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Murphy's Law: Do You Really Want an Open-Source Router?

David Murphy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:00:00 -0500

I'll admit, I was a little bit excited when I read earlier this week that Netgear was launching a quote-unquote open-source router. It's not very often--well, hardly ever--that one sees a larger corporate manufacturer of computer hardware so brazenly embrace the ideals (and code) of the open-source enthusiasts. If anything, it seems that companies in the networking space tend to go a little out of their way to ensure that one can't add or tweak a store-bought device with unofficial firmware. I think they'd much prefer to up-sell you additional features than watch you unlock them yourself, but that's just me.

And yet, here we are! An open-source router! Just the kind of thing you want to bring home, install into your network, and begin updating with the best DD-WRT, OpenWRT, or Tomato firmware you can get your hands on. Imagine the possibilities! Imagine the new features you might be able to play around with! Imagine the joy in your family's eyes when you tell 'em how you've transformed your Jekyll of a local area network into an beastly, unrestrained Hyde. They'll talk about this day for the next five family gatherings at least!

I exaggerate, but only because it seems that the marketing team for Netgear's WNR3500L gigabit router is probably benefiting the most from this "switch" to open-source. I can't see average consumers using this device to its fullest potential, if that's even possible to begin with. The WNR3500L isn't actually open-source all the way. By incorporating closed-source drivers into the product--and triumphing third-party firmware that may or may not run afoul of the GPL itself--Netgear could actually be costing consumers valuable security and functionality.

Consumers Don't Care

I'm sorry, I just have to state the obvious: Average consumers do not care about open-source. Or, rather, they don't care about open source unless it's packaged into a product such that they don't have to lift a finger to reap its benefits. The Chumby is a perfect example of a device that's full of easy-to-use, open-source goodness; Netgear's WNR3500L is not.

It's a simple equation. When a typical router-purchaser picks up the product, he or she will find a fully working, factory-default installation of Netgear's usual configuration back-end. Said person might even jump into the configuration screen and forward some ports or and rename the wireless network to something witty/profane.

Beyond that, there's no impetus on Netgear's part to guide the user to a third-party, open-source firmware package, nor any reasoning or comparisons to suggest what benefits could come from the switch. Few users typically update the firmware of their devices when the manufacturer offers a change or fix. Fewer still go out into the wide world of the Internet hunting for unofficial replacements to use in place of official firmware.

Let's face it: an average person simply isn't going to explore an open-source route no matter how big and bold the phrase was on the box copy. To these people, a product working as expected out of the box is enough of a reward. Why mess with it?

Enthusiasts Remain Unrewarded

I would expect Maximum PC readers to want to take the plunge into third-party firmware more than most. Kudos to you. Only, by doing so, you run the risk that comes from working with software that's technically unsupported and untested on a wide scale. But let's ignore the potential device-breaking implications and assume that your third-party firmware installs flawlessly. Here's the problem: The underlying code of the WNR3500L's modules--especially those related to the core functionality of its Broadcom chipsets--is proprietary. That includes its ethernet and wireless drivers.

This becomes a real issue for third-party creators that want to update the WNR3500L based on a newer version of the Linux kernel. Without the source code, there's no easy way to compile updated modules that work with later kernels--save for reverse engineering code that's found in completely different routers. Updated Linux kernels aren't backwards-compatible, after all: a module coded for kernel version 2.4 just won't function in kernel version 2.6.

As an open-source enthusiast, you lose the security upgrades and functionality that a newer kernel would bring to the table. And even then, life isn't peachy for third-party firmware that's stuck with the closed Broadcom drivers for kernel version 2.4. Just look at the small list of issues found in the OpenWRT drivers Netgear is hosting and promoting:

WPA and WPA2 are not working.
SAMBA support is not present.
NAS can be accessed only through command line using utilities such as ftp
No GUI support to access NAS is available till now.

Is the Firmware Truly Open?

I won't hit this point too hard, as I feel like each week of Murphy's Law is another look into some alleged violation or misinterpretation of the GPL. Suffice, controversy exists over whether firmware like DD-WRT and Tomato--which, again, Netgear promotes--violates GPL licensing. Or, at the very least, that either firmware options violate the spirit of open-source.

The charges back and forth, especially with DD-WRT, are a festering nest of he-said she-said. Suffice, there's been enough squabble over elements like DD-WRT's locked-down UI (a closed feature in an open-source architecture) to give thought that the application might not be playing by the full set of rules required by the GPL. It's conjecturing and controversy rolled into one, and it's not exactly helped by what developer "Brainslayer" states the following on the DD-WRT wiki:

"WARNING: Due to abuse by those re-branding DD-WRT and selling it, or pre-flashed routers with it on eBay, builds dated later than 08/04/2006 have some protections against re-branding the web UI."

So...

As it stands, I see Netgear's WNR3500L as more a product of hype than a legitimate push for a truly open-source networking device. And even then, is the consumer world ready for such a product, especially when said open-source router is clocking in at a $140 price tag? (Admittedly, it includes some extra hardware beyond its non-open-source-themed cousin.) When I think "open-source" from a consumer standpoint, I think, "Wow, this device will probably be less expensive because the software was in all likelihood free of charge."

With the WNR3500L, it's a different question: "Where'd my wireless security go?"

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!

AMD to Officially Release Catalyst 9.8 Drivers Today

Paul Lilly — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:15:06 -0500

Those who attended Quakecon 2009 (as well as those who follow AMD's blog) were able to get an early look at AMD's Catalyst 9.8 drivers, and sometime today, the company is expected to release them to the general public.

The new driver package comes with support for the Radeon HD 2000, HD 3000, and HD 4000 series while serving up support for OpenGL 3.1 extensions. AMD also claims several performance gains, including:

Up to 50 percent better performance in Battleforge DirectX 10/10.1
Up to 77 percent better performance in Company of Heroes (DX10)
Up to a 10 percent (dual CrossFireX) and 34 percent (quad CrossFireX) performance boost in Crysis (DX10)
Crysis Warhead DX10 performance of CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves up to 7 percent and quad mode up to 69 percent
Far Cry 2 DX10 performance of CrossFireX in dual mode improves up to 50 percent and quad mode up to 88 percent
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. DX10/10.1 performance of CrossFireX in dual mode improves up to 40 percent and quad mode up to 60 percent
UninginTropics OpenGL performance improvements of up to 20 percent
UningineTropics DX10 performance of CrossFireX in quad more improves up to 20 percent
World in Conflict DX10 performance improves up to 10 percent

If you don't feel like waiting for the drivers to show up on game.amd.com, you can grab them right here:

Windows XP 32-bit
Windows XP-64-bit
Vista / Win7 32-bit
Vista / Win7 64-bit

Image Credit: AMD

Windows 7 Feature Focus: Devices and Printers

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:00:00 -0500

Until the introduction of Windows 7, device management was a multi-application nightmare. Want to see a device's hardware configuration? Open Device Manager. Want to browse the contents of a storage device? Open My Computer. Need to manage the settings used by a specific device? Open the appropriate applet in Control Panel (Mouse, Keyboard, Game Controller, and so on). If you have a multifunction device, you would need to open separate applets to manage the printing, faxing, scanning, and file management functions of one device.

In Windows 7, the Devices and Printers applet in Control Panel provides a single entry point to managing single-purpose and multifunction devices. Microsoft considers Devices and Printers so important to system management that you can start Devices and Printers directly from the Start menu. To learn how Devices and Printers will make your life easier, and what you need to do to make it work better for you, read on.

Understanding the Devices and Printers Interface

When you start Devices and Printers, the dialog is divided into two parts: devices other than printers and faxes are listed in the Devices section. Typical examples include:

Mouse or other pointing device
Keyboard
Game controllers
Displays
Mass storage devices such as card readers and external hard disks
Digital cameras
DV camcorders
smartphones
scanners

Interestingly, the computer itself is also listed as a device.

Printers and fax devices (including software print drivers such as the Microsoft XPS Document Writer or third-party PDF creators) are listed in the Printers and Faxes section. If the device or printer uses a Device Stage-compatible driver, an image of the actual device is shown. Otherwise, generic images are shown for each device and printer. Brief properties for the currently-selected device are shown in the window at the bottom of the dialog.

Managing Devices and Printers 101

As with many other features in recent Windows versions, the key to getting the most out of Devices and Printers is the right-click function. Right-click any device in the Devices section of Devices and Printers, and you can choose from the following:

Configuration options for the device
Create a shortcut
Troubleshooting
Device properties

When you select options from the right-click menu, Windows 7 opens the appropriate properties sheet for each device, such as the mouse shown in the next figure. Thus, Devices and Printers provides a very convenient way to work with any listed device.

File Management

In a typical Windows 7 system, removable-media and external storage devices are found in more places than ever before, including internal and external card readers, printers, and multifunction devices. By selecting Browse Files from the right-click menu for Mass Storage Device or other devices that include storage, you can browse the drive letter(s) assigned to that device. If the device contains media that is supported by AutoPlay, you can open the AutoPlay dialog from the right-click menu. In this example, Devices and Printers is working with a multi-slot internal card reader.

Managing Systems

In many discussions of Devices and Printers, the most overlooked device is the computer, which is identified by name in Devices and Printers. Right-click the icon for your computer to see a staggering number of configuration options, including:

AutoPlay settings
File browsing for all drives
CD/DVD media ejection
Settings for network, sound, mouse, and keyboard
Regional and language settings
System properties
Device installation settings
Power options
Windows Update

By accessing these settings through Devices and Printers, you will save an immense amount of time (and wear on your mouse and your clicking finger).

