
Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.? - malandrew
There are many models of routers that support open source router software&#x2F;firmware like OpenWRT, DD-WRT and Tomato. However, when you look around, it&#x27;s very difficult to determine the recency of router models out there and post date isn&#x27;t always useful since many use which ever router just happens to be available to them for free. If one were to decide to buy a brand new model router to install open source router software on, where would you go to find out the best current models and be able to compare their features?<p>While it would be nice to know the best models as of today (December 1st 2013), I think it&#x27;s more interesting to be taught how to fish instead of being given a fish. This also makes it easier for me (and anyone else) to pass this advice onto the next person.
======
suprjami
My advice is to just avoid DD-WRT altogether. The community is so hostile and
unhelpful, the site and wiki full of conflicting information, and almost all
builds for anything besides the old Linksys gear is in a real unstable state.
It seems almost inevitable that DD-WRT will just result in bricking your
router and having some forum asshole mock you for it.

I'm running Merlin's AsusWrt on an RT-AC66U and I've been very happy with it.
I bought it earlier this year to replace my aging WRT54GL which had run with
Tomato for years.

I'm also a fan of OpenWrt, but I use the x86 build on a VM host, it acts as a
router/firewall to other VMs in a private bridge.

~~~
lelandbatey
I can vouch for this. I've run ddwrt on all my routers for some time, but it
seems like they're no longer the favorite, for many reasons.

If I could do it all again, I'd go for OpenWRT, though in my case that's just
because OpenWRT has some features that ddwrt is lacking (e.g. native IPv6).

~~~
GigabyteCoin
Considering DD-WRT is simply a closed version of OpenWRT and this is HN... we
should all be going for OpenWRT!

It's a pretty amazing little project.

------
sigil
Ubiquiti devices all the way [1] [2]. They're the hacker's choice!

Before I discovered Ubiquiti, the Linksys WRT54Gx series was my goto. The
problem with them is that, as a given WRT54Gx line matures, they usually shave
down the specs. You can see that in action with the WRT54GS series here [3],
which debuted with 8MB of flash and now only sports 2MB. Good luck getting
anything useful into 2MB.

The other problem with the WRT54Gx's is that there's quite a lot of hardware
and architecture variation under the hood. You're usually fine, but I do have
one WRT54G-RG at home here that wouldn't even take OpenWRT. It's running DD-
WRT, which is a ghetto. (I see some other commenters here feel similarly).

Anyway the Ubiquiti PicoStation 2HP, by contrast, has

    
    
      - 8MB of flash
      - 32MB of RAM
      - a nice Atheros SoC which transmits at the legal max of 1000 mW
      - can easily be outfitted with high gain external antennas
      - works perfectly under OpenWRT, and
      - is competitively priced at $78 [4]
    

The only downside: if you need extra ethernet ports, you'll want a separate
switch or possibly a wired router. But I think it's worth it. You shouldn't
put an all-in-one wireless / router device on the public internet. The
commenter who runs pfSense on an x86 system has the right idea:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6829315](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6829315)

Source: I started a live entertainment company 4 years ago. We use Ubiquiti
equipment in all our shows, and we've deployed about 50 PicoStations with our
own OpenWRT packages to date.

[1] [http://www.ubnt.com/picostation](http://www.ubnt.com/picostation)

[2] [http://www.ubnt.com/nanostation](http://www.ubnt.com/nanostation)

[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series#WRT54GS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series#WRT54GS)

[4] [http://store.netgate.com/Ubiquiti-
PicoStation2HP-80211bg-100...](http://store.netgate.com/Ubiquiti-
PicoStation2HP-80211bg-1000mW-IndoorOutdoor-AP-P245C157.aspx)

~~~
shalmanese
I have to wonder what the difference in BOM costs there is between 8MB of
flash and 2MB of flash? Consumer USB flash prices in the 10+GB range are
around 0.05 pennies per MB. Surely at the point, the cost of the enclosure
dwarfs the cost of the actual memory for flash chips in the MB range.

It seems like the cost of retooling would far outweigh any cost savings from
spinning a new rev with 6MB less flash.

~~~
VLM
They sell a lot more than just the WRT54 and are terrified that the $250
market (or whatever) will collapse if people start buying low end models and
reflashing to gain features.

Its a market segmentation game. They'd gladly pay $5 extra for less memory, if
neutering the low end device saves the sale of a high end $200 model.

You may wish to look into who owns Linksys.

~~~
meatmanek
> You may wish to look into who owns Linksys.

I think you're referring to Cisco, who manufactures higher-end networking
equipment. But recently, Belkin bought Linksys from Cisco:
[http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57574628-92/belkin-
complete...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57574628-92/belkin-completes-
acquisition-of-linksys-from-cisco/)

------
seliopou
The OpenWRT wiki[1] is a great resource for this. There you can find a Buyers'
Guide[2], as well a Table of Hardware[3] with compatibility tables for
vendors, models and OpenWRT versions.

I recently flashed a TP-Link TL-WR1043ND with OpenWRT and it worked like a
charm. I'm planning to flash it with the Pantou[4] OpenWRT distribution so I
can start running OpenFlow with real hardware.

[1]: [http://wiki.openwrt.org/](http://wiki.openwrt.org/)

[2]:
[http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/buyerguide](http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/buyerguide)

[3]: [http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start](http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start)

[4]:
[http://archive.openflow.org/wk/index.php/Pantou_:_OpenFlow_1...](http://archive.openflow.org/wk/index.php/Pantou_:_OpenFlow_1.0_for_OpenWRT)

~~~
Scaevolus
The TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 is the same price, but supports 5GHz as well.

~~~
samcrawford
Not only that, but the WDR3600 has a significantly faster CPU, more memory and
more flash than the WR1043ND. It's about 2 years newer too. Definitely worth a
few extra dollars.

------
moreentropy
I usually use tp-link gear for openwrt, it's readily available from our
distributor and dirt cheap. Don't just look for recent models, pick your
hardware from the openwrt hardware compatibility list based on the specs you
need.

If you can disregard the fact that the firmware isn't open source, have a look
at www.ubnt.com and www.routerboard.com . Those don't run openwrt, but
price/performance and features beat everything else that's on the market. The
mikrotik routers are performing so well and have so many features it's
ridiculous. If you really need Cisco, you'll know. If you're not sure, get a
mikrotik, it will cover everything you'll ever need.

~~~
samcrawford
Agreed... You really cannot beat TP-Link for the money, and the vast majority
(but not all!) of their routers are OpenWrt supported.

I buy literally thousands of them for work (we re-purpose them as network
measurement devices, running OpenWrt), and the models we use are as follows:

* TL-WR741ND - 100M ports (can saturate the WAN link).

* TL-WDR3600 - 1G ports (LAN-WAN can hit around 500Mbps with careful tuning, but I don't know how that changes when NAT is enabled)

* TL-WDR4900 - 1G ports (LAN-WAN can hit around 900Mbps, and that's even without using the NAT co-processor, which OpenWrt doesn't support)

Ones I would avoid - WR1043ND (very popular, but old now - it was the
precursor to the WDR3600), WDR3500 (100Mbps ports - yuck), WDR4300 (very
little difference to the WDR3600, but more expensive)

The TL-WDR4900 really is blindingly quick, largely because it has a PPC CPU
inside rather than the MIPS CPU, but it's also double the price of the 3600.

Unless you need the horsepower, the TL-WDR3600 really is the way forward.

I would avoid the 802.11ac models at the moment; they're more expensive, and
there's no 802.11ac driver for OpenWrt yet, so you'd be wasting your money.

~~~
skystorm
Seconded. I use the 3600 with Gargoyle OpenWrt (www.gargoyle-router.com,
basically a web interface to OpenWrt) and it's been nothing but great.

------
ChuckMcM
Jeff Atwood's write up : [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/because-
everyone-st...](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/because-everyone-
still-needs-a-router.html) is worth reading along these lines because he does
a good job of explaining a process for surveying the market.

That said, if you are not too cost conscious you can build a wireless router
out of the Intel NUC really easily, and for modest loads I've used a
Beaglebone as an access point. So you may find you can cobble together the
pieces in a fairly straight forward way. I do _not_ recommend a Raspberry Pi
as a wireless router as its network is all going through the USB hub and as
such it has a lot of latency spikes.

~~~
doomrobo
I don't see why QoS is such an important feature for a personal router. If he
is (and I assume he is) the primary user of his network, then why is QoS
control necessary?

~~~
ChuckMcM
The common response is voip, but it can also be video on demand. While Netflix
will notch down from HD to SD to Artifact-D as the net congests it isn't
pretty. If you have multiple users and some says "Hey look the Linux Mint iso
is out, lets get both the 32 bit and 64 bit version." while you are watching a
movie, its very annoying for both the movie watcher and the other person who
says "WTF? 18 hours to complete, no way!" This way only one of you is
disappointed.

~~~
sjwright
What is Artifact-D?

(Yes, I tried googling it.)

~~~
jxf
It's probably a joke, implying that the Netflix video quality served during
congested periods is so low that all you get is video artifacts.

------
r0h1n
I've been using the Asus RT-N66U 'Black Knight' for well over a year with DD-
WRT and have nothing but praise for it.

Dual-band N900, three detachable antennas, 256 MB RAM, rock solid stability.

[http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N66U](http://www.dd-
wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N66U)

[http://www.asus.com/Networking/RTN66U/](http://www.asus.com/Networking/RTN66U/)

~~~
stox
I'll second that motion. I have not had a single issue with my RT-N66U and
Tomato.

~~~
gcb0
openWRT... another asus model. but yeah, after my research, asus is the best
bang for the buck.

------
rll
If you are looking for the best, regardless of price, it is probably the ASUS
RT-AC68U that was released recently. See the 9-page dd-wrt thread on it here:
[http://www.dd-
wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=177612&sid=8bfd...](http://www.dd-
wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=177612&sid=8bfdc68ee0ac089e7783b8e19f0d4ea7)
which shows a few issues here and there, but that is typical of newly released
models. You did say you were looking for recent ones.

If you don't have 802.11ac-capable devices and just want a cheap solid dd-wrt
box, I would suggest the Asus RT-N16 or RT-N66U. The thing to look for is the
amount of ram in these things. An 8M router is going to suck at running dd-
wrt. See the big huge table here:

[http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices](http://www.dd-
wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices)

And pay attention to the ram column.

~~~
philjr
I got an ASUS RT-N66U earlier this year and it really is an awesome piece of
kit. +1 for Asus routers

~~~
emmelaich
... except for the N56U. The only one NOT supported by the popular firmware
alternatives. Guess who bought one :-)

There is code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/‎ but it's nowhere as good as my old
Tomato.

------
kogir
I've got pfSense[1] running on a passively cooled embedded board[2]. I then
use whatever wireless APs I want in bridge mode.

I like this because x86 will always be compatible with anything I might run in
the future, and changing out wireless hardware from 2.4 N to dual-band N to ac
has been trivial and required no thought to compatibility.

    
    
      [1] http://www.pfsense.org/
      [2] http://www.jetwaycomputer.com/ITX-JBC362F36.html

~~~
VLM
One problem with a "customized distribution" is it probably gets far fewer
security updates, much slower, of FreeBSD, than just using straight up main
line "real" freebsd.

This kind of logic is why I use plain old Debian as the OS with roughly the
same hardware architecture as your design.

~~~
kogir
While you're absolutely right, this is my home network, and not that big a
deal. I'd guess that even outdated FreeBSD is way more secure than most
consumer router firmware, which hopefully makes me a less appealing target.

------
oceanplexian
None of the above.

Run pfSense on an old x86 box and you'll end up with something an order of
magnitude better. As far as an access point goes I'd suggest going with
ubiquiti gear if it's in your budget.

~~~
justincormack
There are huge disadvantages in using old x86 boxes, like size, noise, power
consumption, lack of ethernet ports and so on.

