If you have a wireless router, you should check this out. There are several groups out there releasing unofficial firmware for various network applicances.
Two of the most popular ones are Tomato and DD-WRT. I am currently running Tomato on my Linksys WRT54G wireless router. There are many great features, including:
- Telnet Access
- Real-Time and Historical Bandwidth Monitoring
- Built-in dynamic DNS client so you don’t have to run the software on your computer
- Traffic Shaping / Quality of Service
- Internet Access Restrictions by IP, protocol and time
- Wireless Client Mode
The last feature is my favorite. Wireless Client Mode allows your router to connect to another wireless network, essentially expanding the range of the wireless network. This is a great option and allows you to chain multiple wireless access points together to create a massive, single wireless network mesh. I plan on doing this at our church - turning the entire campus into one large access point. This is much more cost-effective than purchasing products that are sold with that capability by default.
There are many other popular firmwares out there, but Tomato is my favorite at the moment. It is easy to install, the interface is intuitive and the feature set is outstanding. You really should give it a try!
Technorati Tags: DD WRT, firmware, tomato, wireless, wireless router
DD-WRT here.
Philip
May 8th, 2007