What firmware you use should be determined by your needs. Kinda obvious, but it needs to be said.
The default firmware is quite usable for most people. It did not meet my needs. I required static DHCP. Basically I wanted all the computers on my net to be easily addressed by the others. I have not used DD-WRT. I read up on it and selected Tomato instead. From my reading: DD-WRT is more flexible. Tomato is easier to use. But I wasn't able to find a whole lot more than that. So I tried Tomato and found that it did what I wanted. Given how confusing it's web interface is, I hesitate to try DD-WRT. Perhaps I should clarify that. I find it has a LOT of configuration pages with lots of options. I sometimes have to search a long time to find what I need. Another feature that the Linksys firmware doesn't provide, but is provided by 3d party firmware is the ability to adjust the output power. You can crank it way up, or way down. I suspect that most people crank it up. I cranked it down. If it doesn't reach outside my house it is really hard to break in. You can try one and if you are not happy with it, switch to another. http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato/ Tomato, and probably DD-WRT will run on most WAP hardware. That includes WRT54G and WRT54GL among others. I chose WRT54GL. It costs about $10 more. But it has more memory. It was the first hardware to be supported. And it has gotten more consistent support. Plus there is more space to add features, if that is of interest. Note that some versions of the hardware are NOT supported. And the manufacturer doesn't necessarily make it easy to find out which. It depends on the rev of the product. But the WRT54GL is always supported by the third party firmware. Personally I'm not interested in buying hardware without knowing if the software will work. I've been burned too many times. I would rather pay $10 more for something I know will work. But if you like playing Russian roulette with your dollars, don't let me stop you. -- Allen Brown http://brown.armoredpenguin.com/~abrown > This individual I'm helping uses Clearwire, may or may not, have a > business, > and I don't know much beyond that. I just want to help them get their > encryption turned on and be done with it. > > I think, for me, the WRT54GL is a mature technology that's well > documented. > That's good enough for my eventual administration of my own broadband, vs > paying my next door to share their access. > > Brian > > > On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 9:55 AM, Ben Barrett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > >> Brian, this site might help you out some: http://www.linksysinfo.org/ >> Also, just wanted to comment [I've had coffee now, so hopefully I'm more >> helpful & making more sense!] that you should be able to find some >> online >> recipes/lead-throughs on enabling WPA for the Linksys routers, since >> they >> are such popular devices. >> Does your friend live in a populated area, or a remote/rural area? If >> rural, their liability for connecting "in the clear" might be very low >> (acceptably low...). >> Do they have visitors or guests who they'd like to share their wifi >> with? >> If yes, then a pre-shared key (PSK) using a simple passphrase. I think >> the >> only concerns you'll have is WPA vs WPA2, and device & driver >> compatibility >> with those. >> >> DD-WRT is still pretty popular, but is not the only way to go!! If >> you're >> using the latest firmware updates for the router itself (from LinkSys), >> it >> should work fine too -- or any of the other up-to-date after-market >> firmware >> upgrades would also suffice. >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Aftermarket_firmware (I'm >> speaking >> of the router firmware, this wikipedia category is generalized including >> iPodLinux and such -- wikipedia's dd-wrt page does have a lot of links >> and >> references which may also help you out & answer a bunch of questions. >> :) >> >> Ben >> >> >> >> >> On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 9:40 AM, BB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> > Thanks Bob >> > >> > Browser based makes it easier to talk to this person about setting up >> > WPA encryption on their WRT54G router. They will have to wait till I >> get my >> > WRT54GL router in a couple of weeks. I'm assuming the router >> interfaces are >> > very similar. >> > >> > Brian >> > >> > >> > >> > On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 9:12 AM, Bob Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> wrote: >> > >> > > BB wrote: >> > > >> > > > 1) I just need to know if the access to this router is through a >> > > command >> > > > line interface. Many of the newer routers, such as my D-Link >> > > DI-524, use a >> > > > browser based interface. I imagine this browser based interface >> is >> > > sort of >> > > > like the Win Modem, not too popular with the command line crowd. >> > > It's easy >> > > > to setup for the novice, but not very clean/clear/versatile for >> the >> > > expert. >> > > >> > > Linksys' installed software on the WRT54GL has a browser-based >> > > administrative interface. I haven't used ddWRT but I'd expect it to >> > > be possible to administrate it through a command line. >> > > >> > > -- >> > > Bob Miller K<bob> _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list euglug@euglug.org http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
