Page 3 of 4

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 3:08 pm
by skier150
tals wrote:** their is a bypass ability for blocked pages but that is believed to be the pay for option
I would be happy to pay if that was the case. But I asked OpenDNS about that and they said there nothing they have (paid or not) that matches what the Netgear setup does. They are working on a setup with D-Link, but it is will be limited like the others.

Argh... this is a bummer for me.

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 3:45 pm
by tals
You could have a look at http://www.getnetwise.org/ , i've also posted on a forum I use to see if any ideas pop out.

I'm not sure what issues the netgear give you but I can only go by my own experience which was to make our network useable for an active family on the net. But I do understand your concern re he web restriction side - I am so disappointed in opendns on this

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 1:24 am
by skier150
I just got the official answer from OpenDNS:

"The Live Parental Controls program is limited by both the hardware and firmware - for exactly why you'll need to contact the router manufacturer directly. You cannot run the Live Parental Controls program in unison with OpenWRT firmware or DDWRT firmware, etc."

I took a look around on that site, but they all seem to be software based. I then did another search online and found that there really is nothing out there.

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 3:15 am
by tals
Cyber patrol does do a similar type but it's quite expensive. They also have a software version but agreed opendns is qood solution. Just a shame it has to use a netgear. I did wonder if you had the netgear connected to the net and handling the dhcp and then gateway to a gargoyle router whether that would do it - interesting experiment but beyond me I'm afraid on that.

Found this article regarding moving a 3700 back to stock

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=79802

Which would be valid for you so if you do want to try gargoyle and then revert back that is how you do it. Just make sure you get the correct firmware for your 3700 when reverting back

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 11:12 am
by skier150
Thanks, I checked out CyberPatrol, but I do not think it provides any way to bypass if needed. I signed up for a free trial of the SiteSURV service to find out for sure. It looks similar to the OpenDNS service in that it uses a special DNS server to handle the filtering.

That is an interesting thought; one that I will have to think about to see if it could work and if it is worth the effort.

I did find that article when searching for an answer, but it was for tftp so I kept looking. I guess that is the only way to get the stock FW back on the router. Not optimal (heard some horror stories), but doable I guess.

I think if I have the time I am going to give this a try today. This type of change over could easily take me 8-12 hours...

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 3:54 pm
by skier150
Ok, I installed the 1.54 version just now. Initial impressions are not good. I do like all the features that you pointed out about monitoring and QOS. However the wireless connection is not as good as the stock FW. More important is the fact that there is no guest SSID. This pretty much kills it for me as I need a disconnected SSID for visitors and devices I do not want on the main network.

That would be a triple damn for me on this. No Netgear parental control support, no guest SSID, and no increase in performance.

Again, I want to thank you a ton for all your help on this!!

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 5:33 pm
by mix
Could/should this all be doable from the Gargoyle web interface? Probably. Maybe Eric will add multiple SSID support in the future:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/guest-wlan

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 6:03 pm
by skier150
mix wrote:Could/should this all be doable from the Gargoyle web interface? Probably. Maybe Eric will add multiple SSID support in the future:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/guest-wlan
It is in the stock FW and the DD-WRT FW for this router. One would think that it should not be difficult to add this feature.

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 6:13 pm
by tals
The link mix gives allows you to implement it if you want - reasonably easily as well.

Not quite sure why you would see better performance though, that is strange, as I understand it netgears stock is an old version of dd-wrt.

I've not noticed an issue with the wifi side - how are you seeing the performance issues so I can see if I get it as well (without realising)

Re: Why Gargoyle for my 3700?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 11:56 pm
by skier150
tals wrote:The link mix gives allows you to implement it if you want - reasonably easily as well.
Definitely not ready or willing to modify the code.
tals wrote:Not quite sure why you would see better performance though, that is strange, as I understand it netgears stock is an old version of dd-wrt.
Afer I tested the Gargoyle and removed it, I tested the latest DD-WRT. The DD-WRT had the guest SSID to a great degree, as well as the USB support. However it performed even worse than the Gargoyle. It is based on a not-so-old stock FW. Unfortunately the OpenDNS thing did not work on that either
tals wrote:I've not noticed an issue with the wifi side - how are you seeing the performance issues so I can see if I get it as well (without realising)
Compared to the stock FW... the Gargoyle gave about 1 bar average less signal, about 20% across the board. On the 5ghz band I could get 68% if the computer was next to the router, and on 2.4ghz about 83%. For connect speed, the stock FW is usually between 150-300, where as the gargoyle was around 68-150. (these numbers are not next to the router, they are from a different room). And the DD-WRT was about 36-90 at the same location.