There is the Big Hardware compatibility table, but I wish there was a sticky post of recommended hardware highlighting equipment that stands out.

Personally, I'm looking to buy a wireless router soon and just want to make an efficent purchase that I can tinker with.
And I'm definately open to any suggestions!  :-)
owrt-robert@sneakemail.com

Linksys WRT54G v2, 2.2, 3, 4
- the most popular wireless router?
- 4 MB Flash, 16 MB RAM, 200 MHz CPU
- v1and v1.1 has 125 MHz CPUs
- v5 isn't Linux and OpenWRT won't work on it
- you have to be careful of what hardware version you get and that can be difficult.

Linksys WRT54GS v2, 2.1, and 3.0
- very popular
- 8 MB of Flash, 32 MB of RAM, and 200 MHz CPU (and of course you can't computer CPUs on MHz alone. Wish I knew the make/model to put here) .
- v4 has half the RAM and Flash, v5 isn't Linux and OpenWRT won't work on it.
- you have to be careful of what hardware version you get and that can be difficult.

There are many products not just Linksys. You already looked through the table in the Wiki documentation?

http://wiki.openwrt.org/TableOfHardware

My current personal favorite in following thread though:

http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=3529

And the LinksysInfo entry:

http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php? … mp;thold=0

(Last edited by vincentfox on 3 Feb 2006, 22:45)

My little blurb there was by no means intended to be an exhaustive list!  :-)

I've looked at the Table of Hardware and I'm impressed at the variety of devices OpenWRT runs on!
And I'm really glad those nice tables and details are out there.

But I'm figuring that there are only a handful of devices that stand out and, for those of us in the market, it'd be nice to have a short list of winners.

It's looking to me so far like the Linksys WRT54GS and the ASUS WL500GD are the way to go.
I'll probably go w/ the Linksys just b/c of th user base, if I can find the right hardware revision.

This is like asking "what are best cars?"

Well best for what?

SL is good, but no removable antenna, will be considered handicap by some. Otherwise great feature-set.

Old GS units also good, but a bit slower CPU and no USB.

Asus I cannot speak on, never had one in my hands. I had heard there is to be a WL-700 coming soon with similar specs to the SL.

Whoah! I just got it! I just fully got what you gave me in that link to that post:

The WRTSL54GS (man you're right, that is an unwieldly product name) does look like the cat's meow!

4 port switched router, wireless G (plus obligatory proprietary faster-than-G feature), and a USB port to boot.
Not sure what other bells and whistles are on it yet...

I see the Table of Hardware's entry for the Linksys WRTSL54GS shows untested b/c this is a brand new piece of hardware and it looks like you're leading the charge into it :-)
I'm heading to Atlanta this weekend, I may pick one of these up.

Maybe there's a good reason - I'm being bad and posting more quickly than I'm reading right now :-)
But I saw your quick reply and was trying to post back before you took off.

Thanks mon :-)

(Last edited by robert on 3 Feb 2006, 23:20)

Yeah, I hear that.
I was trying to avoid that horrible 4-letter word, "best".

But things like the fact the SL has no removable antenna will take a lot of folks a while to figure out.
In any case, it's definately worth a close look.

(Last edited by robert on 3 Feb 2006, 23:13)

Yeah well I wasn't trying to be persnickety, but we all have our targetted needs. I really like this SL unit but the radio part of it's 3 main feature is by far the weak-point.

For my other project, the community WISP, I would love to have a unit:
1) Compact, like the WRT54GC unit
2) Low power demands
3) Flexible voltage like the WRT54G/GS, can run homebuilt PoE through 80-feet of Cat5 w factory wart.
4) Single antenna port is fine
5) Enough memory like old units to cram in different features on same hardware.
    This unit loaded with packages for client, this one for backhaul, etc. But same hardware.
    I can live with 4/16 and do, but I'm greedy would like to have 8/32.
6) Linux-friendly bootloader
7) serial and JTAG ports already wired
8) REAL on-board clock with battery.

It really is going to be hard to replace the old G/GS/GL units for me. It still seems very odd to me that all my other computer hardware gets cheaper and/or more features. The PC of 3 years ago for $1,000, would have a great amount more RAM, CPU, and storage now, for same $1,000. Or in a more direct example 3 years ago $50 would have bought what about a 128M or maybe 256M on-sale flash drive. Now a 1-gig flash $50 no problem.

However, the WRT54GS v5 with it's meager 2 megs of flash costs the same as the original GS v1.0.    WTF?

Forgive my rant.....

(Last edited by vincentfox on 4 Feb 2006, 00:49)