DD-WRT is a third party firmware which is open source. You can install it in different wireless routers. Please check DD-WRT hardware compatibility to see if your router is supported.

There are many advantages when running third party firmware instead of the factory defaults. The first one is flexibility because they allow you to do many things that normally you can’t do with proprietary firmware. The second is better support.

Believe it or not, it is more likely that you can find a solution to your problem in these communities than in the manufacturer’s site.

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I was revisiting some links i had stored in my bookmarks and i saw this one.

This is an article about building a Windows Home Server for roughly $400. It is interesting that Windows Home Server can run in such generic hardware because it not only appeals to many users and enthusiasts, but it can make you home network administration much much easier and useful at this price range.

Here is another cool site devoted to Windows Home Server.

Source: Home Server Hacks

As i posted yesterday, i had to buy a new wireless router because my two years old Belkin F5D9230-4 started to give me problems 15-20 days ago. My HTTP traffic (mostly when browsing) was very intermittent and sometimes i had to hit F5 or Refresh many times in order to display a web page.

I began researching the new models from the most popular brands and i was pondering to buy a new pre-N router or an old one which costed much less. I have planned to build a HTPC (Home Theater PC) in the near future so i will eventually need a draft-N or pre-N router in order to stream content from my main PC to the HTPC i will have in the leaving room.

But as the N standard isn’t approved yet, i resolved to buy a cheaper one and when i need a new one, then i will buy it. This way i save save money now and i hope than when i need N speeds the standard will be certified already (or at least the price of routers will drop considerably).

It comes to Linksys (Cisco) faced some problems back in 2003 when they used open-source code in their routers and they didn’t make the code public, which was against the GNU General Public License.

I ended buying a Linksys WRT54GL because it allows me to install a variety of open-source firmware if i want to.

I stumbled upon a site where the author develops a firmware called Tomato for mainly a few Linksys and Buffalo routers. In that website were links to other open-source firmware projects. I learn about them all and choose to install Tomato in my new router.

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