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Netgear WGR614L Embraces Open Source Firmware

Chris Moody — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:50:11 -0500

Netgear may have found a winner with it’s newly announced WGR614L wireless-G router that provides open source developers with an appliance platform that can be customized. Linksys has been enjoying a certain amount of popularity from the open source community since it released its original Linux based WRT54G router back in 2003. Since then a number of projects to change the firmware on the WRT line have come about like Tomato and OpenWRT. Of course flashing the firmware to anything other than the Linksys designed firmware voids your warranty. Netgear has chosen to embrace this community with their new WGR614L, rather than fight it.

Som Pal Choudhury, senior product manager for wireless at Netgear is quoted as saying:

“The launch of the WGR614L is significant to the open source community as there has been a growing demand for more powerful platforms to support a rapidly growing segment of open source enthusiasts that are seeking to create more robust, commercial-grade applications for their wireless routers.”

“In addition to adding a more powerful processor and additional memory to the proven Broadcom platform, the most popular open source firmware, Tomato and DD-WRT, are available on WGR614L making it easier for users to develop a wide variety of applications. An important feature of our offering is the dedicated and responsive open source community which enables users to easily exchange ideas and troubleshoot issues. New applications currently being developed by this community include traffic shaping applications, redirections to captive portals for hotspots, guest access via a separate SSID, upstream and downstream QOS, and intelligent bandwidth monitoring.”

The WGR614L features a 240 MHz MIPS32® CPU core (overclockable) with 16 KB of instruction cache, 16 KB of data cache, 1 KB of pre-fetch cache, and incorporates 4 MB of flash memory and 16 MB of RAM. It also includes an external 2 dBi antenna and a second internal diversity antenna. On the network side it has a 10/100 Internet WAN port and a four-port 10/100 LAN switch, incorporates an 802.11g access point to support wireless connectivity at speeds of up to 54 Mbps. The WGR614L also supports static and dynamic routing with TCP/IP, VPN pass-through (IPSec, L2TP), NAT, PPTP, PPPoE, DHCP (client and server), and Bigpond. A Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall protects the network from intruders, and the wireless connection is secured with support for 40-, 128- and 152-bit WEP encryption, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2-PSK, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). Additional security features include: Exposed Host (DMZ), MAC address authentication, URL content filtering, logs and e-mail alerts of Internet activity. It will list for $69.00

Netgear has also launched myopenrouter.com to form a community around writing firmware for the WGR614L. This is a brilliant move on Netgear’s part. Rather than fight the open source community on fiddling with the firmware, choosing to embrace it will only result in a better product, without Netgear needing to engineer the software. I believe this will prove to be a very popular system for home based routers for enthusiasts who want to be hands on with their hardware, and seek to get the most performance possible.

hField Technologies Wi-Fire Wi-Fi Adapter

Michael Brown — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:41:27 -0500

We sometimes get so caught up in the excitement of the “next big thing” we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Based on the performance of the Wi-Fire Wi-Fi adapter, that might just be the case with IEEE 802.11g wireless routers.

If you value range over throughput, this is the Wi-Fi adapter for you. This ungainly device doesn’t rely on MIMO or IEEE 8011.n; heck, it doesn’t even require a PCMCIA slot. When we plugged it into our notebook’s USB 2.0 port, it delivered unbelievable range with a year-old Asus WL700gE router equipped with a single antenna.

Indoors, the Wi-Fire performed no better than Linksys’s WPC600N adapter, and no 802.11g router can match the maximum throughput of an 802.11n model. But the Wi-Fire lived up to its name when we moved the notebook outdoors, delivering TCP throughput of 15Mb/s (compared to just 2.7Mb/s for the Linksys).

Our jaws really dropped as we moved the notebook ever further away: 350 feet from the router, with the signal passing through an insulated, double-thick interior wall and a steel garage door, the Wi-Fire delivered TCP throughput of 14.5Mb/s. Maximum range dropped to 135 feet on the other side of the house (which added four insulated interior walls, a set of plywood cabinets, and an insulated exterior wall with fiber-cement siding), but throughput remained steady at 13.2Mb/s.

