Equipment Support > Hardware By Brand > Netgear > WNDR3300 with DD-WRT firmware

reply to stev32k

Re: WNDR3300 with DD-WRT firmware

DD-WNDR3300

Yeah, I read that thread and several others. I ended up returning the WNDR3300. The only reason I bought it in the first place was Netgear claimed it could be used as a range extender without using third party software. Boy is that wrong! I spent days trying every setting I could think of on both WNDR3300 and the Linksys WRT160 N that was to be the base station. I read every knowledge base article netgear published on the subject, and I spent hours on the phone with both Netgear and Linksys tech support, but nothing worked.

I have a Linksys WRT54GL on the way to me and It should be here tomorrow. I'll flash it with the DD-WRT firmware. I know that will work as an extender and I know the DD-WRT firmware is stable for that router. There are a lot of reports on the DD-WRT web site about turning the WNDR3300 into bricks and I didn't want to take a chance. I just felt uncomfortable with the Netgear router because I've never had one before. I've always used either Linksys or Zyxel.

If you check the Linksys threads over the past few years you'll see plenty of WRT54Gs that were bricked as well. The reports of bricks are I'm sure a small percentage of installs on both devices.
While you can't go wrong with the GL, you are giving up 5.0ghz dual band - the Linksys WRT610 would be a similar device that can also be flashed to DD-WRT. They also recently released the 620 which is a strange derivative - its dual band with a single radio. Personally I like the flexibility of configuring the radios separately.

As for the OF - I couldn't get it to connect to the WRT54G that runs DD-WRT in client-bridge mode. I have no idea why. As soon as I flashed DD-WRT to the WNDR3300 the bridge was recognized. There's one other non-obvious bonus to the DD-WRT firmware on the WNDR3300 - it disables the blue disco dome lights.

If you upgraded the router to the new version of the Netgear firmware then shutting them off was easily accomplished by pressing the dome - it functions as a switch. From what I've read in the DD-WRT forum, the control of those lights would require a custom script to function in DD-WRT as they do in the OF. Supposedly they light to illustrate which of the internal antennas is active in realtime.