Belkin Custom Firmware
Notable custom-firmware projects for wireless routers. Many of these will run on various brands such as Linksys, Asus, Netgear, etc. OpenWrt – Customizable FOSS firmware written from scratch; features a combined SquashFS/JFFS2 file system and the package manager opkg with over 3000 available packages (Linux/GPL); now merged with LEDE.
:I'm an EE with background in wireless and I still don't know why these are so cheap. Can spend 20x this and get similar performance? I cannot speak with total EE authority (having dropped out in my 3rd year), but I have owned one of these (exact model) along with a half-dozen other wireless routers for years.
This particular one has been chugging along without too many issues for at least 4 years. I need to unplug it every now and then - 6 months or so, as it seems to lose connection or something - it just stops passing data.
The Wi-Fi is up, but nothing gets through. Not enough of an issue to replace it.
In fact, for $20 shipped, I am very tempted to get another one as a spare. I have found that the range on this is comparable to my favorite workhourse, the bullet-proof Linksys WRT54GL, which has two external antennas. I have installed 20-30 of the WRT54GL's in customers' homes over the years - maybe more. You can buy them new for $50 or less shipped with Prime. If you don't need more than 11g speeds (I know it says it has 11n, but I cannot make claims about bandwidth beyond 11g with this one), this would make a good second router with a set of powerline repeaters between them. The lack of support for dd-wrt does not bother me, as the built-in software lets me configure everything I need to for basic Wi-Fi access.
Belkin N600 Custom Firmware
Like any other router, you do need to learn where the settings are. From everything I've read about this router, the manufacturer seems to be conspicuously trying not to specify the speed of the wired ports. The mother ship has this listed as a fast Ethernet router. All of this leads me to believe that the wired ports are 100 Mbps and not Gigabit. Unless you're only concerned about throughput (data transfer speed) between two wireless devices and have an Internet connection less than 100 Mbps, with no chance of increasing it in the near future, I would recommend skipping this router. :Well they get a pretty bad rating on Amazon with 33% 1 ratings.:I would bet tons of units get low ratings due to lack of general knowledge. It also seems that a lot need to be reset often.
Most consumer models skimp on memory and features. I'd recommend doing your research but even a junk router is probably with 20 bucks. I would also recommend doing your research. All of the positive reviews I read on the mothership for a brand-new unit appear to have been from people who had just connected them that day or very recently. All of the negative reviews I read were from people who had had the units for a while, said they worked well initially, but turned into doorstops one day after the warranty expired. Again, those reviews are for brand-new units. So in this case, it would appear that the positive reviews are from those who tend to lack general knowledge.
All that notwithstanding, it is reasonable to assume that these refurb units performed poorly within the warranty period and were returned. Then they went through the perfunctory process of refurbishment, which has a piss-poor track record of catching any actual performance or functionality problems, and sold off to W00t. :From everything I've read about this router, the manufacturer seems to be conspicuously trying not to specify the speed of the wired ports. The mother ship has this listed as a fast Ethernet router. All of this leads me to believe that the wired ports are 100 Mbps and not Gigabit. Unless you're only concerned about throughput (data transfer speed) between two wireless devices and have an Internet connection less than 100 Mbps, with no chance of increasing it in the near future, I would recommend skipping this router.
That's because the average consumer doesn't care about port speed. The people who do care wouldn't be considering this router at all anyway. Mumbo Jumbo Woot.com is operated by Woot Services LLC.
Belkin Custom Firmware
Products on Woot.com are sold by Woot, Inc., other than items on Gourmet.Woot which are sold by the seller specified on the product detail page. Product narratives are for entertainment purposes and frequently employ the narratives do not express Woot's editorial opinion. Aside from literary abuse, your use of this site also subjects you to Woot's and Woot may designate a user comment as a Quality Post, but that doesn't mean we agree with or guarantee anything said or linked to in that post. Woot logos, site design, & content © Woot, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Last 3 routers I bought were all supported MIPS CPUs and I flashed them to Tomato immediately. I can't seem to find what CPU the F9K1102 has in it.
The Broadcom MIPS are usually supported. Currently the active developers for DD-WRT and Tomato are plugging away at porting the OS to ARM cpus as that's where most routers seem to be heading. IMO, I would sell the router locally (eBay is only getting $16 for them) if you can and reinvest in a router that is supported by those OS. My preference is TOMATO. Faster and leaner. Here's where a lot of the devs post: You can certainly ask in there!
Someone may have ported it already or might be willing to do it for you. Personally, I can't wait for the ARM port for Tomato to happen. I think DD-WRT already did it a sort while ago. Currently I'm trying to learn on a Ubiquiti Edgerouter POE to replace my Tomato flashed Cisco E4200. I already have a box of their long range APs to put in my house.
The Edgerouter Lite is super cheap and they can handle my 150/65 FIOS. My overclocked E4200 can only muster 135Mb (I know, poor me - right?) and the Edgerouters can handle a ton of throughput.