
Ask HN: Tomato or DD-WRT for my router? - weaksauce
I just got a linksys WRT54G V1 wireless router and want to hack the firmware. From my initial research it looks like the two main options are DD-WRT and Tomato. Has anyone here installed either of them and have an idea of which one is better?<p>Just curious to see what the people here think of those firmware options.
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Sidnicious
I would go with Tomato unless you want customizability.

Last time I checked, DD-WRT was just a set of packages on top of OpenWRT, so
going with straight OpenWRT lets you add only the functionality you need and
customize everything to your heart's content. I would choose that route over
DD-WRT. However, I did run into some reliability issues, (wireless connections
would drop spontaneously every few weeks) which show up in DD-WRT as well. In
OpenWRT, many basic settings (all settings unless you install a web interface)
are only accessible via config files. That can get tiring.

Tomato is rock-solid and dead-easy to configure, but startlingly light on
functionality compared to *WRT.

If you have the time, try them both!

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car
I've used both, and like Tomato better. It has a nicer AJAX based UI, SVG
bandwidth graphs, and is pretty well layed out. Lot's of nifty attention to
detail in the UI, e.g. wireless network neighborhood to find unoccupied
channels.

Have been using it for a couple of years, even running a startup's
infrastructure behind it. No problems, whatsoever.

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akamaka
Tomato.

I ran DD-WRT on a WRT54GL for a few months, and during this time, I kept
experiencing intermittent connection problems. I spent hours and hours poring
over packet sniffer logs, and finally discovered that the router was the
problem.

So I tried switching to Tomato, and it worked perfectly.

(That was 2007, and as far as I know, the bug is still there)

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carbon8
FWIW, I've used DD-WRT on a variety of wrt54g series routers (including three
wrt54gl routers) and have never had connection problems attributable to the
firmware.

~~~
akamaka
Just to be clear, the problem I had was limited to a specific type of network
protocol, and that may be why nobody bothered to take interest in fixing it.

Sorry if my comment came across as saying that DD-WRT is just unreliable..

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3dFlatLander
I've ran both, and I really prefer Tomato. DD-WRT is very nice though, but I
ended up not using most of the features it offered. Tomato is very
lightweight, and fits all my needs perfectly.

My router is also a little buggy (really need to buy a new one) and Tomato
runs with fewer dropped connections than DD-WRT. I'm sure that has much less
to do with the firmware and more to do with bad hardware.

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ivanstojic
I've been running DD for as long as I can remember, and I'm very, very happy
with it. Absolutely no problems with installation, configuration or day-to-day
operations. YMMV.

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weaksauce
Thanks for the reply! What is the biggest benefit to the DD in your daily use?

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iigs
I've been using non-stock firmware on my v1 WRT long enough (since before
OpenWRT had version numbers) that I can't even compare them to the stock
firmware anymore.

I tend to end up using my wireless gear in dumb WAP mode. This is usually
precipitated by wanting full specific control of my firewall/NAT
configuration, full control of DHCP and my public IP attached to something
with storage. That said, the interface and feature set of DD is nice enough
that I'll probably give it a shot next time I flatten my home network, and DD
is probably powerful enough that it will stick for a while.

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thumbfinger
Tomato has a better UI. DD-WRT maybe has a few extra features (that you'll
never use)

Go with tomato, its bandwidth monitoring options are awexome

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phoxix2
I like DD-WRT for my router as well. Its just plain awesome, and their router
compatibility page tells you exactly which model's do and do not work, and if
what extra steps are needed to install the DD-WRT firmware.

I will warn you, and I'm not sure if this issue exists for other *WRT
firmwares, but PPTP VPN and OSX is not ideal on DD-WRT: [http://www.dd-
wrt.com/wiki/index.php/PPTP_Server_Configurati...](http://www.dd-
wrt.com/wiki/index.php/PPTP_Server_Configuration#Mac_OSX)

OpenVPN is the way to go, but not built in like PPTP is, well, everywhere ...

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jodrellblank
I run OpenWRT with the x-WRT UI: <http://x-wrt.org/> (I think).

There are lots of options that look as though they would be cool, but I mostly
use it as a plain ol' WAP.

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blackman
tomato has a simple ajax interface and really good QoS functionality which is
what attracted me to it. I haven't tried the others.

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jong
Tomato without doubt. Don't get me wrong, DD-WRT is good, tomato is better!
Especially for QOS. Here's a howto on setting up tomato on asus 520gu

[http://www.society9.com/an-easy-guide-to-installing-
tomato-o...](http://www.society9.com/an-easy-guide-to-installing-tomato-on-
the-asus-520gu/)

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rbxbx
I love DD-WRT, but tomato offers most of the functionality, and is much
lighter/has a nicer ui, imo.

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gojomo
I run tomato and like the features but I'm considering switching, because it
takes up to 30 seconds for my laptop to connect. (Connection was almost
instant with the stock firmware, and is very quick everywhere else... So
Tomato seems the culprit.)

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oomkiller
DD-Wrt has a great feature set, and is pretty stable. It also has lots of
expandability options. I would also recommend OpenWRT if you want even more
expandability. OpenWRT has its own package management system with thousands of
packages.

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rms
Tomato, the extra memory makes a difference in performance.

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matthall28
I prefer DD-WRT to Tomato. Just find that it has more features and that there
is a lot more that you can do with it. I've used both though on a WRT54GS V2

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quellhorst
I just used DD-WRT on a new wrt54gl I got. It works fine and I have a working
wireless bridge from my older white russian wrt54g.

