Now the question is, which firmware to put on it? The consensus seems to be between DD-WRT and Tomato. Anyone have recommendations for either?

both work well...what are you planning on doing with it?

I've been really happy with Tomato. Had DD-WRT, but liked the look and feel of Tomato. Don't get me wrong, DD-WRT has lots of features, but the simplistic approach of Tomato is what I ultimately went with.

I'm not doing much with it. Need to make it so that I can torrent without it affecting http traffic, and really, stability is my main priority. I'm having to reset my crappy d-link once a day at this point.

quote:

---

I've been really happy with Tomato. Had DD-WRT, but liked the look and feel of Tomato. Don't get me wrong, DD-WRT has lots of features, but the simplistic approach of Tomato is what I ultimately went with.

---

Generally why I use Tomato as well. I just feel like the UI is a lot easier to get around in. That said, just because it's "easy" doesn't mean there aren't very powerful and configurable features available.

quote:

---

I'm not doing much with it. Need to make it so that I can torrent without it affecting http traffic, and really, stability is my main priority. I'm having to reset my crappy d-link once a day at this point.

---

From what I've heard, Tomato has a better QoS than DD-WRT (if it even has it at all) to shape traffic, such as torrents.

I know this is a very popular router, but I don't get why it's still such a hot ticket item especially when it's wireless G? Why not just get a Linksys N router? Just curious, not meaning to de-rail or put down your choice or anything. I just am trying to understand the hype with this router.

Just because it's easy to put on other firmware.

Value for the money + customization options. I don't have any N cards anyways (and don't plan on getting any), so I don't need anything beyond G at the moment.

What does third-party firmware add to this router?

quote:

---

What does third-party firmware add to this router?

---

the firmware updates make it competitive to a $500+ device such as a sonicwall.

VPN & NAT are 2 of the biggies. The upgraded firmware also gets a lot better performance out of the device in general.

I'm not a networking guru but I understand some of the benefits you're conveying. Thanks for filling me in.

plus it just makes them perform better in general.

The default firmware has an artificially low connection limit and a ridiculously high UDP packet timeout as well, which can choke your connection pretty easily if you're running multiple torrents.

I never knew you could do this to a router...any words of wisdom and where I can go to learn how to do this myself?

You can only do this with specific models, and will need to check the firmware wikis to see if yours is supported. Odds are, it isn't.

apparently DD-WRT can be loaded onto my WRT160N...

The only reason I use DD-WRT is that I can use it with my Linksys wireless N router (w gigabit switch) I've used both. I have to agree with Tomato's simplistic design (BEAUTIFUL!) but its limited compatibility is the downfall.

DD-WRT is great, and I am using that, but like it has been said, the amount of options it offers could be intimidating to new users.

Personally, I ran a buffalo WHR-HP-54G router with Tomato. Great combination!

DDWRT has almost everything you'll ever need built right into it.

Tomato is a simpler, less feature-rich mod., but has better support for running Linux command line stuff (I obviously don't do much of this).

It boils down to which you prefer.

I'll throw my vote in for DD-WRT, I ran it on a WRT64G for about 6+ months and loved it. I just switched over to the new e3000 (simultaneous 2.4Ghz and 5.0GHz bands) and I'm really liking it. Gotta wait until DD-WRT comes out with version for the e3000.

[This message has been edited by srob2004 (edited 4/20/2010 6:23p).]

quote:

---

I never knew you could do this to a router...any words of wisdom and where I can go to learn how to do this myself?

---

Make sure you turn off the wifi radio on the computer that you have hard wired to the router when you're upgrading the firmware.

Went Tomato, is as awesome as expected.

Did it improve your speed at all?

No, didn't expect it to. My speed was already as fast as advertised (10mb/s down, 1 up)

Just installed it last night. Need to configure my QOS settings this evening.