Don't buy Cisco E2500 for dual-band DD-WRT (yet)

[VirtualLarry]

I see Jack recommending the refurbished E2500-RM routers at the Cisco homestore for only $35, and mentioning dual-band support, and DD-WRT support.

Well, color me surprised to find out, upon purchasing four of them, and flashing one of them with DD-WRT (according to the version listed in the wiki), that DD-WRT DOES NOT support the dual-band aspect of this router!

That's right, no 5Ghz WDS mode, nor any other kind of 5Ghz support, with DD-WRT (yet).

Someone commented on the DD-WRT forums that "Tomato" DOES support 5Ghz on this hardware.

So I'm off to find some DD-WRT-to-Tomato flashing guides, and some recommendations on Tomato versions for the E2500-RM.

And, unfortunately, a big thumbs-down to Jack's recommendations, because they don't have a disclaimer that DD-WRT doesn't support 5Ghz yet. (Sorry Jack, gotta tell it like it is.)

Edit: I guess I owe an apology to Jack. I looked over a few threads that I had participated in, and while he did recommend that router, I don't see where he ever recommended it with DD-WRT in the same sentence.

I did, however, find this gem.

(btw, Shibby's Tomato should work on the E2500 refurb)

Off to search the Interwebs.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=724027#724027

Looks like that version isn't quite finished either. Guess I'll just store these routers for now, and hope in the next six months they get 5Ghz support worked out.

Edit: Seems well-supported in Tomato. Check here for more info:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2289966

 

[JackMDS]

Thanks Larry

While I am using the more expensive Router with both stock and DD-WRT (when specifically needed). I did not flashed the few 2500 that I used, so I was aware of this specific issue.

On the other hand that does not mean that One should Not buy the 2500, they work very well as Duals.

While in the past many Wireless Routers were sort of "Duds" without DD-WRT, most current Wireless Routers work well with the stock firmware and there is No point to flash with DD-WRT unless a specific configuration (like WDS is needed).

 

[s44]

Eh? The thread indicates that the Tomato build DOES work.

It's a cleaner code base too. Would always pick it over DD-WRT absent some specific feature.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's the unfortunate problem Jack, I DO need 5Ghz WDS support, something that the stock firmware doesn't support.

It is somewhat strange that Linksys/Cisco doesn't yet support WDS in their default firmware. I once used a Motorola WGR850 or something like that, it was Moto's version of the WRT54G, and a WRT54G, in WDS mode. The beta firmware for the moto supported it, and the factory firmware for the Linksys already had "lazy WDS" mode built-in! So in reality, the WRT54G supported WDS, they just didn't expose any UI for the user to make use of it. But it was present in the wireless drivers from Broadcom.

 

[JackMDS]

It is somewhat strange that Linksys/Cisco doesn't yet support WDS in their default firmware.

WDS is Chipset sensitive. Since most manufacturer using variety of chipsets in their Wirelles products they can face a situation that a consumer will buy their products and WDS will not work as expected.

As a result, it is rather rare that any of the Wireless brands offer WDS with the stock firmware.

 

[VirtualLarry]

WDS at 5Ghz works great with Tomato 104.

Edit: Perhaps I spoke too soon. Seems to be limited to 22-23Mbit/sec, or possibly 30Mbit/sec, over the WDS link, even though my link rate is 130Mbit/sec.

 

[lettcco]

I have flashed v104 tomato by shibby as well, and while I like the general feel of tomato over stock, I found the following problem:

1) The UI is in polish. Sure I can have google translate it with chrome, but I wish I can choose.
2) The device list keep adjusting in sizes back and forth every second or so. Not a dealbreaker, but hard to read sometimes as it expand and contract.
3) port forwarding is broken. I opened a port for my webcam and another port for RDP, it can be reached internally, but failed to open externally. I tried using the actual IP so it's not the DDNS. This one is a dealbreaker for me.

 

[Engineer]

If you guys can't get the Shibby version to work as well as expected, you should try Toastman's version or even the new VicTek versions (see the forums at www.linksysinfo.org). VicTek is known more for stability than all out features and has just released a new version for the first time in quite some time.

Edit: I'm not sure whether VicTek supports 5GHz band on WDS though....and for that matter, I'm not 100% sure that the E2500 is supported (yet) as his site is down currently.

 

[s44]

Victek is awesome, but he supports a limited number of routers... Asus, of course, but the most recent Linksys is I think the E3000.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have flashed v104 tomato by shibby as well, and while I like the general feel of tomato over stock, I found the following problem:

1) The UI is in polish. Sure I can have google translate it with chrome, but I wish I can choose.

You picked the wrong firmware file then. I got the "EN", not the "PL" firmware. Shibby 1.28 104 E2500 Max.

Edit: Link to firmware in this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2289966