Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 7401 Location: Little Rock
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2012 19:33 Post subject: Re: Best router for DD-WRT support
I recently purchased a refurbished linksys E3200, and although it has no 5Ghz support with dd-wrt, its 2.4Ghz performance is pretty good, has a USB port, and it has gigabit ports. Its actually one of the fastest response units i have now. So far, i'm impressed with it. _________________ Wireless N Config | Linking Routers | DD-WRT Wiki | DD-WRT Builds | Peacock - Broadcom FAQ
1. It should have external removable/detachable antenna
2. BROADCOM Unit, I will be using NTFS formatted drives with it.
3.Connection speed is just 4Mbps download and 1Mbps upload So no need for a super fast CPU.
4. I will install Optware and rtorrent or transmission for using the router as a "pseduo-seedbox". (ram ??)
5. I don't need a 600 or 900 Mbps N router.
6. For stability, I will consider routers that can handle the k24 builds.
What should be the min size of flash required for all this and which router/s should I consider ? _________________ Upgraded to
DD-WRT v24-sp2 (03/25/13) std -
build 21061
Asus RT-N16 ... Bst router I have ever worked with, I paid only $80, prob close to 2 years ago..
it has a 32 MB Flash with 128 MB RAM and a 500MHz CPU ... You would never get such specs with proprietary Cisco routers for that price.... DDWRT for the win!
I'm looking for some advice on a (of course dd-wrt or openwrt compatible) router as well. The facts are:
- medium size appartment with some 40cm+ walls
- 50 mbit vdsl
- 3-4 computers in network
- main use is streaming HD Video from attached storage
- therefore needs USB 3.0 connection
I've got LAN cables from my old router to the mac mini running Plex, but I guess having 5 Ghz Wifi would be quicker, right? Would gigabit LAN make sense?
So far I'm looking at a Linksys e4200 for EUR 60, it'd be nice to have an internal modem or can I just use the cheap router I've got as modem?
Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 7401 Location: Little Rock
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 0:01 Post subject:
Not to mention the interference factor, USB 3.0 doesn't play nicely with 2.4Ghz devices. And considering USB 2.0 doesn't even remotely reach 2.0 spec speeds on routers, it shouldn't matter. You are not going to get USB 3.0 port speeds on a router currently, it just isn't going to happen, architectural limitations. And should you find a USB 3.0 compatible router, get ready to copper shield the port.
The E4200 recognizes USB 3.0 devices however it will force the device to run on 2.0 speeds.
Must have misread the specs.
Thanks for your info on the USB port interference, a USB 2.0 has to suffice then I guess. I won't get the full 480 mbit via wifi with the E4200 anyways, right? You guys have any other suggestions?
At least a wireless N router (assuming you use a wireless connection).
The N66U by ASUS seems to have a good DD-WRT community behind it, but I remember reading about a 32k/64k issue and not sure if they ever fully got around that.
I haven't seen much support for the new AC wireless routers yet, but I'm hoping for support for the ASUS RT-AC66U to be supported.
I'm looking for a nice pair of dual band routers for my wireless bridge setup. Currently I'm using a couple of old linksys routers that were dd-wrt compatible to achieve this, but as it's not wireless N the speed is less than appealing.
My current setup is that I have the main wireless router and internet connection coming into the computer room. 3 computers hook up to this router via cable and then there's usually 3-4 devices connecting over wireless at any given time.
In our TV room we have another wireless router acting as a bridge to provide internet connection to my home theatre PC and xbox 360. Copying large files to the HTPC is exceedingly painful over the wireless bridge because the best transfer rate I get is about 3.0 mb/s.
I'm also hoping to set up some sort of policy based routing so that I can have only certain websites pass through an openVPN connection while the rest behave normally, though I haven't quite sorted out an easy way to accomplish this yet.
If it's a wireless bridge, you will definitely benefit via a wireless AC router (even if your end user devices don't support AC) since the AC will increase the speed of the bridge/repeater signal, allowing you to send data through the bridge/repeater to the HTPC faster.
AC is also the best for streaming period. There was a demonstration of 4 1080p streams running on different TVs at the same time over wireless using an AC wireless router.
What it really comes down to at that point is which router has the best firmware options to allow you to bridge two of them together.
The RT-AC66U's stock firmware only lets you bridge over WEP (or none) security types for the wireless. This might change in the future but I wouldn't hold by breath.
Don't know any AC routers that run stable on DD-WRT yet.
EDIT: If you don't mind connecting both routers via ethernet cable, you can set the RT-AC66U in Access Point mode which just extends the existing network (wireless also).
If it's a wireless bridge, you will definitely benefit via a wireless AC router (even if your end user devices don't support AC) since the AC will increase the speed of the bridge/repeater signal, allowing you to send data through the bridge/repeater to the HTPC faster.
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EDIT: If you don't mind connecting both routers via ethernet cable, you can set the RT-AC66U in Access Point mode which just extends the existing network (wireless also).
Unfortunately at the moment connecting them via cable just doesn't really work, or I'd already be doing that. I don't mind running a cable from the one room to the other, but everyone else in the house does. Including the dogs who like to eat ethernet cables... Besides, if I was just going to just run a cable I'd simply throw in a switch instead of a router, would be cheaper at least. Wireless signal is pretty good throughout the house so the bridge device is just replacing the cable I'd have to run to that room otherwise.
There's not much of a huge rush on time frame, so you're suggesting that I should really just watch to see when DD-WRT will run stable on an AC router? Any particular thread that you know off the top of your head that I can pay attention to for progress? Connecting them but having to use WEP for security would just make me sad.