RamGuy
Senior Member
For the past few years I've been using quite a few different wireless routers, those I remember are:
- Linksys WRT54G rev2
Was a great router at that time, I have yet to own another router featuring such great wireless radius! I could actually go outside to the kindergarten like 75-100m from our house and still being able to use our wireless network! With today's routers I'm not able to pick up anything if I take my notebook to the same position.
After a while it died on me, and in the long run as WAN speeds increased, and the demand for gigabit didn't get any lower and people were starting to talk about Draft-N devices the WRT54G series simply fell a bit sort when it came to raw performance, great wireless radius and awesome DD-WRT support wasn't enough in the long run as the demand for superior performance was increasing blazing fast!
- Linksys WRT54G rev4
Pretty much felt identical to the rev2
- Linksys WRT54G rev5
Horrible router, had to be restarted every few hours as Torrent download simply crushed the hardware of this device, the whole v5-v7 of the WRT54G made the entire series a joke.
- D-Link DGL-4500
Great performance, great design of the device itself and a QoS that actually worked to some extend! Major downer was the wireless radius, which felt like half of what the WRT54G combined with DD-WRT wireless radio power boosting was providing us? After a few firmware updates the entire router did go haywire and I was never able to get it back up, the device itself still works, but it wont accept any updating or downgrading of the firmware, nor save any of the changes I try to do within the firmware, rendering it completely useless to me.
- D-Link DIR-655 rev2
The replacement of my dying DGL-4500, felt pretty much exactly the same as the DGL-4500, expect the QoS had to be dealt with manually, as there was no gaming pre-configurations of any sort. Performance, wireless radius and everything felt basicly the same, though I missed the more advanced features of DD-WRT I found the device working okay.
But after a few firmware released by D-Link the device got messed up with buggy firmwares providing no downgrade possibilities.
- D-Link DIR-655 rev4
Got this device on warranty because my rev2 device got unstable with firmware updates not being downgrade-able. Unfortunately the rev3 actually shipped with the crappy firmware, so I was never able to get it stable at all.
- D-Link DIR-855 rev2
Borrowed this one from work, mainly to see if it could replace my DIR-655 rev3 and to test how well the 5GHz network feature actually worked.
The radius of the 5GHz was like half of the 2.4GHz, which itself was half of what I had back in the WRT54G v2 days, so it didn't take long before I scratched the idea of a DIR-855 rev2 running my network.
- Linksys WRT320N
Finally back with Linksys and DD-WRT, it had been a great while since the last time, but DD-WRT never disappoints and the firmware for ones felt like a blast! This router was the first to actually provide me with decent 5GHz coverage, and the 5GHz / 40Hz performance was simply great! Only downer with this device was the lack of raw routing power, neither the CPU or RAM was top notch compared to other devices available.
- Netgear WNDR3700
My first ever Netgear router, and probably my last! The firmware is simply yuck! Here I was complaining about buggy D-Link firmware with barley any advanced features at all, well everything feels great compared to what Netgear offers, I have yet to see other firmware being so dumbed down and completely lacking features like the one on this device.
The device it self is awesome, with a 800MHz CPU and 128MB RAM you get some really good performance out of this thing, and the wireless isn't that bad either, but the firmware is a pain in the arse and if DD-WRT doesn't come to this device fast like hell, I don't see myself using this for long.
In short, I have yet to find the perfect router, the one to provide me with great routing performance and hardware, combined with good wireless radius and performance and great firmware.
There simply doesn't seem to exist something like "the perfect router", you have to either chose between great hardware, great firmware or good wireless, some like the WNDR3700 do managed to combined both the great hardware and good wireless part, but falls short when it comes to the firmware capabilities.
So why not trying to take matter into my own hands?
Perhaps the only way to get the perfect router, is to simply build one?
I know many people use different Linux distros on older hardware to set them up as routers, unfortunately I'm rather blank when it comes to Linux and how to set it up and using it, but I do notice that DD-WRT and some others actually got their own firmware versions for using on X86 capable hardware? In other words, I could build a computer and simply run DD-WRT on it?
