Netgear's WGR614L Wireless-G router openly plays nice with Tomato / DD-WRT

Although Linux-based Tomato and DD-WRT firmwares work with a plethora of routers, Netgear is getting savvy with its marketing by actually aiming its WGR614L at tweakers who just melt upon hearing either term. The so-called open source Wireless-G router features a 240MHz MIPS32 CPU, 4MB of flash memory, 16MB of RAM, an external 2 dBi antenna and a second internal diversity antenna to enhance range. Additionally, the unit will "soon" support OpenWRT, and there's also four 10/100 Ethernet ports in case you're looking for a bit of wired action as well. Potentially best of all, the WGR614L is available as we speak for a very manageable $69.

[rektide @ Jun 30th 2008 6:01PM]

For an open source router, theres certainly an absolute dearth of information on the actual hardware inside the router.

I mentioned this on the absolutely laughable "Hardware Specification" page on the myopenrouter site (it had gems like "firewall"... yes very hardware) and now the page is gone altogether.

[rektide @ Jun 30th 2008 6:07PM]

down mod please, i am wrong, i just cant find the navigation to the page any more. the page still exists, its at:
http://www.myopenrouter.com/article/10066/WGR614L-Hardware-Specifications

[Justin @ Jun 30th 2008 8:36PM]

Buffalo has already started working with DD-WRT and offers cheaper yet more powerful and reliable routers than Netgear. It's a nice attempt but it's a bit too late.

[Watson @ Jun 30th 2008 6:36PM]

@Justin
I love my easily modded Buffalo router. It was only 25 bucks and has been running Tomato firmware for 2 years. The only problem is Buffalo can no longer sell routers in the US due to a patent issue from another company. Until that settlement can be reversed Buffalo can't sell any more routers. Outside the US, they're still being sold and still a great product if you can get it.

However, this Netgear router is joke for it selling point and price. It has neither wireless N or a gigabit lan connection. Yeah, it can modded, but so can the Linksys WRT54GL which can be had for between 50-60 bucks. Its only 200mhz, but I doubt that will make a serious difference in the performance of the router. Sorry Netgear, you're going to need to try harder to win over people

[rektide @ Jun 30th 2008 8:02PM]

honestly most of the open source routers are 100bt and .11g. linux 802.11n support is pretty weak, and most of the chipsets that have gigabit ethernet onboard are not supported by linux. most of the offerings, be it netgear linksys or buffallo, are pretty closely in line. there's really only 4-5 different chipsets, most of the difference is packaging. every now and then you'll have exceptional routers that'll have a usb port. NAS's that run linux are viable if you are interested in hooking up a disk drive.

"open source support" is one thing, but as I tried to state in the original post, "open source hardware documentation" is really the key element. its lack of documentation that keeps most modern wifi routers from being linux compatible, not lack of "support".

[AboveUnrefined @ Jun 30th 2008 9:21PM]

owned son

[Justin42 @ Jun 30th 2008 6:03PM]

Only thing to regret is the lack of 1gigbit wired lan.

otherwise...*drool*

[Mike Cerm @ Jun 30th 2008 6:29PM]

Also, no support for draft-N. I already have a few WRT54G routers, but have been looking for something that's hackable and supports 802.11n. I need something that supports N, allows bridging, and doesn't cost a lot of money. So far, I haven't found anything.

I applaud Netgear's effort, but I'm just not sure that the world needs more Wireless-G routers, hackable or not. Wireless-N is the future, and an open-source N router would be awesome.

[SirPoonga @ Jun 30th 2008 6:15PM]

Does this have a USB port? I don't think it does. I have the WGT634U which I would say is a better router than this, slower cpu but more memory. Granted you have to run OpenWRT Kamikaze on it. With a usb port you can do a lot of stuff like use it as a print server or NAS.

[rektide @ Jun 30th 2008 8:05PM]

The downside is that without DMA support the USB2.0 port runs about the speed of a USB1.1 port. Similarly, transfering files between wireless and wired also goes through the CPU, and tops out at a couple MB/s. Having the USB port is really fun, you can hook up MPD and drives and remote controls, but the speed is far under what the CPU is capable of. All for want of some hardware documentation & drivers.

[Dean @ Jun 30th 2008 6:21PM]

i saw this a while back, like a few months ago, maybe it wasn't released then, but im pretty sure it was on the dd-wrt website as supported hardware.

[CraigJ @ Jun 30th 2008 6:23PM]

Call me when they have one that supports 802.11N My G router is 4 years old and has been running dd-wrt for over a year.. I need to upgrade, not move sideways, oh, and gigabit Ethernet too please.

[cris @ Jun 30th 2008 6:24PM]

nice to see netgear making advances in 802.11g while everyone else pumps out 802.11n routers. way to go netgear.

[Rob @ Jun 30th 2008 6:25PM]

Are there any Wireless N or Gigabit routers out there that run Tomato or DD-WRT?

[CraigJ @ Jun 30th 2008 6:28PM]

yes. http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

The Internets are your friend.

[athousandleaves @ Jun 30th 2008 6:32PM]

hmm tomato + TOR = tasty internet?

[nikster @ Jun 30th 2008 7:22PM]

TOR? If you ask me TOR suffers from a fatal problem - untrusted nodes. It's good to get around the corporate firewall/packet sniffer, and also good to get around a countries's firewall. But privacy? Forget it. Any entity interested in all that TOR data can just start their own TOR end node and before you know it all your secret data will flow through one of the NSAs own servers. Whoopie!

Tomato? Pure router bliss!

