pcie card is available, and have the networking capability to replace sub 500 dollar managed routers with open firmware.
The tech is there to do this, so why hasn't somebody with the capability made the investment?
Runs Openwrt, 802.11N (5Ghz) USB, gigabit.
You can pick it up new for under 60$
Dir 615 with ddwrt.
Virtual machine running GNS3 with the Cisco IOS 12.x mainline code for a 7206VXR. Then just setup bridging and add the IP for the gns3 node as your default GW. All done with one NIC. Enterprise grade router running on your desktop. With modern multicore CPUs it runs great and has all the features you'd ever need (eg Zone Based Policy Firewall, QoS, ACL, policy routing and it can even function as an SBC running CUBE code).
i would go with the almond + http://www.securifi.com/almond... for me it will be the end of using custom firmware but theirs will be open source . Beta backers and early orders are shipped or shipping. Its about 6 months from being for sale on amazon i think.
(yes i know i suck at spelling fell free to correct my grammar and/or spellin i dont care, im still not going to change
I've kept my old Buffalo running Tomato. It's fine as a router. I like the loopback functionality. I have everything set up find and don't want to change.
But frankly its WIFI was bad. It apparently couldn't cope with the way that modern devices communicate over wifi. Its wifi would get stuck every few days and require a reboot. It's not fast. Its range isn't good.
I just bought an Apple Airport Extreme. Disclaimer is that I work at Microsoft, and joined the company because I'm a Microsoft fanboy. But I bought the Apple base station solely in wifi mode, and it got extra range, and it doesn't crap out as much, and I'm delighted with it. It took an hour to set up (the setup software didn't work on my MBA so I had to install Airport Utilities onto my Windows notebook). But since then it's been running fine without worry.
... rules. I have been on a WRT54Gs running DD-WRT since I can't remember, and I really see no reason to mess with something that ain't broke.
I've been using these as replacements for WRT54G/L routers as they die. They are relatively cheap and are capable of running DD-WRT or one of the TomatoUSB variants.
This is not the perfect router for everybody, but I just ordered the new APU.1D4 from PC Engines to replace my old WRT54GL and Soekris net4801:
http://www.pcengines.ch/apu1d4.htm
Click around to their shop and you can find pricing; I managed to get the following for about $250 USD including tax, and reasonably fast shipping. I was actually rather impressed. And the CEO of the company was the one replying to my emails. You get schematics and so on which is pretty neat.
1 apu1d4 # motherboard, cpu, ram
1 case1d2blku # case
1 ac12vus # power plug
1 msata16c # 16GB mSATA
2 pigsma # 2 pigtails for wifi
2 antsma # 2 wifi antennas that fit in the case
1 wle200nx # one wifi 802.11a/b/g/n card - you could buy a card from someone else if you wanted, but I don't really need 802.11ac personally
Yeah but, what if you want to hack? Oh wait, too bad...
Love all of you! and for the record, RT-N66U = modern WRT54GL. AsusWRT-Merlin + Entware on the RT-N66U has the crown right now, people. /. mostly consists of old farts, so they wouldn't know this!
I got on their "Trusted Tester" program so I'm getting one of the first replacement units that supports 802.11ac next week
Sure, go ahead and get Xfinity internet. The most expensive internet going and,oh BTW, they are going to use your Xfinity Wifi Router as a PUBLIC access point for their Xfinity WIFi network, and no they won't be paying for your electricity that they use in doing this either...
For the same price has the higher-end consumer stuff you can get pro-level equipment.
Grab an EdgeRouter Lite: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CPRVF5K/ for $95
and pair it with an UniFi AP: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XXMUCQ/ for $68
The EdgeRouter is not as user friendly as DD-WRT/Tomato, its OS is based of Vyatta. It has three gigabit ports you decide what you want to do with. Have one WAN and two LAN? Sure. Dual WAN fail over with LAN? Ok. WAN, LAN, and DMZ? Yup. Need more? Get the standard non-lite, or even go Pro. Software configure wise they work exactly the same.
Having an AP separate from router is also nice. Keep the router in the basement near the drop. Then just run CAT to a central area. The UniFi only has a single Ethernet connector and requires PoE which it includes an adapter for. It also supports seamless hand off, so if you have more than one, you can transition between them, and your network connection will stay open.
