Routers are made up of hardware that is made up of a CPU, RAM, Ethernet ports, and Wi-Fi connectivity that will determine its performance. In order for them to work well, they will require an operating system that we commonly call firmware. Depending on the combination of both, they will make our router obsolete at a certain moment or not. The date of the firmware and the specifications will make it clear to us if we still have a router according to what we need. The firmware that we usually use is generally the one provided by the manufacturer, but there are also other alternatives with more features, continuous updates and the possibility of installing additional software. In this article we are going to see the advantages and disadvantages of unofficial firmware on routers.
Unofficial firmwares and updates
A unofficial firmware of a router we could define it as one that is not provided by the manufacturer itself. In this case we can say that they have been developed by third parties and may more or less resemble the original firmware. Currently we can say that several large unofficial firmwares coexist:
- DD-WRT.
- OpenWRT.
- ASUSWRT-Merlin.
- Tomato (in different versions).
For example, some models of router brands such as NETGEAR, ASUS, TP-Link or D-Link are compatible with unofficial firmware. Thanks to them, on many occasions, you can obtain a number of advanced configuration options that are often not in the official one.
One of the ones we can install is ASUSWRT-Merlin which is an alternative third-party firmware exclusively for ASUS routers. In this firmware, a special emphasis is placed on tweaks and fixes, rather than making radical changes or adding many features.
If you know the interface of the ASUS routers you will see how it respects it and no significant changes are appreciated. In addition, it can also be seen that not all ASUS models will be available, they will only be reserved for a few, generally neutral and mid-high range routers. On the other hand, as in the official firmwares, there comes a time, as can be seen in the list, when they stop supporting them because many years have passed and the development platform is not up to date.
As for the update, generally it is not a problem since if we flash one that corresponds to the router it will be updated correctly, otherwise we could leave the router unusable. Also, in the hypothetical case that it does, some manufacturers like ASUS or D-Link have a recovery system to solve it. One of the best unofficial firmware that we can install is DD-WRT.
Advantages and disadvantages of these firmwares
If you plan to install a third-party firmware, we must take into account both its advantages and strengths, as well as its drawbacks and weaknesses.
The advantages that unofficial firmware can bring us are:
- Access to new advanced configuration options that were not present in the original firmware. Some typical examples are adding some new feature so that it can work as a VPN or Samba server, QoS to prioritize traffic, adding an ad blocker or setting advanced configuration options on Wi-Fi networks.
- Router Performance Optimization since third-party firmwares are usually very light, consume few resources, and therefore may have more options.
- Regular updatesin the case of having an obsolete router that the manufacturer has not provided support for a long time, it will improve your security.
However, not everything will be advantages, unofficial firmwares also have their drawbacks:
- The first is that they are in the hands of developers outside the manufacturer, so you must rely on their good will. Generally this is not a problem and we have quite a few trusted third party firmwares.
- Also keep in mind that, when installing it, are available in different phases. In this aspect it is not convenient to install alpha versions because it could have more failures. Better at least a beta version and, if possible, a final one, although it is possible that the final versions take many months to arrive, and it is better to install the beta versions as they come out.
- Although there are very few risks of damaging the routerthere are, but in many cases they could be recovered since the most advanced routers have a recovery system.
- The firmware change can affect the warranty of your routeralthough legally it should not be so, it is possible that the store will give you problems to process it.
Finally, here you have the best third-party firmware that you can put on your router.
