OpenWRT / Gargoyle

Hello, New 'round these parts, but a long time fan of the videos.

I'm just now entering the world of custom firmware / actually trying to have a rudimentary understanding of networking.

Long story short : Old router at home broke day before leaving. Went to Best Buy, purchased ASUS RT-AC66R, configured it in a rush, it began having issues while i was gone. I'm now home, and looking for something new.

I began reading about OpenWRT, and then heard mentioning of Gargoyle.

I then found that you can purchase TP-Link WR1043ND v1.10 routers with Gargoyle pre-installed.

Can anyone here recommend such a course of action?

Is anyone here familiar with Gargoyle, it's strengths, and is it secure?

Would it be more recommendable to install DD-WRT on the ASUS RT-AC66R?

Cheers, guys!

First off, you need to make sure that your router is compatible with said firmwares. That being said, I only have experience with DD-WRT and so far it's been great. My connection is more stable (LAN and WLAN) with DD-WRT and it has for more options than the stock firmware. It also has compatibility with more routers than other custom firmwares, very easy to configure as well.

You could look into Tomato too.

Cool beans, thank you.

Is DD-WRT particularly secure? I also read somewhere that it might have issues with QoS, but i haven't a clue.

I'm leaning toward this : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190 if DD-WRT turns out to be what i'm looking for.

Thank you for the help thus far!

All of the Linksys WRT54xxx series are solid routers. I am running a WRT54GS2 with DD-WRT right now. No home WiFi network solution is particularly "secure" unless you are extremely aggressive with your security. You should be fine. And about QoS, in all of my experiences QoS does not work as designed. It for sure does not work over WiFi.