I would recommend the ASUS RT-AC66U as a good replacement for the older Linksys WRT54G's. 802.11n wireless networking has been standardized for many years, and now 802.11ac is the new standard for higher speeds. Also you should be aware that alot of newer high performance SOHO wireless routers cover 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz (or both at same time). You can pick up an RT-AC66U for about $130 bux. I've recommended these to a few people so far and everyone says the range and speed is great. You may think you don't need the 802.11ac yet (especially if your wireless devices do not support that yet) but most newer ones do. Would def recommend this device for another SOHO router you can put in place and forget about for hopefully 5-8 years.
It's been pretty good for me, but it's not perfect.
I don't like those combination modem / routers very much either and I always suggest that Comcast people get just a modem and their own router; but can someone please tell me what to do with people who have Verizon? Those Actiontec modem / routers / wireless combo are just awful and port forwarding doesn't seem to work properly on the ones I've worked with but Verizon says that if you don't use their equipment and you have their TV service then the channel guide on the cable boxes won't work, so how do any of you overcome that problem?
I laugh every time I hear someone talk about this router cuz its so damn old. You gimped yourself for years just because you liked to change the firmware? How silly. Buy a new router, whatever it may be, it will be faster and better in every way.
I need more speed than G because I have an ultrabook with no ethernet port and I store files on my server.
A latent existence
Installed an Asus Wi-Fi router at an office where they had all sorts of problems. Eight months later and still works like a charm. I'd go for an Asus (never thought I write that sentence, ever.)
I tried to retire my old WRT54g. Nothing seems to top it. If I could just upgrade the hardware I would be happy.
I have some strange devices hooked up to it, some older than dirt. New routers block them or repeatedly drop them from the network.
Has been pretty solid for about a year now. Only requiring one or two reboots over that time, and I think that had to do more with the cable modem.
My WRT54GL replacement is a TP-Link TL-WR2543N with OpenWRT (http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr2543nd). I picked up one off eBay for £30 and it's working well as a domestic router. With the OpenWRT IPv6 6in4 support, I'm IPv6 at home. And I still have 30Mb RAM free.
Don't bother screwing around with anything less then AC and enterprise grade AC at that. What you should do is buy a good quality small business Gigabit router with management and POE+ and get something like: http://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unif.... This will provide your house with excellent full speed Wifi, suitable for almost anything you can throw at it and the wired router will allow you to have an almost no downtime wired solution for when you need extra juice. This is the setup I use and honestly for 10 months of the year I don't even think about it because I never have to.
I've been running a WRT-54GL for about that long but instead of running Tomato, I run DD-WRT. Runs very well too. My only complaint was that after months and months the Broadcom chip gets hot. So having studied electronics and worked building remote sensing circuit boards for oilfield, I know that heat kills electronics, and I did the only sane thing: put together a nice little heat sink, got some heat sink grease (thermal silicone grease), and stuck the heat sink to the top of the Broadcom chip. The whole thing gets warm, but the chip doesn't get hot, and it will stay running for many more years. As far as performance: yes it only has (802.11)b and g (but not n). Still, 802.11g is good enough for me to wirelessly stream movies (dvd, not blu-ray) to an LG box connected to the tv via an hdmi cable (dlna). If you really want to start your search (and want to run Tomato) start by looking on the Tomato web site and see what routers are supported. I know the dd-wrt site lists supported routers.
I stumbled across the Cisco SOHO series of WiFi routers about a year ago and I have to say that they are pretty nice. I've purchased 4 of the RV180W for labs in the school that I work at to replace Linksys WRT-54G routers - some running DD-WRT. They have a very complete web GUI that covers more then you ever want to do with a router from VPNs, VLANs, QoS, Security, etc.. They are on the pricey side as coming in around $150 a pop. First Cisco product that I really like - I've been teaching enterprise Cisco ISRs and VoIP for about 10 years now.
I gave in and upgraded from my WRT to an ASUS router.
In the beginning it had major wireless latency issues (every 5th ping was over 100 ms) due to the broadcom wireless driver but after 6 months of complaining and getting nowhere with ASUS, they finally released a firmware that fixed the driver issues.
I really enjoy the speed now and being of 5 Ghz really helps snapping out of my overly congested neighbourhood.
You might not need it now, but you'll kick yourself later for not getting it.
