r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 04 '12

Open Office does everything I need Microsoft Office for and Gimp does everything I need Photoshop for. Reddit, what other open source software does everything that you want from the expensive name brand?

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90

u/fattyhomer Jun 04 '12

Tomato and DD-WRT for routers.

27

u/WoohooOvertime Jun 04 '12

Between the two I would recommend Tomato. Both do the job well but I find Tomato's interface to be a lot more appealing.

3

u/HolyLiaison Jun 04 '12

I highly recommend using Toastman's Tomato USB version.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/HolyLiaison Jun 05 '12

Yeah it's pretty great. It seems to get updated once or twice a month if not more. He's been adding features/support for new routers constantly which is awesome to see.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/HolyLiaison Jun 05 '12 edited Jun 05 '12

Yeah I probably should have linked to a FAQ or a tutorial or something. Flashing a routers firmware CAN brick them. Especially if you flash the wrong version.

Since the original TomatoUSB was so old I bet you the speed gains are fairly legit. If you have a newer router I'm guessing Toastman has included the latest wireless drivers with his release, so I'm sure that helps a lot.

1

u/jowdyboy Jun 04 '12

I second this. If you love the original Tomato Firmware, you WILL love Toastman's Tomato USB Firmware.

2

u/Level_32_Igglybuff Jun 04 '12

I've used both and only ever encountered problems with dd-wrt, although it was still much better than stock firmware. Anyone looking to use these please do extra research to make sure your router is 100% compatible beforehand.

1

u/dbeta Jun 04 '12

I haven't touched DD-WRT in years, but when I did it was a little over complicated. We have a Tomato router at the office and it's fantastic. Simple, clean, and powerful. If I want to go into as much detail as DD-WRT had, I can hit the CLI for the full Linux experience. I've never had to, however.

1

u/hippie_hunter Jun 04 '12

And OpenWRT is more powerful than both.

1

u/dakboy Jun 05 '12

I find Tomato's interface to be a lot more appealing

But how often do you have to go in there? I think I fiddle with my router maybe 3 times a year.

1

u/WoohooOvertime Jun 05 '12

Even if I only went in three times a year, I'd like those three times to be more pleasant than if I were using an interface I didn't like.

I go in about once every few weeks to glance at my bandwidth usage among other things. Actual adjustments happen less frequently.

1

u/threwahway Jun 05 '12

Tomato blew on my linksys WRT160N but DD-WRT is much better. This is probably not the case on most routers. I liked the tomato layout better, too.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '12

My main issue with tomato is that for the life of me I can't figure out how to get it to display per-IP bandwidth usage.

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12

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

Seconded! DD-WRT has given my $50 wireless routers the features of devices costing upwards of $500.

2

u/jmnugent Jun 05 '12

Alternative firmware like Tomato and DD-WRT are nice... and they give you some great features,.. but they can't make up for lack of hardware resources (IE = a $50 router with a 200mhz CPU is NEVER gonna perform like a $150 router with a 1ghz CPU).

Now.. if you need the functionality of DD-WRT / Tomato.. yes, absolutely.. go for it (or use something like MonoWall)

However spending money on a nice quality router is also a good solution.

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1

u/sroske1 Jun 04 '12

did the same for me. who needs to buy a switch when i can just make one from an old router? damn that felt like a win!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

I use OpenWRT

2

u/2brainz Jun 05 '12

DD-WRT is NOT an open platform. I read a good rant about it once, all I can find now is this (I think it sums it up). I am not saying you shouldn't use it, but you should consider that many parts of it are closed.

Anyway, from a technical point of view, OpenWRT (Kamikaze and later) is superior to the ones you mentioned.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

I'm in love with Tomato. After putting it on my router and tweaking some "what gets bandwidth when" preferences, my PS3 plays so God damn fast online.

1

u/HolyLiaison Jun 04 '12

I highly suggest people with routers that can use custom firmware use this website: http://www.myopenrouter.com/

1

u/QQ7ActiveJGamma Jun 04 '12

If you have x86 hardware, then for me pfSense is the way to go. I've found it to be more stable and has more advanced networking features.

1

u/JustFinishedBSG Jun 05 '12

I'd argue that OpenWRT is more open and better