Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 21:51 Post subject: Goodbye DD-Wrt Community
I'd like to say goodbye to the DD-Wrt community. During the last year I unfortunately got more and more frustrated on how DD-Wrt is developed, and how developers communicate with the supporting community.
I found almost every build during the last (at least!) half year almost useless, buggy, unstable, etc. Unfortunately it seems that bug tickets are simply not closed (for years), almost ignored. There is no development roadmap, the latest recommended build is 13064 (around 7000 commits old), noone knows if there will ever be a SP2 final, ...
Of couse I would like to thank Brainslayer for his effort, I know you offer most of these services for free. The emphasis on supporting almost every brand new device is GREAT, but it seems that the focus is on supporting tons of devices, and not releasing a stable version.
But what I will really miss is the community here in the forum! I think what really stands out is the community behind DD-Wrt and the helpfull atmosphere here in the forums. I'd like to point out redhawk0, fractal, buddee and of couse eko and all the others. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Unfortunately for me it seems that your effort is not really honored, at least by the devs.
Well, what's going on on my routers now? Well, I tried Tomato, actually it also worked quite good, but development seems to be more confuse than DD-Wrt. Also there is just a very very small community behind it (at least my impression).
So finally I am now running OpenWrt and actually I was VERY impressed on how professional the OpenWrt devs are (yes, there is more that one dev). Even the latest Beta is rock-solid and fast. And the best is that you do not have to struggle with NVRAM-variables, everything looks like an ordinary Linux file system. Also the package manager is great and there are tons of available extensions.
No "I'd like to have strongswan running in DD-Wrt because that's the only secure VPN the iPhone can connect to" + the reply "we won't implement it because WE don't need it", it's just VERY VERY modular, so almost no limits on that.
Unfortunately support on the hardware side is not that impressive than DD-Wrt's, so I had to buy a new router (TP-Link WDR4300).
Again thank you all here in the community. I'd love to see some of you also in the OpenWrt's forum Unfortunately they are currently struggling with their webserver. And please mod's don't delete this post (Broadcom was my choice) _________________ 1 x TP-Link WDR-4300 v1.1 (primary router running OpenWRT Attitude Adjustment)
1 x TP-Link WDR-3600 v1.4 (backup/testing router running latest OpenWRT bleeding edge)
Mods do not delete posts like this. Thoughtful well expressed opinions are welcome. _________________ SIG:
I'm trying to teach you to fish, not give you a fish. If you just want a fish, wait for a fisherman who hands them out. I'm more of a fishing instructor.
LOM: "If you show that you have not bothered to read the forum announcements or to follow the advices in them then the level of help available for you will drop substantially, also known as Murrkf's law.."
Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 11564 Location: Wherever the wind blows- North America
Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 12:18 Post subject:
I agree with the others...yes...if frustrated...its time to move on. I've been so busy I haven't had much time to stop by here lately myself (I do work )
A well written critique is always welcome here. Thank you for giving dd-wrt a try...and hopefully if we get the kinks worked out an updated build released, you'll come back to contribute once again.
Thank you for the kind words...and the nicely put not so kind words as well. Also, you may want to give Tomato a try for your broadcom devices...the few builds that I've tried down through the years have been pretty good...although not as feature packed as dd-wrt...so I keep coming back here.
redhawk _________________ The only stupid question....is the unasked one.
Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 1380 Location: Pacific North West, USA
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:39 Post subject:
You need to swing both ways!
Routers are very picky devices.
If you read these forums, members can have identical devices yet completely different results.
I've used DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato, and a few other versions for hardware I no longer have.
OpenWRT is performing rather well with the newer Atheros devices in their Attitude Adjustment branch. _________________ Soylent Green Is People ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Netgear Nighthawk R7000 - DD-WRT Build R46220
Linksys EA8500 - OpenWRT IPQ806x Trunk R16375 5.4 Kernel
Joined: 11 Oct 2012 Posts: 22 Location: Dusseldorf, Germany
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:23 Post subject:
DoesItMatter wrote:
OpenWRT is performing rather well with the newer Atheros devices in their Attitude Adjustment branch.
The newer Atheros chipsets actually got a problem. The infamous TX/RX-bug is known for an eternity and it hasn't been fixed yet. The only improvement so far: A batch of those errors only slows the router down for a minute; a complete reboot isn't needed anymore.
But yeah, OpenWRT is awesome and I actually prefer it over DD-WRT. But, well, there is no support for my Linksys E3200 (yet).
Anyway, I can see where the OP is coming from and I can totally understand it.
I agree, develelopers are fixing only those bugs that matter to them selves. They ignore community needs. Some well known bugs are unaddressed for years. I would like to hear BrainSlayers response on this topic.
Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 21:45 Post subject: Re: Goodbye DD-Wrt Community
wjwj wrote:
Well, what's going on on my routers now? Well, I tried Tomato, actually it also worked quite good, but development seems to be more confuse than DD-Wrt. Also there is just a very very small community behind it (at least my impression).
So finally I am now running OpenWrt and actually I was VERY impressed on how professional the OpenWrt devs are (yes, there is more that one dev). Even the latest Beta is rock-solid and fast. And the best is that you do not have to struggle with NVRAM-variables, everything looks like an ordinary Linux file system. Also the package manager is great and there are tons of available extensions.
No "I'd like to have strongswan running in DD-Wrt because that's the only secure VPN the iPhone can connect to" + the reply "we won't implement it because WE don't need it", it's just VERY VERY modular, so almost no limits on that.
Unfortunately support on the hardware side is not that impressive than DD-Wrt's, so I had to buy a new router (TP-Link WDR4300).
I've also been a bit disenfranchised by the dd-wrt and tomato developers dragging their feet on bugfixing and Broadcom supporting the newer routers with faster processors and radios. I thought about switching to Openwrt, but decided that it wouldn't make much sense in my case.
I've developed a very interesting home network over the last year. At this point, I have a dd-wrt gateway behind my Verizon Actiontek, a low power Debian Linux fileserver (AMD E-350 processor), and a Netgear WNDR4500 with stock firmware acting as my main AP. I have several other routers with different firmware scattered about the house, mainly as client bridges.
So, while I could just rely on dd-wrt to do everything (gateway, AP, fileserver), instead I split the responsibilities up to have the best of everything. It makes a great gateway, but USB2 speeds would be limiting for a home fileserver, and it doesn't run on my 450/450 Mbps AP. Although, if there was any sort of good alternative, I would gladly flash my WNDR4500 and use it as the AP and gateway. It feels kind of weird to run dd-wrt on a router with the radio turned off!
As far as apps running on the router, I do have an OpenVPN server configured on the gateway, and I played around with the Transmission optware, but the processor just doesn't have enough grunt to run at full connection speed. Instead, I just use my Linux machine. Now, I could use my Linux machine as the gateway as well, but a router with custom firmware is a lot easier to deal with.
I'd love to try out OpenWrt though. I'm actually really surprised that the Linksys E3000 and Belkin F7D3301 are not supported. The specs on that TP-Link sound really tempting, but the last thing I need is another router!
Unfortunately they are currently struggling with their webserver. And please mod's don't delete this post (Broadcom was my choice) 
)
Soylent Green Is People ! 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=