I am the GP AC, and now that I think about it, you might be right. But seriously though, Fuck Comcast. :p
I like to keep my routing and wireless separate. Ubiquiti Edgerouter POE for the router then a UniFi AC for the AP. Enterprise hardware, for a home user price.
I use a an Item Atom mini PC with dual onboard broadcom NICs (newegg #N82E16856205007) and a 32GB ssd with adapter I pulled out of my laptop after I upgraded. It runs Linux (obviously). IPTables is great. Plus anything else I need to do is very easy - OpenVPN, etc.
For an access point I use a Ubiquity long range with their firmware (I don't think there's any other).
I have a TP-LINK managed switch that can do VLAN and other nice things for me on a budget.
Cisco branded. WRT-DD works great on it, and it's fast. No problems so far.
I'd suggest just finding whatever option works for your budget and requirements that one of the open source projects works on, like wrtdd. They list what they support..
I absolutely hated my TP-Link. Had to restart it practically every other day. Lost configs etc. Was crap. Running a Belkin now but don't like it much.
Get the Asus RT-N66U Dark Knight 450Mbps N Router (only $120 at Amazon)!
1. Looks nicer than the alternative, the ASUS RT-N16 (the RT-N16 is missing the 5ghz band)
2. Support opensource firmware, e.g. Tomato or DD-WRT firmware
3. Supports 5ghz 802.11n
4. Looks like Batman's router!
And if you don't need the usb port, the 841 is a great option for a lower budget. Point and click openwrt installation.
I didn't read all of the comments, so if someone already mentioned it, sorry. The R-7000 can run Tomato as well as DD-WRT if you prefer. It is an AC router which with the Netgear firmware, you can turn into an AP only. It is a HUGE behemoth, has three HUGE antennas and will take up a pretty good amount of space compared to other offerings. That said, it has awesome coverage and speed. They aren't cheap, around $200 (less if you do a little shopping around). I have had mine for about a month and it hasn't had any issues.
"My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
The original WRT54GL had a cult following, but in perspective was a pretty poor OSS router. The wifi driver was binary and heavily tied to broadcoms kernel tree. It was a start however.
Nowadays we have OpenWRT which IMO is the pinnacle of SOHO router software - up to date kernel, upstream OSS drivers, and a kickass config system, all contained in ~6MB firmware file.
Now to answer the question - you want to stick to Atheros/Qualcomm-Atheros chips and make sure the router is supported by OpenWRT. If you have those 2 things, you absolutely can't go wrong.
My suggestion is most TP-Link stuff (except for the newer Archer C-series, it's just not ready yet), or the Atheros-based Netgear stuff (WNDR3700v2 or 3800 if you can still get them). Stay the f*** away from Linksys and D-Link, Asus seems to be nice but they keep using Broadcom chips which are extremely poor for OSS software.
I had the misfortune of having their new router for a few months. Not only did I have problems getting it to work with my office VPN connection due to blocked ports, but they decided to turn my house into an XfinityWiFi hotspot without asking my permission first.
Openwrt support is in beta at the moment (stable release works but is buggy), as this router is relatively new. Unlike many other models, the WR1043ND's ram increases as the version advances (so far). There is faster wireless N available through TP-Link also.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704038&cm_re=tp-link_1043-_-33-704-038-_-Product
I'm on a docsis 3.0 modem with 50mbps down and I have no problems getting full speed with this and has worked beautifully for over a month now, running OpenWrt Barrier Breaker (beta release).
I just set up a TP-Link WDR3600 with DD-WRT installed for my own personal home network.
A few points: It's fairly cheap. It runs dd-wrt and openwrt (I believe). Gigabit ethernet ports. Dual-band. Wireless-N (and G).
I've heard its range is not very great, but I have a small home. We have 4 wired devices and a single laptop, 2 mobile phones, and 1 android tablet connected wirelessly.
Our needs are simple, and it works for us.
I upgraded my WRT-54GL with an ASUS RT-N66U. I couldn't be happier with the custom Merlin firmware. The router has all the of the software features of my old Linksys, gets great wired/wireless performance, no WIFI compatibility with over a dozen devices, and most importantly rock solid stable. Can't remember ever having to reboot it.
Personally I think TP-Link's routers are unbeatable comparing features/price. They have a range of dirt cheap routers with gigabit switches and USB ports all running OpenWrt perfectly. The good old WR1043ND has gotten a facelift (+ more memory and flash) and the N600/N700 (WDR3600/WDR4300) are quite powerful. A stripped down OpenWrt takes around 4 MB flash and all these models have 8 MB, so plenty of space for added functionality.
