Buying a wireless router in a month when I come home from college...

[Saint Nick]

And I was wondering if anyone has had any interaction with Sveasoft? www.sveasoft.com?

Apparently they have aftermarket firmwares that add a lot of features? Has anyone used this and how do you like it?

 

[JackMDS]

In general: Wireless What Should I Get?

The www.sveasoft.com that you refer to is generally known as 3rd party firmware for Linksys WRT54G v.1-4 and few more models as well.

See here, http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=21

:sun:

 

[Goosemaster]

the dd-wrt firmware for the wrt54gs's is a lot cooler.

Appearantly they have hacked versions 5 and 6 too now

 

[Isaiah]

I suggest that you avoid both sveasoft(crappy firmware, slow to fix stuff and costs money) and linksys. The newer version 5 wrt54g/gs routers don't support most(there is a new version of dd-wrt for v5 routers now) 3rd party firmwares, and they have less ram and flash then either the buffalo or older versions of the wrt54g/gs does.

Check out the buffalo WHR-G54S and the DD-WRT firmware, together they work wonderful!

 

[Isaiah]

Oops Goosemaster beat me to it!

 

[PandaBear]

I second DD-WRT.

 

[AsianriceX]

I just installed DD-WRT on my WRT54G. Looks good so far, and it was free! Yay!

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: AsianriceX
I just installed DD-WRT on my WRT54G. Looks good so far, and it was free! Yay!

 

[Slickone]

Why does it seem no one ever talks about what they use this this firmware for? Or do people just like installing 3rd party hacked firmware just to say they did?

 

[Isaiah]

Originally posted by: Slickone
Why does it seem no one ever talks about what they use this this firmware for? Or do people just like installing 3rd party hacked firmware just to say they did?

For me the reasons are simple, Static DHCP, DNSMasq(for DHCP), faster wireless thoughtput, increased Xmit power(helps increase the wireless coverage area), noCatsplash(a captive portal for wireless clients), ssh access, QOS, blocking p2p protocols and much much more! To think that you can do all this with a $50 router is crazy, but true!

I'm sure there are many other reasons too, I just don't remember them!

-Isaiah

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: Slickone
Why does it seem no one ever talks about what they use this this firmware for? Or do people just like installing 3rd party hacked firmware just to say they did?

Here this page linked below would show you a comparison of what each one of the major 3rd party firmware can or can not do.

The first on the Table is HyperWRT, it is the easiest to deal with and it is based on the original Linksys firmware.

If what you would like to do is included in (HyperWRT + Tibor), I would recommend it as a first choice.

Otherwise choose another one that can do what you need to do.

If you do not understand some of the terms ask specifically and some one here would be glad to answer.

http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=31

What do I use it for?

1. Boosting the Power Output of the Wireless to 65mW.

2. Using IP reservation within the DHCP range.

3. Qos

4. Some time configure to WDS.

:sun:

 

[skisteven1]

I LOVE dd-wrt. I use it to run a VPN server and automatically change it's external IP address on a regular basis. It does everything you'd ever want out of a router, and nearly everything you'd ever want out of a small linux box.

If you're not going to use any of those features, I'd still recommend something like HyperWRT which allows you to boost your transmit power and assign static DHCP'd addresses, but retains almost identical usability to the linksys firmware.

 

[Thoreau]

Another vote for DD-WRT. I used to use Sveasoft's Alchemy, but DD just flat out blows it away. As an added bonus, DD-WRT is truly free, unlike Sveasoft's crap where you have to buy a forum membership to get the latest 'public release.'

I'm using it for a lot of the same reasons as other folks.

1) Boosted power output (who needs those pesky, overpriced antenna upgrades?)
2) QoS - A must for being able to download torrents all day and night long without affecting VoIP traffic
3) I love the home/landing page that shows up before logging in. Gives a great at-a-glance view of what the router is up to
4) VPN Endpoint
5) Remote NTOP stats are a nice feature too. Get to see what kinda traffic is going thru the router from my Windows XP workstation
6) Haven't had a need to yet, but will probably take advantage of the VLAN support in the near future as well.

Definitely worth the couple of minutes it takes to download and install it!

 

[Zagor]

Originally posted by: Isaiah
I suggest that you avoid both sveasoft(crappy firmware, slow to fix stuff and costs money) and linksys. The newer version 5 wrt54g/gs routers don't support most(there is a new version of dd-wrt for v5 routers now) 3rd party firmwares, and they have less ram and flash then either the buffalo or older versions of the wrt54g/gs does.

Check out the buffalo WHR-G54S and the DD-WRT firmware, together they work wonderful!

In the hwsupport.txt file on dd-wrt they list the Buffalo WBR-G54 has having untested support, no mention of the WHR-G54S. So does this unit have third party support? If it does it will be my next purchase. I was planning on purchasing the WRT54GL but seems to be more expensive and harder to find.

 

[Isaiah]

Yes, the Buffalo WHR-G54S is supported by the latest version of the dd-wrt v23 sp1 firmware. In fact I have two of them sitting on my desk running dd-wrt right now

For the buffalo units you need to download the generic version, like dd-wrt.v23.generic.bin or dd-wrt.v23_mini_generic.bin. Here is a link to the latest version.

Also you need to flash the buffalos using tftp, as the web interface will only work for official buffalo firmware releases.

I should note that the buffalo whr-hp-g54 is also supported by dd-wrt, however from testing that I've(and other people too) done, it seems that the whr-g54s is better then the hp version.

-Isaiah

 

[Zagor]

Thanks for all the great info....