Open source Netgear WNR3500L 802.11n router supports Tomato, xWRT firmware

Robert Hallock 6 Oct, 2009 at 1:01am ET Article published in Tech

UPDATE: 2:30 AM EDT, 10 October, 2009

Netgear has responded to allegations that their product is not open source. You can read the excerpts from that interview and new insight on the debate here: Netgear responds to open source concern for WNR3500L router

UPDATE: 7:30 PM EDT, 8 October, 2009

A well-known open source advocate has alleged that the WNR3500L router is not as “open source” as Netgear claims it to be. The complete story is available here: Netgear’s “open source” router not so open source after all

Original story follows:

Netgear has unveiled the WNR3500L, an open source 802.11n router which can be customized with any number of third-party firmwares, including DD-WRT, Tomato, and OpenWRT.

The RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB is also designed to serve as a reliable, high-performance open source Linux® platform supporting a wide variety of applications created by multiple development partners and the dedicated open source community. Some of these partners include BigFoot Networks for boosting network speeds for online gaming, Leaf Networks for easy remote access, Paragon Software for high-speed USB file reads and writes, and Sputnik for hotspot solutions.

The most popular free, open source Linux-based firmware — DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Tomato — are also available on the RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router, making it easier for users to develop a wide variety of applications. Customers can download the Linux-based open source firmware from the open source community and development program web site at http://www.myopenrouter.com.

Featuring a 480MHz MIPS 74K chip, 8MB flash space, 64MB RAM and a Broadcom BCM4718 radio, the WNR3500L is quite a bit more powerful than Linksys’ WRT54G or WRT54GL routers, both of which have long been prized for their third-party firmware support.

Netgear has made a shrewd and intelligent move with the WNR3500L. The product will entice a large population of holdouts who have refused 802.11n in favor of the versatility offered by 802.11g Linksys routers flashed with third-party firmware. By offering that same versatility with better hardware and the latest in WiFi standards, the WNR3500L is the upgrade many have been waiting for.

The Netgear WNR3500L is expected to retail for $140 within the month.

Comments

6 Oct 2009 ~ 2:38am Snarkasm I believe this will be my new router. Thanks for the heads up, Rob.

Now to find what the markup over here will be and where I can get it...
6 Oct 2009 ~ 3:34am ardichoke That looks awesome. Survey says this will likely become my wireless router of choice.
6 Oct 2009 ~ 9:32am mirage Good to see Netgear in the game too. Let's see what will Linksys release and where prices will settle. Then, it is time to upgrade my WRT54GL.
6 Oct 2009 ~ 9:59am AlexDeGruven I love dd-WRT so much. I might have to fork out the cash for one of these this winter. dd-WRT + the added horsepower (my current router is a measly 200MHz) = the goodness.
6 Oct 2009 ~ 10:52am BuddyJ A bit spendy isn't it?
6 Oct 2009 ~ 11:00am Thrax The $140 MSRP is a little on the high side, but I expect to see it around $120 after etailer discount. That puts it in league with other 11n products, with a hell of a lot more versatility.
6 Oct 2009 ~ 11:11am mertesn The price will drop quickly enough.
7 Oct 2009 ~ 5:38pm Jennifer Schultz Oh how cool. I can't believe there is an open source router now! I recently got the Netgear WNDR 3700 and I am loving it!! It's not time to switch - but if you're in the market - I recommend this one too!
8 Oct 2009 ~ 3:43pm kryyst It would appear this opensource router - isn't so open source after all.

Harald Wlte's blog

To sum up you can't just drop any open firmware on it, you have to use specially compiled binaries of opensource firmware to work on it. So if you want to run Tomato, you can't get tomato fro the official site you have to get the WNR3500l version of tomato from the WNR3500l site.

What's probably even more problematic though is that it's kernel is closed source and silly things like WPA/WPA2 won't work under most 3rd party kernels.
8 Oct 2009 ~ 4:05pm ardichoke FML. That's what I get for taking something like this at face value. Thanks for pointing that out before I wasted money on that router kryyst.
8 Oct 2009 ~ 5:12pm Thrax I've contacted Netgear PR for a response on this issue.