98 replies to this topic

[episode]

HawkMan, on 02 January 2013 - 19:49, said:

I have however used both WRT54's and other devices, and a WRT54 with tomato is extremely efficient at handling QoS traffic management, remember not EVERYTHING is about cpu speeds, and as I Said, these custom firmwares pretty much started with the WRT54, and they have been optimized a lot.

personally I wouldn't use a WRT54 today, as they don't offer the speeds I need, but as I specifically mentioned in my post, if you don't need anything faster it's a rock solid device with an extremely efficient firmware that's tried and tested more than any other.

If you had all that and 2 nickels, you'd have 10 cents.

Do 54Gs die? No, not really. But I see tons of them with little weird problems (such as one that would not display the totality of a website we were creating for a client) that are remedied as soon as its replaced. They are pushing 10 years old. Routers are cheap. No reason to hold onto legacy hardware because 'it started with them!'. Else I'd be sitting with a pile of punchcards next to me.

[seta-san]

episode, on 02 January 2013 - 20:17, said:

If you had all that and 2 nickels, you'd have 10 cents.

Do 54Gs die? No, not really. But I see tons of them with little weird problems (such as one that would not display the totality of a website we were creating for a client) that are remedied as soon as its replaced. They are pushing 10 years old. Routers are cheap. No reason to hold onto legacy hardware because 'it started with them!'. Else I'd be sitting with a pile of punchcards next to me.

my only concern is IPV6 at the moment when my ISP plans to turn it on sometime this year. I support my whole extended family which is about 2 dozen different homes at least.

[winrez]

I will have to stick with Windows Server 2012 with Forefront I am not sure if this has enough features.

[hjf288]

WRT54GLs can push around 50Mbit routed traffic without QoS - this was using Tomato..

[Medfordite]

episode, on 02 January 2013 - 19:16, said:

Dude, a WRT-54G? Time for a new router.

Yeah - I KNOW! Gotta wait a bit before I go sink more $$$ in my PC budget. (for goodies like these). As soon as I can get on a newer router I surely will.

The router - I agree is old and rock solid at the same time too. For most applications, it works fine so hard to justify replacing sometimes. But, on the occasion, I do get the bug to want to upgrade the thing with more RAM so I can play a bit more with it. I tried the SD card mod but failed on that one after burning out a microsd with my amateur soldering skills. A skilled solder jockey would do it easily, but not me.

[GarakObama]

I'm stil using a wrt54gs v1.1. It's been used since I got it in 2003-ish. It's been running stock Tomato 1.28 since the last release until I discovered the Tomato USB branch not too long ago.

There may not be a reason to stick with old hardware but there hasn't been a reason for me to need to get a new one either.

[HawkMan]

seta-san, on 02 January 2013 - 20:31, said:

my only concern is IPV6 at the moment when my ISP plans to turn it on sometime this year. I support my whole extended family which is about 2 dozen different homes at least.

Unless they also plan to kill ipv4 support at the same time, don't think your extended family will care or notice

[+BudMan]

^ very true -- your everyday user has little use or care for ipv6. So what if their isp turns it on? Doesn't mean they have to use it.

Until such time that there are websites/services that they need to access that are ONLY available via ipv6, its not of any use to normal users. If I had to guess I would say you got a good 20 years before you have to worry about it for the every day user

Now on the other hand, part of the reason I run a full blown distro for my router, is pfsense has great IPv6 support. I was running a tunnel from HE for quite some time without any issues at all. And now that my isp has finally turned on native support I have switched to that.

To be honest the tunnel was a bit easier to manage. But again for your every day user, it makes no difference if their isp turns on ipv6 or not. Most of them don't even know what an IP address is in the first place be it v4 or v6

[PGHammer]

seta-san, on 02 January 2013 - 20:31, said:

my only concern is IPV6 at the moment when my ISP plans to turn it on sometime this year. I support my whole extended family which is about 2 dozen different homes at least.

Here's a surprise - I'd recommend Netgear's WNDR3700 (v2 and newer), including, if not especially, the newest (v4) despite the lack of non-factory firmware support.

First off, it actually supports IPv6 (though it is disabled by default) - if your ISP (via customer-premises equipment - supplied by them OR you) supports IPv6 (or you have a tunnel), this router can use it. Comcast supports IPv6 via 6to4 tunnel where 6RD is not present (this router's factory firmware doesn't support 6RD).

It supports mixed networks as well (my home LAN has two wired and two wireless PCs/devices, with one PC having two wired [one 100 mbps and one gigabit] and a wireless[wireless-G] connection, one PC a 100 mbps wired connection, a legacy laptop with wireless-G, and a smart TV/device with wireless-N - all except the TV are known to support IPv6; the TV DOES support 5 GHz N, which it occupies all by its lonesome).

However, if you feel better with third-party support, the v4 may well be too NEW for you.