LifeHacker.com recently had an article on using the open-source custom firmware called Tomato. Basically, this replaces your router’s firmware and give you a lot more control over it. The main thing that most people find useful is the ability to increase the wireless signal. I had to stretch the router way across the loft to position it so that I got WiFi reception in the basement, but using this hack I can put the router right by the cable modem and still get great reception.

It also has some nifty features like a real-time bandwidth graph (that updates as you’re watching it), and also a lot of advanced features. Want World of Warcraft to have higher priority than other Internet traffic? Want to make it so that certain websites can only be visited certain times of the day? Want to turn off the wireless during certain times of the day? You can do all that and more.

Me, I just like the neat bandwidth graph (below), and the ability to boost the WiFi signal.  It was also hella easy to install, and use, though the advanced features could have used some better documentation.

Tomato Realtime Bandwidth Graph