To DD-WRT or not to, that is the question!

[coasttech]

I just bought the WRT610N (on sale for $145 =)) and I see that version 2 of this router is now supported for DD-WRT

My set up is downloading torrents from my Windows Home Server and I stream video to my Popcorn Hour from that machine as well. I then play XBox 360 online and stream music from my Macbook Pro to my Apple TV.

That's pretty much it for the bandwidth suckers in my house. I am upgrading from a WRT310N that had DD-WRT. I had put DD-WRT on this router because I had a Macbook that would drop connection 50% of the time till I put DD-WRT on but I found I have to unplug my WHS every time I want to play some XBox Live even after I've setup QoS.

This router has a technology called "Media Optimized Network technology" (DLink calls theirs "HD Fuel") I am hoping that this will work better then the QoS on DD-WRT.

So my main result is, I want to be able to play XBox Live and stream videos to my pch with out having to unplug the WHS.

If you have any experience with the WRT610v2 with either firmwares or have some guidance on how to make this work, I would be very appreciative.

Thanks a lot.

Coasttech.

 

[jdabbs]

Looks like people are still having issues with the v2.

Personally, I wouldn't flash to DD-WRT unless it improved stability on that specific device or has a necessary feature not included with stock firmware.

 

[tipstir]

I've been using DD-WRT since 2006 but only on the Buffalo gear I own supporting G only band. No real issues with it. No reboots, no nothing. I got a Wii for Xmas from the wife so that has 802.11G and it goes through the DD-WRT G no issues. There is another DD-WRT update for me to flash too 12/09. The process is time consuming though. Since that one has issues as reported above I'll stick with 7/09 for now. Would I recommend DD-WRT? Well yes, but follow the instructions to the letter for your router. Just be careful when you Flash it. To many users have brick their routers (locked it up)

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I prefer Tomato over DD-WRT, runs snappier, but both will improve stability over stock firmware, and you can increase your wireless range a little bit. And some QoS features can help performance of a larger home LAN. Otherwise...speed or ability to handle heavier loads isn't all that much better than stock firmware. It's still a function of math..processor and RAM in the router, concurrent connections, etc...math is math.

For your XBox live woes, with DD you still have to do a few settings to make it more XBox Live friendly
All you need for XBox is the following ports open/forwarded to your XBox
• UDP 88
• UDP 3074
• TCP 3074

So you'll want your XBox to be on a static IP...easily done in DHCP reservations on the router.
And XBox Live wants MTU on the router to be set to 1384 for XBox to get rid of the NAT error in some setups.

 

[DaveMcLain]

I like Tomato better than DD-WRT on something that's the main router. Tomato's graphs for bandwidth use are much nicer than DD-WRT's but for doing other stuff besides routing(bridging, running in client mode etc) I believe that DD-WRT is better and more versatile. It also runs well on a lot more hardware than does Tomato which I don't think runs at all on the WRT610N. Your only 3rd party option my be DD-WRT but I would do some research to see what builds will run on your particular hardware version.