Off topic, but what amuses me about the "Wrt" name is that it was originally alternate firmware for the Linksys WRT54G router from 25 years ago. The name has stuck for whatever reason; I guess since only geeks use it and know what it is.

▲

mohaine a day ago | parent | next [-]

I'm pretty sure the software side of the project is a direct descendent from the WRT54G stack.

LinkSys got sued to release the firmware as it was GPL linked. This dump got modified to make the WRT54G way more powerful than LinkSys ever planned but they got to sell the hardware for years more than would have been expected at the time.

▲

kalleboo a day ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah it was so popular they even released a specific WRT54GL model (where the L stands for Linux) in order to keep supporting third-party firmware after the main hardware series moved on to a more optimized VxWorks-based OS that let them ship less RAM and Flash.

A mainstream hardware company releasing a specific product SKU to support third party firmware really sounds crazy from the perspective of the current market where a substantial portion of the value in selling hardware is supposed to come from subscriptions and surveillance.

▲

baggachipz a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah, I loved it because it allowed me to boost the signal above FCC-approved power requirements and saturate my house with that sweet 2.4GHz connection everywhere.

▲

linsomniac a day ago | parent | next [-]

It is basically always better to run more APs at lower power in the areas where you need coverage, than to boost the power. Especially today with the radio spectrum being so congested.

Despite this, I could expect 3-5 people to hunt me down at PyCon when I was running the wireless to tell me that I had misconfigured the wifi because it was set to low power. More reports of that than reports of wifi not working, IIRC. ;-)

(I was running the wireless because the people we paid do to the wifi would just set up one or two APs and crank the power)

▲

baggachipz a day ago | parent | next [-]

Please travel back to 2003 and talk to old me when I could only afford one AP and had no idea how to make them work in concert together. :)

▲

toast0 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> It is basically always better to run more APs at lower power in the areas where you need coverage, than to boost the power.

Only if your clients are competent at roaming.

	▲	linsomniac 16 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		FYI: I've never had any problems with that. Back in the mid-2000s I was running the WiFi for 1000+ people at a time at conferences for 3-4 years, and basically had no complaints.
	▲	Cabal 14 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Looking at you, Nintendo Switch 1 and 2. Yes, the 2, in 2026.

▲

Barbing a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Good to know

▲

HumblyTossed 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I used corner reflectors made from roof flashing and cardboard on mine. Worked really well to get the signal from one corner of my apt to the other.

▲

commandersaki a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah, Linksys made a killing from this and the WRT54GS 2.0 because of OpenWRT.

▲

pbmonster a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> it was originally alternate firmware for the Linksys WRT54G router from 25 years ago

There's a couple of fun examples like that. xda-developers is named after the O2 xda, a smartphone from 25 years ago that not many people ended up developing software for.

▲

voltaireodactyl a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Similar to XBMC at least for a long time.

▲

philamonster a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Recycled 4 or so WRT54G variants a couple years ago I ran Tomato on for friend's small businesses and my home in early 2000's.

▲

tracker1 a day ago | parent [-]

I miss the Tomato UI/UX... I don't care for LUCU or OpnSense's UI by comparison...

Been using OpnSense for about 8 years now though... it's just been the best option for me, I use separate commercial AP.

	▲	sourweasel a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		FreshTomato is still active, and they are doing x86 builds now. I'm running it on an aging Netgear R7000 and it has been stable.
	▲	philamonster a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I used OPNSense briefly when I got 1gig synchronous fiber ~2015 at home on an old i5 desktop, which I think was shortly after the pfSense fork, and then found Mikrotik and RouterOS. Used RouterOS at home since and have been replacing aged out Cisco switches in the datacenter (100gig) and closets (20-40gig) cheaply. I'm looking to dump a handful of ASA's for OPNSense and the messing around I've done so far has been positive. It's aged nicely.

▲

boobsbr a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I still have a WRT54GL sitting in a box somewhere.

▲

EvanAnderson a day ago | parent | next [-]

The best model of the WRT54G line. I would snag them at thrift stores for cheap to use for silly utility functions. I always referred to that particular model as "The highly-coveted WRT54GL."

I used a pair to provide Internet access at a Customer's construction site back in 2010. Cell phone hotspot wasn't a thing for me yet. We took a pair of WRT54Gs, configured one as a WiFi client, the other as a bog-standard router/AP, connected the LAN from the client to the WAN on the router/AP, pur a directional antenna onto the "client", and pointed it down the road toward a big business who offered free WiFi for Customers. We leeched off that until the real Internet service got installed. (It was a restaurant and we ate there at least once so we were Customers, right? >smile<)

▲

jandrese a day ago | parent [-]

It seems crazy to me that Linksys didn't look at the success of the WRT54GL and the higher prices they commanded and decide to just keep doing that. Why every company feels the need to roll their own firmware that is buggy, slow, crashy, and doesn't implement half of the promised functionality properly is still baffling to me.

▲

ssl-3 a day ago | parent [-]

Companies roll their own, I think, because of a combination of Not Invented Here and secret-sauce binary blobs. They work within the script that the chipset/radio maker gives them to follow.

---

They don't often offer inexpensive, deliberately-hackable units like the WRT54GL, I think, because of support costs.

And by "support costs," I don't mean that it was expensive to hold users' hands while they installed custom firmware -- that's never been a service that has been provided.

Instead, I mean that there are people who start goofing with this stuff and run out of skill when hacking close-ish to the metal on this kind of hardware. They don't know how to get themselves out of a jam and unbrick their device.

So they find a way to lie their way into getting an RMA and get the device replaced under warranty, and that's expensive for companies to deal with.

(Those people fucking suck.)

	▲	vitally3643 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Let's also not forget that there are multiple governments lining up to "politely request" firmware backdoors.

▲

srik a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Used to work for that model. Great device for it’s time.

▲

ornornor a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Well we still use Roman months and weekdays, and carry over the 30/31 days months even though we could’ve had a way better system by now (base 10 and equal divisions)

▲

somat a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Did WRT mean anything? Wireless RouTer?

	▲	grvbck 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Wireless Router or Wireless Router Technology is the common interpretation, but to my knowledge, Linksys has never officially confirmed this.