I'm done with this crappy consumer router, recommend me a good one!

Also you may want to drop your max connections down to something way lower then 10,000. 10,000 connections is going to hurt your speed not help it.
 
If you want a nice enterprise class firewall, gateway appliance, run over to www.fortinet.com and take a look at their products and services. You can't beat'em IMO. You can get their smallest gateway/firewall appliacne for around 400 bucks give or take, all the way upto carrier and ISP class chassis worth tens-of-thousands-of-dollars. You can also sometimes find fortinets on ebay.

Oh, and a great number of these enterprise grade firewall/gateway appliances run custom versions of Linux under the hood including Fortinet.

For a home user, you really cannot go wrong with loading up a fireall distro on an old PC laying around. I put Smoothwall on Pentium75 and seen no issues at all. I ran an email server, web server, ftp, and LAN parties and never noticed any issues.
 
my understanding is people pay $$$ for cisco (e.g. a 3620 + adsl wic), is that it supports more devices than the retail stuff.

some retail routers can only cope with 4 -16 PCs hooked up to it.

plus of course, girls dig rackmount gear :D
 
wrt54g hacked with dd-wrt firmware.... all the features and reliability of a $600 router for 1/10 the price!
That's hilarious. If you think a POS router with 4MB of RAM (horribly anemic, even by low end router standards) has performance even remotely approaching the same ballpark as even the lowest end Cisco router you're nuts.

A $60 Zyxel X-550 or $100 Dlink DGL-4300 will blow away the WRT54G (DD-WRT does not increase performance, BTW). The WRT54G can only sustain a small handful of simultaneous connections - even downloading one torrent can bring it to its knees.
 
I had similar issues as the OP. I dug a Celeron 600mhz HP Pavilion out of the closet, slapped in two Intel Pro 100 PCI NICs (computer swapmeet $2-3 each), found a blank floppy, and burned a m0n0wall disc. Life is all sunshine and roses.

Cablemodem -> m0n0wall box -> linksys router (only serving as a switch and WAP)

That setup also lets you have captive portal/redirection fun with the leeching neighbors. :D
 
well, i use a cisco 3620 w 2x NM-12E2W's for my DSL and a 2620 with an NM-1E for my cable and i love it... i set them up and i havent even touched them since i plugged them in...

heres my setup

IMG_0202.jpg


but honestly, just find yourself an old pc with 2 nics and setup m0n0wall... i love m0n0wall its a really great app

if your really dead set on a Cisco...

i would recommend a 2621 it will give you 2 10/100 ethernet ports so you know your getting the most out of your connection
 
3620 is better looking. :p

yes but getting 2 fast ethernet ports for it will end up costing a lot more :p

3620 dosent have any built in ports at all
 
That's hilarious. If you think a POS router with 4MB of RAM (horribly anemic, even by low end router standards) has performance even remotely approaching the same ballpark as even the lowest end Cisco router you're nuts.

A $60 Zyxel X-550 or $100 Dlink DGL-4300 will blow away the WRT54G (DD-WRT does not increase performance, BTW). The WRT54G can only sustain a small handful of simultaneous connections - even downloading one torrent can bring it to its knees.

unless you've used the wrt with stock firmware (horrible) as well as dd-wrt, as well as other higher end routers, your opinion is a little lacking. also i don't think you would be making these comments if you had the experience.. im not saying its going to be better than a $2000 rack mount setup, but bang for the buck, NOTHING comes close

and i guarantee that you get MUCH better speeds with dd-wrt. i never bothered with torrents with the stock firmware because they were horribly slow and crashed the router within the day. its absolutely bulletproof now stability-wise and many many times faster
 
You aren't using SP2?

You know, you are not REQUIRED to use the ICF with Windows... :rolleyes:

Thank god I don't have SP2. Sure it's to 'protect me' but I believe I'd be a lot better off with a true hardware firewall that is properly configured with XP SP1 and latest patches then an exposed SP2 system. I've encountered more issues with systems that have SP2 than SP1, I refuse to install SP2 for as long as I have my system.


