What about more powerful version where community development model can truly shine? 
One of competitors has something like 32Mb RAM, 8Mb Flash, 264MHz CPU, 2xUSB 2.0 ports on board. At ~$90...$100price tag.
So, not only there is much more place to add features, there is new classes of features possible.Like autonomous http, ftp, torrent downloader, small web server, file sharing (actually, small NAS) with USB camera it can be a security device, with printer it is a print server and so on.
So, Cool Router 2.0 (tm) :) should have more RAM and flash than 16Mb and 4Mb, support .n draft and ideally should have gigabit switch (and more powerful CPU to cope with all this).As well as some USB ports to have fun and bunch of nice cool features :).That's where open source development model can be pretty effective and device's features can be improved to beat competitor's implementations due to opensource development model.
Actually mentioned competitor's device became quite popular due to all
features and alternate firmwares turning device into The Thing which
can do almost everything and speed optimizations can make a difference (VPN client in alternate firmware is 2.5x faster than in stock one!). Actually, the only issues is that it is not supports .n, not oficially positioned as open source and new version of hardware is actually worse than older version. So there is surely room for other competitors to play :).Like NetGear :)
Oh, I'm sure, such fully featured router will be a bit expensive. As a minimum, to have true fun with router it is enough to have 32Mb RAM and couple of USBs so it is not necessarily should be very expensive :).
So as for me, I'm just prefer to have a bit more powerful model and this is the only reason why I rather stick to competitor's device so far.My tasks include ~25Mbit VPN Internet access (routing without VPN may be even up to 100Mbits) and I like to access my files from SD card reader and USB HDD over network so as for me and my needs, router without USB seems to be a poor choice.
This WGR614L box costs around $60USD. If you want a more powerful box google "Soekris Engineering" and "PC Engines Alix" just to name a couple. These are real x86 based devices designed from the ground up to be serious routers, firewalls, etc. They cost between around $100 and $200 USD each depending on capability. That price doesn't include WiFi, you need to add a miniPCI WiFi card if you want wireless. There are some pre-built systems for these boxes. You load them on CF card and they run in RAM. Google PFSense and Monowall are a couple that come to mind. I have built custom xBSD based appliances out of these boxes before. Being x86 based instead of MIPS based like the WGR614L adds a lot of value through flexibility IMHO. Another option is to use an old PC. Many people have old Pentium or 486 boxes lying around. Or do the "Green Thing" and rescue an old PC from ebaY, Craig's List, or your local flea market. Throw a CF/IDE adapter card in the old box (less than $10 USD) and run one of the CF card based systems mentioned above, voila no HDD to wear out.
David
> These are real x86 based devices designed from the ground up to be serious routers, firewalls, etc.
To be honest I'm pretty fine with my mentioned competitor's device, to be exact, Asus WL500GP. Just visit http://wl500gp.info to get idea what small box which consumes couple of watts really can do (not without custom firmwares for sure).As for me, Linux with iptables, QoS, scheduler, custom software and scripts and a "real" httpd like Apache (or, better, lighttpd) is a quite serious feature set for SOHO device.
I only wonder why NetGear can't make something similar or even better with their open initiative so development can gain extra power when both community and vendor are co-operate. In sense of hardware there is already something upcoming from Linksys (Named WRT 350N IIRC - quite powerful and featured thingie with gigabit LAN, .n draft, 300MHz CPU and USB).
To make things clear:
1) I *DO NOT* need full-sized PC where I can use small box, also old 486 crap drains a lots of power and requires noisy coolers. Use it yourself, please. I will stick to small box which eats hardly 5W of power and completely silent while still can fit on desk and has some USB to plug in.
2) IMHO, MIPS is a good CPU. I have nothing against it. It also adds some extra headache to hackers since in worst case scenario (exploit found to some service) it still requires custom exploit coding for this architecture, usual x86 sploits are not working, giving me a LOT of time to update and fix.
3) With ipkg install system (yep, custom WL500GP firmware has it) there is no any reason to bother with CPU types at all.Anyway it is packet manager who installs stuff.Duh.
4) As for me, I do not need half-baked hardware where I have to do all from scratch myself.And yep, when small device both 4-port switch thingie and router and wi-fi at same small case it's cool.This solution seems to be quite elegant and suits my needs well.
5) And yep, while I have idea how these routers are working and even can change something in firmware, I'm absolutely do not want to deal with any kind of BSD at all. Especially on 486-like old crap. And I'm really do not want to have "fun" trying to get wi-fi running in BSD myself. It's looks like sort of BSDM, sorry.I have AMD K6-2 500 stuff. I do not use it.Since all it's job now done by a small WL500GP box which consumes couple of watts and pretty comfortable to use.