[Cialug] new wireless router: default firmware or custom?

[Josh More]

My advice:

If you use the standard firmware, be sure to keep it up to date and configure it appropriately.

If you use a custom firmware, be sure to keep it up to date and configure it appropriately.

Therefore, pick the one that updates the best and has all the configuration options you need and as few as possible of the configuration options you don't.

Personally, I run a basic Linksys WAP.  It's locked out of the rest of the my network (DMZ) and nothing that connects to it can touch anything else.  I removed it from the global mesh network and set it to use a MAC filter (which doesn't provide much security), hides the SSID (same thing) and WPA2 (which provides more).  I don't need it to any more, so I didn't install a custom firmware.

If I needed more, I would have used a custom firmware.  It's much like when I need to edit a file, I open VIM.  If I needed to edit a file while I decompile it and chat in IRC, I'd use EMACS.  ;)

-Josh More, CISSP, GIAC-GSLC, GIAC-GCIH, RHCE, NCLP
morej at alliancetechnologies.net<mailto:morej at alliancetechnologies.net>
515-245-7701
________________________________
From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [cialug-bounces at cialug.org] on behalf of Kenneth Younger [kyounger at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 15:03
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
Subject: [Cialug] new wireless router: default firmware or custom?

I'm in the market to buy a new Wireless Router with all the bells and whistles.

I've long be interested in running a custom firmware, because I know they deliver a lot of functionality that the manufacturer's can't -- at least that's how it was a while back when I was looking into it.

What are your opinions on this? Do you feel like it's necessary to use these anymore, other than from a hobbyist perspective? (ok Josh, I'll give you that they are probably a bit more secure too :)

-Kenny
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://cialug.org/pipermail/cialug/attachments/20100512/a8f27d38/attachment-0001.htm