ASUS WL-520gU DDWRT capable,$29.99 AR AC FS @ Newegg

[Terzo]

link
Use code EMCYNNP28

This router along with the high powered Buffalo router (can't remember the number) seem to be commonly recommended in the networking section. I had put my order in yesterday night, but canceled and reordered (saved 2.99 on shipping and 5 from the code).

 

[edro]

After going through 3 or 4 Belkin, Netgear and Linksys routers over the years, I got one of these.

I put DDWRT on it and it has been running for the last year without so much as a reset.

 

[Gibson486]

I wonder if I should replace my wr850G....i have had it for years (put ddwrt on it), but it keeps disconnecting me now.

 

[robsdeals]

I hate rebates or I would be temped.

 

[Netopia]

Is also compatible with Tomato Firmware.

 

[Harvey]

This is a great wireless router. I've set a couple of them up for friends, and they're solid, stable and easy to set up and add wireless clients. Strongly recommended if you don't need wireless N.

Last time I bought one, they were $20 AR. I've been bird dogging this piece at that price for friends ever since.

 

[fleshconsumed]

How does it fare against linksys t-mobile G router?

 

[Harvey]

How does it fare against linksys t-mobile G router?

Sorry, I don't have any comparative info. When I find a product that has 100% up time, great performance and no hassles at a great price, I stop looking.

 

[balloonshark]

I've been using one of these for a while now and have no complaints. I believe it was Harvey that suggested this router coupled with the Edimax EW-7128G adapter. Thanks again Harvey!

Adapter link which occasionally has a free shipping code: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833315041

 

[Terzo]

This is a great wireless router. I've set a couple of them up for friends, and they're solid, stable and easy to set up and add wireless clients. Strongly recommended if you don't need wireless N.

Last time I bought one, they were $20 AR. I've been bird dogging this piece at that price for friends ever since.

Did you flash them with DD-WRT or Tomato? From what I've heard the stock firmware is nothing to write home about. I intend to flash it either way, just curious.

 

[Engineer]

The great Tomato teddy bear USB mod for this (and other) routers - fantastic

I've been surfing from the hotel to my home via SSH 1024bit encrypted link for the last few hours using this router and the teddy bear 44 mod. One of the best routers and best firmwares that I've ever used, period.

 

[jrichrds]

The great Tomato teddy bear USB mod for this (and other) routers - fantastic

I've been surfing from the hotel to my home via SSH 1024bit encrypted link for the last few hours using this router and the teddy bear 44 mod. One of the best routers and best firmwares that I've ever used, period.

"SSH 1024bit encrypted link"
Is that a feature of the teddy bear mod tomato firmware, or just something you happen to be doing through the router? (i.e. does the teddy bear mod make surfing from hotel to home via encrypted link any easier for a novice?)

 

[Engineer]

"SSH 1024bit encrypted link"
Is that a feature of the teddy bear mod tomato firmware, or just something you happen to be doing through the router? (i.e. does the teddy bear mod make surfing from hotel to home via encrypted link any easier for a novice?)

It's not a teddy bear thing as far as I know. I think stock tomato has SSH built in. I wrote a guide around here somewhere to set up and use Putty and the tomato router with SSH. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Edit: Guide link found

Use Firefox and you can also route DNS through the SSH tunnel so that even your DNS lookups can't be sniffed.

 

[kgokal]

DEAD: SoldOut.

 

[Harvey]

Did you flash them with DD-WRT or Tomato? From what I've heard the stock firmware is nothing to write home about. I intend to flash it either way, just curious.

I just set them up with the stock firmware. My friends aren't into gaming or anything else too demanding. All they need is good, reliable download speed, and that's what they got 24/7. They also power down at the end of the day so each new day is a new reboot.

Adding a new laptop to the system is a breeze. Just bring the laptop close to the base machine, click once on the base machine, and it automatically installs the security access on the laptop. Couldn't be easier.

 

[ftfishy]

Back in stock

 

[NesuD]

Got mine thurs. Dropped Teddy_bears tomato mod on it. Had trouble at first ended up having to tftp the DD-WRT asus mini firmware. Wouldn"t work using the asus firmware recovery utility. Popped tomato on there and like amazing!. Best QOS features i have ever used on non enterprise hardware. My Teenagers are going to hate me. Bit torrent traffic just came to a screeching halt in my house. The Graphing and bandwidth logging are outstanding. Connection details all of it. Outstanding inexpensive home or small office router with some enterprise class features.