The antenna is extremely directional, which wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t mounted so loosely to its plastic stand. You can set it on a tabletop or clip it to your notebook screen, but after you’ve painstakingly located the reception sweet spot, the simple act of breathing is enough to move it out of position. We completely lost our connection only when it pivoted at extreme range, but at no point was the fit sufficiently tight to keep the antenna stationary.

Linksys WRT600N Dual-Band Wi-Fi Router

Michael Brown — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:58:43 -0600

The Linksys WRT600N is the first 802.11n draft 2.0 router we’ve tested that can operate on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands simultaneously. It’s also the most expensive Wi-Fi router we’ve ever tested.

We tested the router at its default settings: The 5GHz radio operating in 802.11n-only mode and the 2.4GHz radio operating in mixed 802.11b/g/n mode. (Both radios have access to the same integrated four-port gigabit switch.) We used the latter for data and the former for streaming media to Linksys’s DMA2200 (reviewed below). The router delivered impressive results, especially while simultaneously transferring data and streaming HD video.

In fact, the WRT600N bested our previous favorite (D-Link’s DIR-655) by a whopping 43 percent at close range (see chart). The chasm widened to a staggering 170 percent when the client was placed at its furthest point from the router inside the home, but the gap narrowed to just 5 percent when we compared performance inside the well-insulated media room at Maximum PC Lab North. D-Link’s product beat Linksys’s when the client was outside the house.

The dual-band feature really came to the fore when we streamed 1080p video clips over the wireless network: The DIR-655’s data throughput dropped by nearly half in some situations; the WRT600N’s was unaffected.

Not everyone needs a router that can handle conventional traffic, VoIP, and high-definition media all at the same time. If you do, or if your neighborhood is simply jam-packed with competing access points, Linksys’s WRT600N should be at the top of your router shopping list.

D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router

Michael Brown — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:48:04 -0600

D-Link’s DIR-655 was one of the fastest routers in our Draft-N roundup, and it proved best-in-breed in terms of range. But speed and range aren’t the only reasons to like this product. If you enjoy fine-tuning your network’s performance, the Xtreme N offers more control over more settings than anything else we tested.

The DIR-655 includes a robust QoS (Quality of Service) engine that you can use to prioritize network traffic, so applications such as online gaming, media streaming, and VoIP are given priority over web browsing. D-Link’s WISH (Wireless Intelligent Stream Handling) technology delivers more traffic-prioritization features, enabling you to configure the router to give A/V streams originating from Windows Media Center higher priority than traffic that’s less sensitive to delay—such as file transfers. You’ll need to access the router’s firmware to configure these and other settings.

Don’t enjoy twiddling with your gear? D-Link bundles a 30-day-evaluation copy of Pure Networks’s newb-friendly Network Magic software. It doesn’t give you any additional configuration or monitoring options, but it does make tasks such as printer sharing, security, and network-activity monitoring a lot easier. If you don’t buy the full version within 30 days, the software will shut off access to its advanced features, leaving you with the free version that you can get anywhere.

One of the first things we noticed when we unpacked the D-Link was the included package of drywall anchors, for use if you want to mount the router to your wall. Several of these routers have mounting holes on the bottom for this purpose, but only D-Link provides its customers with a means for actually doing it. Also, the CD jacket includes a space for you to write down the network’s SSID (Service Set Identifier)—the name and password. Sure, these things are minor, but such thoughtful touches show D-Link’s commitment to customer satisfaction.

Like most consumer router manufacturers, D-Link encourages the use of its browser-based installation wizard for router setup. Experienced users can skip this step without hesitation, but novices will appreciate the wizard’s thoroughness. This doesn’t mean D-Link leaves knowledgeable users to their own devices—there’s plenty of sound advice and tips in the router’s onboard help file. Set the router to use WEP, for instance, and it warns that your network will not run in 802.11n mode because that standard does not support WEP. This is to be expected, of course, but TCP throughput with WEP enabled was considerably slower on the DIR-655 than it was with competing routers. On the other hand, the DIR-655 delivered nearly three times faster scores at maximum range without WEP enabled than did the next contender. More important, it also delivered much higher speeds at range with WPA2 security enabled.