Movin' On Up! Wireless Edition Part Last: Everything Else

Okay, now it's occured to me that this series has gone on long enough, so it's time to wrap it up with a few last minute things.

Tomato:
Another Open source third party firmware for your router, with many of the same features as DD-WRT. Tomato can be used to up your routers signal output, track bandwith uses (along with fancy lookin' graphs), set QoS rules, access restriction rules (set up rules to block certain types of browsing at certain times) as well as other useful things. Now as you may have noticed that Tomato and DD-WRT are very similar, with a few minor differences, Tomato offers a better graphical interface, while DD-WRT offers more features, though chances are a lot of the features that's not in Tomato, are not the kind that will be utilized by the average user anyway. As for which is better, that's up to you. Try one out see how you like it. if you want to see some more information on them (besides their respective sites) take a look at these lifehacker.com posts (where I originally got the info) for Tomato and DD-WRT.
also before you try to install tomato make sure that your router is supported.
you can follow the pointers for upgrading from the previous post.

Extras, Additions, and DIY's:
I found a few other interesting things you can do to help improve your router:
- Hardware DIY from the DD-WRT page.
- Expand your wireless network
- power your router with only an ethernet cable (requires soldering skills)
- DIY laptop wireless antenna
- Boost your wifi antenna

And there are so many others, my suggestion go on google or websites that deal heavily with technology or diy modifications. and go to town.

good luck, and enjoy