The short answer is, there isn't one. All that exists to day is absolute garbage hardware with firmware that is barely tested enough to get it out the door. You then get to play beta tester for free and suffer endless headaches and security issues while you wait for a firmware update that will never come.
I went back to 100% wired infrastructure at home, and so should you.
Straightforward, for the most part. A Pi would be more than enough power because it doesn't need to process a full gigabit worth of traffic... just the 100M that's going to wireless N.... and if you're not also using it as your edge router, then you don't have to load it for bear, security-wise.because any potential attackers afe going to have to find their way within a stones ghrow of your outer.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
A virtual machine is definitely the way to go. Paying $150 for a hideously under-powered computer, which you then struggle to find a new firmware for (because what came with it is garbage), trying to find one with the features you need that fits in the device's tiny memory, a chore which isn't made easier by the firmware authors because they just upload several dozen versions, all with little two-letter codes to specify which features they have, but with no key to the two-letter codes anywhere to be found so that you can only guess which versions have the features you want and which don't, and which will work in your router and which won't, all so that you can just try one and pray that it doesn't brick your $150 piece of shit, only to find that the firmware doesn't work as advertised and so you need to go find another... Well, it's just stupid. Fuck that bullshit.
I just tossed a second network card in my always-on-anyway PC, then installed pfSense in a VM, bridged both network adapters to the VM, and configured Linux to ignore the one that was connected to the cable modem, as the cable modem answers any DHCP request and so that's the only way to make sure the VM gets the global IP address. Worked wonderfully for the two months before my second network card died. Used only 2% of my CPU and RAM.
I've had people tell me "so how well does that work with 100 mbit internet service?" ...and I mean "tell me" as it wasn't a question. I really don't care. Simple fact is that I'm too poor for $150 routers, and in being so poor, I don't have 100 mbit internet service either. It works perfectly for what I need it to do, and so at least for me, the idea of wasting so much money on a router and so much time finding a firmware seems completely absurd, almost like everyone has forgotten that network switches exist and so you don't need a router to connect multiple computers together.
Indeed, the VM isn't strictly required either. You can technically make the Linux kernel do routing functions as well. The only problem there is that, aside from router firmware authors, no one else involved with Linux believes in ease of configuration. So you'll have to learn how to configure a dozen different tools, and despite what everyone says, plain text configuration files aren't magically easy to modify, you still have to know the syntax which is different with each and every one of them, and then you're still faced with problems like making the DHCPv6 server not hand out leases that are longer than the lease obtained by the DHCPv6 client, in case the routing prefix changes and so the IPv6 addresses on the LAN need to be renumbered. I tried for about two weeks to get all of the kernel's routing parameters, the DHCPv4 client, the DHCPv4 server, the DHCPv6 client, the DHCPv6 server, the router advertisement daemon, and a caching DNS server all working together before giving up. It's just a nightmare, and tossing pfSense in a VM is a far easier solution, even if it does add the unnecessary overhead of a VM.
There is too much variety of hardware now for there to be any defacto model like the wrt54gl was. Back then practically the only differences were RAM and Flash sizes. Now you have choices of 100mbit vs gigabit ports, USB support or not, 802.11n vs 802.11ac, 2.4GHz only or also 5GHz, single radio vs dual radio, 1-8 MIMO stream support (affects throughput), RAM size, Flash size, lots of different SoC's running at various speeds...
You need to prioritize what features you want and then narrow down the wide variety of router models available. Most models are supported by 3rd party firmwares unless they were recently released but most will become supported eventually.
I moved from the WRT54GL with Tomato to the RT-N66U with Merlin fw. Happiness.
I'm extremely happy with my TL-WR1043ND running OpenWRT.
Gigabit, Wireless N, USB port.
The USB port is particularly useful, since I use 3G as a backup connection, when my ADSL goes down.
morcego
The ASUS RT-N12 is siiiiick and the ASUS RT-N16 is legendary. They're hyper-intelligent and dirt cheap. One's made the Realtek gear and the other with Broadcom. They can handle 30,000 and 300,000 incoming concurrent connections respectively without jamming. They're all I sell at my shop. They can also take aftermarket firmware.
