I have R7000 running recent DD-WRT. I am aware that currently gigabit speed cannot be achived with DD-WRT due to firmware limitations. I would switch back to Netgear firmware but for some reason their DHCP is spotty on my network (I reproduced the same issue with different Netgear router model). Would Tomato be any faster? With Netgear firmware I get 960 Mbps with DD-WRT I get about 300 (ethernet). What would I get with Tomato?
Thanks!
AJ
AJ, I wonder if this is a common problem or if this only affects you?
i doubt it is a common problem. Less technically people would riot :-)
DD-WRT uses a different, and much up-to-date Linux kernel and Broadcom's CTF hardware acceleration is not compatible with it as it's closed source and only targeted at a specific kernel Broadcom supplies to its router manufacturers.
Tomato just takes whatever Broadcom provides (including CTF) and builds a router environment around it. It is the only open source firmware that offers hardware acceleration (CTF) so yes, you'll be able to reach close to Gbps speeds
Microchip, thank you so much for your reply. Hopefully Tomato fixes the issues I am seeing. I'll keep you posted...
Note that some features like QoS are not compatible with CTF. If you use them, CTF will be auto-disabled and you won't reach close to Gbps speeds. This is not a Tomato issue as it's the same on all vendor firmwares as well.
So, I installed Tomato by Shibby 1.28 AIO. I am running default settings and getting only 300 Mbps. With original firmware I was getting around 960. Any suggestions? Is there any configuration I need to work with? I did not touch QoS.
By default, CTF is disable. Enable it in Advanced -> Miscalleneous. You may need to reboot the device, if it doesn't reboot on its own
Thank you so much microchip. You saved me $300! I was so sick of messing around with the router and different options that I went and bought a different router. I turned on CTF and now my router is screaming. The new router goes back to the store.
To highjack my own thread. Where can I find some good documentation on tuning my router with Tomato? Specifically wireless signal but I want to check out some other features.
Tuning wireless can actually be pretty hard as it depends on so many factors that need to be taken into consideration. For starters, scan your environment and see how many braodcasters there are. Then see which channel gets the least used and use it. Also try to place your router in a central position and away from places which can cause too much interference (like many electronic devices around). If you have a big place and the router can't cover it all, you may need to place APs around
As for settings, these are the ones that give me both good throughput (up to 50 Mbps on my phone, which supports max of 72 Mbps) and range. Most notable are setting country to Anguilla and transmit power to 84 mW. This is actually the driver's maximum transmit power (you can see it if you telnet/ssh into the router and do a "wl | grep txpwr") so don't get fooled by the GUI that it can go up to 400 mW.
2.4GHz: https://owncloud.teambelgium.net/index.php/s/9DD0wvfgqDUXz1u
5GHz: https://owncloud.teambelgium.net/index.php/s/jFzhd1kOEzqBfPu
And to answer your other question, these are the recommended forums you can lears a lot about not just Tomato
LinksysInfo http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php
SmallNetBuilder: http://www.snbforums.com/forums/
When it comes to Tomato alone, there's isn't really a central place about all of it, but the LinksysInfo forum above is one of the best place for it. Shibby also posts there too ;)
Just found this site: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware/Menu_Reference
it's a bit outdated, but it's the best I could find explaining virtually all of Tomato's options
I'm curious as to why you chose 1.28 instead of the latest 1.36. Any particular reason?
Currently I'm running DD-WRT on my R7000:
DD-WRT v3.0-r29620M kongac (05/10/16)
Linux 3.10.101 #15 SMP Tue May 10 00:09:18 CEST 2016 armv7l
Uptime 40 days, 14:09
My ISP speeds are 200/12, so not gigabit, but happy with stability.
May try tomatousb by shibby in the future.
@Phochiom
was this directed at me? If so, I'm on 136 by Shibby
Hi microchip
It was directed to kaw700zn, but thanks for your reply. Good to know that people are updating to the newest firmware.
BTW @microchip, how did you find the upgrade process in tomatousb? In DD-WRT kong, it's as simple as ddup --flash-latest from ssh client, no need to erase nvram and re-configuerin from scratch. I find this very convenient to keep up to date.
I think kaw700zn just saw the version on the banner which says 1.28. All Shibby releases carry that version as it comes from the last Tomato released. To get the real Shibby version, you'd need to go look at the About page.
As for upgrading, it's very easy. You go to the upgrade page, load up the firmware file and let Tomato flash it by clicking the Upgrade button. That's all. Unless Shibby specifically mentions in his ChangeLog that an NVRAM erase is necessary, you don't have to do it each time you upgrade. I've never had problems so far when upgrading and not doing an NVRAM erase (knock on wood)
Microchip was right again . I am using version 136. I saw banner reading 1.28. Evrything is running great now.
I tried Microchip's settings for wifi and that did not work well. But I simply just brought back to my settings and that is acceptable. I didn't have time to tune it again. I also setup Open VPN server. It is working great!
@kaw700zn
if you can't get the desired range out of the R7000, you can also try XWRT Vortex. It's basically ASUSWRT-Merlin "ported" to the R7000 (and a few other routers). I used to use it in the past and it has good range. I moved to Tomato because I needed an easy way to set up VLANs and Guest Network with bandwidth limiting.
To add to the above, yes XWRT has hardware acceleration so you'll reach your Gbps speed with no issues
My wireless is already acceptible speeds and range. I am sure once I have time I should be able to tweak it even more. I am happy with current setup. My needs were Gbps and VPN. So far so good. Next thing will be NAS.
Does turning on CTF limit functionality such as Access restrictions or port forwarding?
Ideally I have 1 server on my network that I need port forwarding AND gigabit.
Other clients I want to utilize access restrictions but don't care about gigabit.
I still want all clients including my server on the same vLAN.
It sounds like Tomato on the R7000 will meet these requirements.