There is a point in many a nerds’ life where he or she finds themselves constrained by their home router. For the confused, it probably looks like this:
Look familiar?
This little devices sits between your cable modem and your computer. It basically is your “network.” Most people just plug them in, and configure only as much as it takes for it to work. These devices are, at a basic level, computers themselves, and as such have an “operating system” that provides a interfaces for you to tell the hardware what to do (like all operating systems.) Usually, you are stuck with the OS that shipped with the device.
Cut to June, 2003, when some neckbeards on the Linux Kernel Mailing List discovered that Linksys had included components of the Linux operating system in the firmware of their router. Due to the way those borrowed components were licensed, Linksys was legally obligated to release the entire source code for that OS. By studying this code, developers were able to create new operating systems that ran on the same hardware. Several projects aiming to replace the often-buggy stock operating system firmware sprang into existence, all adding new features. The dust has settled since then, and there are many mature firmware flavors to choose from. I will focus on three, because I’ve used two, and Sam is currently using the third.
DD-WRT: I had pretty good luck with this one, and have used it on my primary router. I was able to play Diablo 2 with some VPN’ed in while talking to them on Skype with no problems, although I wasn’t able to do anything else while bittorrent was running (this was probably due to limitations of the hardware i.e. it ran at 200 mhz) The DD-WRT project itself has weird issues with trying to make money, and their last stable release was almost a year ago. That being said, it runs on a lot of different consumer-grade routers, and it runs pretty well.
OpenWRT: “Linux is free if your time is worth nothing.” That saying sums up my experience with OpenWRT pretty well. Getting this installed and running was a pain in the ass. That’s not saying it isn’t a good product, but the project itself was in the process of un-forking when I looked at it, and I found the whole thing generally confusing. I was new to the Linux scene when I tried it, and was barely able to get it working. I have not looked at it in a couple years, so maybe it has improved. The OpenWRT also supports a side project called X-Wrt which aims to improve the usability of OpenWRT.
Tomato: I had moved beyond consumer devices by the time I discovered Tomato. But from what I read and heard from Sam, this would probably be my first choice in upgrading my router to new firmware. The most recent update was less than a month ago. As I have never used it, I asked Sam for his thoughts:
Sam here. I’ve been using Tomato for quite a while now, on a WRT54GL (which Edwin gave to me, no less). It has served me well. I don’t think I’ve ever had to power cycle the router. The programmers did a great job, especially with the web interface (think AJAX gizmos).
Some of my favorite features are the usual port forwarding, static DNS, spiffy real-time bandwidth graphs, and tables of daily/weekly/monthly bandwidth usages. You also get SSH and telnet access. You can even write custom scripts that execute when you press the Cisco button on the front of the router.
There’s a lot of other stuff that I have no clue about. My only complaint is that the firmware is updated pretty frequently, yet there is no auto notification of any updates.
There’s definitely enough features here to satisfy even the most hardcore network nerds. But it also works for someone like me, who just wants more than the commercial firmware.
There are a couple other distributions of home router software that deserve mention. The aforementioned firmwares run on hardware people already are using as routers. But if you need something with a little more horsepower, you could recycle an old PC and run m0n0wall (or it’s derivative, pfSense) on it.
m0n0wall: A modified barebones version of FreeBSD with a slick web interface. It provides an amazing amount of features, including VPN and QoS. And as it’s FreeBSD, it can run on probably any older computer you have just lying around, or a specially designed system such as the PCengines ALIX. The m0n0wall platform has also been used as a base for other projects, such as FreeNAS, AskoziaPBX, and….
pfSense: A modified version of m0n0wall, and my current favorite. Not intended as a competitor to m0n0wall, it boast more features, as well as a much larger footprint. I would suggest that you start with m0n0wall and upgrade to pfSense if you feel the need.
NOTE: The first three flavors mentioned are intended to run on your standard home router, and include immediate support of the wireless functionality you expect out of your home router. m0n0wall and pfSense are intended to run on actual computers, so other arrangements will have to be made to add wireless, such as adding a separate wireless access point behind the router.
I’m not going to give instructions here on upgrading your home router. Each project mentioned has extensive documentation on their website, along with a hardware compatibility list and installation instructions.
Some warnings: Installing new firmware on a home router can be a marginally harrowing process, involving TFTP, blinking lights, and properly timed hard resets. Also, there is potential to completely brick the device (render the device as useful to you as a brick.) So if you are curious about any of these, spend some time on their wikis and forums. Make sure your home router is supported, or, better yet, get a new home router based on the project community’s recommendations. This way, if you mess up, you will still have internet access with your old router.
My Setup: “The K’nexus”
This took me 25 minutes in Gimp.
On a completely unrelated note, if anyone with computer graphics skillz would like to join our team, please do so. There is no application process. You are now a member. Get to work.