What would an expensive cisco router have that a computer with m0n0wall doesn't have? Why would an IT person buy a cisco router if they could just put an old computer to use? Can you turn a computer into a switch? Like use a 386 and put in like 5 ethernet cards so that you can avoid using a hub? Or, because gigabit is expensive and finding a decent gigabit ethernet switch is difficult, you could take a few GIGe cards and stick them into a faster machine? I mean how much does it cost to get a decent gigabit ethernet switch? (Most that I've found can't forward large frames and generally perform poorly)
 
unless you've used the wrt with stock firmware (horrible) as well as dd-wrt, as well as other higher end routers, your opinion is a little lacking.
I've used other routers with stock firmware and DD-WRT and the performance was identical. Even the experts on DD-WRT's forums told me that DD-WRT generally offers no performance increase - only vastly increased features.

But, hey, don't take my word for it:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/26843/51/

Check out those numbers! The title of the article is "Yes, the Linksys WRT54G V5 Really Is a Lousy Router"!

also i don't think you would be making these comments if you had the experience.. im not saying its going to be better than a $2000 rack mount setup, but bang for the buck, NOTHING comes close
You're totally wrong. I have experience with all levels of routers, from the cheapest consumer routers to big, expensive rackmount cisco hardware.

Check out the specs of various routers here:
http://wiki.openwrt.org/TableOfHardware
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

The WRT54G has a pathetic 2MB of flash memory and only 8MB of RAM. Even the cheaper $30 Buffalo WHR-G54s has twice the flash and twice the RAM - and anyone who knows anything about routers will tell you that when it comes to routing, RAM is king. And it does perform better. Did I mention it's cheaper?

And check out DD-WRT's own wiki. They refer to the WRT54G as "neutered" and recommend that you purchase the Buffalo WHR-G54S if you want a cheap router. They make other recommendations for various features, and the DD-WRT guys do not recommend the WRT54G in any instance.

The WRT54G is a POS router and is beaten on both price and performance by the Buffalo WHR-G54S. A router at a similar price point that absolutely kills it in terms of performance, even with DD-WRT installed, is the Zyxel X-550. The DLink DGL-4300 is highly recommended as well and has slightly better performance still.

DD-WRT is not some magic bullet, and you even need to download the stripped down "mini" version just to get a package that can be fit onto the miniscule flash memory in the WRT54G.

Long story short, the WRT54G was pretty good four or five years ago when it was a quality router and had twice the current RAM and flash. It has only been gutted since by Linksys while at the same time being superceded technologically by other routers.
 
^ all i know is that it was horrible with the stock firmware, and flawless since i flashed it... i can load it through the roof with as many torrents and as many connections as i can throw at it and it doesn't flinch.. what more would anyone need at home?
 
You aren't using SP2?

You know, you are not REQUIRED to use the ICF with Windows... :rolleyes:

Didn't you read it though? It limits number of connections regardless if ICF is enabled. I don't like SP2 because it adds unnecessary garbage, doesn't improve stability or security from my experience and it breaks compatibility with programs.
 
^ all i know is that it was horrible with the stock firmware, and flawless since i flashed it... i can load it through the roof with as many torrents and as many connections as i can throw at it and it doesn't flinch.. what more would anyone need at home?


The DD-WRT improves stability and features, and you can increase wireless range. But it doesn't increase speed and throughput. A CPU is a CPU, RAM is RAM...when it comes to a router..it's all basic math. Flashing an old wrt with DD-WRT does not suddenly take the processor and magically double it's speed and add a few sticks of memory. Yes on a few versions you can overclock it a little bit. But generally the wrt routers do not exceed 20 megs of throughput no matter what you put on them. The wrt with dd-wrt that I have..out of all the routers and configurations I change on my home setup on a nearly monthly basis..is one of my slowest setups if I put it as my primary router. I only use it sometimes as an AP.

