The most used router in the consumer market is by far the Linksys WRT54G(x), and that’s what I use – I actually have several versions of these, some doing hard work and others just laying around. Most of these routers I didn’t have any issues with, but I can remember a time several years back when I bought a new one and it would freeze up without failure pretty much every day. Restarting (unplugging) the router didn’t do anything to fix the issue, I actually had to push that little reset button down on the back of it for thirty seconds and reset everything. That meant I had to reconfigure all my settings every day! This was more than a little pain in the butt, and seeing that a firmware upgrade did not fix the issue I almost thought it could be the hardware – perhaps bad memory in the router. I was wrong

I Googled for awhile and stumbled upon a few different third party firmwares that could be used on the WRT54GL. It amazed me that there was such a thing, I never new that third party router firmware existed. I found several: Tomato, OpenWRT, and DD-WRT. The first one, Tomato, seemed cool and everything but not very visually appealing and the features list wasn’t too long. OpenWRT is a great firmware and it’s very extensible, but not quite as robust or as popular as DD-WRT. I’m not sure about Tomato, but OpenWRT and DD-WRT are both based on Linux. DD-WRT is based on OpenWRT. Keep in mind that this isn’t an exhaustive list of router firmwares – there are a lot of them out there. There’s even some small distributions of *nix floating around for weird router architectures that aren’t generally supported.

So at this point you might be wondering why you would want to have a third party router firmware. Here’s a bullet point list of some reasons why you should use the DD-WRT firmware, if your router supports it (we’ll get to that):

• It’s easy enough for an average user to use. Just follow the install directions for your router provided on their site.
• It’s the most popular and therefore has the most support in the form of threads on their forums and elsewhere.
• DD-WRT has been through 24 major releases, plus all of the other intermediate releases. This means that it’s generally very stable and probably a lot better than whatever firmware you’re using on your router right now.
• DD-WRT provides MANY more features than what comes with your OEM firmware. We’ll get into the features real soon in the next post, but I’d describe them as being just as robust as a router that would cost hundreds of dollars.
• DD-WRT is based on Linux which means you can install new packages and log into the shell to use all your favorite command line utilities like SSH, SCP, RM, LS, PING, TRACEROUTE, etc.
• The source code is available, so if you’re a developer and you’d like to contribute or tweak something, it’s all there.
• There are seven different versions in each release ranging from micro to mega. Depending on the hardware specs of your router you may be limited to micro, or you may be able to use mega.
• I could go on and on, but once you look at the screenshots and features, you’ll be planning your first DD-WRT install in no time!

A note to the beginner, or intermediate computer user

Flashing your router with a third-party firmware requires some knowledge of networking, and the ability to pay attention to details. There is a risk of “bricking” your router if you do this wrong, so you’ll want to make damn sure that everything you do is correct and that there isn’t some sort of a power disturbance during the install. You’ll have to search around on the DD-WRT site to find an install guide for your router, if it’s supported there will be one there.

In order to set up a wireless router, you will also need some information from your ISP to get things working properly. If you use Comcast, the setup is very simple; the WAN side just gets a DHCP assigned IPv4 address, and you set up your WIFI and LAN as you normally would. DSL users will need to know all of their login credentials, etc. Most of this stuff is either in your computer (if you don’t have a router) or on your router. Just log in and grab it! If you have a T1, you can still use this – I’ve seen it done! Just take note of the subnet mask, routable IP addresses and DNS servers.

All the extra features are a little more geared towards people who know what they’re doing, but I encourage you to jump right in and start playing around with them too. If you have the time and the willingness to learn, this can be a very fun adventure for you.

Finding a router / checking if yours is compatible

DD-WRT.com has a cool little AJAX page that will allow you to search for your current router, or a router you’re thinking of buying. It’s on their supported hardware page. Under where it says “Router Database – Beta” enter in your router’s model number and without even clicking a button, some routers should appear on the page. Find the one you’re looking for and check if it’s supported. If nothing comes up, or it says it’s not supported, you’re out of luck – try another firmware maybe. If it says work in progress, it might be awhile, but eventually you will be able to use DD-WRT on that router.

The Best Routers for DD-WRT

Linksys WRT54GL

Linksys WRT54GL 1.1

Right now there are three routers that are considered to be the “best” for DD-WRT. The first one is obviously the Linksys WRT54GL which is the current model in the line of WRT routers that DD-WRT was designed for. The current model has a 200MHz CPU, 16MB RAM, and 4MB Flash. It usually retails at around $60. This router is claimed to be the most compatible with DD-WRT, and will work right out of the box almost (with a TFTP flash). This isn’t the fastest router though, nor is it the most feature rich.

Asus WL500G Premium V2

Asus WL500G Premium V2

The Asus WL500G Premium V2 is one of the best consumer routers on the market for the price, and it’s also compatible with the beloved DD-WRT. This router boasts two USB ports on the back for perhaps a security webcam or an external hard drive for use as a file server. I cannot attest to the functionality of it’s stock firmware, but I do know that it’s hugely popular with DD-WRT. The CPU runs at 240MHz (not overclock-able as of the latest DD-WRT release). It also has a whopping 32MB of RAM and 8MB of flash memory, making it a great candidate for DD-WRT and blowing the WRT54GL out of the water. It also only retails at $10 higher or around $70.

Linksys WRTSL54GS

Linksys WRTSL54GS

Also worth mentioning is the Linksys WRTSL54GS. It is compatible with DD-WRT and is a lot more powerful than the WRT54GL, but it’s no longer on the market. If you dig around on EBay you may find one, but you’ll probably pay an arm and a leg for it.

The router has a 264MHz CPU, one USB port, 32MB of ram, and 8MB of flash memory. These specs put it in the ring with the WL500G Premium, but unfortunately Linksys decided to stop manufacturing them and hand all the profits over to Asus. I guess it doesn’t surprise me though, and I’m sure Asus’ stock firmware is much more capable and less buggy than the Linksys firmware – I hope.

Buffalo AirStation WHR-G54S

Buffalo AirStaion WHR-G54S

The Buffalo AirStation WHR-G54S is perhaps the most sought after router out there. It was the best bang for you buck, and a cheap router for DD-WRT. It was pulled off the market in the USA along with all their wireless products because they were sued for patent infringement by the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Buffalo is a cool company because they like to push things – some of their products actually used to ship with DD-WRT already on them!

You can find these on EBay once in awhile, but the price usually shoots up pretty fast so you might try to find one that’s listed poorly (if other people can’t find it the price won’t go as high). Paying higher than normal prices for this one kind of defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place.

The specs are: 200MHz Broadcom 5232, 16MB RAM, 4MB Flash. I don’t know what the street price is or was in the USA, nor does it really matter at this point. I do know that this router was pretty cheap, under $50 if I’m not mistaken. Keep your eye peeled though, this one or something better may show up in stores again someday soon.