Working with Imaging Devices

When you right-click on a digital camera and select Browse Files, camera name, you can browse both the camera's internal (fixed) storage (if present) and the camera's removable storage.

You can navigate through the folders, change view settings (Large Thumbnails in this example), copy or delete files, and perform other file management functions as if the camera were a regular storage device.

Managing Printers and Multifunction Devices

While previous versions of Windows have offered strong printer management functions, Windows 7 makes printer management even easier with Devices and Printers. Right-click a printer and you can:

View the print queue ("See What's Printing")
Set the printer as default
Change printing preferences such as layout, paper size, print quality, page order, resolution and so on
Change printer properties (sharing, ports, color management, security, device settings)
Troubleshoot any device

Right-click a multifunction device, and the device's additional features, such as support for removable media and scanning functions, can be launched or managed.

Device Stage

When you double-click on a multifunction device in Devices and Printers, you open one of the most-anticipated features in Windows 7, Device Stage. However, unless your device has a Device Stage-enabled driver, prepare to be underwhelmed. A multifunction device with a Device Stage-enabled driver includes a image of the device itself in both the Devices and Printers folder and the Device Stage window, and it includes a customized, vendor-specific, list of actions for the device. Some examples include:

Links to utilities
Driver updates
Paper and media ordering
Accessory software
Vendor websites

This example shows the Device Stage dialog for the new Epson WorkForce 600 multifunction device. This driver was provided in Windows 7 Beta, but was omitted in Windows 7 RC. An updated version of this driver should be available when Windows 7 goes live in October.

Device Stage-enabled drivers use specially-written XML metadata files and a device icon image file to describe the device and provide access to its functions. If you're really curious about the technical details, see the Windows Device Experience page at Microsoft.com.

So, what happens if your device doesn't have a Device Stage-enabled driver, as is the case if you're using a Windows Vista driver with Windows 7. You'll want to contact your driver vendor to see about an update, but in the meantime, what will you see?

Here's the same device (Epson WorkForce 600) we saw earlier in this article, but this time it's using a Windows Vista-class driver. As you can see, Windows 7 does its best to provide a reasonable facsimile of the Device Stage experience, but it's a far cry from the real thing. The device is represented by a generic icon and general device configuration settings, and standard Windows functions rather than vendor-specific functions may be linked to options such as scanning. For example, if you click the Scan a Document or Picture setting using a generic driver, the Windows scanner application, rather than the vendor-provided scanner application, is used (you can still run the vendor-provided scanner application from the Start menu).

Other Features of Devices and Printers

Click the Troubleshoot option from the right-click menu of any device or printer, and Windows 7 checks for problems with installed devices. If it detects a problem, it launches a device-specific troubleshooter. If it does not detect a problem, it provides the option to try other steps. If a connected device is not displayed, click Add a Device to detect and install drivers for the device. To add a printer, click Add a Printer.

Conclusion

Devices and Printers will transform the way you manage devices and printers in Windows 7 because it enables you to get more done with less effort and less scrambling around Control Panel to find the right applet to run. However, to get the most out of Devices and Printers with multifunction devices such as all-in-one units, imaging devices, and smartphones, you will need to install Windows 7-specific drivers that support Device Stage as they become available. Got any secrets about Devices and Printers you want to share? Hit Comment and let us know.

Mark Edward Soper has spent a lot of time with Windows 7, and his forthcoming book Easy Microsoft Windows 7 proves it. He's also found time for his favorite hobby, digital photography, and his new book, The Shot Doctor: The Amateur's Guide to Great Digital Photos, will help you take better pictures this summer and throughout the year, whether you use a point-and-shoot or digital SLR camera.

AMD Catalyst 9.5 Now Available

Paul Lilly — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:18:54 -0500

It took a bit of waiting, but those Catalyst 9.5 downloads that started appearing on the web days ago are finally available direct from AMD. For those of you who grew impatient and snagged the download from an alternate source, they should be the same ones now appearing on AMD's site.

Catalyst 9.5 promises a handful of performance improvements, including:

Performance gains of up to 11 percent for single GPU and ATI CrossFireX configurations with AA enabled in Unigine Tropics DX9
Up to a 10 percent boost in Company of Heroes
Up to a 10 percent boost in BattleForce for CrossFireX configurations

Several bugs have been squashed in the new release, a handful of which apply to Windows 7. Win 7 owners should no longer see dropped frames while playing certain Blu-ray interlaced content, and moving a video clip across an extended desktop should no longer cause the system to flicker or for the media player to stop working.