The wrt54 series was a great router a few years ago. It's better with third party firmware dd-wrt, hyper-wrt, tomato, etc. But..that was then. It's been eclipsed in performance by newer generation routers. It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread anymore.
 
The current WRT54G sucks.
WRT54GL has 4 or 8 MB flash, 16MB of RAM.
WRT54GS v4 and below has 4 or 8 MB flash (really don't remember) and 32MB of RAM.

I'm not sure if the Buffalo has 16 or 32MB of RAM, never really looked into it.

DD-WRT also runs on x86 boxes now. I tried it on a P90, and while it routed 40+mbps, it loaded the system to the point the web GUI was unresponsive. For serious load, filtering, torrents, etc, I'd have at least a 300MHz PC with no less than 64MB of RAM.

Right now I'm using a 900MHz Celeron with 64MB and it can handle anything I throw at it. DD-WRT has lots of features, but the main selling point for me is the tiny footprint and low system requirements. It will run fine on a Pentium class PC with 32 MB if you just need a basic router, obviously, you need a tad more.
 
I ASSURE you that ddwrt will meet your needs. Get a whr-g54s and give it a shot. I have a ddwrt router running at 216Mhz with seven clients including two wireless bridges, running 1000 concurrent bittorrent connections, with packetshaping (QOS) enabled as multiple clients may be running WoW or skype, and load never goes over 0.4. It never slows down or gives me any trouble, and uptime is measured in months.

Flat out, you don't need more power for a home or SOHO LAN unless you're setting up a point to point VPN.

Don't believe me? Go ahead and buy a used cisco off ebay or setup an old linux box to do it. If you enjoy the exercise, more power to you. But it just isn't necessary.
 
1) Last I checked, I don't have a grey beard down to my knees and I don't smell like stale urine. My name isn't Richard Stallman, and I'm not an evangelist for the FSF. I'm just an end-user. Do you really care how if it's fully GPL compliant, so long as it kicks ass and is freely and legally downloadable? Brainslayer isn't sveasoft. He's not a total dick, so I don't care.
2) The sourcecode is freely available via SVN anyway, so the point is moot.
 
Last post on the topic of GPL for me, I can fix just about any screwup Bob may do to his PC. Most of these fixes are freely available on the internet and downloadable as a 2 click fix for his problem. Does that mean I should not get paid for my knowledge as to where to look or how to fix his issue?

99.9% of all fixes can be found on the internet if you know where to look, not just computers. Does that mean we shouldn't get paid for our time just because Joe Blow can find the info if he looks hard enough?

99.9% of Joe Blow can't do it even if he read it, same as me with compiling Linux for a dedicated function. I don't remember seeing where you can't charge for Linux as long as the source is freely available. Its not like he's charging an arm and a leg for it.

If you want to get nitty about it, talk to Sebastian himself and really think about spending all of your time working on something like this and not getting paid. The DD-WRT team is around 6 guys tops. Its not like they're making a fortune for their work when 90% of it is freely given to download. Its not like Mikrotik, ClarkConnect, Novell or Sveasoft isn't charging for their work.
 
I ASSURE you that ddwrt will meet your needs. Get a whr-g54s and give it a shot. I have a ddwrt router running at 216Mhz with seven clients including two wireless bridges, running 1000 concurrent bittorrent connections, with packetshaping (QOS) enabled as multiple clients may be running WoW or skype, and load never goes over 0.4. It never slows down or gives me any trouble, and uptime is measured in months.

Flat out, you don't need more power for a home or SOHO LAN unless you're setting up a point to point VPN.

Don't believe me? Go ahead and buy a used cisco off ebay or setup an old linux box to do it. If you enjoy the exercise, more power to you. But it just isn't necessary.

thank you!
 
Number one, this article isn't 100% accurate, number 2, the guy needs to eat, don't he?

Broadcom stuff is free, x86 is much more powerful, so its for sale.

