One of the things I love about technology is experimentation with new products. When I discovered I could hack my Linksys router firmware with a better version, I did. What was better about it? More features for port forwarding, VPN, wireless settings & security, QoS, the list goes on.

First I tried Sveasoft which worked fine but I shifted to DD-WRT when the development slowed down at Sveasoft. For the last year I’ve run DD-WRT on two Linksys WRT54G routers with success but not satisfaction.

DD-WRT has an excellent feature set, bar none. You can’t beat the price: free. For the most part it works fine but over time I was discouraged that common network applications wouldn’t work. I couldn’t get iChat A/V working with my parents. My Nokia E61 using Truphone (VoIP via SIP) wouldn’t work without tweaking the phone and browsing the web required three attempts before achieving a connection. Factor in poor signal strength on the Linksys units, even with after-market antennas and two-router WDS setup which would consistently lose connection, and I finally had enough.

After some deliberation I bought a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 because it could be hacked should I choose to and it includes a high-power radio with MIMO antennas. The stock firmware is rather full-featured for 95% of users and within a short time it was up and running in a contest with the DD-WRT Linksys.

The Buffalo’s range is better (without WDS no less) which means my Xbox 360 and laptops can connect with robustness and speed better than the WDS Linksys configuration. The ISP throughput of the Buffalo is 3.0 Mpbs compared to 1.5 of DD-WRT. My E61 connects on the first try to the router and registers a SIP profile immediately. To top it off, iChat A/V works like a champ.

All this without hacked firmware and fancy antennas. Out-of-the-box goodness.

What’s interesting in all of this is the iChat issue. I feel that freeware/open-source products provide a better level of support than retail because of the user community. In the case of DD-WRT and iChat, no one had a solution. In old forum threads the developer claimed there was no problem with port forwarding and UDP traffic (required by iChat). Even stranger, the DMZ function of DD-WRT didn’t help which tells me that iChat doesn’t work because of some (unacknowleged) bug in DD-WRT.

There are other router firmware hacks to be found on the ‘net like HyperWRT but I’ll pass. When I was younger I’d waste hour upon hour trying to reach equipment configuration Utopia but, today, I have better things to do with my time.

As the expression goes, “your mileage may vary.” In my case I’ve found that using an out-of-the-box wireless router is better than any hack could ever be.

Onboard a flight from LA to NY when a customer asks for tea the flight attendant replies, “do you want black tea?” and the customer says, “no, I’d like green tea.”

That was “black tea” as in the absence of cream and sugar.