If you wanted to sensibly advise using pfsense you could point at the zrouter
project
[http://zrouter.org/projects/zrouter/wiki/Supported_devices](http://zrouter.org/projects/zrouter/wiki/Supported_devices)

~~~
VLM
I do not think those disadvantages apply in most cases. Back when DSL was new
I used an old 486 for many years, this is not new territory for me.

Size is irrelevant unless you're putting it in your entertainment center
(why?) or live on a sailboat. Just stick it in the basement, stack on top of
the fileserver, whatever. If you're doing the dorm room thing or living aboard
a sailboat you have to realize that involves some highly unusual lifestyle
compromises. For most people its not an issue.

Noise: I did splurge on some large slow fans (like $10) to replace old small
fast (LOUD) fans. Again this is a lifestyle thing, where if your castle has no
location further than 5 feet from your sleeping head, you're going to have
serious lifestyle issues that most people simply will not have. I don't find
my desktop at home or work to be particularly loud. I did at one time run a
more modern desktop as a firewall and specifically ripped out the fancy
graphic card and used the on board video, to reduce noise a little. After
installation I never used the video or keyboard again, all SSH access, so its
not like it needed fancy graphics. My main
firewall/wifi/dhcp/asterisk/stuff/etc box is about 50 walking feet from my
sleeping head, past the (sometimes) loud fridge, the dishwasher, the clothes
dryer, the hot water heater... For most people its not going to be an issue.

Power consumption. Not an issue. I was drawing about 50 watts which will cost
about $50 or about 3 weeks of cablemodem service per year. Using the EE
tradition of it costs about $1 to provide 1 watt for one year. I admit I was
an idiot and upgraded to a soekris box many years ago which is basically a 5
watt PC. So I save about $45 per year of damage to my finances and the
environment. Great, that'll only take like ten years to pay off the capital
expense / manufacturing environmental degradation. That was a dumb move on my
part and I'd suggest you're always better off both financially and
environmentally by reusing an old desktop.

Lack of ethernet ports (LOL, serious? Plug in another board?)

~~~
M2Ys4U
>Size is irrelevant unless you're putting it in your entertainment center
(why?) or live on a sailboat.

No, it's not. If you're using *DSL (including FTTC) then how much space you
have available depends on where your phone line enters your house, for
instance.

My lines comes in, from a pole in the alley behind my house, to my kitchen and
the master socket is by my kitchen door in the hall. I certainly don't have
room for a large box there, but a typical router fits nicely.

------
beagle3
... and while we're at it: best alternative firmware? e.g. I liked DD-WRT, but
they hadn't released version in ages - and e.g. use an exploitable version of
the dropbear ssh server. I'm now using OpenWRT and am happy -- but I don't
have enough time to really research.

~~~
moreentropy
I would say OpenWRT wins in this category. It's not based on open sourced
Linksys firmware anymore, it's a embedded distribution designed from scratch
for modularity and portability. It really is a awesome piece of engineering
which is fun to use and well documented in detail. If you want to extend the
features of the router and add things like openvpn, ntp server, traffic
shaping, asterisk pbx, tftp server or whatever comes to mind, openwrt most
probably has it packaged and ready to use.

------
FootballMuse
I along with many others are waiting patiently for the new Alix gigabit board
~Q1 2014.

[http://www.pcengines.ch/apu.htm](http://www.pcengines.ch/apu.htm)

Passive cooling, 2-4GB RAM, AMD 1GHZ APU, 3 Gigabit ports, 2 MiniPCI cards for
cell and wifi, Using 6-12W @ 12Volts.

------
HarryHirsch
People tend to overlook Thin Clients. There is plenty of these available on
Ebay, and they are mostly low-power x86 boards with one PCI slot. I am using a
Maxspeed Maxterm (that's an 800 MHz VIA C3) and am very pleased with it.

