I just recently flashed a build of DD-WRT onto my Linksys E4200v1 router because of a bug in the stock firmware I was trying to get past. Turns out that DD-WRT must have this option turned on too or the wireless wont even function, so same issue. But now with this new firmware I have an even bigger problem. Where I used to get 96mb/s downstream bandwidth even with the router firewall and QoS turned on, I can now only get 46mb/s at best when using DD-WRT. I am on build 18777-big right now. The reason I went with that is because it was the build listed to flash in the wiki for the router. Does anyone know if there is some trick to the config that I am missing to get my internet speed back up? Or should I just try a newer non-recommended build of the firmware?
Its been a few years since I played with DD-WRT. Have they fixed the problem of bricking your router, yet? I recall having to buy like 5 WRT54g's to get the damned thing working how I wanted. The other four went back to Linksys. (Im sure the tech guys at the returns shop at Linksys are super pro at JTAG'ing dead routers back to stock...) Anyway, I simply ran into too many speed and stability issues. Basically, the optomizations for the DD_WRT firmware are geared towards added features (VPN, for example) and only certain routers are really able to see any speed gain becasue you can literally overclock the hell out of them. Add a fan, by the way.. However, this is based on three year old experience and may not actually be relavent, at this time. Keep the thread alive, I've had a router mod in the back of my mind for a home server VPN mod for a while now... I'd like to see where this goes for you.
They sort of fixed the bricking issue. The instructions just have lots of big warnings about which build to use and which one not to now days. My router required a very specific first firmware, marked with my routers name in the firmware file, any other builds will brick the router. After that you must flash a specific "mini" build that is tagged in another specific way, with an -nv60k. Any other builds will brick the router. Then from there you can go to another version of either standard, big, or mega size firmware if your router has a large enough flash memory space, but these also must be marked -nv60k. While I want to flash a newer build to see if the speed problem is fixed, I am hesitant because in the newest build they again have a -e4200 tagged build and also -nv60k builds. I think I am still supposed to use the -nv60k ones but it would suck if I brick the router just to try and see if a problem gets fixed. So I am kinda waiting until I have enough money that if I brick the router I can get a new one easily enough. Normally not a problem, but if I buy a new router it wont be just a router. I want to build an actual computer and run either smoothwall, pfsense, or ipfire on it and use that as a router. The cost would be around $1000 in hardware but the performance would be far better and it would be a really fun project. Saving that much is also not usually a problem, but I just donated a big chunk to a special xoo project and also need 5 new tires within a couple more months, and I will be needing new suspension on my car sometime this year. So it is just a big spending year for me and I dont really have just an extra $1000 laying around to play with at the moment. With the custom made router I plan to have a pretty good dual or quad core processor in it. Only because the quads dont cost hardly any more than a dual core these days and no one sells single cores anymore. I am told I can get a solid 100mb/s with all the firewall options and filtering turned on with a 2GHz processor. So thats cool and all, but I want to have massive amounts of processing power to spare if I am doing this project at all. Which means the router's processor will probably be something like a 2500k overclocked to 4.5GHz. I want to run an Intel NIC with a good processor in it and built in ram buffer for my WAN, probably two of them just in case. I have often (and especially more recently) wanted to get two internet connections here and route different traffic to each one so I have more bandwidth for things. Then I want a nice Intel quad port gigabit NIC for the LAN side of things and will probably also put in a single 10-GbE card too so I have a nice connection to a massive file server in the future. Then I will be running triple (or dual to start) wifi cards. So that I can have one card, its triple antennas, and its processor dedicated to 2.4GHz wireless G band. The second card will be the same thing but dedicated to the 5GHz wireless N band. And a third card, possibly a year later once things get more finalized and more features will be a brand new 5GHz band wireless AC card with 3gb/s of throughput. Then on top of all that performance it will run on a small SSD with probably 12GB of the RAM (since 16GB is so cheap) acting as a cache for the SSD. I will configure some of the SSD space to be used as an additional buffer for the network traffic. All of this would be insane overkill, but it would be able to handle hundred of thousands of connections per second with huge amounts of throughput in all areas of the router. Just talking about it makes me want to put off the suspension maintenance of do this instead. lol. It is going to be such a fun project.
I flashed my E2000(might not the exactly the right #) in order to underclock it. For whatever reason Cisco ran it higher than it was supposed to go and didn't give it enough cooling. The thing would quit intermittently. Dropping 25mhz worked like a charm. Worked right and has been up and stable since the last time a storm knocked the power out. Haven't really messed with it since the initial flash and configuration.
interesting post, Enigma. I've always wondered if this was even possible, but I've never looked into what it would take to blow out the idea of a router into a full on computer. I may be one of the only guys here that are just as excited as you to see this project happen. Take pictures, screenshots and a log of how it progresses! You may have a few copycats If I could get more performance out of my home network, I'd be all over it! Shoving bluray rips down the throat of my home network is a bit taxing.. Sounds like you may have found my particular brand of overkill! But onto the topic at hand. This business about builds is exactly the problem I've found with DD-WRT. Its just too damned finicky. And Rbstr makes a good point about stability. I had similar experience. If I had to guess, its got a lot to do with the designers of the hardware making things to minimum spec. Add the additional capabilities of DD-WRT or tomato... its just too much for these crappy little things. Definitely doesnt have anything to do with the firmware limitations you are facing, but a good point nonetheless. I say suffer for a bit with the "terrible performance" of 50mbs and get your mega-route on!!! Oh... fix the car first, buddy. I'd prefer to have you around giving me free advice rather than wrapped around a tree with a bitchin router at home and me not the benefactor of said router on your will. just sayin