Today's interesting question comes from Jonas who writes, "I'm tired of using crappy off the shelf routers that basically shut down the second I try to take advantage of my Internet connection. The moment I start to game or torrent files, almost every router I've owned craps itself and stops working. So, I'm thinking of using DD-WRT as my router - the problem is that I don't think this consumer router hardware will be good enough to do what I want to do. Is there a way I can build my own custom gaming router that won't crap out on me?"

I love questions like this, not because they're challenging, but because it validates my view that consumer grade routers are absolute crap.

The good news is that, yes, you CAN build your own router. In fact, I've done that myself!

The bad news is that it will cost a lot more than simply buying another router, and it can be a bit more complicated to deal with.

A router has the same components as any other computer: motherboard, CPU, video card, RAM, and hard drive. The difference here is that we don't need a top of the line computer - any basic (read: cheap) computer than you can build will outperform even the highest-end consumer routers on the market.

There's one major reason that consumer-grade routers tend to fail in high-load applications: lack of sufficient memory. Many off the shelf routers these days come with as little as 2MB of RAM(!) which is just barely enough to run the embedded operating system and a couple of TCP/IP connections. Many of them come with 4 or 8MB, and a very rare few come with 16MB (thats MegaBytes, for those of you who grew up in the age of GigaBytes). While the 16MB routers perform adequately for modern consumer needs (especially the much-prized WRT54GS series), the other models tend to run out of memory as more users connect to the network, and more applications open Internet connections.

The other major reason for the high seemingly high failure rate of these routers is lack of any real processing power: it takes a lot of horsepower to do some of the things gamers demand from their Internet connections. With processors in the MHz range (that's MegaHertz, for those of you that grew up in the GigaHertz range, and no, they don't have multiple processing cores) doing a lot of NAT-table lookups and packet filtering can really stress some of these processors.

So, if the two main culprits are lack of memory and processing power, then the natural response would be to simply buy as much memory and computing power as possible for your custom gaming router, right? Well, that's true to an extent. The thing is, you actually DON'T need a whole lot of processing power or memory to do what you want to do. So building a router with a quad-core Intel Core i7 and 16GB of RAM would not only cost a hell of a lot of money, it would also be a complete waste of computing power.

You can actually build a wireless gaming router for around $210. Here's how:

Buy small and cheap. This is where something like the Intel Atom processor 230 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo shines: it's a small, cost effective package with a decent processor speed (1.60GHz) and decent memory support (2GB of DDR2 667, sold separately). It won't play your games, but at $65, it will process your gaming and torrent packets.

Max out your memory. With support for DDR2 667, there's almost no reason to not install as much memory as you possibly can. WINTEC AMPO 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory fits the bill perfectly at $25.

Use an Atheros-based wireless card. The version of DD-WRT we need to use (x86) only supports the Atheros chipset on wireless cards. This can be difficult to find, unless you know the Atheros trick: search for wireless cards that support the 108Mb/s speed - it's a technology patented by Atheros that only appears on Atheros based cards. The card you choose must be a PCI card - USB is not supported under DD-WRT. The D-Link WDA-2320 PCI Rangebooster G Desktop Adapter is the cheapest option, at $35.

Any hard drive will do. You don't need a Solid State Disk for this one. While they would help to reduce load times, your router isn't meant to be constantly rebooted. At $35, the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive has more than enough space for DD-WRT and a large swap file (should the day come when you need so many connections that 2GB of RAM just isn't enough ...)

A nice case to fit your toys into. I prefer desktop-style cases, as opposed to the tower-style, for routers, so the $50 Athenatech A1019HG.150 Computer Case is a great fit.

Put it all together, install DD-WRT x86, and you've got yourself one HELL of a powerful router that would put even some commercial routers to shame. Best of all is that this router will last you for a very long time.

If you have a question, send me an e-mail: lordkat@gmail.com

Be safe,
Jason