One of the most compelling reasons to use the original firmware for the version 1 e4200 routers, was because of the potential routing speeds. So much so, that even with the version 2 e4200s with a much faster CPU (and different firmware), could not match the version 1 routing speeds.
The reason why the version 1 routers were so fast was because the firmware had a feature called CTF (Cut Through Forwarding). This allows the router to interpret the packet header as it is assembled and begin forwarding the packet data stream once the port numbers have been identified in the transport layer. This means that it doesn’t require as much overhead as conventional routers which have to assemble the packet and store it before forwarding the packet to it’s destination.
As of build 92, Tomato Shibby, you now have that feature so you can boost the performance of your router. Note that you potentially will be limited to the performance of your modem, so make sure you have that set to bridge mode so that you get the maximum performance out of your link to the WAN.
Special thanks to ALFo for the post. The new firmware is out for rev 1 routers and can be downlaoded from here:
FW_E4200_1.0.04.011_US_20120116_code.bin
Here is what Linksys have to say about what is changed:
Last Release Date: Feb 21, 2012
Last Firmware version: 1.0.04 (build 11)
- Added Enabled/Disabled feature for Wi-Fi Protected Setup in the web configuration
- Added WPS lockdown feature
- Fixed Linux kernel IPv6 fragment identification remote Denial-of-Service vulnerability
- Fixed Router cannot get a WAN IP address form some ISP
- Fixed Internet Access Policy issue when disabling Parental Control
- Fixed some minor bugs
I have discovered a bug in TomatoRAF 9010 when attempting to set up a guest wireless on both the 2 and 5 gHz channel.
I have installed v1.28.9010 MIPSR2-RAF-NCC-VLAN K26 USB VPN-NOCAT on an e4200 and when I attempt to set up Virtual Wireless on both eth1(wl0) and eth2(wl1), I get issues in the interface that will not allow me to access eth2(wl1), wl1.1, wl1.2 and wl1.3 tabs. Further more, when I go to the basic network settings, the wireless eth2 information is not displayed.
Anyone else can confirm this issue?
Although Tomato Shibby might be the most popular of the Tomato mods, TomatoRAF comes in at a very close second. So I decided to give it a go and got some very interesting results.
TomatoRAF build 9010 is certainly faster than Tomato Shibby 83V, you notice it right off the bat. It also adds the ability to create guest wireless SSID’s, but you will loose the BT feature and some other smaller features in the firmware (ie, graphed results).
I am going to stick with TomatoRAF for now and see how I go, but note that Tomato Shibby is still great firmware.
Get the latest build of RAF from here: http://victek.is-a-geek.com/Repositorios/Beta_RAF/
As a side note, Shibby has released 85V with Transmission v2.50, you can get it from here: http://tomato.groov.pl/index.php?dir=K26RT-N%2Fbuild5x-085V-EN%2FRT-N66U
As good as the Cisco E4200 Firmware is, it is lacking in some networking features that I wished it had, such as more than one DDNS entry, better control over wireless clients and bandwidth control.
I know that every man and his dog talks about DD-WRT but everytime I use it, I get the feeling that it is jam packed with features that don’t really fit with the home network but more like a mini ISP.
Any rate, I discovered Tomato Shibby and man am I impressed. It has all the performance and bandwidth limiting of TomatoUSB but with extra features such as a DLNA server (I don’t use this but others might), Transmission BT server/cleint, FTP server and a CIFS server. It has great support for the ability to run OpenDNS and DynDNS simultaneously and some really great reporting/logging features.
The latest build (83) has a fork [K26RT-N] that supports the 5gHz transmitter and so I really encourage you all to give it a try. By far, the best firmware I have installed. Make sure you get the AIO variant (All In One) as it has the functions built in.
NOTE: set the wireless transmitter power to 71mw for best results.
Here is the site to get all firmware: http://tomato.groov.pl/
Firmware with with 5gHz support: http://tomato.groov.pl/index.php?dir=K26RT-N%2Fbuild5x-083V
After using 1.03 firmware for the past few days, it would appear that there is a new Broadcom driver in it for the wireless NICs as the 5gHz performance seems to be a little more fussy when it comes to connecting to it with a weaker signal.
My Macbook appears to struggle maintaining a stable link from a distance away and the connection times out too easily compared to 1.02.
Has anyone else experienced this too?
Firmware 1.03 for the Cisco e4200 has been released. I have noticed that 1.02 doesn’t play nice with 2011 Macbook Air with Lion.
Download from here: http://homesupport.cisco.com/en-apac/support/routers/E4200
I’ll report back once I have done some testing. In the mean time here is the change log:
Cisco Consumer Products
Product: E4200
Classification: Firmware Release History
—————————————————————————
IMPORTANT:
- The safest way to perform the firmware upgrade is to use a wired computer.
- DO NOT power cycle the Router during the firmware upgrade process.
