List of router firmware projects

This is a list of notable custom-firmware projects for wireless routers or software distributions for PC-based routers that have been created and are maintained by people and groups other than the manufacturer of the product. Many of these will run on various brands of Linux-based devices, such as Linksys, Asus, Netgear, etc. The extent of support for (and testing on) particular hardware varies from project to project.

• OpenWrt – Customizable FOSS firmware written from scratch; features a combined SquashFS/JFFS2 file system and the package manager opkg^[1] with over 3000 available packages (Linux/GPL)
  • Commotion Wireless – FOSS mesh networking
  • DD-WRT – Based on OpenWrt kernel since v. 23 (Dec. 2005), paid and free versions available^[2]
  • Gargoyle – A free OpenWrt-based Linux distribution for a range of Broadcom and Atheros chipset based wireless routers
  • LEDE – A fork of the OpenWrt project that shares many of the same goals
  • libreCMC – An FSF-endorsed derivation of OpenWRT with the proprietary blobs removed^[3]
  • Roofnet – A wireless community network project
  • ROOter – OpenWrt-based distribution aiming to convert a cheap router into one that supports 3G and 4G modems plus provide access to the modem to display signal and cell tower information
• DebWRT – Combines the Linux kernel from OpenWrt and the package management system from Debian (Linux/GPL)^[4]
• HyperWRT – Early power-boosting firmware project to stay close to the official WRT54G and WRT54GS firmware but add features such as transmit power, port triggers, scripts, telnet, etc.
  • Tomato – The successor to HyperWRT, features advanced QoS as well as Ajax and SVG graphs
    • Tomato by Shibby^[5]
    • Toastman's Tomato^[6]
    • AdvancedTomato^[7]
    • Asuswrt, based on Tomato-RT/Tomato-USB
      • Asuswrt-Merlin
• Zeroshell – Routers and bridges with VPN, QoS, load balancing and other functionalities
• FreeBSD - A free Open source operating system (BSD licenses)
  • zrouter – a router fimware based on FreeBSD ^[8]
  • BSD Router Project - BSD Router project based on FreeBSD that includes Quagga and Bird.^[9][10]
  • m0n0wall - m0n0wall is built on FreeBSD and boots off of a Compact Flash or CD ROM media in under 12 MB.
  • pfsense - an open source firewall/router computer software distribution based on FreeBSD that can be installed on a physical computer or a virtual machine

References

Further reading

• Henry, Alan (2015-04-01). "How to Choose the Best Firmware to Supercharge Your Wi-Fi Router". Lifehacker. Gawker Media. Retrieved 2016-06-16.