Ask HN: Do you want a router that has DD-WRT pre-installed?

Re:Ask HN: Do you want a router that has DD-WRT pre-installed? by lobster2342 on Monday October 12, 2026 @05:50AM (#50053906)

So for my part, I wouldn't fancy dd wrt but a good router with openwrt pre-flashed. Yes, I can flash it myself, but I am wealthy enough to pay the additional flash fee and rather save the time.

What I have in mind (if my dayjob fires me): open a shop for wealthy nerds, and sell all kind of pre-flashed devices, known to work well with open source firmware: power plugs, routers, thermostats,... The clientele would be very niche, but I think it might be enough for a small specialized shop.

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Re:Ask HN: Do you want a router that has DD-WRT pre-installed? by bluGill on Monday October 12, 2026 @07:48AM (#50054988)

There is something that a lot of people looking at businesses like this fail to realize. Something like this probably doesn't scale. You can get reasonably Wealthy opening a small specialized shop just yourself selling to just a small niche of customers. However, this business doesn't scale: You will never be worth ten million dollars opening a business like this. If you are fine with being a one or maybe two people working in a shop and earning a good income but working 40 hours a week supporting your customers, yeah, it's worth a shot to open the business. You will never be as large as Google and so you'll never be worth billions of dollars but might be good business.

Unfortunately I had to use the mic there and not Will. I do not know for sure if this is a good business. I would like to say I would recognize such a business if it was near me, but I don't know. I can do this myself. I don't know if you can make enough value that it's worth me paying. If it takes you three hours to flash a router, I can do that myself. And even if it takes me six hours, Three hours of your time at a reasonable wage is more than I could afford.

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Re:Ask HN: Do you want a router that has DD-WRT pre-installed? by dbgobrrr on Monday October 12, 2026 @07:24AM (#50054774)

There are some routers with OEM fork of OpenWRT that allow you to flash stock openwrt without any obstacles and by easily dropping the image blob in the web UI - just easy as upgrading the firmware from stock openwrt.

Granted, not exactly what you wished for, but pretty close.

The time to do this is <5 minutes. One such router I personally know of is GL.iNet GL-MT6000: https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-mt6000

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Re:Ask HN: Do you want a router that has DD-WRT pre-installed? by jonhohle on Monday October 12, 2026 @09:49AM (#50056447)

I use a GL.inet travel router and their UI on top of OpenWRT is actually pretty good and makes connecting to strange hotel and other captive portal networks pretty straightforward. Luci is still available, or SSH.

The OpenWRT version is relatively old, and unfortunately the latest firmware requires reconfiguring family permissions, but I’ve otherwise been happy with the device. I use it for all kind of strange things (ad-hoc extending my home network for getting my solar inverter back online, tethering to my phone, etc.), but primarily use it to make it easy to get my family’s devices online while traveling (6 iPads, 3 phones, and a laptop).

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