I use one of these. Open source comaptibility doesn't get any better than x86_64. Couple with an msata ssd and an Intel AC7260 mPCIe 802.11ac card and the specs beat the hell out of any consumer router. You can use linux or FreeBSD and configure it yourself (I use Arch), or use pfsense for a more dedicated firewall solution.
I mean, you don't even need particularly awesome hardware. Get a Mini ITX board, with a couple of onboard GigE ports, toss in a 4-port Gig-e card, and a wireless card, install Linux.
It would last ages, and you'd probably only need to upgrade the wireless portion, which could be done cheaper than buying a new wireless router.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
It has a decent hardware feature set. I personally love using it as a NAS with an external drive and eSATA and it has OpenWRT support. So far it does what it promises... ...other than OpenWRT support! http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/linksys/wrt1900ac OpenWRT has "support" - if you're willing to live with binary blobs that may or may not work and may never be updated. The key is after all these months "At this point it is not possible to compile a fully working (including WiFi) customized OpenWrt build for WRT1900AC."
If you don't need something today you can wait a few more months and see if they come through on their advertising. This has great potential. But I can't recommend it *today* who wants to run OpenWRT as I don't want anybody else getting suckered.
I have to agree. I have the last generation (pre-AC) model and have for about a year. It has never required a reboot, does exactly what I want it to do, and isn't laden with features I don't need that I'll just waste hours fiddling with for no reason. My only complaint is that Apple keeps reducing the number of ethernet ports on the darned things, and the number of devices in my home that support gigabit ethernet keeps increasing. Problem solved with a few inexpensive switches, but a nice five ports would be preferable. As far as wireless goes, no complaints. Good range even on the older flat model I have, simultaneous dual-band, and it is reasonably attractive.
I have a WRT54GS v 2.0, which I think is better specs than your WRT54GL.
When I got 50Mbps internet, I found out the WRT54GS can only route at about 23Mbps from the WAN port to the LAN port. I'm not eve discussing wireless. But there's a ton of routers that support DD-WRT out of box, some from Asus and all (most?) of the Buffalo routers.
I ended up with a simultaneous dual band, 802.11N router from Buffalo. I don't recall the model, but that doesn't matter. I can do well over 50Mbps to both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.
If you're still on 10Mbps down and don't use much Wifi bandwidth, than no need to upgrade. But if you have a Roku or XBMC box connected to Wi-Fi streaming from your media server, you'll probably want something better.
Ubiquiti AirRouter HP supports N, has good coverage area, the web interface is the best I've ever worked with for configuring network hardware, and the price is very reasonable.
I decided to upgrade from my wrt54g to a brocade mlx-4. it switches my packets super fast and supports neat features like mac filtering, and NAT. I've never had it crash ever and it's been running for months. It also has some dumb enterprise management crap that I never use and a bunch of certifications and supported protocol garbage that nobody understands. All I know is it routes my dialup like a champ. Not great for power usage though and the fans are too loud. Still, would buy again.
My upgrade from WRT54GL was the Linksys E3000 infused with Tomato. It's a gigabit router, which I needed, and it was inexpensive as a refurb from Newegg. I found it to be a very good replacement.
Following that, I went to an Asus N65 which is gigabit with 5GHz which I needed and use all the time. This router has been rock solid. It's not cheap, at about $120, but I would go with it again in a heartbeat. Open source? No. I am at a point where I need performance and specific features more than I need to feel good about which OS is running on the router. Asus does a decent job on their firmware.
The E3000 still runs Tomato at the other end of the house acting as an AP and backhauls over gigabit back to the main router and this setup with these two routers works really well for me.
I've loved my WRT54GL. It will always hold a special place in my heart. That said, it could not keep up with a recent upgrade my provider rolled out, taking me from 30Bit to 60Mbit. It never moved data faster than 42Mbit. I replaced it with a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite and a PicoStation M2HO which is their high power AP that will handle N and MIMO. I've never been happier. The router is a beast, rated as the 1st 1,000,000 packet-per-second router under $100, and it runs Linux, just like all their products. I was designed to complete with Cisco and Juniper routers in the $4,000-6,000 price range with three fully configurable gigabits ports. Best of all the current firmware includes easy to use wizards that will have you set up and surfing in minutes, if all you need is a basic SOHO configuration!
You're not paranoid if they really ARE out to get you...
best wifi router i've ever owned
I never clip my fingernails for fear of dangling symbolic links.
