Where are the routers with DD WRT?

[drmemory]

not a snarky comment, just the truth. I apologize if you took the meaning wrong, it was not intended to rile you up.

[gdog05]

Didn't rile me up, it seems we just may disagree on the definition of quality engineers and what they do.

[drmemory]

In a best practice scenario, quality engineers test the FW against the HW for bugs, then report back to the code engineers to fix any found bugs.

Then, the process repeats itselft until the quality engineers can't find bugs.

 

Obviously, good quality engineers will try to find all bugs, but as we all know, in every company, some bugs may be missed and those will be addressed in the next FW revision. We try to find all bugs prior to a release, which means the process could go back and forth more than once. That's why I stated the QE's can't give an ETA - they don't know if a FW rewrite will introduce a new bug during the rewrite. If they gave an ETA, it would be a guess, not a firm ETA. I don't believe in providing guesses to customers, as I don't feel a customer deserves a guess.

[slybunda]

after contacting buffalo support i was informed that the firmware will be released during mid september. the current issues with dd-wrt make it far less stable than the standard firmware. so going to dd-wrt will be a massive downgrade in reliability and stability.

 

but do understand, that when dd-wrt comes out for the wzr-hp-g300nh its not going to be impressive. its still using the madwifi driver so expect very low signal strength and unstable and low wireless performance.

madwifi does not have official driver support for the atheros 9xxx series cpus.

[gdog05]

I've seen your posts on the madwifi before slybunda, and having tried a DD-WRT offering already, I believe you. I've been hoping for the best. Outside of trying to satisfy a big selling point of the router, I can't imagine why they'd keep working on a buggy or lesser firmware (if that is indeed the case). I doubt that it will live up to my (much lowered) expectations, and I've been keeping up on the firmware news for what feels like a morbid curiosity. I think I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and switch to another WRT. Is that what you did?

[vibranto]

Couldn't agree more with all parts of that post.

gdog05 wrote:

While I don't doubt they're working hard, snarky comments like "quality engineers don't give ETAs" don't help anyone.  

Absolutely. Of course estimates aren't going to be exactly perfectly correct. We live in an imperfect world. And sure it probably isn't a quality engineers job... but we don't care WHOSE job it is, it should be somebody's job to make an estimate if you have customers waiting for a promised product. It's one thing if you're developing an unannounced / unpromised product, this is another sitcheashun entirely.  

gdog05 wrote:

Quality customers don't wait around for false promises, and definitely do not buy again when they've been lied to. 

Yep. I'm quite bummed and likely all my business and word of mouth is going elsewhere in future.  For two reasons:

 

A. Foremost, the long delay in release and still even then promised features were not delivered (ex: OpenVPN... why I bought the router and waited for the firmware release...)

 

B. Substandard driver / software use.  I understand there are complications with the drivers and perhaps issues with what can be used but hey Buff is a reasonable sized manufacturer, you'd think they could either develop fresh improved driver code or work closely with Aetheros to create such a thing.  

 

If both of those issues can be addressed I could change my mind but at this point I'm about to shop for my 3rd router to replace the Buffalo unit as no hope seems likely on the horizon.  

[nareshseep]

Ok well I have waited this long, what is 1 month again?

 

Which is better at the moment: DDWRT or stock firmware?

[Quixote]

I purchased the WZR-HP-G300NH from NewEgg based on the manufacturer response "marco@buffalotech.com" made to a customer review there:

 

     "new DD-WRT supported firmware is now available for download at buffalotech.com"

 

I chose this unit specifically for the combination of gigabit wired ports and "official" DD-WRT support, as being able to set it up as an OpenVPN endpoint is my primary reason for replacing my current router. I'm not going to hang onto this currently useless-to-me unit on the vague hope that the customized DD-WRT (with drivers that actually work correctly) will materialize sometime in September, well past when I'd be able to RMA it back to NewEgg for a refund if I'm not happy with the results (or if the promised DD-WRT-based firmware just never happens at all).

 

Sorry, Buffalo, but I'll be taking my business elsewhere. You've cost me a restocking fee and return shipping based on Marco's mistaken/misleading statement about the availability of the firmware. This was my first-ever Buffalo product. It will also be my last. And I will be recommending against your company and its products whenever the opportunity arises.

[gdog05]

@nareshseep  I think it depends on your model number a bit. I have the A0 03, and with 4 versions of DD-WRT I tried, all had rapid wireless disconnects. Stock firmware is stable, but most of the features don't work well enough to mess with. So, you've got a vanilla router basically, unless you have some luck with DD-WRT.

 

@quixote  I've been holding off for too long, so no such luck on return. I have heard good things about the ASUS RT-N16. That's what I'm leaning towards. 

[vibranto]

@nareshseep - in my case I doing OK with the Buffalo version DD-WRT but I have mine set up to do daily reboots so the driver problem seems to get mitigated (I'm assuming it has a memory leak or something).  onlly reason I'm sticking with that is that the web-managment responsiveness is a lot faster really, otherwise I'd probably have the OEM FW. 

 

@quixote - couldn't agree more.  nothing like advertising "OpenVPN support!" and then not delivering.  plus some of the benefits of DD-WRT like bumping up txmit power don't work (before somebody flames me about "you shouldn't NEED higher transmit power you're just like bumming out other people man!" I have a building with massive concrete walls, every bit of signal strength makes a difference to my effectiveness and there's few anybody's within range to be bothered... )

 

@gdog05 - agreed also - looking at the Asus.  too bad as the potential is there for the buffalo.

 

At this point DD-WRT hardly gives you anything the stock firmware didn't so not sure what the whole point is of the exercise for them, except maybe they intentionally wanted to alienate new customers as part of some complex and nefarious strategy... Hmmm maybe they want to drive the company under, do a management buy-out at a bargain price, then fast-track the recovery because they have all the fixes secretly ready to go!   That must be it!   

[nareshseep]

 @gdog5  I have  the A0 D0 revision of the router

 

@vibranto I gots the same setting enable on my router to reboot everyday at midnight and so far no connection issues. I am running DD-WRT v24-sp2 (02/24/10) std build 13977 and I am getting problems with QOS, what version of ddwrt is best for the router? I have never used the stock firmware as it was D.O.A.,  also does the stock firmware have QOS that can rival ddwrt?

[nareshseep]

Has anyone gotten success with any other firmware such as tomato /openwrt / xwrt etc.

 

[gdog05]

I'm working on adding OpenWRT components to DD-WRT using this guide: http://g300nh.blogspot.com/

I'm running into a couple of problems though, trying to resolve them now. Also, I installed Brainslayer's build 14815, and I'm having fewer dropoffs on my A0 03 (still having them though).

 

Admin note: installing any non-Buffalo approved firmware, immediately voids your product warranty.

[slybunda]

iv used openwrt on the wzr and its been great, openwrt uses the atheros ath9k which is the proper driver for atheros 9 series processors. the wifi and routing is rock solid using openwrt. only drawback is that dd-wrt is better laid out. if only dd-wrt used ath9k driver it would be the best solution for these routers.

[slybunda]

14815 is an old build there is an even newer one out now.