Movin' on Up! Wireless Edition Part 2: Firmware

Now another thing that you'll want to make sure to do, is to keep your router's firmware updated.
If you remember from last time we logged into the router and changed the security setting, this time you would again log into your router and click the administration tab and then click firmware upgrade, there you will be able to load a new firmware to your router. You can download your router's firmware from the website of it's manufacturer.

You can also download an open source firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato to greatly enhance your router's capabilities.

Some things to note, before you decide to change your router's firmware:
1: make sure your internet connection and power supply will be uninterrupted
2: make sure that while you're upgrading, that you're wired to the router, don't try upgrading over a wireless connection.
3: read and follow the documentation associated with the software you're downloading.
4: Before you start upgrading reset your router to it's factory defaults, an easy way to do this is to "hard reset" your router - press and hold the small button on the back of your router for 30 seconds.
5: While it's upgrading, Don't Touch your Router or your Computer, leave them be, this is one of those times where you let your computer do what needs doing, without interference. A good idea would also be to end all programs with the exception of that one browser page while upgrading.

It's possible that while upgrading your firmware you may end up "bricking" your router, or in other words rendering it a useless hunk of plastic, so please exercise caution when it comes to this.

DD-WRT
For those routers that are supported the DD-WRT firmware adds several (very awesome) features to your router such as:

Boosting your Wireless Signal: Go to the Wireless tab, and then to Advanced Settings. Find the entry labeled Xmit Power, which is set by default at 28mW, and can be set up to 251mW.
- please note that while it's tempting to boost your signal all the way, more power is not necessarily better as too high an output will increase the temperature of your router and end up shortening it's lifespan.

I've heard several reports as to what output level is best for high range without killing your router prematurely, and it the general opinion (including the DD-WRT faq) seem to trend to 70-84 mW, although.... I hear that lower power settings give greater speed (due to their low signal to noise ratio) so choose wisely (remember there's tons of great and unable information to be found all over the internet ...just buried under the porn and download sites)

Setting up Quality of Service (QoS) rules:
Most routers handle all bandwidth requests the same, but if you set up some QoS rules you can ensure that certain programs (or IP addresses) get priority, ensuring that you'll always have some bandwidth available your programs.

Much, much more
There's plenty that can be done with the help of DD-WRT, most of which are beyond my own technical understanding, if you're interested in what you've read so far you can go ahead and download DD-WRT from their site there's also a FAQ and several tutorials on their site that you can take a look at if you need help
such as what to do in case you brick your router
before you go off running to download DD-WRT, you may want to hear me highlight another (also awesome) firmware update for your router, called Tomato

y'all been great, drive home safe now, ya he'r?