one-day sale on hackable wireless router

D. Hugh Redelmeier hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org
Wed Sep 3 15:23:34 UTC 2008


Dell is selling the Linksys WRT54GL wireless router for $39.99 today.  I 
expect that shipping is free.  (Canada Computers current price is $66.99.)
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/hotdeals_redhot?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs&dgc=AF&cid=3881&lid=77903

This is the classic router for running OpenWRT and other third-party 
firmware.  All this firmware is Linux based, including the original 
firmware delivered in the router.

I prefer other routers with more capability (but they cost 
more).  In particular, there are other routers with twice the flash, twice 
the RAM and even USB ports.

A good source for information about router hardware and OpenWRT support 
is: http://wiki.openwrt.org/TableOfHardware

One downside of many of these routers, including the WRT54GL is that it 
uses a Broadcom wireless chip.  Open source drivers for the chip don't 
work yet for router use so you are stuck with the binary driver which 
means you are stuck with a 2.4 kernel.

The lack of 802.11n may be an issue for some.

Having said all that, the WRT54GL is certainly the standard hackable 
router.  Thus it is the best supported.  Its limitations only show up when 
you want to get really creative.
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