~~~
tux1968
Does it have more than one ethernet port on it? Otherwise, how can you use it
as a router?

~~~
icebraining
It has a built-in port, so you can always use a PCI Ethernet card to get two
ports. You'll probably still need a switch, though.

------
sandGorgon
If anyone is interested in a travel router - small as a pack of cards, can be
powered by USB, 3g dongle compatible - I recommend the tp-link mr3020/3040.

Do take care that it needs some configuring, because it has only one Ethernet
port used as wan & LAN [1]

I had a slightly related question on how to set up a wireless-only setup for a
startup. Hope someone has an answer to that -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6800737](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6800737)

[1] [http://www.lambdacurry.com/2013/05/configuring-the-tplink-
mr...](http://www.lambdacurry.com/2013/05/configuring-the-tplink-mr3020-with-
dd-wrt-and-the-single-port-problem/)

------
dz0ny
Latest tomato builds:

\- [http://at.prahec.com/](http://at.prahec.com/) \-
[http://tomato.groov.pl/](http://tomato.groov.pl/)

~~~
purephase
Loved the tomato firmware. Bought a Netgear R6300 with the hopes that it would
be supported. Looks like it will never happen. Regret that decision.

------
broknbottle
I would check out the edge router lite from ubiquity. It runs edgeos, a fork
of vyatta. Based off debian and has lots of options. Dual core mips64 cpu,
cavium network processors for ipv4,ipv6 and ipsec offloading. All this for $99
or less [http://amzn.to/1bBpdJ8](http://amzn.to/1bBpdJ8)

~~~
moreentropy
I have one of those sitting on my desk. It still feels a bit like early
adaptor stuff, the edge router line is quite new, but looks very promising.

I really like vyatta, but now that vyatta is basically dead, I'm happy that it
lives on in edgeos.

Don't be fooled by the GUI though, it's very incomplete, but the full feature
set of vyatta/edgeos is there accessible in the CLI.

------
mclemme
I'm a big fan of the WNDR3700, bought it on a whim a few years ago, the
firmware it comes with sucks, but with *WRT it just works (I've got a V2, have
a look at
[http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3700](http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3700)
for details about versions).

With a powered USB hub and an external disk drive and a webcam, it functions
as remote backup via. rsync and monitoring my home when I'm on vacation, when
enabled it takes pictures every 2 seconds when there's movement in the frame.
The pictures are uploaded offsite immediately.

I'm using OpenWRT and have had very little problems, only issue I've noticed
is that the wifi transfer speeds are a bit slower (10-30%) than when using the
factory firmware, but I can live with that.

    
    
        21:47:12 up 221 days,  5:22,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.04

------
m86
Personally,

-General device testing is well served at SmallNetBuilder (the octoBox test environment used now is awesome), though the stock FW is obviously tested more often than not

-Ubiquiti gear is indeed pretty rad

-Old Broadcom-based gear is still holding up well for low throughput use using Tomato + variants (.. or even DD-WRT)

-I would probably avoid 11ac models for now (unless you have a compelling reason not to).. but if you do decide to go that route, the BCM470(8/9)x SoCs are Cortex-A9 based [versus the single-core MIPS based BCM4706]

.. for a bit more data, a somewhat thorough overview of available hardware is
available via the below WD query (in table form)..

[http://wikidevi.com/w/index.php?title=Special%3AAsk&q=%3Cq%3...](http://wikidevi.com/w/index.php?title=Special%3AAsk&q=%3Cq%3E%5B%5BThird+party+firmware+supported%3A%3AOpenWrt%5D%5D+OR+%5B%5BThird+party+firmware+supported%3A%3ADD-
WRT%5D%5D+OR+%5B%5BThird+party+firmware+supported%3A%3A~Tomato*%5D%5D%3C%2Fq%3E+%5B%5BEmbedded+system+type%3A%3Awireless+router%5D%5D&po=%3FEmbedded+system+type%3DType%0D%0A%3FThird+party+firmware+supported%3DTPFirmware%0D%0A%3FFCC+ID%0D%0A%3FManuf%0D%0A%3FManuf+product+model%3DManuf.+mdl%0D%0A%3FCPU1+model%3DCPU1%0D%0A%3FCPU1+clock+speed%0D%0A%3FFLA1+amount%3DFLA1%0D%0A%3FRAM1+amount%3DRAM1%0D%0A%3FWI1+chip1+model%3DWI1+chip1%0D%0A%3FWI1+chip2+model%3DWI1+chip2%0D%0A%3FWI1+MIMO+config%3DWI1+MIMO%0D%0A%3FWI2+chip1+model%3DWI2+chip1%0D%0A%3FWI2+chip2+model%3DWI2+chip2%0D%0A%3FWI2+MIMO+config%3DWI2+MIMO%0D%0A%3FSupported+802dot11+protocols%3DPHY+modes%0D%0A%3FEstimated+year+of+release%3DEst.+year%0D%0A&eq=yes&p%5Bformat%5D=broadtable&sort_num=&order_num=ASC&p%5Blimit%5D=500&p%5Boffset%5D=&p%5Blink%5D=all&p%5Bsort%5D=&p%5Bheaders%5D=show&p%5Bmainlabel%5D=&p%5Bintro%5D=&p%5Boutro%5D=&p%5Bsearchlabel%5D=%E2%80%A6+further+results&p%5Bdefault%5D=&p%5Bclass%5D=sortable+wikitable+smwtable&eq=yes)

------
nano_o
I am running OpenWRT on a Buffalo WBMR-HP-G300H without any issues. This model
has an integrated ADSL modem and has a few USB ports. I have a USB hard disk
attached and I use it as a media and bittorrent server. Over LAN it can stream
an HD movie from the disk, but over wifi it seems too slow for that.

