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Netgear Releases 11n Router for Linux Hackers - Lab Notes by ExtremeTechNetgear's RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB (model WRN3500L) is the latest in a long line of routers that caters to a special group: users that want to hack their routers with third-party firmware that adds far more functions than most router vendors dare support. In fact, Netgear pushes customers to check out MyOpenRouter.com, an online open-source community that exclusively features Netgear equipment, but says very carefully on the page that it is "not affliated with Netgear."
Nevertheless, it's where Netgear suggests that you download copies of DD-WRT, Tomato, OpenWRT, and other firmware that got its start mainly on Linksys by Cisco routers. (Linksys smartly turned the cheap, hackable Linux router into a cottage industry back before it was a Cisco company, when it saw just how many happy enthusiasts would buy their routers on the cheap to hack at.)
What's inside? The router has a full 64 Mbytes of RAM, 8MB of flash memory, and a 480-MHz MIPS 74K CPU core. It has five Gigabit Ethernet ports (one is for the WAN connection to broadband), and, of course, the final 802.11n specification for wireless. It also supports a repeater mode. All three antennas for the 11n Wi-Fi are internal. Push-button Wi-Fi Protected Setup is a built in. Two USB 2.0 ports can be used for attaching external storage or 3G/cellular modems, or whatever you can get through support in third-party firmware installed.
The WRN3500L also can work with a bunch of third party software using its own native firmware. Sputnik can turn it into a public-access hotspot; Leaf Networks makes it easier to get remote access; Paragon lets you use an NTFS formatted hard drive on one of the USB ports (usually you have to go with the slower FAT file system); and Bigfoot Networks to improve gaming.
Price for the new device: $139.99 retail. Linksys's equivalent 11n hackable Linux router, the WRT160NL, announced last June, is $119.99 retail, but comes with only a 400MHz processor, only 32MB of RAM, and 2 external antennas.
Netgear calls the WRN3500L the "first full-featured Wireless-N Linux router to combine wide ranging capabilities, features, infrastructure and a community to enable application development" though previous Netgear 11n routers have supported DD-WRT. It's more about the chip inside, anyway.
WNR3500L - RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB