[1] Linksys WRV54G is a Linux-based router that supports 50 VPN tunnels and 5 simultaneous clients. It supports Wireless-G connectivity and 4-port 10/100 Ethernet hub. Unlike the WRT54G series, the WRV54 uses an Intel IXP425 processor, which supports hardware-based encryption, but is costlier. [2] WRV54G is the first Linksys router that supports the proprietary Linksys program QuickVPN, which simplifies VPN setup. [3] [4] Although it was released in 2004, WRV54G is not yet fully supported by OpenWrt firmware. [5]
Linksys is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Linksys products include WiFi routers, mesh WiFi systems, Wifi extenders, access points, network switches, and WiFi networking. It is headquartered in Irvine, California.
Operating systems based on the Linux kernel are used in embedded systems such as consumer electronics, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), networking equipment, machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment, spacecraft flight software, and medical instruments in general.
The Linksys WRT54G Wi-Fi series is a series of Wi-Fi–capable residential gateways marketed by Linksys, a subsidiary of Cisco from 2003 until acquired by Belkin in 2013. A residential gateway connects a local area network to a wide area network.
A wireless router is a device that performs the functions of a router and also includes the functions of a wireless access point. It is used to provide access to the Internet or a private computer network. Depending on the manufacturer and model, it can function in a wired local area network, in a wireless-only LAN, or in a mixed wired and wireless network.
HyperWRT is a GPL firmware project for the Linksys WRT54G and WRT54GS wireless routers based on the stock Linksys firmware. The original goal of the HyperWRT project was to add a set of features—such as power boost—to the latest Linux-based Linksys firmware, extending its possibilities but staying close to the official firmware. Over time, it continued to be updated with newer Linksys firmware, and added many more features typically found in enterprise routing equipment. HyperWRT is no longer maintained and has been succeeded by Tomato.
DD-WRT is 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.
The NSLU2 is a network-attached storage (NAS) device made by Linksys introduced in 2004 and discontinued in 2008. It makes USB flash memory and hard disks accessible over a network using the SMB protocol. It was superseded mainly by the NAS200 and in another sense by the WRT600N and WRT300N/350N which both combine a Wi-Fi router with a storage link.
Wireless Nomad (wirelessnomad.com) was a for-profit cooperative based in Toronto, Canada providing subscriber-owned home and business Internet access along with free Wi-Fi wireless Internet access and music to over a hundred nodes, making it the largest free Wi-Fi network in the country at the time. It was founded by Steve Wilton and Damien Fox in January 2005, and turned its DSL internet connections over to private ISP TekSavvy in March 2009. All WiFi nodes were subsequently shut down.
Wireless Toronto is a volunteer not-for-profit community wireless network in Toronto. Wireless Toronto began in 2005 with the goal of setting up no-cost public wireless Internet access around the Greater Toronto Area and exploring ways to use Wi-Fi technology to strengthen local community and culture. At its peak, Wireless Toronto hotspots served over 1000 connections per day at 38 individual locations.
Tomato is a family of community-developed, custom firmware for consumer-grade computer networking routers and gateways powered by Broadcom chipsets. The firmware has been continually forked and modded by multiple individuals and organizations, with the most up-to-date fork provided by the FreshTomato project.
Linksys WRTP54G is a Wi-Fi capable router with VoIP capability from Linksys. Launched in 2005, it is similar in function to the popular WRT54G, the device is capable of sharing Internet connections amongst several computers via 802.3 Ethernet and 802.11b/g wireless data links, but it also has two POTS ports for VoIP telephony.
Free Software Foundation, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc. was a lawsuit initiated by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) against Cisco Systems on December 11, 2008 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The FSF claimed that various products sold by Cisco under the Linksys brand had violated the licensing terms of many programs on which FSF held copyright, including GCC, GNU Binutils, and the GNU C Library. Most of these programs were licensed under the GNU General Public License, and a few under the GNU Lesser General Public License. The Software Freedom Law Center acted as the FSF's law firm in the case. The foundation asked the court to enjoin Cisco from further distributing Linksys firmware that contains FSF copyrighted code, and also asked for all profits that Cisco received "from its unlawful acts." Cisco stated that they were reviewing the issues in the suit, but they believe to be "substantially in compliance".
Linksys manufactures a series of network routers. Many models are shipped with Linux-based firmware and can run third-party firmware. The first model to support third-party firmware was the very popular Linksys WRT54G series.
The WNR3500L is an 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi router created by Netgear. It was officially launched in the autumn of 2009. The WNR3500L runs open-source Linux firmware and supports the installation of third party packages such as DD-WRT and Tomato.
OpenWrt is an open-source project for embedded operating systems based on Linux, primarily used on embedded devices to route network traffic. The main components are Linux, util-linux, musl, and BusyBox. All components have been optimized to be small enough to fit into the limited storage and memory available in home routers.
DebWrt is a discontinued, niche Linux distribution mainly installed on embedded systems. It was built on top of an OpenWrt base which was used to load a fully functional version of Debian from the RootFS stored on the attached USB storage device. For easy installation and deinstallation of packages it relied on the dpkg Package management system. DebWrt used the command-line interface of Bash. There was no web-based GUI interface.
Gargoyle is a free OpenWrt-based Linux distribution for a range of wireless routers based on Broadcom, Atheros, MediaTek and others chipsets, Asus Routers, Netgear, Linksys and TP-Link routers. Among notable features is the ability to limit and monitor bandwidth and set bandwidth caps per specific IP address.
LibreCMC is a Linux-libre distribution for computers with minimal resources, such as the Ben NanoNote, ath9k-based Wi-Fi routers, and other hardware with emphasis on free software. Based on OpenWrt, the project's goal is to aim for compliance with the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines and ensure that the project continues to meet these requirements set forth by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). LibreCMC does not support ac or ax due to a lack of free chipsets.