I've tested a lot of routers (wrt610nv2, dir-655, asus rt-n16 to name a few), but I really like this router, especially flashed with the latest Teddy Bear tomato mod.
Both gigabit and wireless speeds are awesome with my FIOS 35/35 connection! I am able to pull 35 down and 30 up (wirelessly and wired) on a consistent basis.
Everything is so easy! Just plug in a hard drive (or even a flash drive) - it does it all by itself. Or connect a printer for sharing using a USB hub, like I did. These features of the Teddy Bear firmware are great advantages over dd-wrt, IMHO. There is no need to install any optware of any kind or tread thru numerous threads (sometimes self-contradictory) to figure out how to make some basic features, like Samba, work in dd-wrt. E.g., NTFS support comes right of the "box."
Wonderful!
I guess you didn't read the download section or latest threads before you created this one:-)
See: http://tips.desipro.de/category/dd-wrt/
@Kong:
Your improvement is certainly impressive (insofar as ntfs support is concerned compared to frater's optware) and indeed a great contribution. However, it is still not "out of the box." If I read your link correctly, you still have install packages, which TB USB mod does not require. Am I wrong on this? :)
No the packages are optional and can be used with my or regular dd-wrt releases. They offer a lot more and should require not extra steps. The other optware package repositorys often require to setup a few things by hand.
The dd-wrt mod itself however contains usb, samba3 etc.
The tomato mod only includes samba2 as far as I know, if that's the case then it is not win7 compatible. Is it possible yet to create a few extra samba users to setup shares for certain users?
@Kong:
OK. I shall give your firmware a try soon. I want to test out TB USB Mod thoroughly for a few days for stability, etc. Now, I couldn't find anything in dd-wrt on your svn version.
Is this a stable and reliable build? The last svn I used was 14144, which was very good, but it seems the last few have some bugs per the feedbacks in dd-wrt forum.
NB - From TB: "Network File Sharing using built-in Samba server 2.0.10 (builds based on kernel 2.6 include Samba 3)."
Re multiple users, I believe you can create shares for users, although I have no need for such in my environment.
It's from r14329, it's absolutely stable on my wnr3500l. All the features I use work without any glitches.
VLAN seems to not work at the moment and probably other things, I choose 14329 because I didn't see changes for a while that would break things.
Instead of adding features they are rewriting functions etc. adding stuff, inserting typos here, typos there.
Since I have not seen anything important I'm still using 14329 integrate my stuff and fix bugs whenever I find one.
@Kong:
For shared printer, do I need to start xinetd?
To be honest, I haven't used printer sharing on my wnr3500l. The dd-wrt wiki mentions that one needs to install p910d via optware. P910d seems to be quite small and could be included directly into the firmware, this could be even done using the mod firmware toolkit.
I'm curious, as for the 3500L is there any better firmware out there for readyshare? I want more options for the ready share screen... even it it means just changing the blue text on green to black text on white. I'd just love to do more with the readyshare screen and I'm not sure if I should move to another firmware other than then one I get through updating through the router till someone here can allay my fears that I will be flashing to something more inferior on the usb sharing options.
In further testing the TB Tomato USB Mod on WNR3500L, I noticed what could potentially be a problem.
I have a FIOS connection and it appears that the WAN IP keeps changing every couple of hours or so with tomato (lease is 2 hours but with my previous router, it did not change the WAN IP address - it just renewed it). Maybe it is just a setting in the firmware, I don't know.
I did a quick google on this issue, and it seems others have reported a similar problem with tomato. Does anyone know of a workaround? If not, tomato would not be a viable choice for me (at least for my system). OTHERWISE, I REALLY LIKE THIS FIRMWARE!
Dear taekwon3dan, could you help me how to set up my printer sharing?
Sure!
All you have to do is to plug in your printer into the USB port.
Then navigate to the USB configuration page in the tomato GUI to make sure printer support is selected (I have bidirectional selected) and the printer is recognized in the list at the bottom under attached devices.
After that, go to Windows control panel "printers and faxes" (on XP, e.g.) and click "Add printer."
Then click "Next."
Then click "Local printer attached to this computer."
Then click "Create a new port" after selecting drop down Standard TCP/IP.
Then type in the router IP address (e.g., 192.168.0.1) after hitting next.
When prompted for printer driver, point to where you have it saved. (It's possible that Windows recognizes the device at this point, in which you simply select the model from a list.)
You must do this for each computer.
Vista should be similar. Hope this helps.
I did like this, but sometimes it works sometimes it isn't.
Should I restart the router after the install or the computer?