~~~
vsviridov
I have the AirStation N600 Buffalo router.

It's kind of annyoing that it comes with DD-WRT preinstalled, but it's half-
assed and is not configured for easy modification.

I have not taken the plunge yet, because I do not want to deal with jtag
cables if it bricks, and the whole "install our binary, and then do not even
breathe in the direction of the router for 10 minutes" part does not inspire
much confidence...

~~~
doelie_
I got one of these with the idea of installing OpenWRT. No problems at all.

Telnet into DD-WRT, then wget followed by mtd.

The console approach makes it clear what's happening.

[http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/buffalo/wzr-600dhp](http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/buffalo/wzr-600dhp)

------
dmbass
The Wirecutter does pretty extensive lists of "the best" electronic
products/gadgets.

Here's their networking section:
[http://thewirecutter.com/leaderboard/networking/](http://thewirecutter.com/leaderboard/networking/)

------
hemlock
For OpenWRT, if you'd like a Netgear R6300 do not get the v2. I've been told
on OpenWRT's IRC just recently its not supported so you won't get usb,
ethernet, wireless etc.,pretty much all that is vital. Whereas v1 is supported
and said to have worked, it's not on the officially supported hardware list.
There isn't much info on this model with regards to openwrt I'm afraid. In
fact, I'm atm busy trying to build a custom fw for it myself & will update if
I manage to get it working. (Though fyi, I can confirm DD-Wrt is working for
this model)

------
toni
ASUS RT-N16

Its cheap, stable and un-brickable. So much so that there is a special tomato
version dedicated to this model.[1]

[1] [http://www.easytomato.org/download](http://www.easytomato.org/download)

~~~
justin66
Still not supported properly in OpenWRT, all these years later. (yes, I've got
one sitting on the shelf waiting for this purpose)

------
devhen
I've had success with the Netgear WNR3500L running DD-WRT. It doesn't have
5GHz but it does 2.4GHz great and on the cheap. The one I'm running now I
bought refurbished for $35 and its rock solid stable and performs well.

Of course, its WiFi, so I'm already wishing I had AC so my portable devices
were as fast as my wired desktop. But I don't think that will ever change.
WiFi will probably never catch up to our ever increasing internet download
speeds.

------
leeoniya
been running various Tomato flavors w/VPN for many years, first on WRT54GL,
now Asus RT-N16. currently run Toastman builds [1] but Shibby [2] is good too.

[1]
[http://www.4shared.com/dir/v1BuINP3/Toastman_Builds.html#dir...](http://www.4shared.com/dir/v1BuINP3/Toastman_Builds.html#dir=zBnbpdpY)

[2]
[http://tomato.groov.pl/download/K26RT-N/](http://tomato.groov.pl/download/K26RT-N/)

------
jotm
I love DD WRT.

