Pro vs Cons of Tomato, Open and DD-WRT

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digdug18
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Pro vs Cons of Tomato, Open and DD-WRT

I searched, couldn't find a guide or previous post that had a pro versus con of each. I just ordered a WRN3500L from newegg. $64.99 plus free shipping seemed like a good deal to me. I'm looking for something more powerful and stable then the stock system, Please give me your opinion why one is better the the other?

 

Andrew

ArtemR
ArtemR's picture
TomatoUSB

TomatoUSB

Kong
Kong's picture
It basically depends on what

It basically depends on what you are looking for.

Some choices I can offer you:

Netgear: simple setup, best throughput
Tomato: extended featureset, latest drivers, advanced setup, very good throughput
DD-WRT: extreme featureset, enterprise class monitoring support, good throughput, very stable

Basically you can test all 3 of them since it is easy to switch from netgear to dd-wrt then tomato. If you don't know yet just keep the netgear firmware and see if you are satisfied.
Then you can checkout dd-wrts online demo to see what features you maybe need that are not covered by netgear firmware.

digdug18
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Are their any cons to any of

Are their any cons to any of the 3?

rbscairns
rbscairns's picture
I think it depends more on

I think it depends more on what you want to do with your WNR3500L.

I found the Netgeaer OEM firmware to be fast and stable, however it lacked what I wanted. I also wanted my WNR3500L to act as a VPN server (not available with OEM firmware) together with USB support (provided with OEM firmware). Because of that, I installed DD-WRT with USB and OpenVPN support.

I am still learning about setting up OpenVPN with DD-WRT, however I have noticed a significant drop in speed when using DD-WRT -v- OEM firmware. This probably because DD-WRT is more resource intensive due to all the additional available features.

It has been reported that Tomato (also with USB and VPN support) is faster than DD-WRT, but not as fast as the OEM firmware.

Speed is not a major concern for me with my WNR3500L. It is used in a small office network and we charge by the hour. Laughing

Once I lean more about setting up OpenVPN, I might give Tomato a go.

digdug18
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RBSCAIRNS, thanks you, that

RBSCAIRNS, thanks you, that is exactly what I was looking for.

anotherlab
anotherlab's picture
Has anyone performed any

Has anyone performed any benchmarks with the WRN3500L to see what the speed difference is between the OEM, Tomato, and DD-WRT. I don't need anything major from Tomato or DD-WRT, but I need to run a VPN server, which you can't do with the OEM firmware.

rbscairns
rbscairns's picture
anotherlab said: Has anyone

anotherlab said: Has anyone performed any benchmarks with the WRN3500L to see what the speed difference is between the OEM, Tomato, and DD-WRT. I don't need anything major from Tomato or DD-WRT, but I need to run a VPN server, which you can't do with the OEM firmware.

I read of some benchmark test results a while ago but cannot reference them now.

Because you need VPN on your router, the OEM firmware will not provide this (as you noted). This leaves you with the choice of DD-WRT or Tomato. From memory, Tomato was slightly faster than DD-WRT, however you would probably not notice the difference.

It is relatively easy to switch between DD-WRT and Tomato and visa versa, so toss a coin, try one, and switch to the other to experience the difference.

anotherlab
anotherlab's picture
 

 

rbscairns said:I read of some benchmark test results a while ago but cannot reference them now. Because you need VPN on your router, the OEM firmware will not provide this (as you noted). This leaves you with the choice of DD-WRT or Tomato. From memory, Tomato was slightly faster than DD-WRT, however you would probably not notice the difference. It is relatively easy to switch between DD-WRT and Tomato and visa versa, so toss a coin, try one, and switch to the other to experience the difference.

 

I ended up gettting a WNDR3700v2 (it wasn't much more than the WNR3700) and it turns out that DD-WRT isn't available for it.  OpenWRT supports it, but the installation looked painful.  Since the OEM firmware had everything I needed (except for a pptp server), I just configured my existing DD-WRT router to be an access point and forwarded the pptp port from the 3700 over to the old router.

That appears to be working just fine.  It's a little odd to have an old Linksys router wired up to serve as a pptp server, I can place it on the opposite side of the house and use it as a WAP.

Mico
Mico's picture
Here is a weird question.

Here is a weird question.

Can you do this?

Use your WNR3500L with OEM firmware and have another Repeater Bridged DD-WRT router WITH OpenVPN setup.
This way you are connected to WNR3500L with OEM firmware and get faster speeds and connect your other equipment such as Roku (I am currently out of the States) to the Repeater bridge router where it needs VPN/OpenVPN.

Did I explain myself?

anotherlab
anotherlab's picture
You should be able to just

You should be able to just forward the ports over to the DD-WRT router.

I'm still using the WRT54GS running DD-WRT as wireless access point, but I'm no longer using it for the VPN. I have a Windows Home Server and it was pretty easy to have function it as a VPN. It provides more configurable options and better logging. I'm stilling the OEM firmware on the WNDR3700v2, but I'm considering using something like the Gargoyle firmware to get additional access rules.

Mico
Mico's picture
I wonder if someone could

I wonder if someone could give instructions on how to do it. I have little knowledge but not this much :)

anotherlab
anotherlab's picture
 

 

Mico said: I wonder if someone could give instructions on how to do it. I have little knowledge but not this much :)

 

Which part?  There are several parts to what you have asked.  It sounds like you are asking to do the following:

  1. Install and configure OpenVPN on your DD-WRT router
  2. Configure your DD-WRT as bridged router
  3. Configure your main router to forward VPN requests to your DD-WRT router

 

I have zero experience with OpenVPN, but there's plenty of information on the DD-WRT site.  I would start with OpenVPN topic in the DD-WRT wiki.  The DD-WRT forums will have additional information.  Also check out How to Configure OpenVPN.

