Background
Having a WNDR3700v1 from 2009 and a WNDR3700v4 from 2013 begs the question, what firmware to use in the year 2021?
OEM
The latest version for v1 is 1.0.16.98 and was released in 2011. The latest version for v4 is 1.0.2.102 and was released in 2018.
Due to security reasons, it’s not recommended to run 3-10 year old firmware. Let’s look at some third-party options
Gargoyle
Based off OpenWrt, the latest version is 1.12.0 released at the end of 2019.
Again, due to security reasons, it’s not recommended to run 1.5 year old firmware.
DD-WRT
Latest Stable release was v24 SP1 in 2008. There are beta versions released every few days to few weeks. Currently there is a beta version for both routers only 9 days old.
This option is only recommended if there is a unique feature of DD-WRT that makes it preferable at the expense of stability.
OpenWrt
Last on the list is OpenWrt with the latest version 19.07.7 released a few months ago in early 2021.
This option is recommended for stability and security.
Summary
| Firmware | Stable Release | Beta Release |
| OEM | Years | N/A |
| Gargoyle | Years | N/A |
| DD-WRT | Years | Days |
| OpenWrt | Months | Weeks |
