Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by tkel | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

tkel·

DD-WRT isn't open-source though. OpenWRT is.

View on HN

What part of it isn't open source?

DD-WRT specifically includes drivers/firmware blobs that OpenWRT can't/doesn't. Mostly broadcom stuff afaik.

Ages ago you could download binaries for Buffalo routers (g300nh / g300nh2) and flash it through the web ui. If you tried to build those images yourself, though, it would fail at the final step because the signing tools / keys were only in the possession of BrainSlayer / Sebastian. Other platforms relied on binary blobs for wlan drivers, and things like that.

Out of the two of them DD-WRT is more "hacky" and duct-taped together, while OpenWrt is more "pure". This can mean that DD-WRT feels more feature complete at times.

Buffalo shipped the WZR series routers with DD-WRT. But they stopped making them when the FCC restricted router firmware about a decade ago.

I bought a pair of them at the time. Kept one (N600) until I needed a 'mesh' and sold it on eBay about four years ago. Replaced it with an Orbi system that doesn't need to phone home (not sure such things are still available in the consumer market).

The ones that I had came with Buffalo firmware but you could load DD-WRT on them through the web ui. To load OpenWrt you had to use tftp and catch it during boot.

I ended up adding support for the G300NH2 model for OpenWrt.

The differences between open wrt and dd wrt didn’t matter to me. I just wanted more control.

The only time I’ve installed OpenWRT was on my WRT54G, which was in service until it was replaced by one of the Buffalo WZR’s.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com