I have an R6300 (much less expensive, 90 percent of the power) and routinely saturate our 802.11N channels using DD-WRT, including to the outside world (connected via Google Fiber, which includes its own router, but a router that's significantly less cool). Before we had GF, we used the DD-WRT QoS features heavily and it was absolutely perfect.
The router is handsome, has been rock solid and running strong for many months now, and only cost $100 on sale at a Best Buy retail store. Prices may reach even lower now, particularly when sales are on.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
my word brain is running behind by a generation.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Works very well with the source builds of OpenWRT.
The WDR4300 hardware and software with the WDR4300 present one with a verifiably secure wireless system, that is also correctable if it is not.
That is why I use it.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
This is a good example of Poe's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
http://orp1.com/ would be my choice
I've been using ClearOS for a while, and it does everything I could wish for (QoS, Caching, DNS, Mail Server, monitoring, adblock and the kitchen sink), I want to try Zentyal but don't have a spare machine or the time.
Clear has been running on an old AMD low power single core CPU with 2GB RAM, altough it costs more in electricity than a consumer router, it's way more flexible and handles torrents without rebooting every once in a while...
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
I also advocate separate devices for each function.
- My cable modem just talks to Comcast and my firewall
- I use a soekris appliance with pfSense as a firewall, DHCP server, and VPN endpoint
- for WiFi I use the Ubiquity UniFi access point. It does nothing but wireless, but it does that really well
I've replaced all my WRT54Gs with RT-AC66U
Supports N and AC, and has replaceable Antennas.
There's also Tomato and DD-WRT builds for it (I run Tomato USB)
I ran tomato for a long time and recently upgraded to a ASUS RT-N66U. Its happily running toastman's tomato.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
http://toastmanfirmware.yolasi...
Why Hack it when it just works? Had this thing running for the last 5 years, not a single reboot/dropped connection... It does what its suppose to. Its a consumer device.
-- I Dont Deserve A Sig I Have Bad Karma
If you configure the RT-N66U with a bridge, you might consider setting the bridge router to 5GHZ mode, not 2.4. I've been able to get 50+ Mbps in bridge mode with 5GHZ with Toastman Tomato.
Also make sure WMM is turned on, otherwise you'll be running Wireless G, not N. Turn the wireless interference mitigation off, set a short preamble, and frame burst enabled.
-=Lothsahn=-
Try a RT-N66U. It'll be just as rock solid and stable, but has dual band and N support. I have 6 (6mth-2years uptime) and have had no issues on Toastman, unless I turn ipv6 on. They're more expensive, but they have far better range, performance, and fewer wireless drops. I have one in bridge mode and have nearly zero packet loss over the wireless.
I'm still waiting for the arm-based ones to get mature (66U/68U).
-=Lothsahn=-
I never heard of that planet before and you have known this for 7 years. Shame on you. Comcast, NSA, FBI, DHS, MPAA, RIAA, EveryOtherScumBagAllies let us invade this planet and copyright everything for the next 111111111111 billion years.
I've had a Netgear WNDR3800 running a customized OpenWRT build by arokh https://forum.openwrt.org/view... for past couple of years and I've been very happy with it. My experience with routers is limited, but it's hands down the best router I ever had.
Custom firmwares can be installed from the stock web interface (same as normal firmware update). It has plenty of processing power and RAM and has been very reliable. Between firmware updates it has regularly clocked over a year of uptime without a hiccup.
One example of too-much-integration I have. My edge router (Deutsche Telekom, Germany, some Fritzbox variant) has integrated modem, WAP and switch. Despite the fact that my entire house is wired with CAT6 and I have a patch panel and rack in the cellar my WAP/Router/Switch box is physically constrained by the point the phone line comes into the house, and by the room's geometry. The problem is that, from there, the WiFi reception is very spotty in some places, most notably my favourite bench in the kitchen where I like to browse the days news on my iPad early in the morning with coffee before the kids wake up.
Since I can't split the devices I had to buy another WAP to get reasonable reception in the kitchen cause that is a major use-case for me.
L
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
I wonder if anyone considers using Microtik? Even the most basic models have decent antenna, and all have great amount of network related tools incuded (most of which I don't use anyway), but at the same time they are easy to set up. Pretty reliable, too.
