Posted on 01/07/2016 12:29:24 PM PST by ShadowAce
Linksys has just revealed at CES 2016 that all the WRT routers now have DD-WRT support, making this the first company of its type to fully embrace an open source solution.
Linksys is one of the most important companies that builds networking hardware, and it's known for its quality hardware. In this case we're talking about routers in the WRT series, which are already very good. The company decided to partner up with DD-WRT in order to provide better support for their products.
Many Linksys users were already installing DD-WRT and other similar products on their routers, so the company figured out that providing official support for this kind of firmware is actually beneficial to its customers. Unfortunately, what Linksys is doing is a drop of water in an ocean, as the majority of companies providing networking hardware don't have this kind of openness.
Some of you might remember that at last year's CES 2015, Linksys said that the WRT1200AC Router featured official OpenWRT support (the excellent "Chaos Calmer" release), and now they are extending that support to DD-WRT.
"With Linksys and Marvel working closely to improve the upstream support for the Marvel CPUs and Wi-Fi radios, DD-WRT can now provide stable and robust support for the modern WRT series of routers in our alternate firmware platform, building on what was started many years back with the first WRT," said Peter Steinhauser, Co-CEO, DD-WRT.
The routers with DD-WRT support include WRT1900AC, WRT1200AC, and the recently launched WRT1900ACS Dual-band Gigabit Wi-Fi. It's very likely that upcoming routers from Linksys will include DD-WRT support by default.
The rise in popularity for these Linux distributions means that hardware makers can no longer ignore them. They provide better access to the hardware and more features, not to mention increased security. It's a win-win situation for both the company and the users.
I use DD-WRT on my current router... (not a linksys) but I purchased this particular router so I could install DD-WRT on it.
Incredibly flexible software, my router does everything I need it to.
M4L router
Yup—I run it on my Linksys. It’s pretty awesome in terms of what you can turn your router into.
BFL
I used dd-wrt for along time, but gave it up when support for newer routers started going downhill. I switched to Asus routers, which support the Merlin firmware. Unlike Cisco/Linksys, Asus was smart enough to work with the author of Merlin, so stability has been awesome.
Nice to see Cisco catching on, but I think they’ve already lost a ton of sales over the previous policy.
I just sold an old router that was not digital. Our system got changed to digital. The guy wanted to pick it up. I told him sure and then he came right away though the frozen snow about 10 minutes ago.
That’s pretty awesome. I recently bought a Buffalo router that came with DD-WRT installed. If you are concerned at all about security, your router should definitely be open source.
yeah yeah yeah, you gotta admit its funny though.
Great software, used it on my old WRT54GS
Dont use that anymore (well I have, as an emergency wireless bridge when some wiring went out), but its good stuff.
That’s exactly what I used an old WRT54G router for... With dd-wrt I have a bridge upstairs and didn’t need to run CAT5 cable. I’ve been running it this way for a couple years. Every month or so I reboot it, and it stays up and running quickly.
Please help an old coot and explain how I can benefit by using this technology?
Incredibly flexible software, my router does everything I need it to.
I needed a router that would allow me use
QOS (Quality of Service) to manage my connected devices.
I have some specific needs. Forgive me for the geek speak, any questions I can simplify.
I have a phone router attached directly to it that must get traffic priority so that It gets all access to bandwidth. If someone is watching a video or something else that would suck up bandwidth while I need to make a phone call it prioritizes the phone router so it still has the bandwidth that is needed.
I have limited bandwidth (GB I can download in a month) if I left every device wideopen ROKU, TV etc my bandwidth would be exceeded. I have those set to max out @ 8mbps so that they don’t suck up too much data at a time.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with dd-wrt, but it fits my needs.
I can go into more detail and do the best to answer if you would wish.
Here is a good article on the features of dd-wrt
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ddwrt-router-superrouter/
This is the router I purchased over a year ago for around $19
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006J3665A?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
and my phone router, have free phone service with google voice.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007D930YO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
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