linux router distros

[mattch]

The last thread had lots of talk about different linux based turn your old pc into router software

at one point i was on a hunt for all the different ones available to find the "perfect" one but realized none of them are perfect.

My first encounter was FreeSco really coola cool basic fw/ router. i was not to good with ipfwadm or ipchains ( idont remember) sometimes when i made a change it should take affect right away but did not until reboot, that was v 3.2, they are 4 or 4.1 i think but have not checkedit out.

m0n0wall, cool but lacked features i was looking for, i dont even remember what features i was looking for at the time!! soon took the fork of m0n0wall and went to Pfsense
Tried PfSence, but seemed to slow for my box, dont remember what version but was several years ago.

Untangle - from what i was able to check out seemed cool as hell, just never had spare pc fast engouh for all of it and its java.

been using ipcop for while now and have liked it the best so far,very reliable on the pIII, i love the features, the way it boots, backups, logs, fw, ids, support for zoneedit ddns, etc. only drawback is thre are not much activity on it so not many updates.

looking Ipfire screenshots and looks neat, i might try this one.

[mockingbird]

Re: linux router distros

Can't you just run OpenWRT on a PC as you would a router? And you'd have the LUCI web interface to boot.

[seanc]

Re: linux router distros

What do you want to achieve? What features do you want?

I've been running Smoothwall for years without a hitch.
We have pfsense running in the office, it's the latest stable build running on a Celeron 2.6Ghz machine - not quiet or cool, but we have loads lying around.

[ratdude747]

Re: linux router distros

i use ddwrt... i like it...

[mockingbird]

Re: linux router distros

DDWRT is a terrible third party distribution, you're better off using your router's own firmware than that bloated, resource hogging, german-engineered catastrophe.

I have a Bufallo 54g variant and the factory firmware on it is very good... One of these days, I want to acquire an Asus 500p, recap it, change the miniPCI on it to Atheros, and load OpenWRT on it...

[ratdude747]

Re: linux router distros

ddwrt does way more than the shitty linksys crap it had before.

[NxB]

Re: linux router distros

I have 3 routers running dd-wrt and its fine, even the castrated ones. OpenWRT supported devices stop at wrt54g v4. Don't know if there is a mini version or a mega version (i have an 8mb router).

[Uranium-235]

Re: linux router distros

our office has been running pfsense on a server board with a P3-733 Slot 1/w 512M, using a atheros card as an ap. cpu never goes above 50%. 20 or so computers on the network so its not really that bad

[toastygoodness]

Re: linux router distros

does it count if you use a standard distro and bulk it up? if it does i use arch with some zesty in-kernel firewall features and SELinux.

[mockingbird]

Re: linux router distros

ddwrt does way more than the shitty linksys crap it had before.

DDWRT has your run-of-the-mill bells and whistles junkiness. Do you want a computer case that's flimsy but has cool windows and cheap fans with "cool" LEDs, or do you want a nice heavy gauge steel case? DDWRT has lots of bells and whistles, but performs terribly.

I have 3 routers running dd-wrt and its fine, even the castrated ones. OpenWRT supported devices stop at wrt54g v4. Don't know if there is a mini version or a mega version (i have an 8mb router).

You mean the WRT54Gs with only 2mb ROMs? What do you have 8mb of? ROM or RAM?

[Per Hansson]

Re: linux router distros

mockingbird; how do they perform poorly?
I see 50mbps throughput on a friends WRT54GL with DD-WRT...

It also seems to handle many more connections at once, plus you can set limits for keepalive etc, good if you use P2P...

I have also setup a big mesh network with about 6+ WRT54GS routers, running different firmwares, was Sveasoft at first but now am migrating some of them to DD-WRT
I must say I am impressed by their stability, some of these routers have almost a year uptime with no UPS or anything...

As for myself I use IPCOP together with WLAN-AP addon, to make it a wireless PA aswell, works quite well
On the Ethernet side I get 100/100 to the internet...

[mattch]

Re: linux router distros

i have a wrt54Gv5 on DD-wrt micro v24

when im idle (not really doing much but a few web sites) memory is %95 used!

the cpu usually low at 1-5% of the 200mhz broadcom chip

i have had to reset this one a few times.


but i do like the all the bells and whistles it comes with even though i dont really use them. the best thing i like v linksys FW is the ability have more port forwards, and more routing abilities.

[mockingbird]

Re: linux router distros

It also seems to handle many more connections at once, plus you can set limits for keepalive etc, good if you use P2P...

The router I use is similar to the WRT54GL. With DDWRT I experience crashing and slugishness when I download torrents.

I have also setup a big mesh network with about 6+ WRT54GS routers, running different firmwares, was Sveasoft at first but now am migrating some of them to DD-WRT

The GS has 32MB of ram as opposed to the 16 of the GL. Probably it can handle the bloat better. OpenWRT is far more efficient, but unfortunately the 2.6 Kernel version (Used to be called Kamikaze I don't remember what they're calling it now) is buggy with Broadcom chips, so I would only use it with Atheros (I'm talking about the router's actual chip, not the client).

[NxB]

Re: linux router distros

WRT54G-TM - 32mb ram 8mb rom. The neutered ones have 2/8.

[digge]

Re: linux router distros

im using dd-wrt as well, but i use a netgear wnr3500l (8mb flash, 64mb ram, 802.11n, usb port), my old one also was dd-wrt on a linksys wrt54gl. bought the netgear cause i only gor about 15mbit throughput, turns out it was my own fault though, the processor simply couldnt handle all the traffic shapeing i had going on turned of that and it jumped up to 50mbit like Per Hansson said Im fairly impressed by the performance on thoose considering how cheap they are.

[Funkimunk]

Re: linux router distros

Heya,

Have you tried Smoothwall?
It is a Linux based firewall with a good web interface and an easy to follow text-mode setup.

I had one deployed in on a 2.0Ghz Northwood Celeron w/ 256Mb of ram for over 4 years, it always provided excellent performance and was very reliable.

You can get it free from http://www.smoothwall.org/

I hope this helps