[mrt2]

So I used dd-wrt for years with my Linksys router however I ended up replacing it (finally) with an N66U but was feeling lazy and didn't throw dd-wrt on it. Now it's time to throw a new firmware on it to gain some features and overall stability that's not there in stock. With that, I got to thinking of trying something new...

I'm familiar with the dd-wrt community as it's large and always helpful but I don't know of any tomato community sites that's similar (is there one for tomato?) so I figured I'd ask here if any of you guys had experience with Tomatoe, and what are your likes/dislikes vs dd-wrt? Specifically I was going to give advanced Tomato a try... any thoughts?

[Murrkf]

First thing, make SURE you don't flash directly from dd-wrt to tomato. There are incompatible nvram variables that can brick your router. Tomato doesn't do bridging (Client Bridge, Repeater Bridge, Repeater, Client) last time I checked.

[mrt2]

[Joe Sixpack]

not to be taken as the gospel but I've cross flashed routers quite a few times, checking the CLEAR NVRAM box seems to do the trick more often then not.
If you're flashing via TFTP however probably a good idea to clear NVRAM / hard reset.

I haven't tried advance tomato.. infact first im hearing of it.

But it looks like it's based off shibby releases and look pretty close to it config wise.. layout is the largest change it looks like from pictures.

I've not sat down and compared dd-wrt and tomato side by side, but I usually prefer shibby flavor tomato my self.

I find the UI and layout to be easier to use and setup.
It seems like Tomato has more features.

With that said dd-wrt seems a bit more polished, Tomato is a tad more buggy, dd-wrt could easily double as a stock firmware.. it may not have the bells of tomato but what it does it does well.

DD-wrt also (and again I've not sat down and compared) appears to offer more options for tweaking protocol (a lot of which I'd need google to figure out)

So my preference is Tomato for general home use, If I had clients I'd probably steer them toward dd-wrt unless it couldn't do something they needed, and if I was attempting a long point-to-point connection I think DD-WRT would probably get the nod.

[Murrkf]

[Joe Sixpack]

[tatsuya46]

tomato for broadcom, ddwrt for the rest. tomato does client modes fine, at least the victek/shibby/toastman does, they are also the better ones to use. the "orignal" tomatoUSB is old & abandoned

[mrt2]

[js1662]

My experience on Tomato Shibby is on RT-N12 D1 and WNR3500L v2. Both are running Shibby K26RT-N, as you can see Shibby is using K26, if that matters to you. There is a wiki on Tomato, check this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_%28firmware%29

Shibby is stable so far for both routers, RT-N12 is running 24/7 for over half a year now and no reboot is needed so for. WNR3500L v2 is used as openvpn client so it will be powered up when needed otherwise it is power off so I can't comment much on reliability. However it is working well when powered up.

One problem I faced when flashing Shibby on RT-N12 D1 is password trouble. Check this thread: http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/upgrade-from-dd-wrt-firmware-password-troubles.28627/ However, I can't recall how I fixed the problem. Anyway, Asus provides firmware recovery utility and the router has a Broadcom CFE mini web server, which makes it easy to recover the router in case it is bricked.

The reason for using Shibby instead of dd-wrt for the two routers is that dd-wrt for RT-N12 D1 is not very stable and router needed to be rebooted after working for a few days. As for WNR3500L v2, this router is not supported by dd-wrt. BTW, I want to add that when I was trying dd-wrt on RT-N12 D1, I was using a quite old build and since I already gave the router to my friend so I can't try newer builds on dd-wrt now.

[MongooseProXC]

Funny thing, I just switched back after using Shibby's TomatoUSB on my E1500 for a couple of months. I really liked it, very polished and a lot of features. QOS is its claim to fame but I found it too complicated. What made me return to DD-WRT is the speed. Shibby's Tomato worked fine but just seemed boggy for whatever reason. DD-WRT is nice and zippy with a good build. Setting up DD-WRT with things like a guest network can seem odd and indirect by comparison. But, once you have it dialed in it's golden!

[mrjcd]

I agree about the speed or top speed. It just doesn't seem to be there with tomato. There is that 'boggy feeling' although very stable. I'm still running two Shibby Tomato E2500 openvpn site/site TAP without a problem. They have been up for months. Using a E1200v2 shibby tomato here that is connected in with them plus I'm running a guest network off it also. Recently put a fairly new Shibby (tomato-K26-1.28.RT-MIPSR1-128-Max.bin) on the WRT54GSv2 and it was terrible ... really just too big for that router. I had only a few bytes left in NVRAM after setup as my main router. It would drop wireless for a minute doing any (local) speedtest. The mini version on the WRT54Gsv2 is very stable but speed is exactly 1/2 what I can get from newer build of dd-wrt. I do love the Shibby tomato on the E2500 --- openvpn is easy and very stable and of cousre if you want the 5GHz radio on the E2500 you have to use Tomato or factory firmware .... funny thing is I have all USB (what runs 5GHz radio on E2500) disabled on the VPN routers -- don't really need it and takes a load off the CPU. Shibby runs well - both radios on the E2500 and not much difference in dd-wrt --- but for a router like the E1200v2 tomato is the better choice for wireless stability -- e1200v2 is a little different box though -- it's really a pain w/dd-wrt but newer builds seem to do ok on it.
Between the two firmware it really depends on what you want to do with your router and what router you have --- if you have a broadcom device and want to use it as an access point plus restricted guest network then dd-wrt is the only and best way to go.
'bout all I know