Two questions: buffalo & firmware

[kzrssk]

Hey all,

I know there have been a lot of these questions going around lately, but I haven't quite found a good "which is better" thread for these ones...

Right now, Circuit City is selling the WHR-G54S for $40. Now, I hear this product is EOL'ing. The cheapest I've found the WHR-HP-G54 (which to my knowledge is not EOL'ing) is $60 at Newegg.

Is the WHR-HP-G54 worth the extra $20 and 3-day wait, or should I go for the awesomely cheap EOL'ing guy?

Next, there's no doubt that DD-WRT and Tomato are the most popular firmware for Broadcom routers, but it's hard to compare them off their websites alone. Has anyone used both and can give an opinion on which they like better?

Thanks all,

 

[RaiderJ]

Not sure what EOL is.... but I have a Linksys with DD-WRT and a Buffalo with Tomato. I prefer the Buffalo + Tomato firmware. Much simpler interface and it does everything I need it to.

I was able to successfully bridge my Linksys to the Buffalo which is then connected to my modem. Works like a champ!

 

[kzrssk]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ
Not sure what EOL is.... but I have a Linksys with DD-WRT and a Buffalo with Tomato. I prefer the Buffalo + Tomato firmware. Much simpler interface and it does everything I need it to.

I was able to successfully bridge my Linksys to the Buffalo which is then connected to my modem. Works like a champ!

Sorry, I meant End Of Life-ing. I'll try Tomato first then. It looked cleaner to me, as well. I'm about to head out to Circuit City to pick up the WHR-G54S now since it's $40 and their return policy seems square.

 

[JackMDS]

After Flashing you might end up stuck with it since Flashing voids warranty.

Take into consideration that if you have going to have Wireless distance issues, you are better of paying the $20, and wait for the WHR-HP-G54.

The HP stands for High Power it has stronger signal and covers more than the WHR-G54S.

 

[kzrssk]

I'm in a tiny apartment running on the roommate's Netgear pos. I don't think I'm taking a hit on distance

 

[JackMDS]

Then you do not have to wait 3 days.:thumbsup:

 

[WobbleWobble]

DD-WRT has a lot more features that Tomato, but I almost all of it I found I didn't need to use.

The Tomato interface is a lot cleaner and prettier. It also has an active bandwidth monitor. Best of all, whenever you make a setting change you do not need to reboot the router using Tomato.

To each their own, but I converted from DD-WRT to Tomato on my Linksys.

 

[kzrssk]

Hey guys,

Got the WHR-G54S flashed with Tomato, and it's running great. The interface is clean and attractive (I'm a sucker for aesthetics.), it's fast (config page and performance in general), and QoS seems to be working well. I'll know tonight for sure when I play some games. I haven't had a real use for the bandwidth monitor, but I like it just the same. And like WobbleWobble said, only the affected services are restarted instead of the whole router.

Great features for ~$43 OTD. Would definitely recommend this combination.

The only problem I've run into is that I can't seem to ping or access the router using its hostname ("router"). Anyone else getting that? Also, does Tomato support VLANs?

 

[danzigrules]

a bit off topic, but since you are talking about tomato:

does tomato have the ability to increase the wireless signal strength like in hyperwrt-thibor?
Would like to know this before I install tomato.

Thanks

 

[WobbleWobble]

Yes, you can increase the wireless signal strength in Tomato

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: danzigrules
a bit off topic, but since you are talking about tomato:

does tomato have the ability to increase the wireless signal strength like in hyperwrt-thibor?
Would like to know this before I install tomato.

Thanks

Concerning RF Boost, if you use one of the Buffalo Routers read this,

http://www.ezlan.net/WHR-HP-G54.html

 

[kzrssk]

Originally posted by: kzrssk
The only problem I've run into is that I can't seem to ping or access the router using its hostname ("router"). Anyone else getting that? Also, does Tomato support VLANs?

Bump for my questions

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: kzrssk

Right now, Circuit City is selling the WHR-G54S for $40. Now, I hear this product is EOL'ing. The cheapest I've found the WHR-HP-G54 (which to my knowledge is not EOL'ing) is $60 at Newegg.

Isn't that the one they are renaming as the WHR-G125 or some such?

Look here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...054765&highlight_key=y

The third post on.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: kzrssk

Originally posted by: kzrssk
The only problem I've run into is that I can't seem to ping or access the router using its hostname ("router"). Anyone else getting that? Also, does Tomato support VLANs?

Bump for my questions

Not from what I can see in my Tomato/Linksys router.

 

[kzrssk]

Hey guys. The other day my roommate unplugged my router to restart it after Cox told him to (which really shouldn't affect anything at all really), but when he plugged it back in, it wouldn't turn on. So I come home later and confirm this, and took it back to Circuit City. I had and probably still have a chance to pick up another one, but I didn't trust Buffalo too much anyway, having never really heard of them until now. Should I chance another one or maybe go with a Linksys?

 

[Nobuo]

I just got my 2nd bad Buffalo router in a row. (first one had a bad power supply, the second one wouldnt do DHCP)

I'm gonna go back to my trusty Linksys

 

[highwire]

Originally posted by: JackMDS

Originally posted by: danzigrules
a bit off topic, but since you are talking about tomato:

does tomato have the ability to increase the wireless signal strength like in hyperwrt-thibor?
Would like to know this before I install tomato.

Thanks

Concerning RF Boost, if you use one of the Buffalo Routers read this,

http://www.ezlan.net/WHR-HP-G54.html

With all due respect, and I do mean that - you are way ahead of me on networking - your blurb on the downside of raising transmitter power makes no sense to me, and I am a capable design engineer emeritus. You refer to noise increasing with TX power. Why is that? I have not looked into exactly what type of modulation is used, but most modern modulation schemes are fairly immune to amplitude non-linearities. Maybe this is not the case with wifi. But generally, the S/N ratio is a receiver-antenna-path function, and the more TX power the better.