anyone can suggest a good cheap router

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Oct 04, 2010 at 03:06:03AM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> | From: Dave Germiquet <davegermiquet-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
> 
> | Canada Computers is down, can anyone suggest a good cheap router that'll run
> | Tomato and OpenWRT?
> 
> The no-brainer, of course, is the WRT54GL.

Which of course is stuck on 2.4 kernel, limited ram, limited flash, etc.

> You should be able to do a lot better.  It depends on what features
> you consider valuable:
> 
> - easy to find locally
> 
> - well-worn path putting up your chosen firmware
> 
> - price
> 
> - 802.11n
> 
> - multiple bands (2.4G and 5G)
> 
> - gigabit ethernet
> 
> - USB ports
> 
> - lots of RAM and flash for extended firmware capability
> 
> - decent actual performance (not just great specs)
> 
> 
> I think (but don't know) that this is a fairly reasonable mix of those
> features for $55:
> <http://www.bewawa.com/tp-link-ultimate-wireless-n-300mbps-gigabit-router-w-3-detachable-antennas-wr1043nd.html>
> - Bewawa has free fast delivery within their version of the GTA
> - I don't know how easy it is to install Tomato or OpenWRT
> - the price is good for what you get
> - 802.11n
> - only one band
> - gigabit ethernet
> - USB port
> - more RAM and flash than wrt54gl
> - I don't know actual performance
> 
> You can spend two or three times as much and get a better router.
> Since the money isn't really a lot in absolute terms, that might be a
> good idea.
> 
> The most popular third party firmware is DD-WRT.  I prefer OpenWRT
> because it is more open.  I don't hear that much about Tomato.
> 
> <http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database> says wr1043nd is
> supported.  See <http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1523641>
> 
> <http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr1043nd>
> 
> 
> I don't really know what this is about:
>   <http://www.bewawa.com/rangemax-open-source-n-router.html>
> The fact that it has "Open Source" in its name is interesting.

Certainly the router I use does much better, but I wouldn't call it cheap.

The D-Link DIR-615 is currently $50 at 'the source' on sale, and at least
according to this page https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=18314
is working in openwrt's trunk.  Since it is Atheros based, the support
is quite good, the CPU is apparently a 400MHz MIPS, and it has 32MB ram
and 4MB flash.  This is the rev C1 specifically.  Dlink nicely labels
the revision on the box in my experience, so it is quite easy to make
sure you get the right thing.  Older revisions are totally different
and of no interest to openwrt users.

The DIR-615 has 802.11bgn so at least that is fairly modern, as far as
a single band wifi router is concerned.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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