Not sure why but I had a few momentary pauses in page loads with Tomato. Not sure what the right word is or exactly how to describe it. Maybe lag?
None what-so-ever with Merlin's.
I do not need all the extended features in Toastman's or Shibby's builds. I use DHCP static assignment and external storage. Can't say I've even messed with looking at traffic graphs, all that stuff.
QOS not an issue for me either. If one of my "users" is taking up too much band width I can go to that person and slap them on the back of the head. Much better long term effect....
The Tomato's that have the dhcp static assignment piece it is better then Asus/Merlin's. It is not that hard to do in Merlin's FW. It does take more steps and saving, etc.
But the couple of lags I had with Tomato make using Merlin's a no-brainer.
I have a couple of dual mode laptops. They scream on 5ghz channel. Not sure about distance however. Every place in my home and in my back yard has coverage at great speeds. Hardly technical I know. But does indicate performance and coverage is quite satisfactory.
Wish list for Merlin's:
1. Streamline/simplify the static dhcp process.
2. Tweak the way we can manage files, etc., on the drive storage both internal SDHC and external so that we can hide the root directory without needing to setup authorized access account.
That's about it.
I get paid this Friday and am a FIRM believer in supporting folks like Merlin. Early on I made some contributions to Vitek and the early Tomato iterations.
Merlin's FW is stable, consistent, is flexible, provides what I need, Merlin is responsive as well, and we don't lose the Asus core on our routers so we can stay in the Asus loop.
I know other folks have different needs and find Tomato versions more in sync with their application. For me however Merlin's is my choice.