Release Notes (PDF)
Download

Latest GeForce Driver (185.85) Adds Support for GTX 275

Paul Lilly — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:04:06 -0500

Nvidia has just released a new WHQL-certified driver, version 185.85, for GeForce videocard and ION platform owners. The new driver adds official support for the recently released GTX 275 videocard, as well as support for CUDA 2.2, which Nvidia says will result in improved performance in GPU computing applications. Other performance claims include:

Up to 25 percent in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Up to 22 perent in Crysis: Warhead with antialiasing enabled
Up to 11 percent in Fallout 3 with antialiasing enabled
Up to 14 percent in Far Cry 2
Up to 30 percent in Half-Life 2 engine games with 3-way and 4-way SLI
Up to 45 percent in Mirror's Edge with antialiasing enabled

You read that right - that's up to a 45 percent boost in Mirror's Edge, according to Nvidia. In addition, 185.85 updates the PhysX software to 9.09.0408 and offers "numerous bug fixes." Barrage of links below.

Documentation

Release Notes (v185.85) PDF
New Control Panel Users Guide

Driver Downloads

Windows XP 32-bit
Windows XP 64-bit
Windows Vista 32-bit
Windows Vista 64-bit
Windows 7 32-bit
Windows 7 64-bit

Image Credit: Nvida

Asus Updates Motherboard Drivers to Support Windows 7 RC

Paul Lilly — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:25:12 -0500

Asus this week announced new beta drivers for several of its motherboards that "enable Asus motherboard users to run Windows 7 RC." By doing so, Asus claims its mobos are the world's first to support the newly released operating system.

"Asus' industry-leading Research & Development team has kept close pace with each new beta release of Windows 7, and has developed beta drivers that enable Asus motherboard users to try Windows 7 RC immediately," Asus wrote in a press release. "The drivers can be downloaded from the Asus Motherboard Support website (http://support.asus.com/)."

Asus notes the following models are now officially supported:

P6T Deluxe V2
P5Q-E
P5Q PRO Turbo
P5Q SE PLUS
M4A78-EM

Updated drivers for the full range of P6T, P5Q, and M4 series boards will be coming soon, Asus says.

Image Credit: Asus

AMD's New ATI Catalyst 9.3 Driver Adds Support for Windows 7

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:37:16 -0500

Windows 7 is already feeling the love from both graphics camps. Earlier this month, Nvidia released a specialized Forceware driver for the beta OS along with the promise of regular updates, and now AMD has followed suit with its new ATI Catalyst 9.3 driver this week. However, the new Catalyst driver rolls both Windows 7 and Vista support into a single download, allowing the company to lay claim as offering the "first unified driver installation package to incorporate Windows 7 support." AMD says future Catalyst releases will also be unified for both the current and upcoming Windows OSes.

"AMD's expertise in visual computing shines through in the combined experience of Windows 7 and ATI Radeon graphics," said Anantha Kancherla, group manager responsible for Windows graphics, Microsoft. "With today's release of a Windows 7 unified driver, AMD once again demonstrates its ability to deliver perfromance and cutting-edge driver support."

Along with full WDDM 1.1 compliance under Windows 7, AMD says Catalyst 9.3 boosts performance in several games where framerates are CPU limited. AMD only offered one example, saying Lost Planet: Colonies will see up to 20 percent better framerates on 4800 series videocards, and up to 50 percent on 4600, 4500, and 4300 series.

Catalyst 9.3 squashes a number of bugs in Vista and XP, including video combing effects no longer being visible during movie playback while fast forwarding or rewinding (Vista), Avivo video color settings being retained after resume from Sleep/Hibernate (Vista), rotation now works if Aero mode is turned off (Vista), faster Alt-Tab toggling between 3D games to the desktop (XP), and a handful of other fixes.

And for you Folding@Home fans, Catalyst 9.3 purportedly crunches through WUs better, too.

Release Notes (PDF)
Driver Downloads

Nvidia Releases New WHQL GeForce Driver 182.06, Left 4 Dead Performance Boost

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:20:51 -0600

Nvidia this week released new WHQL GeForce drivers for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, and 200-series owners. The new drivers, version 182.06, promise around a 10 percent performance increase in Fallout 3 at high resolution with AA, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, Half Life 2 at high resolution with AA, the insanely entertaining Left 4 Dead at high resolution with AA, and Race Driver: GRID, also at high resolution with AA.

In addition to double-digit performance boosts, Nvidia says its new drivers include full support for OpenGL 3.0 on GeForce 8, 9, and 200 series GPUs and automatically installs the new PhysX software (version 9.090203. The drivers also fix a bug in Vista 32-bit where GeForce 9800 GTX/GX2/GT/GTX+ and 8800 GTS/GT/GS owners experienced a system hang when switching between performance states.

More information available in the release notes (PDF).

Windows XP 32-bit
Windows XP 64-bit
Windows Vista 32-bit
Windows Vista 64-bit

Image Credit: Nvidia