===========================================================================
Last Release Date: Sept 28, 2011
Last Firmware version: 1.0.03 (build 14)
- Added supports of Native IPv6 over PPPoE Internet connection when only keep
alive option is selected.
- Added supports of Native IPv6 on guest network if there are more than two
available IPv6 subnets
- Added supports of Native IPv6 on Parental Control
- Added supports of 3TB Hard drive with NTFS and HFS+ format
- Improved firmware upgrade stability
- Improved IPv6 WAN performance
- Fixed media server unstable issue
- Fixed Cisco LED flashing issue
- Fixed some minor bugs
- DLNA certified
- IPv6 Gold logo certified
- UPnP certified
===========================================================================
Release Date: June 14, 2011
Firmware version: 1.0.02 (build 13)
- Added support of USB printer connected to the router’s USB port, so that
a user may send a print job to the printer via the local area network.
** This feature requires Cisco connect software v1.4 or later **
- Added support of Native IPv6 and 6rd tunnel Internet connections
- Added supports of bridge mode
- Prevented devices on the guest network to access any private IP
address (RFC 1918)
- Updated wireless driver to improve interoperability
- Fixed some storage relative issues
- Fixed some browser-based configuration utility bugs
- Fixed some minor bugs
===========================================================================
Release Date: March 7, 2011
Firmware version: 1.0.01 (build 10)
- Fixed 2.4GHz wireless unstable issue
- Disabled IPv6-to-IPv4 Tunneling feature to improve Interoperability
===========================================================================
Release Date: Nov 14, 2010
Firmware version: 1.0.00 (build 13)
- Initial release
Once I took the site down, I had many requests from users to join the site, so I have put it back up. I’ll leave it in the background for now and post when ever I feel like.
Well after more than a year of blogging about Dlink and their products, I am no longer motivated to continue blogging about either.
I no longer buy DLink as they insist on using the ubicom platform for their devices and I have yet to see a stable build for their firmware.
Even their new products are based off the same platform and so will have the same issues as their old. I suspect their late CEO was pushed out for the decision/agreement to lock in ubicom which cost them dearly based on their financial results published earlier.
I’ll leave the site going for a little while so as to allow people to grab what ever firmware they need.
The only one bit of advise I can give you all as home network consumers, only buy devices based off the Broadcom platform. This means netgear, linksys/Cisco, Buffalo and believe it or not, apple. Broadcom platforms appear to be the most stable and offer alternative firmware builds.
Good Bye and all the best.
I had a comment from Bogman posted to me asking a whole lot of really good questions which I responded to but thought it would make for a good blog, so here it is.
I have tried the experimental tomatousb builds since Build 54 on an E3000 and miniDLNA is broken for streaming to the PS3. The rumor is that Teddy had a death in the family and fixes are probably not going to happen soon.
As far as the E4200 is concerned, is there a way to keep track of bandwidth usage short of flashing the considerably slower dd-wrt or tomatousb firmwares?
Yeah I had read about Teady Bear loosing his wife but no one has confirmed it yet. I really hope that it is just a bad rumor and nothing more. Poor guy, what a terrible thing to go through.
There is another off-shoot of tomato called Tomato RAF by Victek (tomato raf), it appears to be quite stable and well maintianed but uses the older broadcom driver and hence won’t support 5gHz band. You may want to confirm this yourself though. Here is the firmware tomato-E4200USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.9006MIPSR2_RAF-VPN-NOCAT.bin Specific version for E4200, USB + Extended Sysinfo + VPN + Captive Portal. Updated June 13th. 2011.
As for a DLNA server, with many of the firmware distro’s, you have the option of installing optware and then installing a dlna server that is regularly maintained rather than the one packaged with the firmware.
Much like all distro’s, they will not be faster than the stock firmware that Cisco has put out due to the following reasons:
- Stock firmware uses fast-nat which is not compatible with some of the features in DD-WRT and many other distro’s.
- Stock firmware has proprietary code that allows the router to perform CTF (Cut Through Forwarding) which basically allows the router to interpret the IP header as it is coming in and once the Destination IP address is determined, begins to forward the bits straight away. This means that the router performs at almost line speed (CPU limiting of course), rather than maintaining a buffer which assembles the packet and is then interpreted for transmission.
The interesting thing is that the stock firmware has a broken twonky media server too, I am wondering if there is a broken common library that is stopping all media servers on 2.6 kernals.
As for your question on tracking bandwidth, yes there is a few approaches to take.
- The router should support SNMP (both stock and distro’s), so you could get a tool that will connect to your router via SNMP to track bandwidth. The unfortunate part is that you will need a machine that is always on to keep counting the traffic usage. If you have a linux based file server, then that is the ideal choice as there are quite a few advanced/professional server and bandwidth monitoring applications available with web interfaces, MRTG is one well established application.
- Using distro’s like DD-WRT, you can setup optware and install applications that will do this, perhaps even MRTG.
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