It's very important that you perform the operation by means of a wired connection, and also that there is no simultaneous wireless connection between your computer and the router.ī. Wireless connections aren't suitable for this!Īlso make sure that your wireless connection with the router is disabled.
Use an ethernet cable to connect the computer that you wish to use for this operation, to the router. Turn on the router with the old firmware still in place. Please do NOT skip any of these steps: they are very important and will prevent a lot of headaches afterwards!Ī. No Broadcom, no dice: try DD-WRT instead.īelow you'll find the how-to for installing the FreshTomato build that you've downloaded:ģ. Note: FreshTomato is only meant for routers containing a WiFi chipset from Broadcom! If you can't find a dedicated build for your router: check what WiFi chipset is in it. This is only applicable for the generic builds in the subfolder K26 the dedicated builds usually have just one flavour which should fit in the NVRAM in all cases. They should require the least amount of NVRAM space. After (approximately) 2010? Then it's probably MIPSR2.īecause some routers have very little NVRAM storage, the safest choice are the Mini builds (with the word Mini in their name). Was it launched before (approximately) 2010 or so? Then it might be MIPSR1. If you can't find one, select a generic build in the K26 folder, doing an informed guess as to whether it should be MIPSR1 or MIPSR2.īy an informed guess I mean that you should try to establish the original launch date of your router model. You should start your search by trying to find a dedicated build for your router model. The other folders of 2021.1 named K26RT-AC (*click*) and K26RT-N (*click*) contain dedicated builds, meant for just one router model. MIPSR1 routers are very old think of ancient ones like the Linksys WRT54GL. The subfolder of 2021.1 named K26 (*click*), which is named after Linux kernel 2.6, contains the generic builds for MIPSR1 and MIPSR2 routers. Avoid versions in the tests folder or in the beta folders they're unreliable and only meant for helping the developers with testing and bug reporting. At the time of writing this, that's 2021.1 (*click*). So I'll try to help you a bit with that, because putting the wrong build on your router might render it useless ("brick it").įirst you go to the main folder that contains the latest stable version of FreshTomato. Unfortunately it's rather an effort to find the right FreshTomato build for your router, because its developers haven't put much effort in guiding you to that. More about that later.įinding the right FreshTomato build for your routerĢ.1. Not only does FreshTomato support more routers than the original Tomato, but the makers have added some extra features as well. Probably the best actively developed fork at the moment, is FreshTomato. It performs very well on my routers. Those forks support a lot more routers, contain the latest security updates (at least when they're under active development) and have more features. As said, the original Tomato has a number of forks, although not all of them are under active development. If not, read on: its fork FreshTomato might support your router.Ģ. Note: make sure to check on the Tomato website, whether your router is supported.
#How to setup usb drive tomato driver#
The New Driver wasn't very stable, at least not back in 2010, when the development of the original Tomato halted. Note: select Tomato_1_28 and not Tomato_1_28_ND. If you want it anyway, you can get it here.
Though no longer the best choice, because of course it hasn't had any security updates for years. Those forks support a lot more routers, including many modern ones more about that later.įor those routers that it does support, the original Tomato is still an option. Luckily there are several forks of Tomato, some of which are being developed actively. The original Tomato is only fit for a few routers, and active development has stopped in 2010. Original Tomato: insecure but still functionalġ. The routers on which I've successfully installed FreshTomato Situation 2: fraternity house on college campus Different settings for different situations Establish connection by means of the terminal Finding the right FreshTomato build for your router Original Tomato: insecure but still functional