TomatoUSB

Hello! (Sorry, Tomato noob here.)

I have a (stock) Linksys E3000, which I'm pretty happy with, EXCEPT:
1. I need a DLNA server, not just uPnP – so I can stream from USB-attached drive to my Logitech Revue (Google TV) and to Plex on laptop
2. Transfer speeds over LAN to a USB-attached drive are abysmal.

Will this Tomato firmware help with these issues?
If so, which of the "E3000 Ext" or "E3000 VPN" builds should i use?
(Not sure what 'busybox' and 'openVPN' will do for me…)

And are there different versions of E3000 that I need to look out for before flashing?

I could not find a howto/tutorial on how to actually flash this ROM … do I just unrar and flash the .bin file as a firmware upgrade from the router GUI? Or do I need to flash the original Tomato first?

Also … would it be safe to download torrents directly to the USB-attached drive over LAN?

Oh — and I don't suppose it's possible to run a torrent client right on the router, is it?

Thanks!

I'm also interested in knowing if my old fave Tomato will help the:
"2. Transfer speeds over LAN to a USB-attached drive are abysmal."

I'm not much help with the DLNA stuff as I use SMB and haven't even installed Tomato on this router; but, I as far as"

"would it be safe to download torrents directly to the USB-attached drive over LAN?" I'd say no unless there is a significant performance increase over the stock firmware transfer speeds and connection stability. I was running SABnzb (way better than torrents BTW) and I had a bunch of issues with the connection dropping- on the Stock Firmware. I'm hoping Tomatoe magically solves the USB shared drive sucking…

1. There are not different e3000. Just upgrade the stock firmware with the .bin. I do suggest looking at the different flavors of TomatoUSB before you decide which you want to go with. I personally use Toastman builds. build types

2. Yes it is safe. However I am not sure if your speeds would increase. Most likely you are being limited by the hardware.

3. You can run a torrent on the router. Check out OPTWARE

Thanks, Vanilla!

I didn't know what optware was … then I saw this page at dd-wrt: dd-wrt(dot)com/wiki/index.php/Optware,_the_Right_Way

Over there it says it will install Twonky & Transmission on my router … so then I don't need another DLNA server 'built in' to the ROM, right? Twonky is DLNA, I think…

Would I be better off with Tomato or DDWRT? Or doesn't it matter?

Thanks!

I use toastmans version and it has a dnla server already

I've used both DDWRT and Tomato. I personally like tomato. With DDWRT I had problems getting it to commit changes, it bricked a router randomly it seemed, and was a pain to get things like optware and ipv6 up and running. Tomato it all was a snap. My optware link is what I used to setup optware on my router. It also just says how to install them as they are popular optware. And the toastman builds do have dlna already in them so twonky is not necessary (under the USB and NAS menu).

Thanks for the info!
On the DDWRT forum someone wrote:

"If you read all the way down the OTRW wiki page, you will see where it states that on K26 routers NONE of the the DLNA servers work. This is tied to an issue on the interface.h file on all K26 builds. (try and enter 'netstat -i' and watch it blow up). This has to do with the netutils that are on the build.

So, KONG went ahead and made miniDLNA work and we know that works for sure. I have not tried to run Twonky on a Kong build, but I suspect that the work-around he created was specific to miniDLNA and that the Twonky dependencies on netutils are still broken."

Does this apply to an E3000?

I don't know. I don't use the media streaming since I have a WHS. But I'll guess no because other than DDWRT and tomato both being based on linux there is not much else in common with the development.