Configuring the DD-WRT as a bridge router is pretty straight forward and I would suggest the Wireless Access Point topic in the DD-WRT wiki.  I have used this to turn my WRT54GS into a WAP.

Redirecting the VPN requests from the main router to the DD-WRT is pretty straight forward.  Just make sure that you have picked the TCP port that you specified when you configured OpenVPN on your DD-WRT router.  The default port number is 1194, but you can specify the port.

When I configured my DD-WRT router as a WAP, I disconnected it from the network and plugged a PC directly into it.  I needed the WAP to be at 192.168.2.2 and it was much easier to configure when I took the other router out of the picture for a bit.

Mico
Mico's picture
anotherlab, I can see your

anotherlab, I can see your message in my email but it got deleted here I guess.

I just want to know how to do this;

WNR3500L with OEM firmware
WRT54G with DD-WRT as a repeater bridge with Open VPN settings setup in it.

So, I can use/connect my computers with the WNR3500L and connect my Roku player to the WRT54G.

This way I can do my daily internet stuff faster hence the OEM firmware but also connect my Roku player to DD-WRT repeater bridge to access Netflix, etc. via VPN/OpenVPN.

How can I set it this way???

anotherlab
anotherlab's picture
It didn't get deleted, I

It didn't get deleted, I provided the links to configure the routers and apparently posts with links need to be verified before they appear on here.  Just a security precaution. And it's posted now.

Just a suggestion, make your questions more specific.  I answered as much as I could, but the more specific that you can make the questions, the more likely it will be that someone can help you.

 

 

Mico said: anotherlab, I can see your message in my email but it got deleted here I guess. I just want to know how to do this; WNR3500L with OEM firmware WRT54G with DD-WRT as a repeater bridge with Open VPN settings setup in it. So, I can use/connect my computers with the WNR3500L and connect my Roku player to the WRT54G. This way I can do my daily internet stuff faster hence the OEM firmware but also connect my Roku player to DD-WRT repeater bridge to access Netflix, etc. via VPN/OpenVPN. How can I set it this way???

 

sSysAdmin
sSysAdmin's picture
I'm also looking for DD-WRT

I'm also looking for DD-WRT firmware for TP-Link TD-W8901G Wireless ADSL2+ Modem router, could someone please help to download compatible build for my TP-Link ADSL router.
I need to setup IP v6 support, IP v6 tunnel etc...

sSysAdmin
sSysAdmin's picture
I'm also looking for DD-WRT

I'm also looking for DD-WRT firmware for TP-Link TD-W8901G Wireless ADSL2+ Modem router, could someone please help to download compatible build for my TP-Link router.

anotherlab
anotherlab's picture
sSysAdmin said: I'm also

sSysAdmin said: I'm also looking for DD-WRT firmware for TP-Link TD-W8901G Wireless ADSL2+ Modem router, could someone please help to download compatible build for my TP-Link router.

You'll probably have better results if you post that kind of question on the DD-WRT web site.  They have a router database that lets you search for your router and see if it's supported.  If it's not listed there, post a message in the DD-WRT forums and see if someone is already working on a build.

sSysAdmin
sSysAdmin's picture
anotherlab said:

anotherlab said:

sSysAdmin said: I'm also looking for DD-WRT firmware for TP-Link TD-W8901G Wireless ADSL2+ Modem router, could someone please help to download compatible build for my TP-Link router.

You'll probably have better results if you post that kind of question on the DD-WRT web site.  They have a router database that lets you search for your router and see if it's supported.  If it's not listed there, post a message in the DD-WRT forums and see if someone is already working on a build.

Thank you Anotherlab,

I don't see firmware for my routers TP-Link TD-W8901G  and TP-Link TL-WR642G (ver 4.20) and even for LinkSys BEFSX41 models, could someone suggest any alternative Opensource WiFi router firmware for any one of my WiFi routers?

Infact I need IPv6 support and to setup IPv6 tunnels etc...

jitkelme
jitkelme's picture
(Bumping this thread a bit)

(Bumping this thread a bit)

I'm a Ham radio guy with a lot of Linux experience so I jumped at the chance to pick up six  WRT54G (v2)  from another hobbyist who had used them to run a meshed network.

AFAICS, the most recent updates for DD-WRT, Tomato, etc seem to be four or five years old. Is that something I should worry about?

Should I bother looking for a "current" copy or is it the case that the old firmwares are as good as they will get for the ancient  WRT54G (v2)  ?

 

Thanks in advance,

Blaise KK6IHP

jitkelme
jitkelme's picture
(Bumping this thread a bit)

(Bumping this thread a bit)

I'm a Ham radio guy with a lot of Linux experience so I jumped at the chance to pick up six  WRT54G (v2)  from another hobbyist who had used them to run a meshed network.

AFAICS, the most recent updates for DD-WRT, Tomato, etc seem to be four or five years old. Is that something I should worry about?

Should I bother looking for a "current" copy or is it the case that the old firmwares are as good as they will get for the ancient  WRT54G (v2)  ?

 

Thanks in advance,

Blaise KK6IHP