[ILUG] OpenWRT or DD-WRT

[Michael Watterson]

Niall O Broin wrote:
> On 24 Aug 2008, at 23:26, paul at clubi.ie wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 24 Aug 2008, Niall O Broin wrote:
>>
>>> want with the hardware. But in fact, all I really want is an AP with 
>>> slightly more configurability and it seems that DD-WRT will give me 
>>> that out of the box, without my having to decide whether or not I 
>>> want (or need) the X-Wrt web interface.
>>
>> Well, that's a pretty easy decision for most people.. ;)
>
> Yes, of course, but it's a decision nonetheless, and it seems not the 
> only one I'd have to make before I'd install OpenWRT.
>
>> One of the nice things about OpenWRT is that it has a package system, 
>> you can always 'ipkg update; ipkg install ...' after the fact (e.g. 
>> tcpdump can be pretty useful, though its a large package).
>>
>> I can't imagine why you wouldn't want OpenWRT:
>>
>> - very nice web-frontend, with fancy SVG, real-time graphs of CPU,
>>  network interface usage, etc..
>>  - but you can leave it out if you'd prefer the extra room to
>>    install utilities to
>> - also easy to use from command-line (nice config system)
>> - easy upgrades (kamikaze+)
>> - actually advancing the state of open-source, embedded routers,
>>  rather than leeching..
>>
>> And yes, it's very configurable, if you want. I don't see how this 
>> turns into a minus-point though..
>
> It turns into a minus point because very configurable usually == 
> taking more time and effort to do what you want, iff what you want can 
> be provided by a less configurable solution. This argument is of 
> course had repeatedly in the OSS world, most notably I suppose in the 
> KDE v Gnome arena (where I come down on the side of KDE, not least 
> because it's more configurable than Gnome) but as you said
>
However:
Want almost no configuration other than WiFi Setup?  Buy a decent 
router/WiFi and use the default firmware

OR

Want something different? : Select a decent OpenWRT compatible box 
(enough Flash/RAM) and as a minimum you only need to load the firmware.



Loading X-WRT is an option to make it EVEN EASIER to do MORE things. If 
you don't them, don't install it. I'd install it as it is quick and 
painless to add and is so much better.
If you don't want configurable/custom avoid DD-WRT/Tomato/OpenWRT 
altogether. And  avoid Linux.

OpenWRT + X-WRT is less hard than some stock firmwares to set up WiFi 
with WPA and set up port forwarding rules.

The other more power hungry option isan old PC with Ethernet and WiFi 
and ClarkeConnect on CentOS. OpenWRT is easier though.

I've set up a good qty of Linksys WRT54G3G. The PCMCIA port can be 
ignored. You can use it as WiFi point only or ethernet router (5th 
ethernet port) by default on OpenWRT.
If you want you can do various things with the easy to add serial port 
or any supported PCMCIA/Cardbus card, not just Modems. Much easier to 
configure and setup than a stock firmware Netopia.

I can't actually see the point of Tomato or DD-WRT except if they 
support some HW that openWRT doesn't. Peruse the OpenWRT HW table before 
you buy.

>> But whatever floats your boat ;)
>
> and in this case I think I will go with DD-WRT because this 
> installation is not for me, and its only objective is to provide an AP 
> which is more stable than the current one, and the ability to crank up 
> the power output somewhat may also be useful. However, I'd like to 
> play with OpenWRT too and I'm sorely tempted to buy a second one for 
> me :-)
>
>
> Niall
>


-- 
Mike