I guess the work of building something yourself always will demand more of you, than simply buying something that's pre-built, as when you do things yourself you wont face the same support, so your basicly on your own software wise, so if I don't managed to pick the right hardware or don't managed to get the software running I'm pretty much screwed!
But that's a risk I'm willing to take, in order trying to achieve the perfect router! Another great thing with building a router on my own, is upgrading capabilities, if a new wireless nic is released and I do want it, I can simply replace the one I have with the newer one, instead of waiting for a brand new router featuring the newer card and radios.
There are three different settings I can go with:
1: NAT-router / DHCP only, in other words I will have other external devices for wireless and switch
2: NAT / DHCP + Wireless, only running a external switch which will be needed anyway
3: A all in one solution
The third option wont be considered in the first place as it's cheaper and easier to just keep using my HP ProCurve 1400-8G.
I will aim on the second option, I want a computer capable of doing the NAT, DHCP and wireless, if the wireless proves to be too much of a hassle I will just hook up a external device for the wireless part.
So what kind of hardware is required for this?
Well it has to be:
- Linux compatible
- Somewhat small scale
- Being able to run without that much of cooling
I was thinking of building something around the Zotac H55-ITX!
It's small scale, but it does feature everything I need, combining it with a Core i3 CPU I get plenty of performance, integrated graphics so I can use the one and only PCI-Express slot for Intel Gigabit NIC, so I get one LAN port for WAN, and another one going to a external switch.
But it's not the fact that the board is Mini-ITX, nor that it will provide me with awesome power (yeah, the i3-530 will be overkill!), it's the fact that it comes with a mini-pcie wireless card, which is easily switch-able!
The one major drawback I've felt when considering build my own router in the past have been the need of a PCI-Express 1x wireless NIC, as (at least here in Norway) there are very few options available, there is simply so much more to chose between when having a mini-pcie slot available, it's like a whole new world of possibilities!
Which wireless NIC would be the best to use, considering my notebook will feature a Intel WiFi 6300? Perhaps going with the same card in the router? But how is the Linux support for these cards?
- Linksys WRT54G rev2
Was a great router at that time, I have yet to own another router featuring such great wireless radius! I could actually go outside to the kindergarten like 75-100m from our house and still being able to use our wireless network! With today's routers I'm not able to pick up anything if I take my notebook to the same position.
After a while it died on me, and in the long run as WAN speeds increased, and the demand for gigabit didn't get any lower and people were starting to talk about Draft-N devices the WRT54G series simply fell a bit sort when it came to raw performance, great wireless radius and awesome DD-WRT support wasn't enough in the long run as the demand for superior performance was increasing blazing fast!
- Linksys WRT54G rev4
Pretty much felt identical to the rev2
- Linksys WRT54G rev5
Horrible router, had to be restarted every few hours as Torrent download simply crushed the hardware of this device, the whole v5-v7 of the WRT54G made the entire series a joke.
- D-Link DGL-4500
Great performance, great design of the device itself and a QoS that actually worked to some extend! Major downer was the wireless radius, which felt like half of what the WRT54G combined with DD-WRT wireless radio power boosting was providing us? After a few firmware updates the entire router did go haywire and I was never able to get it back up, the device itself still works, but it wont accept any updating or downgrading of the firmware, nor save any of the changes I try to do within the firmware, rendering it completely useless to me.
- D-Link DIR-655 rev2
The replacement of my dying DGL-4500, felt pretty much exactly the same as the DGL-4500, expect the QoS had to be dealt with manually, as there was no gaming pre-configurations of any sort. Performance, wireless radius and everything felt basicly the same, though I missed the more advanced features of DD-WRT I found the device working okay.
But after a few firmware released by D-Link the device got messed up with buggy firmwares providing no downgrade possibilities.
- D-Link DIR-655 rev4
Got this device on warranty because my rev2 device got unstable with firmware updates not being downgrade-able. Unfortunately the rev3 actually shipped with the crappy firmware, so I was never able to get it stable at all.