As for router models, development seems to be slow these days - I can only
recommend the older Linksys routers, the Belkin F7D4301 and the many TPLinks
(WR7-10xx series in particular)...

But any model that has a stable DD WRT release should be good - most important
thing is the processor and Flash/RAM size in my opinion...

[http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices](http://www.dd-
wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices)

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benhedrington
ASUS RT-N66U is nice, didn't have a need for AC. I have that and an older
Netgear WNR3500l (v1) running upstairs and down same SSID different channels.
Tomato is my firmware of choice although ASUS with Merlin is pretty solid.

There were some pretty good router deal on Black Friday, be on the lookout for
the ASUS on Cyber Monday I'd say.

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berberous
Other than price, can anyone give me a rundown of any benefits to this
approach over an Airport Extreme? Other than ideological benefits. Do they
perform better, or are there things I can't do with the Apple device? I'm not
sure I want to deal with headaches here. Thanks.

~~~
runjake
I've done pretty extensive comparisons between one of the old Airport Extreme
Dual Band units that look like a white Mac Mini and run some flavor of NetBSD
and it performs slightly (~10%) better than both my old WRT54G and superior-
specced WNDR3700 running DD-WRT builds. I still use the WNDR3700, not for
performance, but for features and configurability. The APE basically just sits
and serves a network disk.

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sz4kerto
The old Netgear WNDR3700 is one of the best because of very good 2.4 GHz range
and lots of RAM.

~~~
67726e
I've had a bad impression with the v3 release. In the past year I've had two
hardware failures and recently had an issue with the Netgear firmware causing
upwards of 80% packet loss. Switching to DD-WRT fixed the packet loss issue.
The v3+ routers also only have DD-WRT builds so far as I can tell, and
switching to another firmware is damn near impossible once you switch to DD-
WRT. That said, with DD-WRT it works and works well so long as the hardware
doesn't fail.

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tvon
The Asus N66u is highly regarded:

[http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router-asus-
rt-n...](http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router-asus-rt-n66u/)

I have one myself but have not loaded Tomato on it yet.

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laveur
I've used DD-WRT before and it bothers me that their releases are seemingly
far and few between. Even my commercial router with its original firmware got
more updates than DD-WRT. Just some food for thought.

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justincormack
Netgear lists their current models that they support for open firmware here
[http://www.myopenrouter.com/](http://www.myopenrouter.com/) \- thats how I
chose one.

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yashau
The ASUS RT-AC66U supports Tomato

You can find the firmware here: [http://tomato.groov.pl/download/K26RT-
AC/](http://tomato.groov.pl/download/K26RT-AC/)

~~~
fsckin
This Asus router scores a 95/100 from me. I ran a pfSense machine and separate
AP for several years and bought this when the machine died. The RT-AC66U has
been almost as solid and capable as the dedicated pfSense setup, without the
extra power usage that comes with running an x86.

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elheffe80
I am a bit surprised I only caught one mention of the Buffalo N600. I know it
doesn't have AC, but it runs DD-WRT for all that I need and has full gigabit
ports on the switch.

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jagermo
I have a DLINK DIR-615. Cheap, easy to install (just flash via webinterface)
and nearly unbrickable. Although not very powerful, i find it is a nice device
to try out new stuff.

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Xdes
I'm suprised no one has mentioned MikroTik.

Take a look at their RB750[1] which is about $40.

[1] [http://routerboard.com/RB750](http://routerboard.com/RB750)

~~~
gcb0
because it is wired only, without gigabit ports.

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singingfish
I've been generally impressed with TP-Link's kit, although it is cheap, so
don't expect it to hold up in a hostile environment (e.g. lots of dust).

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jmpe
Carambola-2 with dev-board. No hassle, low price and compact.

[http://8devices.com/carambola-2](http://8devices.com/carambola-2)

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lordlarm
I recently bought a Linksys 1200. Works beautifully with DD-WRT. Or the
Linksys 2500, if you want more power.

I can also recommend Netgear WNDR3700 if you want 5Ghz.

