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02-06-2013, 04:28 PM
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#1 | | Official Texas Ambassador
Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Houston, TX
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| School me on Tomato firmware
After frustration with Shaw's mediocre service I thought I'd get the most out of my router instead of giving in and
1) giving them more of my money
or
2) buying any of their wireless hardware so they'd actually give me phone support beyond "Unplug your coaxial cable and reverse the ends to which its plugged in to depolarize the line" or "Bypass your power bar and plug your power cord directly into the wall for better electrical strength" (both suggestions I have actually received from them)
I have a WRT160N v3 and I've been thinking about Tomato's Shibby mod.
I don't have a Linux system to deploy it with. I guess I could USB boot into Ubuntu but I'd rather deploy from Windows if possible.
Or is Tomato old news? Should I be looking elsewhere for custom router firmware?
Anyone have any suggestions or ideas?
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MG1  She taught me right from wrong and always told me to stay positive and help others no matter how small the deed - that helping others gives us meaning to carry on. The sun is out today and it's a new day. Life is good. I just needed a slap in the face. | | 
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02-06-2013, 04:36 PM
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#2 | | Willing to sell body for a few minutes on RS
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Duncan, BC
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The WRT160N isn't listed as a compatible router. Quote:
Routers that are known to work with Tomato:
Linksys WRT54GL v1.x, WRT54G v1-v4, WRT54GS v1-v4, WRTSL54GS (no USB support)
Buffalo WHR-G54S, WHR-HP-G54, WZR-G54, WBR2-G54, WBR-G54, WZR-HP-G54, WZR-RS-G54, WZR-RS-G54HP, WVR-G54-NF, WHR2-A54-G54, WHR3-AG54
Asus WL520GU (no USB support), WL500G Premium (no USB support), WL500GE
Sparklan WX6615GT, Fuji RT390W, Microsoft MN-700
| You could use DD-WRT, which does support the WRT160N v3: Linksys WRT150N & WRT160N - DD-WRT Wiki | |
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02-06-2013, 04:37 PM
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#3 | | Got MOD?
Join Date: May 2001 Location: Vancouver, BC
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Isn't it refined enough that you simply load the tomato firmware via the Linksys firmware update? That's what I did on the e4200 I had a while back. The top contenders are Tomato and DDWRT. They usually have easy enough to follow instructions and don't need linux.
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02-06-2013, 04:41 PM
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#4 | | :inoutugh:
Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: GTA VI
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No experience with Tomato, but DD-WRT is very easy to get set up. And seeing as your current router is only compatible with that, it could be a route to take. I don't know what your application is but you could try buying a PowerLine adapter to extend your wired and wireless range.
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02-06-2013, 04:54 PM
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#5 | | I WANT MY 10 YEARS BACK FROM RS.net!
Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Abbotstan
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+1 for DD-WRT, anytime I need to buy a router, I check for DD-WRT compatibility, and the first thing when it's unboxed, it gets flashed.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by Godzira Does anyone know how many to a signature? | ..
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianrietta Not a sebberry post goes by where I don't frown and think to myself "so..?" | | |
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02-06-2013, 05:02 PM
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#6 | | Official Texas Ambassador
Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 10,333
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by Jmac The WRT160N isn't listed as a compatible router. |
Weird. I found this site that told me I am.
I'm glad I asked before I actually did anything. http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=69
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MG1 She taught me right from wrong and always told me to stay positive and help others no matter how small the deed - that helping others gives us meaning to carry on. The sun is out today and it's a new day. Life is good. I just needed a slap in the face. | | |
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02-06-2013, 05:14 PM
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#7 | | :inoutugh:
Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: GTA VI
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Just checked some other sources and it says the WRT160N v3 is compatible with Tomato. I didn't check in the beginning, just figured Jmac's post was correct.
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02-06-2013, 06:04 PM
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#8 | | HELP ME PLS!!!
Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: vancouver
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+1 on DD-WRT as its super easy to setup.
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02-06-2013, 06:12 PM
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#9 | | Official Texas Ambassador
Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Houston, TX
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Okay. So tell me about the before and after on DD-WRT.
Was it a noticeable improvement?
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MG1 She taught me right from wrong and always told me to stay positive and help others no matter how small the deed - that helping others gives us meaning to carry on. The sun is out today and it's a new day. Life is good. I just needed a slap in the face. | | |
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02-06-2013, 09:17 PM
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#10 | | I WANT MY 10 YEARS BACK FROM RS.net!
Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Abbotstan
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Depends on what kind of improvement you're looking for. It gives you a LOT of control over WiFi power, allowing you to seriously crank up the output signal on some routers (be careful with this, as it will also tend to generate a lot more heat - I've seen mods where people added heat sinks and fans to their routers to handle it). There are lots of other WiFi parameters that can be tweaked as well.
It also generally adds a lot of features... things like QoS, VPN server and/or client, bridging, repeating, WDS... customizable firewall, scripting, DDNS client that you can configure for almost any DDNS service out there (not just the two or three that most come pre-configured with), RADIUS security support... it has "hotspot" function, where you can require a login/password/TOC acceptance for users...
Lots of features will depend on the specific hardware - some older routers with limited memory require smaller builds with some features removed...
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by Godzira Does anyone know how many to a signature? | ..
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianrietta Not a sebberry post goes by where I don't frown and think to myself "so..?" | | |
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02-06-2013, 09:38 PM
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#11 |
Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Burnaby
Posts: 3,935
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prop your router atop 3 tomatoes.
4 if you need more.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonturbo Too bad it isn't about flipping cars to lose money, I'm really good at that. | Quote:
Originally Posted by SkunkWorks This wouldn't happen if you didn't drive a peasant car like an Audi... | Quote:
[14-05, 14:59] FastAnna You tiny bra wearing, gigantic son of a bitch
[15-05, 10:35] FastAnna Yeah I was dreaming of those big titties in that tiny bra
| Quote:
Originally Posted by westopher I'd probably blow someone for that 911 | | |
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02-06-2013, 10:41 PM
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#12 | | Willing to sell body for a few minutes on RS
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Duncan, BC
Posts: 10,128
Thanked 5,568 Times in 2,107 Posts
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by TOS'd Just checked some other sources and it says the WRT160N v3 is compatible with Tomato. I didn't check in the beginning, just figured Jmac's post was correct. | That quote was taken directly from Tomato's old homepage 
I guess they have a new homepage: http://tomatousb.org/doc:build-types
Last edited by Jmac; 02-06-2013 at 10:47 PM.
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02-07-2013, 01:48 AM
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#13 | | Revscene.net has a homepage?!
Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: nowhere
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What problems are having at the moment? I have the same router and shaw service as well. My connection seems fine most of the time.
Posted via RS Mobile | |
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02-07-2013, 05:50 AM
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#14 | | I WANT MY 10 YEARS BACK FROM RS.net!
Join Date: May 2005
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my buffalo and TPlink are on DDWRT, you just have to spend quite a bit of time reading about the stability and performance on your particular model. Some will be faster some will strip some build-in features.
DDWRT and tomato unlocks a lot of features that are not available on stock firmware. You can hardly notice any difference, I am talking about maybe 96MB/s vs 90 MB/s
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02-07-2013, 10:41 AM
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#15 | | My bookmarks are Reddit and REVscene, in that order
Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Vancouver
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by smoothie. prop your router atop 3 tomatoes.
4 if you need more. | They can't be overly ripe tomatoes.
Do remember that we are going for FIRMware here.
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02-12-2013, 11:22 AM
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#16 | | I STILL don't get it
Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Vancouver
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There are multiple versions of Tomato now, base/original and others mostly featuring support for USB, VPN, Optware etc... Unless you're looking for some specific feature from those others though it's best to stick with the base version when you're starting out.
Biggest advantage for most people is the better implementation of port forwarding and NAT-PMP/UPNP for torrents and games. Memory management is also much better with reboot being few and far between. Logging is also available which helps with troubleshooting when you can see exactly what services are or are not working as well bandwidth control. Other things like static internal ip address assignment come in handy even on a home network. There's a lot to list but anything that can use DD-WRT or Tomato is usually better off for it.
I find Tomato to have a better UI and upnp setup than DD-WRT but that's a user by user thing.
Also it's probably easiest to install DD-WRT first and follow whatever instructions they have for your model. You should be able to do all of it over the web interface alone. Haven't looked into the 160N so there might be a gotcha *but* if there is, DD-WRT's router database will have a wiki article with step-by-step instructions. Afterwards you can use the firmware update page to just flash whatever else you want.
It's pretty difficult to brick a router, just try it out!
Edit: Here is your starting point.
Yours is a 4MB model so you'll need to stick to the slightly-stripped variants. Nothing you'd miss unless you're set on running a VPN client/server or something like that. Compatible firmware versions are listed on the dd-wrt router database.
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