DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

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buggers
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DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by buggers »

I have a D-link DIR-601 A1 router and was thinking about flashing it with DD-WRT. But I read some things don't work on DD-WRT with this router, like client bridge mode but it does work on gargoyle? I've also read that with DD-WRT the 601's wireless TX power gets reduced. For wireless N its get reduced from 19dbm to 9bm and wireless b and g reduces to 12 and if you pick a bad channel it can go down even more.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0 (3/4 of the page down)

Does this happen on gargoyle?

I've never used OpenWRT before. Their website seems to only have instructions for linux users which I'm not. If I install gargoyle do I need to install anything else? Any noticeable advantages to using this instead of DD-WRT?

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DoesItMatter
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Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by DoesItMatter »

http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi ... 300#p10607

Follow that post for instructions on how to flash.

You don't need to know linux but it does help for certain things.

Try both, but I think you'll prefer Gargoyle/OpenWRT on the DIR-601

DD-WRT is great for some things, not so great for others.

Same with OpenWRT - neither is perfect yet, but they get
better every day with more patches / fixes / updates.
:twisted: Soylent Green Is People! :twisted:
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buggers
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Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by buggers »

But does gargoyle reduce the 601's wireless TX power like DD-WRT does? That's kind of important to know. If it does I might not want to use either. Can someone that has gargoyle installed on their 601 check their settings and confirm?

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DoesItMatter
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Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by DoesItMatter »

buggers wrote:But does gargoyle reduce the 601's wireless TX power like DD-WRT does? That's kind of important to know. If it does I might not want to use either. Can someone that has gargoyle installed on their 601 check their settings and confirm?
How are you testing your DIR-601 output power?

You can modify the firmware to boost power.

You can also modify the DIR-601 itself. Fairly easy to do.

Crack it open, resolder a new rp-sma pigtail and mount a replacement
antenna and you get a much improved signal boost and receive boost.

I did this on my DIR-601 and its been working great.
:twisted: Soylent Green Is People! :twisted:
2x Asus RT-N16 = Asus 3.0.0.4.374.43 Merlin
2x Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH V1 A0D0 = Gargoyle 1.9.x / LEDE 17.01.x
2x Engenius - ESR900 Stock 1.4.0 / OpenWRT Trunk 49400

buggers
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Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:47 am

Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by buggers »

I haven't modified the firmware yet so I can't test it. I read it from the link in my original post that installing dd-wrt reduces the TX power of the 601:
1.jpg
1.jpg (17.41 KiB) Viewed 16434 times

9dbm is incredibly low. Even boosting the transmitting power won't make it as high as the default TX from the d-link factory firmware. Why does dd-wrt decrease the power? I'd like to know if gargoyle does this too.

I'm not interested in soldering anything. I don't have any experience with that.

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DoesItMatter
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Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by DoesItMatter »

Gargoyle by default can use 0-27dBm output power range.

It usually maxes out at the highest output power by default.

Give Gargoyle 1.4.6 a try - don't flash 1.5.3 - you won't benefit
from any of those features, 1.4.6 works fine on the Dir-601

And don't worry about bricking your Dir-601 either - it has a built in
emergency recovery mode to recover from a bad flash.
Attachments
dir-601-output-power.jpg
dir-601-output-power.jpg (37.18 KiB) Viewed 16430 times
:twisted: Soylent Green Is People! :twisted:
2x Asus RT-N16 = Asus 3.0.0.4.374.43 Merlin
2x Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH V1 A0D0 = Gargoyle 1.9.x / LEDE 17.01.x
2x Engenius - ESR900 Stock 1.4.0 / OpenWRT Trunk 49400

buggers
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Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by buggers »

Thanks a lot for the help. I was able to flash gargoyle successfully. It seems pretty light on features. Not nearly as many as DD-WRT. Although the QOS in gargoyle looks like it has more options.
Do you know of a QOS guide that can help me configure the settings? I want to use the QOS but I don't understand some of the options. Like 'Percent Bandwidth at Capacity'. I don't know what that means.

I want to configure it for Voip, online gaming, web surfing, web downloading, and p2p. If you know where I can find a tutorial or if you can give me some tips i'd appreciate it.

tals
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Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by tals »

The qos in gargoyle is relatively straight forward. Numerous ways to set up but how I did mine was set the classes per person in household

Eg
Dad
Mum
Son
Daughter
Catch all

I then allocated each of their devices to them and split the percentage equally. The percentage only kicks in if you are maxing the connection. I did this on both download and upload. Download I use the active congestion control and it works very well and my gaming ping has improved even if each of the family is downloading. As I understand it each class won't affect another so for example if I am playing and the daughter is downloading qos ensures we are separate. However if I am downloading on a phone on my class and playing on my class then I could affect my qos - worth bearing in mind. The qos forum has some posts that help further
Netgear wndr3700 v2 Gargoyle 1.8.0
TP-Link Archer C7 v2 1.10.X (Built 20180122-0707)

tals
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Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by tals »

This thread is quite a good follow through on discussing qos

http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi ... f=5&t=2049

Out of Interest my strange issues found during the discussion were due to a line fault causing my connection to fluctuate between 6mb and .5 which are now sorted :)
Netgear wndr3700 v2 Gargoyle 1.8.0
TP-Link Archer C7 v2 1.10.X (Built 20180122-0707)

buggers
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Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:47 am

Re: DD-WRT or gargoyle for DIR-601?

Post by buggers »

thx for the links.

Does anyone know how to get firefox to save the login password for the router page?

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