Upgrade your Wireless Router

Today, I upgraded my wireless router. Not because it was broken, but just because it was there, you know?

When Linksys was its own company, it did a very cool thing. It based some of its devices on the Linux operating system, which made it very easy for enterprising young folks to do the same. Fast forward a few years and now you can take a third party operating system and place it on your Linksys wireless router.

I've been reading about the excellent DD-WRT package for some time now. This afternoon, I found the time to give it a try. (Actually, I was just running out of excuses to do yardwork, and this fit the bill nicely.) In less then an hour, I had downloaded the software, flashed the router, and re-configured it to use my existing SSID and network information. While, it doesn't compete with Apple's 300, it does have quite a few interesting features. It brings a lot of new ideas to the home broadband router area. It can update your DDNS information, host your PPTP VPN session, provide a full SSH management login, and keep its time current with any NTP server. My favorite feature is probably the ability to increase the power of the radio so my devices downstairs can get a better connection.

Anyway, let's just say that I'm impressed. I've even considered using it to replace my custom-built Debian firewall that currently guards my home network. If you want to give it a try, it supports much more then just Linksys, so visit this page to see if your device is supported. If yours isn't and you are ready for an upgrade, you can pick up the very nice Linksys WRT54G for around $50.