Comments on: NETGEAR Launches Open Source WGR614L Wireless-G Router

By: goundoulf

goundoulf — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:56:33 +0000

We are trying to port OpenWRT on the Neuf Box 4, the DSL router / gateway from Neuf Cegetel, the second largest french ISP.

The Neuf Box 4 can be baught for 70 euros in France, has a 300 Mhz CPU, 32 MB of RAM, and 8 MB of flash, 2 USB ports,…

It is also based on Broadcom chips unfortunately.

Come and see us on http://www.neufbox4.org ;)

By: Robvdl

Robvdl — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:09:07 +0000

To: BubbaNW

I am talking about gigabit on the local network. There are a couple of closed source wireless N routers available that I know of, one by Netgear, another by Linksys that also have gigabit ethernet ports on them, which means I only need one router to run my entire network.

With this router however, I would have to get an additional gigabit switch for my local network if I want gigabit between PC’s on the lan.

By: Ben Scott

Ben Scott — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:38:11 +0000

One thing to be aware of is that these SOHO routers use a managed (VLAN) switch for their Ethernet ports. (The “Internet” port is actually just another port on the switch ASIC chip.) So far, from what I’ve seen and heard, the switching functions in these ASCIs are not as fast as the switching functions in a dedicated, “dumb” SOHO switch. Given the cost pressure involved in this market, that does not surprise me.

We’re unlikely to see a really high performance ASIC used, again because of cost pressure. Most people will always buy the cheaper of two models, so even if there are people who want something better, they loose economy of scale. Are you willing to pay $250 for a SOHO router?

Practical upshot: If you really care about gigabit speeds, you’re likely better served by getting a dedicated gigabit mini-switch, rather than an all-in-one job. Reserve these “router” boxes for packet management duties only.

By: dudeMan

dudeMan — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:18:59 +0000

KC. . .this is a NetGear router. . . .

but seriously, I feel your pain. I would buy the router you described in a heartbeat!

By: Hoot

Hoot — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:15:48 +0000

It would be nice if it included EVDO modem support

By: crashsystems

crashsystems — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:34:31 +0000

I do not think that the wrt54g being hacker friendly was an ingenious play on Linksys’s behalf (though it would have been, if that had been their intent). Instead, I think that their use of Linux was because their designers wanted an easy solution, and openness was the byproduct.

If it had been a brilliant marketing idea from Linksys, then why didn’t they advertise their open source software in the first place? Instead, I think that the openness resulting in better sales was unintended, and the increased sales is what got Cisco interested enough to buy Linksys. Then, Cisco being the large top-down corporation that it is, forgot that they are in the hardware industry (and not software), switched the firmware to VxWorks and cut down the memory, making the wrt54g less hacker friendly.

Then Netgear comes along, is astonished to see the brilliant marketing strategy that Cicso tossed into the dumpster, and decided run with the idea, plus some actual marketing of the openness.

By: KC

KC — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:55:13 +0000

Wow, the hardware specs aren’t really that impressive. Hats off to linksys for making a router designed with open-source in mind, but I don’t recall any complications with any of the V2 WRT54GS routers in regards to installing DD-WRT. For that price, you can buy yourself a nice v2 GS on ebay and get more bang for you buck. My main complaint about this router is it’s hardware specs. The only thing it’s got over a stock v2 GS is the CPU clock, but that issue is easily resolved by overclocking. It also only has 4MB of flash. Thats barely enough to shoehorn in the ‘mini’ release of DD-WRT v24, and after that your not left with much room for other applications. The lack of flash explains the low 16MB of ram too, as it seems they weren’t planning on anything else running.

I’ll tell you what Linksys, you want to make us open-source people happy? Release a router that fully supports open-source firmware, has at least 8MB of flash and 32 MB of ram, and for god’s sake, a slot for an SD card. And if your feeling generous how about including 1Gbps in the whole package? I would pay $70+ for that, but not for this thing your trying to pawn off.

By: pedigree

pedigree — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:16:34 +0000

@BubbaNW – its about saving power, one less device plugged in = lower power bill.

I wish that they had installed 32mb of ram, for the price of the router, I wouldve paid the extra $2 for 32mb. Under heavy torrent load, having the extra ram to do conntracking in really helps out and stops the system choking

By: kwik

kwik — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:32:09 +0000

Two days ago I brought Linksys. And guess what it is locaked down version and cannot be upgraded to wrt because Cisco redced memory. I wish I had read this before.

By: Ugly American

Ugly American — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:51:20 +0000

This is very cool of them but everyone I know already has hacked 100Mb 54g routers. Some of them even have USB ports to spool printers and share MP3s.

By: BubbaNW

BubbaNW — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:15:44 +0000

To Robvdl:
Are you saying your ISP provides a link to you at gigabit ethernet speeds? If not, why do you need gigabit speed on your router? Just use a gigabit switch for your local network, and connect it to the router. You get gigabit between devices on your lan and 100Mb to the router, which is surely an order of magnitude more bandwidth than your internet connection.

By: Hans

Hans — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:40:14 +0000

DDOS protection for a home router is pointless. Since you’re filtering at the target location, your pipe to your ISP will be clogged with traffic – whether or not your router filters it away makes no difference.

By: Robvdl

Robvdl — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:12:40 +0000

Nice, now both Linksys and Netgear have an open source router. Unfortunately both models lack gigabit, which means I still have to get a closed source router until they release an open source model AND gigabit.

By: Gr33n3gg

Gr33n3gg — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:52:00 +0000

Great, now Netgear has some ground with Linksys. But...what about 802.11N? Sure, G is great and from what I have, is more compatible. But consumers want faster speeds, so where's in this mess? Gr33n3gg Gr33n3gg | 2500mhz, PHP stuff

By: Ieeru

Ieeru — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:31:31 +0000

hehehe, netbsd captcha=)

By: Ieeru

Ieeru — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:31:09 +0000

Hello,

glad you start doing this. But could you please make the router with USB ports and 802.11N and it would be even more attractive to the opensource mod firmware types of us!

Btw, love your captchas..lsmod =)

By: Ramesh | The Geek Stuff

Ramesh | The Geek Stuff — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:15:11 +0000

Vivek,

That is some serious fun stuff for geeks to play with. I also noticed from the spec that this router has the DoS attack protection, which is great.

I have added this to my amazon wish list. Thanks for posting this.

Ramesh
The Geek Stuff