Hello,
I got a couple of the Seagate External Drive that I like to connect to the 3500L router using USB. My router is still using the original Netgear firmware. However, it is extreme slow and sluggish. Will this firmware Teddy Bear Tomato USB fix my issue? I believe my drive is NTFS since it can store large >4GB file. If so, how can I install this firmware since I am really new to this? Is this a different firmware or is it the same as this http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/18920/Tomato-Firmware-Compatible-wi...... Is there where I should download the firmware? Any special instruction that I need to follow since I do not have any debrick cable in case I mess up.
PS. I already packed up the router to return it to the store, but I was told it can not be returned since it passed the 14 days return limit. I guess I would try firmware update to resolve this issue. Thanks.
Hi fantoma,
the ntfs driver is consuming a lot of cpu power therefore the transferspeed will always be horrible, I did some tests a while ago whcih schowed that you get 3x the speed with fat32 or ext3
You might try turning off the printer and then turning it back on AFTER you selected printer support in the tomato gui USB section. Makesure your printer is listed at the device list at the bottom. Then do the steps I outlined for Windows add printer. If that fails, try rebooting the router.
I like to try it. What is the Teddy Bear Tomato mod firmware? Where can I get one? Is this the one? http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/18920/Tomato-Firmware-Compatible-wi.....
Yes it is.
Here is a another link with additional info:
http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63587
I did like this, it is working (for a day or something), than it fails...
Did you make sure to clear nvram after installing tomato? (In "Admin/Configuration/Restore Default Configuration").
Yes I did.
I am in the market for a new router and have been looking at ones that can be flashed with open source firmware as my old wrt54g v1.1 was. I have Fios as well 20/5 and currently using the horrbile actiontech router. I am torn between the Netgear 3500L and the Asus RT-N16. Any thoughts to which one is better?
Hi Radioara,
if you can't decide between the two I throw in another one:-)
The WNDR3700. The RT-N16 is a great unit with lots of flash and ram. The amount of flash is only interesting if you create your own firmwares because dd-wrt or tomato don't have special versions with more features especially for the asus. The RAM is useful only if you run large apps through optware. So if you don't know exactly that you need the 32MB flash or 128MB RAM you can go for the WNR3500L which is cheaper but perfectly supported by tomato/dd-wrt.
If you care for performance then the wndr3700 is the one you want to get, its NAS performance is a lot better compared to the 2 others. Network,Wireless performance will also be much better.
I take it the WNDR3700 is fully supported by 3rd party firmware as well? I did look at that one but saw some negative reviews. I do care more for performance, however can you add a hub to its usb port and share printers and stream video?
Yes at least dd-wrt supports the wndr3700. Unfortunately I don't have a wndr, therefore I cannot test and optimize my dd-wrt mod against it.
From the specs it should be a great unit.
I currently use a wnr3500l with my optimized dd-wrt mod.
I have tested both on my FIOS connection. Both work very well. If you put tomato on your router, you need to add a firewall rule to allow automatic WAN IP renewal (at least insofar as the 3500L is concerned). See http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Iptables_command#Firewall_blocks_DH... Otherwise, your WAN IP will keep changing every 2 hours.
RT-N16 is a very fast router with lots of memory for optware, as Kong mentioned. This unit, however, has been reported to have heat issues and a cooling mod may be necessary. In my own testing of this unit (normal family use plus remote desktop VPN for work), it does fine with no heat issues at all. You can get one at a reduced price ($77 free shipping) from Newegg with a coupon code upon subscription to their sales email until 6/3/2010.
Right now, I have the 3500L as the lead router with the Actiontec connected to a LAN port of the 3500L for the STBs.
There are many more choices out there but I think Kong persuaded me on the WNDR3700. I will admit thought the 3500l is enticing at its price range. ( I still have a bit more time before dropping cat6 and making final preps so I could change my mind. I guess the final enticement is the excellent nas performance of the Netgear routers which makes things easier. I also like the wired/wireless throughput performance and probably want to have it in place and not worry about upgrading for the foreseeable future.
First post here so: hi all!
Bought my WNR3500L a week ago and immediately moved to Tomato. (The default firmware kinda sucks compared to DD_WRT/Tomato)
I installed the latest version of this firmware and like it very much. The problem is that USB is not working. When I plug in a FAT16 or FAT32 USB stick nothing happens, the power led on the stick also does not come on.
I have tried USB 1.0 and 2.0 and 2 different sticks. No messages show op in the errorlogs. USB worked in the Netgear firmware with the same sticks.
Any ideas?
@rogierg:
You have all the right boxes (including USB storage support automount) checked and then saved, right? Did you try rebooting it with the usb devices plugged in?
@taekwon3dan: yup, checked automount and also tried starting with a USB stick plugged in. No dice.
I don't know what to tell you. I have three devices plugged in thru a self-powered hub. They are all recognized automatically and work fine.
Pages