Linksys (now owned by Cisco Systems) designed and developed this lovely little router a while a go now but I find it to be still on of the best I have ever used or played around with. Obviously the stock firware that comes on it, provided by Linksys is a pile of rubbish however get your hands on some custom built firmware and you will be able to set up all different kinds of great things with this beauty.

 

Obviously I have mine running a custom build of DD-WRT (which you can find here: http://www.dd-wrt.com) and I have my router fully integrated into the backbone of my houses networking topology. Using the software loaded onto the router I can access important stats, monitor specific connections, see how many ports are in use, observe the sites being visited and set up vlans and multiple wireless networks through the one router. All of these features are totally configurable and you can set them up how you please, after all everyone is different and likes things their own way.

 

However after thinking about it, it dawned on me that one of the most important features I think is suitable for the majority of home broadband users is the ability to check your own bandwidth. Ok so fair enough it might not bee 100% accurate, but it should be pretty close.

The best featire of this is that you can see a graph showing which days you have used your connection too much and maybe try to control what you look at on the internet. After all, broadband providers are starting to crack down on how much “unlimited” usage there actually is in the world – Surely unlimited, right?

 

Anyway, this is a really interesting and really good feature for all users of the WRT54G model router by Linksys – obviously you need to over come the first hurdle of installing DD-WRT, but the task in itself is like a walk in the park. All you are really doing is downloading a firmware file and then uploading it to the router, logging into the new interface, configure your connection type and security and you are ready to go – nothing could be simpler. Then after a couple of days, in the “Status” section on your router, you should be able to access a tab called “WAN” and there you will be able to see your monthly usage, day by day and get a really good look at how active you have been.