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![]() ![]() Closing Thoughtsįaithful DD-WRT fanboys and girls might dismiss my findings as biased, incomplete, inaccurate or all the above. Would this difference make an improvement in wireless performance? Probably not. ![]() But the table definitely shows a difference. Since the 3500L is receiving, I wouldn’t expect any significant difference across the three test runs. I also didn’t try the recommendation higher up on that page to free up RAM by disabling the Web GUI and using the command line only to manage the router. Since the 3500L didn’t handle 4K connections very well, I didn’t try using the command line to increase the sessions even further. You can download a zip of the programs and instructions from here for the maximum simultaneous connections / sessions test, if you’d like to run your own tests. The DD-WRT GUI defaults to setting the IP Filter Settings ( Administration > Management) to 4096 and that’s what my test confirmed, topping out at 4081 sessions.īut the new trick that the 3500L picked up with DD-WRT was that it locked up after each of my maximum simultaneous session test runs, requiring a power cycle to bring it back. My tests found that the factory firmware allowed only 2045 concurrent sessions, which indicates a 2K (2048) session limit. Some people like to load up DD-WRT because it allows them to increase the number of simultaneous sessions that the router will allow, which is important for online gaming and P2P file sharing. I tried disabing SPI and also the WAN Traffic Counter (ttraff Daemon), but neither improved routing throughput or stability. 82 Mbps WAN to LAN) with data flowing in both directions simultaneously. But I also noticed a high imbalance in WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN speed (29 Mbps LAN to WAN vs. Night and day, eh? I was quite surprised to see unidirectional routing throughput drop by up to 70% and routing stability significantly degrade. But, as you’ll see shortly, this doesn’t necessarily provide improved range or change the throughput vs. If you want to connect to another wireless network and have wireless clients connect to the router, then you need to use Repeater Bridge mode, which requires WDS on both routers.Īlso useful is the ability to adjust the transmit power beyond the range allowed by the stock firmware (up to 251 mW). Both modes support only wired clients, since the radio is being used to connect to the remote network. Client bridge mode bypasses the routing function, connecting clients directly to the same subnet as the wireless network you’re connecting to. In this mode, clients will be behind the router’s firewall. The handiest feature from a wireless standpoint is the ability to configure the router so that it acts as a wireless client or wireless bridge in addition to the WDS-based bridging / repeating you get in the factory firmware and from many other wireless routers.Ĭlient mode uses the router’s radio as a WAN interface to connect to another wireless network. For the real hardcore tweaker, there is also command line access to the Linux OS at the heart of DD-WRT. That’s a very broad range of features, including modules to add VPN, wireless hotspot, VoIP and additional wireless capabilities. V24_pre_sp2 K24 build features Access Restrictions That site hosts articles, how-tos and forums for hacking and tweaking the 3500L and NETGEAR’s first “open source” router, the WGR614L. In fact, NETGEAR wants you to do that, since they pay an outfit named Capable Networks to run. But most people will be buying the 3500L so that they can load alternative firmware. The New To The Charts article summarized what the WNR3500L can do with NETGEAR’s factory firmware. Typical Price: $47 Buy From Amazon Introduction Wireless power boost doesn’t improve range.50% drop in routing performance w/ higher variation.Up to 4K simultaneous sessions (more via command line).DD-WRT brings lots more functions, but imposes a hit on routing performance and no significant wireless improvement. NETGEAR Rangemax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB (WNR3500L) īroadcom-based 2T2R single band 802.11n router w/ gigabit WAN and LAN ports, USB drive file sharing and support for popular alternative firmware. ![]()
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