It is bloody good, it is linux based. And it just keeps going
I don't know whether it's actually available overseas, but I've had wonderful experiences with the Fritz!Box series by the German company AVM. You get everything from custom firmwares running fully fledged linux distros to an active community with all sorts of cool packages having been built already. Plus it supports all the latest rage of technologies. I can heartily recommend it.
Some come with DD-WRT, most of their routers support it. I recommend them to clients looking for a stable business router. They are rock-stable and great support, they may not always have the latest antennae technology whenever one comes along (like 802.11ac right now). The RT-N16 was decent but is unstable even with DD-WRT (it has an under-engineered power supply).
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
I have a Linksys E900 I've been running DD-WRT on for a while, and never had a lick of trouble with it until this week, when the WAN port fried thanks to a power surge (caused by some dumbass with a drill...).
That reminds me, one of the best things you can do for a home router is to put it behind a UPS. I put my father's Linksys wrt54g behind an old APC-300, it was up for over a year continuously afterwards, and only required a reboot when I had to move it around for some maintenance. Even a crappy $25 Belkin can be surprisingly stable when it has a nice clean power supply.
If you are willing to do a bit of work (but not a whole lot, don't worry), then I'd suggest taking a nice little energy efficient small footprint pc and slap OpenBSD on it.
You can find excellent guidance in Mark's OpenBSD Router Guide.
http://flashrouters.com/ is were I get mine.
I am not affiliated with the company.
Here's an in-depth article and list of best-in-class Wi-Fi routers for your home that give you the best bang for your buck (as cheaply as possible), and come highly recommended by networking professionals http://www.connectedly.com/top... NETGEAR Nighthawk R7000 is the top of their list but it's the most expensive @ $188. The N900 is on that list too if AC isn't required and you're happy with N speeds. Anyhow, I learned a lot from this article. Hopefully you do too.
I have always liked the idea of two routers in one like Comcast is doing and having one be really open with no password. People could actually work together and build a world network that is free. Is there a risk, if Comcast can do it with no problem? I guess someone will hack one of their routers to do this.
My Apple Airports are so good I forget where I put them.
I haven't tried to this myself but it looks like a really good alternative. Get a raspberry Pi and a high-end WiFi dongle.
http://www.pi-point.co.uk
If you're happy with your WRT54GL apart from its wireless performance, just get a new AC Wireless Access Point (WAP) without the router. Then just turn off the wireless in the WRT54GL.
Unless you've got an internet connection exceeding 100 Mbps, there's no need to get a new router. The router should be at the border of your network supplying your internet connection and perhaps a few DMZ-type services.
Wireless does not have to be part of the router, contrary to popular belief.
I gave up on those routers years ago. I moved on to the apple timecapsule. ac transfer speeds are awesome. Of course this site is infested with people that have a junk fetish that refuse to buy something that is good ... So sure keep that old router - is open source, so it would be morally wrong to move to something else /s
Specifically, the N300 (Amazon link). It has four gigabit ports, plus a gigabit WAN port, a USB port, and takes DDWRT/Tomato/Tomato USB like a dream. Oh, and it's cheap.
The only downside is a lack of external antennae, but you can get a set easily on ebay as big as you want.
Netgear's firmware is crap, but that cheap little router plus Tomato USB has been amazing. I have 150/150Mb FiOS service, and it has handled all levels of traffic beautifully. I've been doing 10MB down and 10MB up with torrents, and still been able to watch Netflix in HD with no problem. It handles heavy traffic silky smooth.
I've outfitted quite a few WRT-54GL over the years, but I've moved on to the ASUS RT-AC66U with Shibby variation of Tomato.
The features that grab me most are (0) GHz Ethernet LAN connections (1) QOS rules and graphical pie charts of relative usage both incoming and outgoing (2) multiple SSID's and both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, triple antennae (3) graphical displays of bandwidth usage that can drill down to show individual machines (4) display of bandwith of individual TCP/IP connections (5) VPN support with enough processor bandwidth to perform the encryption (6) WDS to extend coverage without a wired backbone (7) DDNS for remote access by domain name.
I've found the Shibby releases to be very stable and rarely have to reboot. The price is a few times that of the WRT54GLs, but the improved coverage helps to reduce the number of boxes I need to use. I wish they were prettier to have around the house, though. I've placed some Engenius EAP600's in ceilings where esthetics were important, using them as access points to extend coverage - they also support multiple SSID's and POE so you don't have to run AC power.
