I was told and read some internet articles that Tomato is better than DD-WRT in terms of QoS, monitoring/tracking, stronger wifi, more stable, lighter package, etc, especially for those old G-mode Broadcom devices.

Since I won't use the WHR-HP-G54 for any vlan under DD-WRT, I decided to give it a try, again the G54 will be my first experience with Tomato!!

My G54 was loaded with DD-WRT R15962 build, I followed the instruction from Tomato wiki, upgraded to Tomato in less than 10min!!  All I did was:

  1. Download the latest Tomato package from: http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato (currently 1.28)
  2. Unzip the package, use the "tomato.trx" file
  3. Follow the guide as written on the "Migrating from DD-WRT Firmware via Windows" section: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware/Installation_and_Configuration#Installing_on_a_Buffalo_WHR-G54S.2FWHR-HP-G54

<From Tomato wiki - Migrating from DD-WRT Firmware via Windows >

  • You can use the DD-WRT web interface to flash to the Tomato firmware.
  • First, obtain the password for the router: In the web interface, go to Administration -> Commands. Type "nvram get http_passwd" into the text box and click "Run Commands". When the page reloads, it will show the password below. Make note of this password for later use.
    Alternatively, you can obtain the password via telnet. Assuming your router can be found at 192.168.1.1, you'd type "telnet 192.168.1.1" at a command prompt to login to the router. Once logged in, type "nvram get http_passwd" and write down the result.
    • Download the Tomato firmware and extract it. In the "trx" subfolder, rename the file code.trx to code.bin. (DD-WRT does not recognize the .trx file extension as firmware.)
    • Update the firmware via the DD-WRT web interface. The Tomato firmware is now installed.
    • Access the Tomato web interface. Use the username "root" and the complete password provided by the "nvram get http_passwd" response above.
    • Browse to Administration > Configuration > Restore Default Configuration. Then select "Erase all data in NVRAM memory (thorough)" and click OK.
    • Please note that the instructions for flashing the firmware via the web interface will only work once you've installed DD-WRT (or perhaps another 3rd party firmware).