The source is still available, where's the problem?

LOL..... all I did was post an interesting link and ask a question. I never indicated any position on the issues whatsoever. :rolleyes:

Somebody mentioned the x86 version and I was curious if it does indeed need to be purchased. So is that true?

It does seem a bit "odd" to me that the guy hacks firmware that he did not write, does not belong to him, and now he's selling it. I suppose if the GPL license allows for that, fine. I really don't care as I won't be buying it anyway.
 
Smoothwall all the way buddy!!
network09.jpg


I was having the same problems myself! I run a bittorrent client 24-7 and I just couldn't find a decent router that would last more than about 24 hrs at a time without a meltdown. I grabbed an old Celeron PC I had collecting dust and installed Smoothwall router over the period of a day playing with it. I've not had a single problem in 2 weeks --and the performance is simple awesome. Downloads that would take 3 days to complete now take an evening.

I know there are several versions of Smoothwall, and it is a little confusing. Just hit up the Smoothwall Express download. Hell, it's only about 50MB in total. Works like a champ! I'm never buying another router ever again.
 
LOL..... all I did was post an interesting link and ask a question. I never indicated any position on the issues whatsoever. :rolleyes:

Somebody mentioned the x86 version and I was curious if it does indeed need to be purchased. So is that true?

It does seem a bit "odd" to me that the guy hacks firmware that he did not write, does not belong to him, and now he's selling it. I suppose if the GPL license allows for that, fine. I really don't care as I won't be buying it anyway.

You asked if the x86 version was for sale and linked to that article. You indicated your position quite well.:rolleyes:

DD-WRT is not a hacked version of the Linksys or Sveasoft firmware. The x86 version is not a hacked version of anything, it is as much their own work as anything can be in Linux.
 
Don't waste time here now since it seems the OP decided to go the m0n0wall route.
 
Smoothwall all the way buddy!!

i will never recommend smoothwall ever again, the devs are the biggest pricks... i reported a problem with one of the drivers not setting the duplex correctly on a fiber nic card... and they basically told me to go fuck myself
 
Im in the same boat as the OP, i live in a flat with several people who are big p2p users. We have been through 3 commercial routers and found that they basically dont cut the mustard. I have a spare box lying around (athlon xp 2000+, 512mb ddr) and was wondering what would be the best router distro to put on it.
We dont need any fancy features, all we do need is DHCP and some form of encryption (WEP, WPA)
Iv heard a few distros being tossed around in this thread (smoothwal, m0n0wall, endian, ipcop) and basically just want to know which is easiest to set up and maintain as we arnt that tech 'savy'. :D

Just as a side note: we are currently using a belkin F5D7231-4 and pardon my french but its quite frankly crap, our biggest grief with it is that it won't hold a wireless connection for more than a few minuets, every couple of minuets it will just drop us, so if we are in the middle of a download it will stop, or even more annoyingly for me if i try to game i get disconnected from servers after a few minuets. :mad: Id recommend people stay away from this model.
 
Well for what its worth, DDWRT has made a nice improvement to my wireless computing. After reading this thread and several other articles I decided to give my WRT54G v5 an overhaul with some new firmware, so I made the leap today.

In my testing with multiple torrent files, my speeds are averaging 50-80kb/s higher download rates after I made some tweaking in the DDWRT firmware. I also upped the transmit power slightly and I can see a little better signal strength all over the house (especially in the basement) than the default firmware, nothing major for signal strength but every little bit helps.

Anyway, I still wouldn't recommend a WRT54G to anyone because there are much better options out there for less money, I just made the mistake of doing no research when I bought mine and went to walmart and bought the first one I saw when I decided to make the leap into wireless lol. But for a free upgrade, I'd say its definitely worth the risk to flash your router, its not going to turn it into some super $500 router, but a nice free, even slight performance increase is worth it in my book.
 
That's WAY too much.

Most consumer class routers can't handle more than 200-300 IP connections at once.

