E4200 - What Firmware Are You Running / Problems Do You See?

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TechNoid445
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 16

PostPosted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:46    Post subject: E4200 - What Firmware Are You Running / Problems Do You See? Reply with quote
I just finished researching to find the best dual band router that will run DD-WRT and ended up concluding that the Cisco Linksys E4200 v1 is it, IMHO. I purchased a good used one and loaded it up with "dd-wrt.v24-18777_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-e4200.bin".

As a test here where I work, there will be about 20-25 devices pounding on it daily. During yesterday's debut, I noticed I was disconnected twice in a 5 hour period, and that there is a comment about reducing both of the radios' power settings from 100mw to 50mw in order to increase WIFI stability. I just did that.

I would like to know what build others are running, what the conditions the router is running under, and what your observations are. I am considering going to "dd-wrt.v24-21061_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-nv60k.bin" but I don't have much, information on that build, especially if anything broke.

Thank you very much for your help.
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MartinHerrman
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 18:48    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'm running this router with Fractals build 21402:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=168290

no complaints at all, but I'm running it at home (1 client via UTP, up to 7 clients (phones/tablets/laptops) via wireless.

I have configured it to reboot nightly.

I provide 2 SSID's, one for ng-mixed at 2,4 GHz, one for n-only at 5 GHz.

Most important performance settings:
WMM support enabled
No-acknoledgement disabled

tx power 100 mW

HTH!
TechNoid445
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 16

PostPosted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 15:17    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thank you very much. I think I'd like to experience a Mega build for once. I will try the same build you have.

However, this leads me to another question. The WIKI for this router ( http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_E4200 ) says to always load a NV60 build once the E4200 is initially flashed with DDWRT.
On this site: ftp://ftp.basmaf.com/Fractal_Builds/21402/ it shows several flavors:
dd-wrt.v24-21402_NEWD-2_K2.6_mega-e4200.bin
dd-wrt.v24-21402_NEWD-2_K2.6_mega-nv60k.bin

Like I said, the WIKI says always load a NV60. Why would there be a "dd-wrt.v24-21402_NEWD-2_K2.6_mega-e4200.bin" available then?

Which one should I load I wonder???
MartinHerrman
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 21:15    Post subject: Reply with quote
Good question, I don't know Smile

I used the e4200 build.

BTW: I'm not using mega, but the mini one. I only need basic functionality, but are also using a free DNS service and want to have the router update the entry when my ip address changes.
MartinHerrman
Guest





PostPosted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 21:25    Post subject: Reply with quote
Some thoughts:

It would be nice to have some clear explanation by the different builders (brainslayer, fractal, ..) on the goals they want to achieve, the different opinions or approaches they have, etc. This will make it easier for users to make a choice on the build to use. Just think about the openbsd, netbsd and freebsd differences for example.

I have chosen for fractals build because at that time (some months ago) there were regular updates and it just works fine for me. But when I have to choose now again, I might try Brainslayers builds first, because those had more frequent updates lately.

I saw that there are now kernel 3.x builds, which is a very nice improvement (made possible by Broadcom I assume? Because they provided suitable drivers?), I believe in technology improvements in the kernel from which we can benefit and expect these builds to become really better than the 2.6 based builds we have now. But I will not be a first adaptor of these new builds.
ErMeglio
DD-WRT User


Joined: 11 Jul 2006
Posts: 104

PostPosted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 9:55    Post subject: Reply with quote
MartinHerrman wrote:

I saw that there are now kernel 3.x builds, which is a very nice improvement (made possible by Broadcom I assume? Because they provided suitable drivers?), I believe in technology improvements in the kernel from which we can benefit and expect these builds to become really better than the 2.6 based builds we have now. But I will not be a first adaptor of these new builds.

Hi, I was one of the first adopters and I wanted to tell you it worked really good since the beginning, and it still is now. I'm not using many complex functionalities of dd-wrt btw, just sshd and some personalizations of the included DNSMasq server and I always used the mega build, for little experiments I sometimes do with new stuff Smile
Since when I've put in the 3.X build the router is very politely and stably working. Not that it was not before, honestly, but I had more problems upgrading between 2.6 builds than on 3.X!

Just wanted to let you know my experience Wink
TechNoid445
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 16

PostPosted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 15:08    Post subject: Reply with quote
@MartinHerrman
Thank you. I am not sure where I got that you were running mega Confused , but thanks for all your insight.

@ErMeglio
I was thinking to go to a 3 version but I realize that I do not know all the DDWRT features to be able to tell if something is broken.

I do want to experience a stable Mega build on my E4200 but the sea of DDWRT is quite confusing to me.

In general, DDWRT features that interest me are:
-Dual band WIFI operation, particularly 5mhz operation. The reason for this is because once a year we have a 1000+ person get-together with vendors and they all have their own WIFI, most of it being 2.4Ghz, which has been causing much interference for us over the years. The 5Ghz band is not cluttered "yet", so we are moving that direction for next get-together.

-VOIP operability, since I am in charge of a VOIP phone system here at work, I'd like to see what flexibility I can achieve with DDWRT.

-VPN

-QOS

I think I will take a shot from the hip and load:
Fractal's "dd-wrt.v24-21402_NEWD-2_K2.6_mega-nv60k.bin"

Wish me luck!
MartinHerrman
Guest





PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:40    Post subject: Reply with quote
Good luck! Razz

And I might give a 3.x build a try soon, thanks!
MartinHerrman
Guest





PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 18:10    Post subject: Reply with quote
I gave it a try, no issues found:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=762637#762637
slyb2
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Nov 2010
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 21:05    Post subject: Reply with quote
i`m also using 21402 mega. Nothing fancy but works without an issue.

I`ve recently found a startup command for ads blocking and unfortunetly it`s not working any more... What do you use?

here`s the command I`ve tried:

#!/bin/sh
logger WAN up script executing
if test -s /tmp/hosts0
then
rm /tmp/hosts0
fi

logger Downloading http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt
wget -O - http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt | grep 127.0.0.1 |
sed '2,$s/127.0.0.1/0.0.0.0/g; s/[[:space:]]*#.*$//g;' |
grep -v localhost | tr ' ' '\t' |
tr -s '\t' | tr -d '\015' | sort -u >/tmp/hosts0
grep addn-hosts /tmp/dnsmasq.conf ||
echo "addn-hosts=/tmp/hosts0" >>/tmp/dnsmasq.conf
logger Restarting dnsmasq
killall dnsmasq
dnsmasq --conf-file=/tmp/dnsmasq.conf
MartinHerrman
Guest





PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 21:50    Post subject: Reply with quote
I think it is better to start a new topic for the adblock issue you are facing.

Just a tip: when I needed to find out the root cause of this issue, I would run all the commands manually on the command line (using telnet or ssh session) and see where the error occurs.
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