Your router gets a major upgrade with the free Tomato Firmware: monitor bandwidth consumption, boost your WiFi signal, make major QoS tweaks, track the results with shiny graphics... and more!
Frank wrote in:
I'd like to give you a project suggestion for Systm: show us the proper method for upgrading an older wireless router with ddwrt firmware.
Frank in Tulsa
Great idea, especially since Patrick's long suffering Linksys WRT54G has been a touch flakey after the last firmware upgrade.
We just want to make one change: DD-WRT is great, but we're more into the Tomato Firmware upgrade... it's a tad less polished looking, but has slightly better quality of service contol than DD-WRT, allows boosting your your WiFi output, and has amazing bandwidth monitoring tools, which are great to keep in mind in wake of the new Comcast cap!
It runs on Linksys' WRT54G/GL/GS, Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54 and other Broadcom-based routers, and, as Wikipedia puts it, is "based on the GPL sourcecode released by Linksys, but includes proprietary binary modules from the chipset manufacturer Broadcom. Portions of the code are licensed under the GNU General Public License, but the source code for the user interface is under a more restrictive license which forbids use without the author's permission." Which is to say, it's Open Source.
You can download the Tomato firmware at polarcloud.com/tomato.
The Tomato Firmware Wiki is incredibly helpful.
Here's the Tomato FAQ if you're curious.
Systm brings you great episodes on a regular basis, but we recognize that you may want to choose how you subscribe. We've broken down our feeds below to give you the choice of how you enjoy the shows.
Application Feeds
Choose from the list to subscribe to Systm directly through our most popular applications
RSS Feeds
Use these feeds to subscribe to Systm in your preferred format using your favorite application.
Other Feeds
Stay up to date on your Systm specific discussions and news.
Posted by computoman on 10/18/2008 at 05:02:03 pm in Systm
"
computoman does your brother have a bandwidth meter he uses on DD-wrt?
Let me know my website is in my profile."
No not really. he likes it for all the vpn possibilities. That makes it easier to work at home and to access home from work. He dumped comcast months ago and is even triming back his internet service with ma bell. He has a big pipe where he works, so he uses that to get any large items.
Read More »
Posted by computoman on 10/18/2008 at 04:57:44 pm in Systm
Yes, I had the same objection also. Makes me want to go back and look at ipcop on a minimal machine.
Read More »
Posted by Preske on 10/18/2008 at 02:59:28 pm in Systm
Okay so I installed Tomato (which was a breeze). But I'm not liking it.
The only reason I installed the thing was because the promise of "bandwidth monitoring per device". Well, you can monitor it, but only live.
I want to see the download for daily, weekly, monthly downloads (and/or uploads) for each device which this firmware (if I'm not overlooking something, that is) does not.
Read More »
Posted by Preske on 10/12/2008 at 10:27:06 am in Systm
"I have a version 6 & 8 of the Linksys WRT-54G.
Why doesn't tomato support that? Has anybody installed it on a version 6 or 8?
What alterinatives do I have to have a bandwidth monitor. I have a router with DD-WRT.
Thank you for the help in advance."
You could try Netmeter. It's free, and you can keep track of your down and upload on a daily, weekly and montly base.
As why the tomato doesn't work on the 6 and 8 versions, that's because they aren't based on the linux-model they used in their previous versions. they explained that int he episode i believe.
If you want a custom-firmware capable router, buy the wrt54GL (which is essentially one of their older models, they just renamed it)
Read More »
Posted by justinstrack on 10/12/2008 at 05:15:11 am in Systm
I found one little thing I did not like about tomato, that I might at least try dd-wrt on my buffalo router to see which I like better. After trying both firmwares, I will then decide which firmware to put on the wrt54gl. Since my brother uses dd-wrt on his linksys router, I am leaning towards it.
computoman does your brother have a bandwidth meter he uses on DD-wrt?
Let me know my website is in my profile.
Read More »
Posted by computoman on 10/10/2008 at 11:15:22 am in Systm
I found one little thing I did not like about tomato, that I might at least try dd-wrt on my buffalo router to see which I like better. After trying both firmwares, I will then decide which firmware to put on the wrt54gl. Since my brother uses dd-wrt on his linksys router, I am leaning towards it.
Read More »
Posted by computoman on 10/10/2008 at 11:08:24 am in Systm
"
I have somebody to hug, but if I did not then Dr. Kiki knocks my socks off. Snubs (hak5) reminds me of the mother of my daughter at that age. What a fox. One look and she would have you hook, line, and sinker. She looks like my daughter a bit also. My daughter has done a bit of twisting men around her little finger.
Read More »
Posted by justinstrack on 10/10/2008 at 07:34:43 am in Systm
I have a version 6 & 8 of the Linksys WRT-54G.
Why doesn't tomato support that? Has anybody installed it on a version 6 or 8?
What alterinatives do I have to have a bandwidth monitor. I have a router with DD-WRT.
Thank you for the help in advance.
Read More »
Posted by deviationer on 10/09/2008 at 03:55:01 pm in Systm
nice product placement with the Beck.
Read More »
Posted by Indexed on 10/08/2008 at 07:56:44 am in Systm
I just found out about Rev3 a week ago from a co-worker and really enjoy the Systm episodes. Good variety of topic coverage, guys.
A co-worker told me about Tomato a few months back and I switched my WRT54G v3.1 over as a test (purchased way back in the day when I first started playing with wifi bridging). The WRT54GL I have is still on DD-WRTv24 since I haven't needed it lately, and haven't taken the time to upgrade. But I'm pleased with the over all functionality of Tomato and it seems to be a little faster than DD. I think the new graphs in DD are on the same level for monitoring.
Now, if I could just snag myself a WRTSL54GS for cheap, I'd have to go back to DD in order to get the USB support and set up a small NFS server on it. Loved the episode on FreeNAS, btw.
Read More »
