Advice: What R7000 firmware for my needs?

[Patrick van Bavel]

Hello,

I am switching to a new ISP which gives me the possibility to use my own router, I have a Netgear R7000 and would like to use this for the following reasons:

1. VPN - I would like to configure my router to handle my VPN connection so certain devices always use a VPN connection and som never do. (If it is possible at all, I would only want the download application from my Synology to (using a specific port) to use the VPN while the rest of my NAS remains accessible at all times, VPN or not).

2. WOL script - I have a (big) TCPdump script to wake my Plex server when there is traffic on port 32400. It is a must for me to have this script running on the router. (see image)

(3. Link Aggregation - If possible, I would like to enable LACP for two ports so my NAS has a 2Gbps connection to my network)

My question: What router firmware is the best for my needs? DD-WRT? Merlin? (Advanced)Tomato? Other ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Regards, Patrick

 

[RMerlin]

I would look at DD-WRT first.

Xvortex-Merlin is not an option, this is an illegal firmware.

 

[Patrick van Bavel]

I would look at DD-WRT first.

Xvortex-Merlin is not an option, this is an illegal firmware.

Thanks for the input! Are all three wanted features available with that? Or is LACP not possible at al on a R7000?

 

[RMerlin]

Both DD-WRT and Tomato will support VPN. They probably support wol as well (worst case scenario, you can probably install a wol/ether-wake client through Entware). I doubt any of them supports LACP - you will have to look for a discrete switch for that.

 

[Patrick van Bavel]

Both DD-WRT and Tomato will support VPN. They probably support wol as well (worst case scenario, you can probably install a wol/ether-wake client through Entware). I doubt any of them supports LACP - you will have to look for a discrete switch for that.

What would be better for the use of my WOL do you think, Startup script or Entware? I want it to be reliable and always accessible, but I am not familiar with Entware at all.

 

[RMerlin]

What would be better for the use of my WOL do you think, Startup script or Entware? I want it to be reliable and always accessible, but I am not familiar with Entware at all.

Entware is just a software repository. If the firmware you use doesn't come with either the wol or ether-wake shell commands, then you might be able to get it through Entware (or cross-compile it yourself - wol is a fairly lightweight one).

 

[Patrick van Bavel]

Okay, sounds like I can get this to work using DD-WRT, although this seems a little bit complex to me! So both firmwares support Entware for the script?
Are the VPN functions on DD-WRT as good as on Tomato?

 

[RMerlin]

Okay, sounds like I can get this to work using DD-WRT, although this seems a little bit complex to me! So both firmwares support Entware for the script?

I know Tomato does, not sure about DD-WRT.

Tomato's OpenVPN implementation is probably more advanced than DD-WRT's (unless that changed recently).

 

[Patrick van Bavel]

Would you know another way to WOL a computer automatically when there is an access attempt on a specific port (32405)?
That's what the script was for, but maybe there is a beter way? Or is ether-wake capable of that?

 

[RMerlin]

Ether-wake is a shell command to send a wol packet to a specific target. How you invoke it will be up to you.

Sent from my P027 using Tapatalk

 

[ColinTaylor]

Pardon my ignorance but why is xvortex-merlin illegal for the r7000? I see it recommended all the time (on reddit, tomshardware etc)

Asuswrt-Merlin contains numerous proprietary components that are only licensed for legal use on original Asus devices. These include (but are not limited to) components from Asus themselves, Broadcom, Trend Micro and Tuxera. Using any of these components on devices for which they haven't been licensed for is ILLEGAL.

The Asuswrt-Merlin developers will take no responsibility for license violation made by third party or end-users running that software on a non-approved Asus device. Any discussion on these forums about such illegal forks will be deleted.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...d-forks-on-non-asus-devices-is-illegal.44636/

 

[sfx2000]

Take a look at @Voxel builds...