How to make a fully functional server out of a cheap and simple router.

    Introduction


    The first router that came to me was D-Link DI-524, I did not have time to choose anything, I just bought the first inexpensive router with wi-fi that came across. Since by nature I like to break everything, I almost immediately got on the Internet to look for how it can be improved.
    But at that time I found almost nothing but advice to drill holes in it. Indeed, he often overheated and therefore worked unstably, but I did not take such a risky step.
    Fortunately, I almost immediately sold it to my friend.
    When I needed such a device again, I already knew what functions I really needed, for me it was QoS. As an ordinary customer, I began to look at marketing descriptions of features and device chips. For me, it then seemed the only true one. It turned out to be not quite true.
    I bought asus w520gu, I am generally happy with it (more on that later), but I think it is right to share experience and information as I improved it.


    A new look at the choice of a router in terms of hardware


    When buying a router, we pay a substantial part for the opportunities implemented in software. But the router is approximately similar to a computer; it has hardware, but there is a program.
    So who prevents us from choosing the best hardware, and then replace the program. This is almost the usual thing even with computers, when the bundled system is removed and a new one is installed.
    Of course, no one writes hardware specifications in the description, here the Internet and huge user communities will come to our aid.
    Surely there is more complete, but I liked the page - dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices
    There is a huge variety of devices, and for almost everyone the parameters are filled: Frequency (CPU frequency), RAM (RAM size), Flash Memory (non-volatile memory size), WLAN standard (supported Wi-fi standard).
    Well now we see the hardware characteristics and can choose, for a router as a small server, almost all parameters are important, and it is also advisable to consider support for usb ports, this is always useful.

    Various unofficial firmware


    Free, free firmware for many BroadCom / Atheros / Xscale / PowerPC-based wireless routers, originally developed for the Linksys series of routers, they are a miniature Linux-based operating system.
    Briefly about what I know:

    I won’t describe the systems, who are interested in reading it myself, a lot of various information (although most of them are in English)
    To assess the capabilities of DD-WRT look at demo dd-wrt.com/demo/index.asp
    Briefly to people with extensive experience in the linux world, and who has some free nights, I advise you to try openwrt, it will be possible to configure everything from scratch and set the sea of ​​ported linux software.
    Oleg is more focused on certain versions of routers, but provides a lot of useful functions.
    Most I advise you to pay attention to the first two firmware. They are very similar in capabilities, some like one thing, others another. Personally, I liked tomato easy and convenient Ajax management interface.

    Asus w520gu example, what happened and what became


    Now I have an asus w520gu and I'm generally happy with it. He stands somewhere 2500-3000 r and fulfills his money.
    I wrote at the beginning that it is important for me to have QoS ( http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS ). This is the prioritization of traffic, channel width, as well as response speed.
    So that's how I was upset when I saw the QoS implementation in the factory firmware of my asus. There were no new rules to add, but the built-in ones were very general, such as voip games and so on.
    This router also has a usb port, but in the factory version, there is nothing to connect to it except the printer.
    What significant things did I get after installing unofficial firmware:
    • General stability and speed
    • Fully customizable Qos (Or rather, dividing the channel width by different ports, protocols, network interfaces and even the size of downloaded traffic, at least it is always useful to lower the priority of torrents)
    • Increased limit on the number of compounds (important for p2p)
    • Working usb port for external devices (not just a printer)
    • A large number of settings, new features, and a very informative interface, traffic graphs, resource downloads, etc.
    • And also, importantly, a linux platform for which a lot of software is ported. With this, the possibilities are endless.
      For example, if you have a connected hard drive or a large flash drive, you can put a simple http server, a torrent with a web interface on the router, or make a file server. In general, you can make a home server out of a router.


    Disclaimer.


    I want to warn in advance that some knowledge will be required to install unofficial firmware. If you’re not sure that you can handle it yourself, then do not do it better, ask a familiar Linux user or admin.
    Also, most likely this will violate the warranty agreement, so you can forget about the warranty with the new firmware.
    If you strictly follow the installation instructions, you are unlikely to break anything, most routers have a special boot mode, usually within the first 5 seconds the router waits for recovery commands and you can always reinstall everything again.
    Most importantly, do everything at your own risk and risk. I will not be responsible for the harm done to your router.

    This is my first post here, so I’ll consider all the objective comments and suggestions, but I need to learn from my mistakes.

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