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Netgear’s Open Source Router Available Soon for your Tweaking

Posted 10/06/09 at 06:25:40 PM  by Jason Barry

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Netgear announced their latest foray into the open source wireless router realm with the Netgear WNR3500L. Cisco based Linksys routers targeted at consumers have been flaunting the Linux OS for quite some time. However, Netgear has plans to become a favorite amongst the open source networking community.

The WNR3500L rocks the latest 802.11n support and is fully customizable with the latest open source firmware out there: DD-WRT, OpenWRT, and Tomato. Som Pal Choudhury, senior product line manager for advanced wireless, also mentioned their “Development Partner Program, with multiple software vendors and developers creating customized, robust, commercial-grade applications on the WNR3500L.”

In addition to the open source community, Netgear has collaborated with software application companies to deliver applications such as hotspot software by Sputnik, and remote access by Leaf Networks, among others, to run additionally on the Linux platform.

In terms of hardware, it sports a 480MHz MIPS 74K CPU, 8MB of flash memory, 64MB of RAM, 5 gigabit Ethernet ports, and USB ports for shared peripherals. Netgear will launch the router this Fall with a starting price of $139.99.

The price is a bit steep; do you think the flexibility of Linux and additional software, not to mention full 802.11n support is worth the price tag?

COMMENTS:2
TAGS: wireless, netgear, networking, Router, 802.11n, hardware, dd-wrt, tomato, wnr3500l, openwrt
COMMENTS
avatarI think it's a smart move on

Submitted by Cache on Tue, 10/06/2009 - 7:04pm

I think it's a smart move on their part, especially since it gives users a substantial amount of lattitude on how they want to configure their router.  Better, it leaves open possibilities that other companies want to take on that a larger company might not--especially with niche market applications.

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avatarIt's a good move for them. 

Submitted by aerotive on Tue, 10/06/2009 - 6:29pm

It's a good move for them.  Look at most any shopping or enthusiast site and one of the first questions asked about router deals is "does it support ddwrt/tomato/etc".  This makes the process more open and accessible, with the plus that if you use a third party firmware you don't void your warranty.

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