The reasons for the desire for custom firmware are; 1) Ability to ssh into the router 2) Ability to have better logging or maybe use an external log server 3) Ability to run custom software on the router as it is a 24x7 resource 4) Blame myself if it crashes as Linksys never helped with my older router 5) General hackability.... I am not as concerned about a back door in the stock firmware as it is for home use and it is mostly used by my wife and kids. I figured I would run stock firmware for a few weeks then migrate to a custom stack. I like the idea of Openwrt as in the past I have hacked some stuff with Busybox which is really nice (used VMware to boot virtual floppy image to tweek it, quite nice). Not yet sure of plans, but it looks very hackable.... -- Wade Hampton