I am a total newbie at flashing a router to third party firm ware.
I have read the "How to Flash DD-WRT on Your NETGEAR Router" over and over with hopes on doing it right the first time. However I have a question on Step 4:
Step 4: Flash the initial DD-WRT flash file for your NETGEAR router.
The word "initial" is the part that has me confused. Is initial referingto the first time you flash the router or do you need to go back and find the first version of the particular version of the software and then after that bring it up to the current build?'
Second what do most people find the effect of flashing the frimware on the routes is on wireless internet speeds? Do you take a performance hit in relation to wireless speed or are the speeds the same or faster.
Thanks for any help anyone is willing to give.
Thanks,
Patrick
"Initial" usually refers to going from the original Netgear firmware to a 3rd party product like DDWRT or Openwrt. This matters because the original firmwares usually have specific checks that prevent you from just straight up flashing what you want. The Netgear firmware looks for certain "info" in the firmware you are trying to flash to somehow verify its authenticity, but also to prevent users that are not so tech savvy from flashing updates that could or will break your rouuter. Therefore the firmware has to be "tricked" into thinking that you are flashing the correct update. Once you are on a 3rd party product like DDWRT you can flash without much of a check process with is both easy and also dangerous, so you need to know what you are doing :) There is sometimes a drop in speeds as a trade off for reliability. Most Netgear routers feature the "ARM" chipset with has proven reliability. But there are routers that utilize other chipsets that are newer and sometimes don't support DDWRT or other software, or are in experimental stages to get drivers working.