- D-Link DIR-855 rev2
Borrowed this one from work, mainly to see if it could replace my DIR-655 rev3 and to test how well the 5GHz network feature actually worked.
The radius of the 5GHz was like half of the 2.4GHz, which itself was half of what I had back in the WRT54G v2 days, so it didn't take long before I scratched the idea of a DIR-855 rev2 running my network.
- Linksys WRT320N
Finally back with Linksys and DD-WRT, it had been a great while since the last time, but DD-WRT never disappoints and the firmware for ones felt like a blast! This router was the first to actually provide me with decent 5GHz coverage, and the 5GHz / 40Hz performance was simply great! Only downer with this device was the lack of raw routing power, neither the CPU or RAM was top notch compared to other devices available.
- Netgear WNDR3700
My first ever Netgear router, and probably my last! The firmware is simply yuck! Here I was complaining about buggy D-Link firmware with barley any advanced features at all, well everything feels great compared to what Netgear offers, I have yet to see other firmware being so dumbed down and completely lacking features like the one on this device.
The device it self is awesome, with a 800MHz CPU and 128MB RAM you get some really good performance out of this thing, and the wireless isn't that bad either, but the firmware is a pain in the arse and if DD-WRT doesn't come to this device fast like hell, I don't see myself using this for long.
In short, I have yet to find the perfect router, the one to provide me with great routing performance and hardware, combined with good wireless radius and performance and great firmware.
There simply doesn't seem to exist something like "the perfect router", you have to either chose between great hardware, great firmware or good wireless, some like the WNDR3700 do managed to combined both the great hardware and good wireless part, but falls short when it comes to the firmware capabilities.
So why not trying to take matter into my own hands?
Perhaps the only way to get the perfect router, is to simply build one?
I know many people use different Linux distros on older hardware to set them up as routers, unfortunately I'm rather blank when it comes to Linux and how to set it up and using it, but I do notice that DD-WRT and some others actually got their own firmware versions for using on X86 capable hardware? In other words, I could build a computer and simply run DD-WRT on it?
I guess the work of building something yourself always will demand more of you, than simply buying something that's pre-built, as when you do things yourself you wont face the same support, so your basicly on your own software wise, so if I don't managed to pick the right hardware or don't managed to get the software running I'm pretty much screwed!
But that's a risk I'm willing to take, in order trying to achieve the perfect router! Another great thing with building a router on my own, is upgrading capabilities, if a new wireless nic is released and I do want it, I can simply replace the one I have with the newer one, instead of waiting for a brand new router featuring the newer card and radios.
There are three different settings I can go with:
1: NAT-router / DHCP only, in other words I will have other external devices for wireless and switch
2: NAT / DHCP + Wireless, only running a external switch which will be needed anyway
3: A all in one solution
The third option wont be considered in the first place as it's cheaper and easier to just keep using my HP ProCurve 1400-8G.
I will aim on the second option, I want a computer capable of doing the NAT, DHCP and wireless, if the wireless proves to be too much of a hassle I will just hook up a external device for the wireless part.
So what kind of hardware is required for this?
Well it has to be:
- Linux compatible
- Somewhat small scale
- Being able to run without that much of cooling
I was thinking of building something around the Zotac H55-ITX!
It's small scale, but it does feature everything I need, combining it with a Core i3 CPU I get plenty of performance, integrated graphics so I can use the one and only PCI-Express slot for Intel Gigabit NIC, so I get one LAN port for WAN, and another one going to a external switch.
But it's not the fact that the board is Mini-ITX, nor that it will provide me with awesome power (yeah, the i3-530 will be overkill!), it's the fact that it comes with a mini-pcie wireless card, which is easily switch-able!
The one major drawback I've felt when considering build my own router in the past have been the need of a PCI-Express 1x wireless NIC, as (at least here in Norway) there are very few options available, there is simply so much more to chose between when having a mini-pcie slot available, it's like a whole new world of possibilities!
Which wireless NIC would be the best to use, considering my notebook will feature a Intel WiFi 6300? Perhaps going with the same card in the router? But how is the Linux support for these cards?