The DLink DGL-4300 is one of the highest out there, and it handles 1000.

You have to get into some serious stuff, like a high-end Zyxel or Cisco to get up in the 3000, 4000 or higher simultaneous IP connections. Serious money.

-Larry

Nope, I know it's the router... I had another router disabled and setup as a hub, so I took that out and hooked it up, it's better, kind of, worse in other ways, some POS netgear router..

Bleh... Is 300 connections to a router via bittorrent too much? I setup bittorrent so that it had a max of 10K connections and 300 per torrent. Would a monowall firewall beable to handle this number of connections? How fast of a machine would I need? It appears that the more connections you have to your router/firewall, the higher the demands go up?
 
Im in the same boat as the OP, i live in a flat with several people who are big p2p users. We have been through 3 commercial routers and found that they basically dont cut the mustard. I have a spare box lying around (athlon xp 2000+, 512mb ddr) and was wondering what would be the best router distro to put on it.
We dont need any fancy features, all we do need is DHCP and some form of encryption (WEP, WPA)
Iv heard a few distros being tossed around in this thread (smoothwal, m0n0wall, endian, ipcop) and basically just want to know which is easiest to set up and maintain as we arnt that tech 'savy'. :D

Just as a side note: we are currently using a belkin F5D7231-4 and pardon my french but its quite frankly crap, our biggest grief with it is that it won't hold a wireless connection for more than a few minuets, every couple of minuets it will just drop us, so if we are in the middle of a download it will stop, or even more annoyingly for me if i try to game i get disconnected from servers after a few minuets. :mad: Id recommend people stay away from this model.
the x86 version of DD-WRT is free without wireless and free to register a full version at least once.
For just a simple router, its the lightest and probably easiest to configure, but requires a wireless card with an Atheros chipset. The interface is simple, easy to manage.
 
Most consumer class routers can't handle more than 200-300 IP connections at once.
Not sure how many times I've got to say this in a single thread. You people just don't listen. The problem isn't with the hardware, it's with the software. Consumer routers are way more than fast enough to route 1000s of p2p connections. I have mine doing over 1000 with QOS enabled!

If you get a $35 buffalo whr-g54s, install ddwrt on it, and tune the various timeouts via the wiki link I posted a page or two ago, it will FIX your problems. It won't slow down, it won't freeze up, and you won't have to reboot it, EVER.
 
If you get a $35 buffalo whr-g54s, install ddwrt on it, and tune the various timeouts via the wiki link I posted a page or two ago, it will FIX your problems. It won't slow down, it won't freeze up, and you won't have to reboot it, EVER.
I did that.

Using DD-WRT, even enabling QOS made my connection speeds drop and render BT unusable. Turning it off let me do some limited torrenting, but it would readily crash and burn if trying to do more than two torrents at once. Yes, it was set up correctly. Yes, I made the connection entry tweaks.

My Zyxel, on the other hand, saturates my connection with a dozen torrents going. In fact, right now I'm downloading at 3Mbps from newsgroups and 2Mbps from 12 active torrents spread across three computers. It's neato.

Stock firmware.
 
Yes, it was set up correctly. Yes, I made the connection entry tweaks.
All I can say is that this doesn't fit my experience, or those of my friends and coworkers, most of us VERY heavy bittorrent users. We all swear by ddwrt and think it's the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe your ddwrt router had broken hardware somehow.
 
i will never recommend smoothwall ever again, the devs are the biggest pricks... i reported a problem with one of the drivers not setting the duplex correctly on a fiber nic card... and they basically told me to go fuck myself

LOL

That's the same response I got from Apple enterprise support when I told them their $100+ Gig-e nics don't work in G4s.
 
requires a wireless card with an Atheros chipset.

I have a Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, a old pcmcia orinoco gold card, and a Ralink RT2400 USB dongle. Would any of these be suitable? if not then mabey they work with a different distro? Preferably with the intel as the orinoco and USB are wireless B not G
 
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