How do you guys feel about taking "cheapish" routers and reflashing the firmware on em?

[JinzoDefiler]

Im just curious how this forum feels about it. I've personally flashed my D-Link DIR-601-A1 to run DD-WRT and never looked back.

[Zeke]

Everything is better with DD-WRT. I really need to flash my WDR3700, to get a printserver running on it.

[JinzoDefiler]

Indeed. It was one the best things I ever did. Makes the router more secure to. 

[Zeke]

Indeed. It was one the best things I ever did. Makes the router more secure to. 

Just a little tip, quote the posts of people you're replying to, or else they will never know if you did (if they don't check the topic manually or subscribe to it)

[qwertywarrior]

i go with Tomato always

never liked DD-wrt

[Foxxer]

I'm thinking of flashing my sitcom gaming router ii... 

[lani100]

It's nice but won't make it much faster or anything like that but adds tons of nice options.

But I got a Asus ac68 router that already has these functions in the stock firmware.

[rhyseyness]

What's the benefit of doing this?

I've heard of it before, but what difference does it make?

I'm certainly interested in doing it myself now.

[JinzoDefiler]

What's the benefit of doing this?

I've heard of it before, but what difference does it make?

I'm certainly interested in doing it myself now.

 

there can be a marginal speed benefit depending on how hampered the router was when it left the factory. However the use for things like DD-WRT and Tomato is in more security features and stuff that is in routers can easily cost 1000's of dollars. 

[JinzoDefiler]

It's nice but won't make it much faster or anything like that but adds tons of nice options.

But I got a Asus ac68 router that already has these functions in the stock firmware.

 

I'd beg to differ It kinda just depends on the router itself and revisions of the boards and firmware that was used on it. I can name a couple instances where using dd-wrt actually increased the speed of a router by a good margin. One was when Cisco was burning off a lot of the WRT54g stock from when they acquired Linksys. There is a couple board revisions if you know what it is and the proper flags to put into ddwrt you could have double the Buffer memory in it.

 

Another case I can remember is doing it a couple Buffalo Routers i got from when i used to work as a pc repair tech.

[LAwLz]

Crappy hardware will always be crap, no matter what firmware it is running.

If you already got a bad/low end router then sure go ahead and try it, it will most likely be better than the official firmware, but it won't turn your 30 dollar router into a 100 dollar one.

[Socratic]

Was looking at tomato firmware a while ago, but tbh I really don't need it. Not really into security past fw av am, if someone wants to hack me and steal my stuff, I'll just try reclaim whatever they've stolen, be it game account or bank account and they can have one more reason to be watching their door.

[tomsliwowski]

Crappy hardware will always be crap, no matter what firmware it is running.

If you already got a bad/low end router then sure go ahead and try it, it will most likely be better than the official firmware, but it won't turn your 30 dollar router into a 100 dollar one.

Well yes and no. The original WRT54G router was about $100 when released and flashing OpenWRT/Sveasoft/DD-WRT/Tomato unlocked features of a $300 or more router. The cheapness and versatility of the WRT54G is what drove the 3rd party firmware scene to where it is now.

 

If you have a well designed but cheap router then flashing a 3rd party firmware will probably make it perform significantly better. If you have a crappy designed router (TP-Link Archer C7 for example) there is no amount of firmware that will fix it.

[DeViLzzz]

I flashed the DIR 615 with DD-WRT and it helped with disconnection problems I had in the past that were happening over and over again but I can't say I know all that is in the router settings.  I really wish I did but nope.  I have read descriptions of them but some I just can't wrap my head around.

Also I had a problem recently where the router was flashed with DD-WRT and suddenly would not allow my Comwave VOIP to work along with other devices connected to the router.  Well I ended up just solving it today by rebooting the router in the software and not just resetting the router.  I don't know what settings I changed or had wrong or if I even had anything wrong but glad the problem is fixed but really again wishing I knew what the problem was.

I say don't flash a router with something until problems arise unless you know for sure the router is performing under spec and it isn't under warranty anymore then go ahead and do whatever.

[Legion]

Its a nice way to save some money and get some higher tiered features but at the end of the day its still a cheap router. 

[JinzoDefiler]

Its a nice way to save some money and get some higher tiered features but at the end of the day its still a cheap router. 

 

That is true it just depends on the router itself. WRT54g being a good example of this. Some manufacturers actually use the same board for many different models. It does go without saying that you kinda have to research it out but the dd-wrt/tomato communities in general is really helpful. 

[AMICLG]

If your in a pinch with money flashing a cheap router is usually the best option but flashing them never makes up for quality networking gear also both Tomato and DD-WRT more specifically DD-WRT leak a lot of info about it's self and are fundamentally flawed on the way they're built which is why I always go for Open-WRT if I'm flashing a router also that I don't need a fancy GUI just the CLI (I use near enterprise grade SOHO networking gear were most of the setting are only assessable via CLI). So I usually don't recommend people flash they're routers with 3rd party firmware unless they're really unhappy with their router firmware/there's a large loop hole in the security and tell them to wait until they can get at least a somewhat quality consumer device or learn how to use the CLI to take full use of Open-WRT.

[tomsliwowski]

If your in a pinch with money flashing a cheap router is usually the best option but flashing them never makes up for quality networking gear also both Tomato and DD-WRT more specifically DD-WRT leak a lot of info about it's self and are fundamentally flawed on the way they're built which is why I always go for Open-WRT if I'm flashing a router also that I don't need a fancy GUI just the CLI (I use near enterprise grade SOHO networking gear were most of the setting are only assessable via CLI). So I usually don't recommend people flash they're routers with 3rd party firmware unless they're really unhappy with their router firmware/there's a large loop hole in the security and tell them to wait until they can get at least a somewhat quality consumer device or learn how to use the CLI to take full use of Open-WRT.

 

I'm curious what fundamental flaw you're referring to? Without specifics to the "loophole" this all seems like FUD.

 

I'm not a fan of the limited hardware choices that OpenWRT supports but if you love the CLI (I use Arista and Cisco equipment at work, last thing I want to look at at home is yet another CLI) go ahead and use it.

[AMICLG]

I'm curious what fundamental flaw you're referring to? Without specifics to the "loophole" this all seems like FUD.

 

I'm not a fan of the limited hardware choices that OpenWRT supports but if you love the CLI (I use Arista and Cisco equipment at work, last thing I want to look at at home is yet another CLI) go ahead and use it.

They're generic builds made for 10+ different routers with similar hardware but are not exactly the same so the software can't really take full use of the hardware this also creates a lot of bugs and quite often security issues. OpenWRT's build instructions are super simple that most people with only little programing skill could compile a firmware for they're router, fat and unoptimized granted but still a workable firmware so it can easily be ported to almost all routers unlike DD-WRT which has zero build instructions so unless you know the in's and out's of it it's very difficult to build but most people hear misconceptions about these firmwares when they want to flash they router/want a slick GUI so they usually go DD-WRT which is fine but it's mostly the security problems that I have a problem with as you really can't expect a a person with little technical knowledge the learn the CLI because they just want something that works and not care how or why.