Expanding Your Router’s Capabilities with Linux

Linux is a wonderful operating system. From desktops to severs, handhelds to game consoles – Linux runs on just about everything. Recently, I found out about a great new use for Linux: my home router. Tomato is a slimmed down distribution of Linux specially designed to take advantage of the hardware present on the very common Linksys WRT54 routers. It offers many more features than the default firmware, such as QoS (packet prioritizing), bandwidth monitoring, wireless client modes, custom access restrictions, and best of all – the ability to shell into the device and run your own custom scripts.

There are also other embedded Linux distributions for routers, such as the advanced OpenWRT project (great for customizing your own system), and the feature-rich DD-WRT firmware. Because of the ability to customize Linux to suite your own needs, the possibilities of what you can do with your router are now pretty much endless.