DD-WRT catching up?

[jsmiddleton4]

Seeing a post here or there on Kong's March 2018 FW. Is it catching up finally? I don't see a lot of posts from folks using it so was wondering.

I used DD WRT in the past and then Tomato. Been very happy with Voxel's. But you know if you can play.....

 

[RogerSC]

I've been following dd-wrt for the R7800. Kind of stuck on an old build (r33770M) myself, but I've been waiting for a build based on the 4.x linux kernel. Not there yet, but the 3.x kernel-based builds seem to be working well enough:

https://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewt...&start=0&sid=c0a8ebaeb8cedda8a2e59d656d4a5270

https://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=314392

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Wasn’t there a problem with them not being fully functional?

They only sorta worked?

 

[RogerSC]

The 3.x kernel-based versions are fine, and are fully functional. The 4.x kernel-based versions for the R7800 have problems with QoS at this time. The latest Kong version is 3.x kernel-based, as have most of the other Kong versions due to the problems with the 4.x kernel-based versions. I'm thinking of updating to the latest, r35530M but haven't yet. If you're interested, just follow the threads on the dd-wrt forum.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Thanks. I can do it. Did DDWRT and Tomato before. Just not something I want to spend the time doing to come out the other side with a crippled R7800. Might play this weekend.

 

[RogerSC]

Haven't had any problems bricking my R7800 with dd-wrt, and I've switched back and forth a lot of times. Even tried LEDE at one point *smile*. You'll be fine, especially if you've used dd-wrt before.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Honestly only thing holding me back is the reserved IP address thing. I need to export it, etc., so I can add it back into DD-WRT. I find I always mess that up some how and have to enter IP’s and MAC’s manually. A real PIA.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

I pulled the plug after about 15 minutes and went back to Voxel's. I had forgotten just how awkward DD-WRT can be for doing things like reserved IP addresses. Probably the best of all the firmwares for doing static IP's was Tomato. RMerlins after that. Netgear's not too bad. DD-WRT was most difficult. I think by design DD-WRT wants you to use DNSMasq and to the config file for reserving IP's?

 

[RogerSC]

Couldn't tell you...I used to use some static addresses, but decided somewhere along the line that I didn't need them after all. As I recall, I was using them to cut down on the dhcp protocol overhead in some cases. Anyways, I don't fiddle with that now, and things are fine.

But I do have a bunch of dnsmasq config variables that I just cut-and-paste into the sub-window for that under "Services". Allows me to give my clients names based on their MAC addresses. Really easy for me, and makes the list of clients on the LAN much more usable *smile*. Can't do that with stock or Voxel, have to chase down my clients via MAC address and give them names manually in the "Attached Devices" screen. If there's a better way to do that, I'd like to know *smile*.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

I have some stuff that needs to have the same IP addresses so AV equipment, remote controls, etc. don't get confused.

DD-WRT does seem to be intended for your kind of configuration. I'm also not sure even though I told it to a couple of times that DD-WRT actually wiped out all of NVRAM settings. When I returned to Voxel's some setting were still in place. If stuff was lingering than DD-WRT may have had a harder time than necessary. Not going to do it again but if I did I'd make sure everything was wiped out and then go to DD-WRT.

 

[RogerSC]

Using the latest Kong dd-wrt (r35660M), and working well for me. Sorry that it doesn't work for you, but sounds like you have alternatives that work better for you.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

For all but one of the devices I can assign a static IP in the device and not do DHCP static assignment in the router. Thought about doing that. If there was a huge improvement between Voxel's and Kong's would think about it. Its not that kind of difference. All the "other" stuff one can do with DD-WRT, I don't do. I'm not that kind of end user.

I do wish the way Tomato's static DHCP process worked was the standard. Man that thing is easy peasy. Netgear's similar. But it keeps track of previous DHCP entries, etc., so its a bit messy.