Does anyone have favorite devices for extending links between buildings that are a few hundred feet apart? I put a high-gain antenna onto a WRT-54GL with tomato and used WDS, but without a matching antenna on the other side, it was as solid as I would have liked. Ideally, I'd put something on an exterior wall and use POE to power it.
I think the best replacement for your old WRT is the ASUS RT-AC68.
Great range, fantastic speeds and you can replace the firmware. Tomato and Merlin are available.
While they describe themselves as firewalls, both pfSense and M0n0wall are very good routers. I've been running a low power ALIX board for years. You can use a miniPCIE wireless card or a separate dumb access point for WiFi. They're both FreeBSB, so you can hack them as much as you want or use some of the packages people have already put together.
How timely. I am doing a presentation at the local LUG (KWLUG) on OpenWRT in a couple of days.
There are various options out there that are supported by OpenWRT.
In this day and age, you want the most memory and flash that you can get, gigabit ethernet, Wirless N dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz), as well as USB.
I use The D-Link DIR-835, which has 128MB RAM, 16MB flash (the most memory and flash that you can get for a reasonable price) and all the above features . It goes for ~ $80 in Canada.
There are other options that support most of the above, but with a bit less RAM or flash sometimes, but perhaps 2 port USB, ...etc.
They are:
TP-Link WDR-4300 ~ $70
TP-Link TL-WDR3600 ~ $55
TP-Link TL-WR1043ND ~ $50
All of the above are supported on OpenWRT development snapshots (soon to be a stable release, Barrier Breaker).
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
TP-Link WDR3600 is inexpensive, dual band and can take dd-wrt. Its native firmware is good too.
I hate to say it because it feels like partial defeat, but your best bet probably consists of two devices... something like an Odroid U3 acting as your router/application gateway/personal server/whatever, and a separate access point for wifi.
Why the separate access point? Thanks to closed drivers and general lack of proper documentation, it's damn near IMPOSSIBLE to get best-of-breed wifi performance out of ANY open firmware. Go read the forums for any open firmware... broken 5GHz, no support for beamforming, and random weirdness that nobody can properly fix because everything they do is a stab in the dark. So, the next best thing is to hold your nose, isolate out that specific functionality into a separate device, and concentrate on the one part of the equation you CAN control... the router/server/whatever itself.
Why Odroid U3, and not a Raspberry Pi? Much better hardware, and almost meaningless difference in price (once you factor in shipping, case, and everything else you're going to have to buy to make it work). Go ahead and use your Pi if you already have one gathering dust in a drawer somewhere, but IMHO, if you're buying everything new for this, the $25 or so extra is money well spent on better, more-capable hardware.
Bought a second-hand netgear wnr3500l for 15 euros about 3 years ago. Put tomato on it, and I've been a happy camper since. Make sure you get the wnr3500l instead of the wnr3500.
It's not a Linksys, but since you're running Tomato I'd consider ASUS. Their RT-N66U is a good router, with a micro SD slot (have to pop the case though, so good-bye warranty), good for logs if you keep them and won't wear out the flash so fast.
The AC-66U adds AC support, and the newer AC-68U offers faster throughput than the AC-66U, though the spec hasn't quite settled yet so you may or may not actually be able to take advantage of it. Still, the AC-68U has been coming up the winner in several head-to-head router comparisons.
Plenty of memory and a fast CPU, pretty much a requirement these days for households with multiple streams going on.
You're looking at around $150 ~ $200 or so depending on model.
The Advanced Tomato - http://www.advancedtomato.com/ - firmware has been looking pretty good too, based on Shibby's mods but way-ajaxified, a good GUI design for when you have to get into it.
Slow 150 N is for COX bundles.
well interesting discussion i recent;y had my router burn out and went searching for an open src alternative i saw this router at a good price and it could be flashed with DD-WRT Well it died after three days . First the 5 and then the 2.4 radio. I returned it. The next one lasted 3 weeks then each transmitter went out. Needless to say, I gave up on netgear. Never had much luck with them. I think Buffalo is the way to go.
Find a local router that you like the look of, see if it is on this data base http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/sup...
if yes purchase
I've been pretty happy with my Netgear WNR-3500L with DD-WRT on it for a few years, now. Supports 802.11n, gigabit ports and USB. I bought it when my WRT54g finally kicked the bucket. They're going for around $50 on NewEgg right now.