NETWORKING specialist Netgear has launched an open source wireless router targeting consumer markets and giving users access to a wide variety of applications developed by the open source community.

Called the Open Source Wireless-G Router (WGR614L) is “Works with Windows Vista” certified and supports free open source Linux-based Tomato and DD-WRT firmware and will soon support OpenWRT.

The WGR614L is supported by a dedicated open source router community, www.myopenrouter.com, which provides open source firmware downloads, forums, blogs, articles, source code, and user guides, and provides users with dedicated and responsive support by open source experts.

“The launch of the WGR614L is significant to the open source community as there has been a growing demand for more powerful platforms to support a rapidly growing segment of open source enthusiasts that are seeking to create more robust, commercial-grade applications for their wireless routers,” said Netgear senior product manager Som Pal Choudhury.

“In addition to adding a more powerful processor and additional memory to the proven Broadcom platform, the most popular open source firmware, Tomato and DD-WRT, are available on WGR614L making it easier for users to develop a wide variety of applications,” he said.

The WGR614L features one 10/100 Internet WAN port and a four-port 10/100 LAN switch and uses an 802.11g access point to support wireless connectivity at speeds of up to 54 Mbps.