 

[Engineer]

Got mine thurs. Dropped Teddy_bears tomato mod on it. Had trouble at first ended up having to tftp the DD-WRT asus mini firmware. Wouldn"t work using the asus firmware recovery utility. Popped tomato on there and like amazing!. Best QOS features i have ever used on non enterprise hardware. My Teenagers are going to hate me. Bit torrent traffic just came to a screeching halt in my house. The Graphing and bandwidth logging are outstanding. Connection details all of it. Outstanding inexpensive home or small office router with some enterprise class features.

Tomato, specifically the TB mod, is the best.

As for QOS, Toastman has a great thread tutorial on QOS and Tomato.

Click me.

 

[nobodyknows]

Sold out

 

[syswalla]

Engineer, how's the response time using this router as an SSH tunnel? I've done the same with DD-WRT on a Linksys WRT54GL and found it kind of pokey.

 

[Engineer]

Engineer, how's the response time using this router as an SSH tunnel? I've done the same with DD-WRT on a Linksys WRT54GL and found it kind of pokey.

It cuts down the speed obviously as the router is now a middle man for in and out. The router has to take your request for a page, send it out to the server to get that page. As the page is coming back in, it has to then forward it back through the SSH tunnel to you. Most home internet connections at home have a much smaller upload speed which effects the speed at which it can send them to me.

My home speed is 10/1. While I can download pages at home at nearly 10Mbps, when I'm on the road, the best that I could ever hope for is 1Mbps download (because that is the fastest that my upload from home allows). Sure, the hotel may have 10Mbps download but it's completely open...something that I don't want to and will not accept. I don't play games when I'm out so I just want to make sure that the data sniffed out is nearly 100% not readable by anyone but me!

To be honest, most hotel WIFI connections are so saturated by the guests each night, I cannot get anywhere near the 1Mbps from my home. Hell, I can't get anywhere near that most of the time even when trying on the unencrypted hotel network alone.

 

[Terzo]

I just set them up with the stock firmware. My friends aren't into gaming or anything else too demanding. All they need is good, reliable download speed, and that's what they got 24/7. They also power down at the end of the day so each new day is a new reboot.

Adding a new laptop to the system is a breeze. Just bring the laptop close to the base machine, click once on the base machine, and it automatically installs the security access on the laptop. Couldn't be easier.

When you say power down, do you mean their computer or the router? Is there any significant benefit to unplugging the router at the end of each day?


And Engineer, since you seem to be in the know what is a good starting point for picking up these advanced features offered by the tomato mod? The Samba, NAS, and especially SSH features are intriguing but I feel in over my head when trying to follow tutorials. Should I be able to follow a simple tutorial, or would I be better off learning some basics first?

 

[Engineer]

When you say power down, do you mean their computer or the router? Is there any significant benefit to unplugging the router at the end of each day?


And Engineer, since you seem to be in the know what is a good starting point for picking up these advanced features offered by the tomato mod? The Samba, NAS, and especially SSH features are intriguing but I feel in over my head when trying to follow tutorials. Should I be able to follow a simple tutorial, or would I be better off learning some basics first?

I don't know much about SAMBA and the NAS stuff. I picked up the SSH stuff on my own but thought it would be nice to do the tutorial in the Networking forum to help out a bit. I tried to make it simple and with screenshots to assist. The SSH is really handy if you don't want to try VPN (I'll do that later) but would like encrypted surfing from a public WIFI. Throw in dynamic DNS like www.dyndns.com, which Tomato will automatically logon to and update your IP, and you'll always be able to reach home easily using a URL instead of trying to get your ever changing home IP address.

The threads at Linksysinfo.org are the best that I can give for SAMBA and NAS stuff. Those guys know their stuff over there.

As for Tomato in general, I don't know how you could find much easier especially with the features. I used HyperWRT for years because it was rock solid and just ran - fast. Tomato is just as solid and with the newer features of TB's mod (and others too), it's just great.

 

[qliveur]

Back in stock with a new rebate and the promo code is good until midnight PT.

 

[Hacp]

I was dissapointed when I saw that the clock speed was 200mhz. I remember the WL-500 being 266 mhz -_-. Gah, why are these router companies so stingy with their processors and ram.

Have a cousin who moved in with my parents. He constantly uses p2p and I've tried throttling him down to 56k levels but his p2p usage always makes the router go wack. Not enough memory/cpu. I try telling him not to use p2p or we'll get sued but he keeps doing it! Plus, my parents are like "let him do whatever," so I can't just block him from the router. Drives me crazy haha.