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DD-WRT on Personal Routers : Any Good ?
Mahfuz_SS_EHL
Host Rep, Veteran
in General
Hi,
Recently I heard the name of DD-WRT, A Open-Source Firmware for Routers.
I have a D-Link DIR-605L Router which I use at my home for personal usage. If I flash it with DD-WRT, will that be good ??
What are the advantages of this specific firmware ?? I tried to visit their Official Website however, it seems to be down !
Thanks,
Mahfuz.
Comments
https://openwrt.org/ is much better than DD-WRT these days, however it doesn't seem to support your router. In any case, either of them is better than using the "stock" firmware.
Yes, DD-WRT is feature full for sure, and a great alternative to the home default flash. However, the occasional lockups are a huge issue because I need remote access to the home 24/7. You can't exactly unplug the router to reset it if your not at home and it's froze, again.
Should also add, it depends on what your router model is. I'm sure the stability issues are related. I've tried DD-WRT on Cicso, Linksys, and Netgear routers, all had the same issue.
Ended up with running PFSense. https://www.pfsense.org/ A fully dedicated router/server
I have a DIR-605L too running as a private wireless bridge. I do not believe that the DIR-605L supports DD-WRT unfortunately.
That being said, DD-WRT has some really neat features. It's capable of setting up IPv6 Tunnelbrokers (with the new interface, doesn't need complicated scripts anymore), custom VLANs, Quality of Service (determining which services such as netflix and torrents receive the largest portion of bandwidth in terms of priority), bandwidth monitoring, custom hotspot hosting, USB storage/print servers, FreeRADIUS servers, FTP servers, the ability to setup VPN servers and clients, etc.
There's a ton of features and I definitely recommend flashing your router with DD-WRT if it is supported, but in this case, it is not. OpenWRT is far more powerful, but it lacks a web interface and I'm squeamish about the third party WebUIs.
Oh, Just checked from Websites other than DD-WRT official & it seems it's not supported
In general, is it possible to get back to stock firmware if an user doesn't like DD-WRT anymore ??
@netomx your assistance required
@Mahfuz_SS_EHL netomx is Router GOD of LET
I was a big fan of DD-WRT way back on the original Linksys WRT54G routers. However for other routers I have tried it has either been buggy (usually the basic functions are OK, but I use DD-WRT for vlans and other more advanced features) or the performance (speed or WiFi stability) has taken a significant hit. Given you can get an Ubiquity Edgerouter X for around $50 USD I no longer bother with DD-WRT. For wifi you'll need a separate wifi access point since Edgerouter does not provide wifi. I usually use Unifi access points which are a good value.
Mikrotik is another cheap but advanced router option that does offer models with built in WiFi, but I have not used Mikrotik yet myself.
I recommend stock firmware over DD-WRT in most cases unless stock firmware is not stable.
LuCI is official GUI,
I would try to flash this one: https://github.com/utessel/edimax
The problem is that the chipset used on that router is not supported on OpenWRT. You can use DD-WRT, and enable SSH, so it will feel like a normal linux box.
Suggestion? Get an Atheros router
Better than the personal routers default software. Not as good as a grown up router...
Yep Atheros-based TP-Link routers are all I use, they are awesome and work with OpenWRT well.
ALL THE WAY. TP-Link and Atheros has excellent compatibility.
God damn ! I bought D-Link over TP-Link 6 Months ago because the salesman praised D-Link ! -_- Now, I have to bought another
How's NetGear to use DD-WRT / OpenWRT ??
Check OpenWRT table of hardware before you buy anything: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start
and page for the particular router you plan on buying, to see if there are any issues, or if you need to pick/avoid specific versions.
^^
always.
I'm using Xiaomi Mini wifi, it's working great than any other AC router, but for $20 USD we can't expect more
And what firmware you are using now? Stock, or..?
I'm using Padavan firmware, source code available at: https://gitlab.com/Track/xrmwrt (you much build it yourself
).
The stock firmware is good too, the newest dev firmware version 2.7.63 combine both 2.4 and 5G wifi to one and will choose it for your device when your device connect to the router.
The only reason I don't use stock firmware is they are tracking your visit (just like OpenDNS) and they don't support VLAN for IPTV.
The trunk version of openwrt works great on these ones, and for $20, 5ghz, usb, 16mb rom and 128mb ram, is a steal
ddwrt is good on broadcom based routers but still buggy with 5ghz. not alot of atheros support even though atheros works great on linux. Openwrt is great but ddwrt has a nice interface and easy to use. Sometimes the stock firmware is better than ddwrt, sometimes ddwrt is better.
Same, i started using ddwrt with the linksys wrt54g. only had 2mb of flash so found the right version and started playing with the external antennas, even making my own.
Xiaomi Mini wifi...made in China? Now I realized how they're hacking into the US! LOL
OpenWRT is great if you have a device that supports it, on my 5Ghz router it's perfect!
You might miss out on hardware NAT/cryptography with custom firmware and suffer a performance hit, but being able to stream a USB webcam, use hardware serial to remotely control something like an Arduino and GPIO to reboot a raspberry pi when it crashes sure makes up for it!
like everything else?
I have been using Xiaomi Mini wifi too with no complaints at all. OpenWRT / XRMWRT is supported.
I'm sure dd-wrt is great, but Tomato shows realtime bandwidth graphs for both vlan and individual IPs. Like this:
Havent used tomato yet, just dd-wrt / broadcom openwrt / atheros and merlin for asus routers.
OpenWRT and Tomato are indeed a more modern choice then DD-WRT. If you want to play with OpenWRT before flashing your main modem, check out the GL-INET. It's a small $25 device with wireless and two ethernet ports, powered by USB, fully supported in upstream openwrt: https://revspace.nl/GL-iNet
not bad i have a wr703 myself the specs r nice for messing around with openwrt might just buy one now lol.
Well, did you check NEXX WT3020F?
http://www.gearbest.com/networking-communication/pp_270587.html
Half of the price with more powerful CPU
Using OpenWRT. Would not go back to stock.
how fast is the cpu? dont see it on the site