[Wwhat @ Jul 1st 2008 9:18AM]

About TOR; It'll still be private even through NSA, as long as you don't transmit personally identifiable information the end node can't tell who's at the root, asuming you also take care of disabling flash/java/silverlight tricks that is, oh and never used any passworded service unless you are willing to have the password float around at such places as the NSA or foreign versions of such and of course the spammers and scammers and journalists 'exposing' the obvious.

[FRiC @ Jun 30th 2008 6:42PM]

Linksys WRT310N is gigabit and N and runs DD-WRT. Other routers with faster CPU's and more RAM and have been running DD-WRT or Tomato for ages, there's nothing special about Netgear's WGR614L.

[JerkfacedFed @ Jun 30th 2008 6:43PM]

this router is like as fast as the ps2. 240mhz vs 294mhz mips cpus

[roman.kim @ Jun 30th 2008 7:41PM]

My D-Link GamerLounge G router has a 1.2 GHz CPU and 256Mb of RAM, and I got mine for only $40 more than this Netgear box.

[rektide @ Jun 30th 2008 8:08PM]

You havent the foggiest idea what in the hay you are talking about. Not all mhz are create equal, this unit is orders of magnitudes slower. Internal bandwidth to memory and peripherials is miniscule, it probably has 1/4 the execution units of a ps2, and its pipeline is probably 4x worse. Just dont.

[JerkfacedFed @ Jul 2nd 2008 11:16AM]

actually, im a computer engineer with a very good understanding of computer architecture, pipelining and the mips assembly language, so i will say what i want because i know what im talking about

[rutsy5 @ Jun 30th 2008 6:46PM]

this better come with Upside-downternets!

[dagamer34 @ Jun 30th 2008 7:10PM]

So I'd like some insight from you guys.

Does using a cheap router affect torrenting? Before I splurge $60 on a Linksys WRT54GL, I wanna know that it's worth the money. Can someone give me some links noting measurable differences in performance between your generic "cheapy" router and the upper-end consumer stuff that can be had in the $60-$80 range? Thanks.

And I'm not really into 802.11n right now, since it's not a true standard yet.

[digitallysick @ Jun 30th 2008 7:46PM]

No wireless N? Meh.. better off with a linksys wrt

[michas_pi @ Jun 30th 2008 7:59PM]

My WRT56GL + Tomato = incomprehensible amounts of win.

QoS, how I love thee.

[Scuba Steve @ Jun 30th 2008 8:21PM]

I have three WRT54GL routers running Tomato. AWESOME firmware...and ROCK solid. I just wish that I had a draft N spec option. Pushing video to my Popcorn Hour A-100 NMT (via NFS) is really pushing the bounds of G. When I have that option, I'll buy three new routers. Until then, the WRT54GLs will do just fine thanks.

[mykie @ Jun 30th 2008 8:21PM]

Netgear has fallen from grace when it comes to router hardware, really ever since they started putting everything in those sickening eggshell white cases.

Bring back the blue metal boxes (and the quality that resided therein!).

[mattkenny @ Jul 1st 2008 2:40AM]

@mykie: You can still get Netgear routers in the blue metal cases - the white plastic stuff is just their low-end home range... (go to the Netgear site and click "Business Networking")

I haven't bought any white plastic Netgear product ever, I always go the business grade stuff.

[Chris @ Jun 30th 2008 8:51PM]

I'm not sure I understand this, does all of this just mean it works on Linux?

[burndive @ Jul 31st 2008 7:45PM]

All this means that Linux works on it.

Any router will work with a Linux box, but with this router, you can run Linux (or any other) firmware.

[BustaCap @ Jun 30th 2008 9:03PM]

And the One Ring to rule them all is named Untangle:

http://www.untangle.com

[majortom1981 @ Jun 30th 2008 9:28PM]

Ill stick with my wrt600n . it fully supports dd-wrt now and is only missing 40mhz support. they got the gigabit switch problems fixed.

[ShadowKain @ Jun 30th 2008 10:11PM]

D link isnt all too great, but I will transform my roommates come this august now... MUAHAHAHHA.

[Slappy Wag @ Jun 30th 2008 10:15PM]

How utterly sad and disgraceful that it has to come to the opensource world to make a product work as it should. What is wrong with companies today? They can't release a working product. Linksys is one of THE worst offenders for their factory firmware. Linksys lost me permanently as a customer for their wireless print server. Mine died, as most of them do, and they replaced it. With a dead one. I smashed it with a 3 pound sledge hammer to be sure it couldn't contaminate the hardware pool again.

[Slappy Wag @ Jun 30th 2008 10:18PM]

By the way, I also owned two WRT55AG's... it kept causing all kinds of problems with my DSL modem. It got cement poisioning. Rapid deceleration trauma, if you will.

[jurm @ Jul 1st 2008 8:07AM]

"Netgear's router openly plays nice with Tomato"

Does that mean my router will get salmonella?

[goundoulf @ Jul 2nd 2008 11:07AM]

We are trying to port OpenWRT on the Neuf Box 4, the DSL router / gateway from Neuf Cegetel, the second largest french ISP.

The Neuf Box 4 can be baught for 70 euros in France, has a 300 Mhz CPU, 32 MB of RAM, and 8 MB of flash, 2 USB ports,...

It is also based on Broadcom chips unfortunately.

Come and see us on http://www.neufbox4.org ;)

[CHARLES @ Jul 24th 2008 8:48PM]

YES WILL SOMEONE HELP ME .I AM TRYING TO HOOKUP A NETGEAR WIRELESS-G ROUTER...#WGR614 v9.TO A XBOX360.AN ALL SO TO A PLAYSTATION3. THINK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ANY HELP YOU CAN GIVE.....CHARLES