Comments on: DD-WRT vs. Tomato: Winner is Tomato

By: omostan

omostan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:30:39 +0000

I’ve been using DD-WRT for quite some years and decided to give Tomato a try after reading the reactions of users on this blog. Prior to my reading this article, I noticed a tremendous slowdown in my internet connections. And in search of an alternative firmware, I eventually ended up here.

I must say the improvement on DD-WRT is enormous (its fast, stable and simple to configure). I love the QoS on Tomato. One can actually improve the quality of connections unlike DD-WRT. I just couldn’t see any improvement after setting QoS on DD-WRT. I don’t want to sound ungrateful to DD-WRT after using for years but it must be said that Tomato improve my productivity level.

I’m still learning of the goodies of Tomato… so I hope to stay here as long as I’m encouraged by Tomato - providing good quality alternative firmware for my WRT54GL routers.

By: wl-500gp v2

wl-500gp v2 — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:10:06 +0000

firmware for asus wl-500gp v2? i want to replace DD-WRT v24-sp2 (12/17/08) mega - build 11218M NEWD Eko

By: DD-WRT

DD-WRT — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:57:28 +0000

I myself am a big fan of openwrt.

By: theduck

theduck — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:01:14 +0000

Also have to agree with most of you, the GUI is really fast and looks great. But after switching from dd-wrt to tomato, I had huge trouble with WDS speeds for some reason. Even though both routers worked as they were supposed to, it seemed that my computer always connected to the host router resulting in very poor speeds. After several of hours, I had to change back to dd-wrt which works fine.

By: BIOHazard87

BIOHazard87 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:25:20 +0000

Right now I’m running Tomato RAF 1.22.8011 (AKA VicTek Mod) with TCP Vegas enabled and its running great. I’ve always experienced DD-WRT to be laggy, and a hassle to deal with. I love how Tomato’s GUI runs fast on my Linksys WRT54GL v1.1. I’d go with Tomato if your router supports it.

By: alobler

alobler — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:55:31 +0000

I’m not a techie. It has taken me several hours to figure out how to get DD-WRT to do what I want it to do, for my applications and network to work. The DD-WRT documentation is bad. It is outdated, disorganized, hard to find what you need. But, the router itself seems to work fine (I do not use torrents which are one of the things that many people say will make routers not work properly).

If I switched to Tomato everything would look different and it would take many hours again to get the right ports opened and everything set up. Tomato is probably better if you are starting from stock firmware or have problems with torrents. But if you already have some familiarity with DD-WRT and it is generally working for you, I wouldn’t switch in the hopes of a speed increase unless you think there are real signs of a problem with your current network.

By: HRTS

HRTS — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:38:17 +0000

Hi again.
In May 2008 I switched from DD-WRT to Tomato.
This is my feedback after 1,5 years of using DD-WRT and 6 months of Tomato - on WRT54GL 1.1
First of all: I am using both versions with OpenVPN - this is the reason why I erased the original Linksys firmware.

DD-WRT - almost monthly crashed. Backups not recognized. Low speed over Wi-Fi (I am using a MacBook and an Acer laptop). Very good speed of DHCP.
More than 10 times forced to clear the NVRAM and start over the config.
Cause - power resets that really kill the config

Tomato.
Wi-Fi speed reported by netlimiter is 2,7 MB/s. Amazing
Never lost the config. In fact, the uptime can reach years if my power system stays up for years :))
Low speed of DHCP - some problems allocating IP to the MacBook. All solved with forum help.
OpenVPN - so stable that I forgot how to configure it - in case that Tomato lose the config Upgrade from Mod 1.16 to 1.19 - less than 10 minutes, “plug and play:

After 2 years, I can conclude that for my type of router the best firmware is Tomato: I got stability and speed.

By: linksyshacker1337

linksyshacker1337 — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:26:20 +0000

DD-Wrt is better because it can work on more routers (i use it on my wireless N router). I have had no problems with it whatsoever.

By: venom

venom — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:29:51 +0000

Hello,

I guess I am the ONLY person that had problems with Tomato and not DDWRT. I bought three Linksys Wrt54GL units, suggested as the best one due to there only being two versions, both seem identical, and it has 16mb ram.

So I setup DDWRT for myself. I didn’t have any problems setting it up and VOIP and Torrents seems to work fine while everyone else was online. I setup a client with 12 users on Tomato. Had to reboot the tomato unit every single day as it would lock up. So I setup tomato on another identical linksys, checked settings. Same problem. Got on the forums, no one could figure it out.

So I switched this client to DDWRT 23 sp2 same as me. No problems ever. What I also do is have the router reboot itself every Sunday at 6am which eliminates any future problems or memory leaks. Funny how so many people want to keep their routers on for 200 days or so as if that proves anything?

So, for me, DDWRT kicked Tomatos ass. They both have their strengths as I liked Tomatos interface better AND the router wouldnt reboot after every change. So I would try both if you can afford two routers to try them out.

By: grndslm

grndslm — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:31:48 +0000

It’s pretty amazing the comments have gone on this long. I figured since this article is still getting traffic, I’ll post my opinion on these firmwares, too, essentially as a flowchart for which one would suit you best.

Tomato first… I have not tried Tomato, but it prolly *is* the best if it isn’t lacking a specific feature that you need. From what I understand, the only serious features lacking are: vWLAN/VLAN, VPN, the security of a 2.6 kernel (but having 2.4 is where the speed in Tomato comes from), and right now USB support for the ASUS WL-500g Premium which I have. Other than that, it’s the fastest, simplest, prettiest, and most practical for QoS configuration.

OpenWRT second… Since I have a WL-500g Premium, I want USB support, so I am using OpenWRT. I was lucky enough to come across somebody who had already configured a firmware from SVN with the new LuCi interface for this exact router (adding USB support, opening up mem, etc.) in the #openwrt channel on FreeNode. There’s prolly a firmware posted on the OpenWRT forum, also… and that’s definitely where OpenWRT shines the most — large community and large no. of packages available. This firmware will be around longer than the shady DD-WRT for sure… so get your Linux haxing skills together already. This is the firmware most similar to Debian/Ubuntu.

DD-WRT third… I would only use this firmware if you were one of the unlucky saps who got the WRT54G versions with limited memory. DD-WRT micro is the only firmware to fit in the 2MB of memory given by these limited devices (what were they v4 & v5?). Also, if you just absolutely need something like virtual LANs, VPN, etc. and you don’t know your way around the Linux command line to well… this is the firmware for you. However, today will always be the best day to start learning Linux commands and filesystem organization if you haven’t already!!