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DD WRT

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DD-WRT

Developer(s)
  
Sebastian Gottschall / NewMedia-NET

Initial release
  
22 January 2005; 12 years ago (2005-01-22)

Stable release
  
v24 SP1 (Build10020) / 27 July 2008; 8 years ago (2008-07-27)

Preview release
  
Constantly being updated in beta form in forums

Type
  
Router operating system

License
  
Various proprietary and free software

DD-WRT is a GNU/Linux-based firmware for wireless routers and access points. Originally designed for the Linksys WRT54G series, it now runs on a wide variety of models. DD-WRT is one of a handful of third-party firmware projects designed to replace manufacturer's original firmware with custom firmware offering additional features or functionality.

Contents

The firmware project's name was taken in part from the Linksys WRT54G model router, a home router popular in 2002–2004. "DD" are the German license-plate letters for vehicles from Dresden, where the BrainSlayers development team lived. "WRT", also used by the OpenWrt router firmware project, comes from the generic abbreviation for "Wireless RouTer", which may have been the original Linksys meaning.

Buffalo Technology and other companies have shipped routers with factory-installed, customized versions of DD-WRT. In January 2016, Linksys itself started to offer DD-WRT firmware for their routers.

Features

DD-WRT includes such features as support for the Kai network, daemon-based services, IPv6, Wireless Distribution System, RADIUS, advanced quality of service, radio output power control, overclocking capability, and software support for the hardware addition of a Secure Digital card. The complete feature set depends on the version:

Over the past years, DD-WRT became popular among VPN users due to its support of OpenVPN protocol. This provides an ability to use various VPNs on a DD-WRT in order to secure the whole network. As a result all traffic which passes through DD-WRT router gets a VPN protection.

It is possible to build a custom firmware package with the desired feature-set, working within the limitations of available ROM.

ROM requirements

  • All versions require at least 4 MB of flash memory, unless noted otherwise.
  • Micro+ requires at least 2 MB of flash memory plus 128 KB Common Firmware Environment (CFE) storage space.

    • Version history

  • Version 16 (the first DD-WRT version) – 22 January 2005 – Created as a branch of Sveasoft Alchemy, which in turn is based on the Linksys WRT54G firmware
  • Version 22 – 25 July 2005 – The last version to use the Alchemy kernel
  • Version 23 – 25 December 2005 – The first version to use the OpenWrt kernel instead of the Alchemy kernel
  • Version 23 Service Pack 1 – 16 May 2006 – Much of the code was overhauled and rewritten during the development of this release, and many new features were added.
  • Version 23 Service Pack 2 – 14 September 2006 – The interface was overhauled, and some new features were added. Some additional router models are supported.
  • Version 24 – 18 May 2008 – Allows up to 16 virtual interfaces with different SSIDs and encryption protocols. It can run on some PowerPC, IXP425-based router boards, Atheros WiSOC, and X86-based systems. It can also run to some extent on routers with low flash memory (ex. WRT54Gv8 or WRT54GSv7).
  • Version 24 Service Pack 1 – 26 July 2008 – Contains an urgent DNS security fix for an issue in dnsmasq, site survey security fixes, longer passwords, and flexible OpenVPN configurations. It can also run on additional hardware, including WRT300 v1.1, WRT310N, WRT600N, Tonze AP42X Pronghorn SBC, Ubiquiti LSX and Netgear, Belkin, and USR devices.

    • From the last version forward, builds have been constantly released on DD-WRT forums (with a beta tag) for different routers. Some of these are considered highly stable while others are not working at all.

    Classical features of routers can be fully enabled with version 24 Service Pack 2 build 14929 (08/12/10) standard, which can be installed with the micro version first (rather than the standard version).

    References

    DD-WRT Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA