...and for those looking for some pixie dust for their RT-N66U...

[vrapp]

> - What wireless adapters were you using to connect?

One was Eugenius EUB0603H, another was Mac laptop (let me know if you need its specifics, I'm not very familiar with Macs)

> What troubleshooting steps did you take?

Since the complaints were heard immediately after I upgraded the firmware, the natural step was to change the firmware. I changed it to the 2nd experimental one you posted at the same time, and both victims have reported the problems gone.

> Did you try deleting existing wireless profiles and recreating them?
No. Can try if it helps, let me know.


> What firmware version are you comparing it with?

The SDK6 one was 3.0.0.4.374.32_0-SDK6 , the one that improved the situation was 3.0.0.4.374.32_0-dwrpyd .

 

[wouterv]

I do miss the installation step to do a Factory reset and configure the router manual again.
One issue seen and reported by different people is that some wireles settings were taken over and others were set to default by the upgrade to the experimental "SDK6" build, this indicates a hard reset and manual configure is a MUST.
In my case I didnt have to delete and add the wireless profiles in the client computers.
As said by Merlin, so far all tests by different users were very positive (no connection issues, and excellent wireless data rate), with a slight decrease in signal strenght as only downside (probably due to lack of tuning in the firmware).

 

[RMerlin]

Merged the "274.32 SDK6 - not good on RT-N66U" thread with this one to gather all feedback in one single place.

 

[RMerlin]

> - What wireless adapters were you using to connect?

One was Eugenius EUB0603H, another was Mac laptop (let me know if you need its specifics, I'm not very familiar with Macs)

I actually got Mac users saying that the SDK6 version was the first time they could maintain a reliable connection on the 5 GHz band, so that surprises me.

> Did you try deleting existing wireless profiles and recreating them?
No. Can try if it helps, let me know.

Give it a try - it's sometimes required when switching between two different wireless drivers. I saw one case myself where my laptop would fail to reconnect until I deleted and created a new wireless connection.

Also don't forget to reconfigure the wireless settings. SDK6 stores some settings in different nvram variables, so the firmware isn't able to re-use all the existing settings. More specifically you must reconfigure the channels and the channel width.

 

[fr33z0n3r]

FYI, not that I was too hopeful but for anyone interested my Galaxy Nexus was unable to connect on 5Ghz, so this does not help there.
(its likely a hardware issue)

 

[Jettubby]

Make sure you try both the low-numbered and the high-numbered channels on the 5 GHz band. These will behave differently, so you might get better results in one range or the other one.

Merlin, I spent quite a while testing and tweaking 5 & 2.4 wireless. Trying high and low channels on 5Ghz I was not able to get any appreciable increase in signal strength but the connection is stable and fast when it does connect.

On the 2.4Ghz I was able to tweak the channel and bandwidth to get a pretty significant increase and range. I'm able to get a signal on my front porch on 2.4Ghz where I was not able to before.

The settings that work for me:
5GHz - Channel 157, 40MHz, Auto wireless mode, WPA2-Personal, AES, 200MW
2.4Ghz - Channel 10, 20MHz bandwidth, Legacy, WPA2-Personal, AES, 100MW

This was coming from version xxx.26b and clearing NVRAM and recreating all settings from scratch.

I'm hopeful there is a chance this FW can be further tweaked.
Thanks!

 

[RMerlin]

Merlin, I spent quite a while testing and tweaking 5 & 2.4 wireless. Trying high and low channels on 5Ghz I was not able to get any appreciable increase in signal strength but the connection is stable and fast when it does connect.

That was mostly aimed at people who were unable to connect. Some mobile devices prefer one range over another.

On the 2.4Ghz I was able to tweak the channel and bandwidth to get a pretty significant increase and range. I'm able to get a signal on my front porch on 2.4Ghz where I was not able to before.

That's interesting, as shorter range was the main complain people reported so far with the SDK6 build. What wireless interface was used for this range test?

I'm hopeful there is a chance this FW can be further tweaked.
Thanks!

I suspect Asus intends to push into this direction as well - which was why I decided to go ahead and release an experimental build using that driver. Which is a good thing, since there isn't much that I could tweak as the driver is closed-source, and I don't have the low-level knowledge required to tweak all the driver initialization settings (it's a bunch of semi-cryptic values that only people with the Broadcom SDK would be able to understand anything).

But in the mean time, I will most likely keep release experimental builds based on SDK6, as for some people it's a very clear improvement over the SDK5.100 driver (and the SDK 5.110 driver is hopeless at this point IMHO).

 

[shooter40sw]

Hi merlin does this build have the same features and security fixes as the 374.32? Does the only thing that change from your stable version are the wireless drivers?, open VPN is updated to the latest build? Thanks

 

[RMerlin]

Hi merlin does this build have the same features and security fixes as the 374.32? Does the only thing that change from your stable version are the wireless drivers?, open VPN is updated to the latest build? Thanks

It's the same version number, so it shares all the same features. Only the SDK-specific bits were changed, such as wireless driver, CTF module, etc...

 

[shooter40sw]

I had this issue http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=11892 I was corrected with the SDK 6, now I can get GB speed on the Ethernet with the old drivers I could not, also I have not been able to connect on my Nexus 4 to the 5Ghz band, for my iPad on the 5ghz band like about 10 meters away drops really bad, when there was about 3 bars y drops to 1 or no signal, If I have anything else Ill let you know, I got a Samsung S3 that connects to the 5ghz band. I did not reset to factory defaults at least not yet.
Thanks for the great job and efforts to accomplish this, I will keep this build installed for now.

 

[Jettubby]

That was mostly aimed at people who were unable to connect. Some mobile devices prefer one range over another.



That's interesting, as shorter range was the main complain people reported so far with the SDK6 build. What wireless interface was used for this range test?



I suspect Asus intends to push into this direction as well - which was why I decided to go ahead and release an experimental build using that driver. Which is a good thing, since there isn't much that I could tweak as the driver is closed-source, and I don't have the low-level knowledge required to tweak all the driver initialization settings (it's a bunch of semi-cryptic values that only people with the Broadcom SDK would be able to understand anything).

But in the mean time, I will most likely keep release experimental builds based on SDK6, as for some people it's a very clear improvement over the SDK5.100 driver (and the SDK 5.110 driver is hopeless at this point IMHO).

The only mobile devices I have been able to check so far have been my phone (Samsung Note II) and Asus TF-700T tablet. Both are showing better range and connectivity in the 2.4GHz band.

 

[RogerSC]

Had some problems with wireless last night. First my iPad starting acting up, then the Android phone (first time) as well. Tried the usual, power-cycled the router, power-cycled the iPad, reset networking, then finally did a restore install on the iPad, nothing fixed it. As usual, everything else was fine.

So I upgraded to this firmware, and now everything is working fine again, including the iPad and phone. So guess that I'll stay with it for the time being, despite the decrease in signal strength, since it's working with all my wireless clients at the moment.

It may be that if I had re-upgraded to the same version, 374.32, that might have worked, it has occasionally in the past. Next time I'll try to remember to try that first *smile*.

 

[Bad Teddy]

Rock solid connection for a week now on Pixie Dust.

It humors me to no end that the best firmware ASUS has come up with for the N66U happens to be the one that should be buggy that isn't fully coded for the hardware it's operating on. I'm sticking with SDK6 from here on out. It's nice to finally have a network that functions properly. Thought I would have sold the router before I saw it happen actually.

 

[richto]

Drastically reduced signal strength / range here - and my Nokia Lumia 920 phones will no longer connect.

Reverted to 3.0.0.4.374.32 which works better for me....

 

[RogerSC]

Drastically reduced signal strength / range here - and my Nokia Lumia 920 phones will no longer connect.

Reverted to 3.0.0.4.374.32 which works better for me....

Understand...using this firmware cut range on 5GHz. about in 1/2 (wow!). Which cut speed in about 1/2 from a rough measurement (using internet speed test). But 2.4GHz. not as bad, just a little below where it was, still getting full speed at longest range in my house.

By the way, tried lower numbered channels on 5GHz., even worse for me than the higher numbered ones.

Hoping, as RMerlin said, that Asus will work on the signal strength/speed problems, they can do that. But for the moment this is it, still working fine with all my wireless clients. If I was relying on the range of 5GHz. wireless network at the moment, this would be a much tougher choice. My 5GHz. use is pretty short range *smile*.

 

[Forty0z]

i hate that i spent so much money on this router.

 

[bill1228]

Thanks for this firmware Merlin. This is the first firmware I have had on this RT-N66U router that would work as expected on the 5g. Both Asus USB dongle and Intel in laptop. With this firmware they just connect and work, never before unless I reverted to some old firmware.
The 2.4g is has a little less range for me, but it is about the same as my old Linksys E4200v1. So not bad.
Have finally gotten firmware I can install on the router have it just work. I do not do any of the fancy stuff, like torrents on it. I am one of those that say this is a network router. You want to download stuff build a box to do that as I have.
--bill

 

[Skywalker]

Just installed the pixie dust firmware on my RT-N66U. Before that I cleared the nvram, after that I uploaded the firmware, rebooted, uploaded my saved settings and rebooted again.
Now the router is up and running, but I can't see any 5G network (default or guest network) on my macbook.
Both 2,4 Ghz networks (default and guest) are working great, but 5Ghz seems to be broken?

Below is the wireless log from the router:
SSID: "****"
RSSI: 0 dBm SNR: 0 dB noise: -83 dBm Channel: 11
BSSID: 08:60:6E:CC:80:98 Capability: ESS ShortSlot
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 6 9 11(b) 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]
HT Capable:
Chanspec: 2.4GHz channel 11 20MHz (0x100b)
Primary channel: 11
HT Capabilities:
Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]

Mode : AP Only

Stations List Rx/Tx Speed RSSI State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
98:FE:94:4E:53:46 192.168.2.200 MacBook ??/52 Mbps -53 dBm assoc auth

SSID: "****_5G"
RSSI: 0 dBm SNR: 0 dB noise: -81 dBm Channel: 157l
BSSID: 08:60:6E:CC:80:9C Capability: ESS
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12(b) 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
HT Capable:
Chanspec: 5GHz channel 159 40MHz (0xd89f)
Primary channel: 157
HT Capabilities:
Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 32 ]

Mode : AP Only

Stations List Rx/Tx Speed RSSI State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C8:B5:B7:3D:CE:80 192.168.2.115 108/40 Mbps -74 dBm assoc auth

 

[wouterv]

This firmware build requires you to at least manually enter the wireless settings and to be complete safe I suggest to return to factory defaults and manually add all your setting.
Saved configurations are usually not backward compatible with new firmware versions.

 

[RogerSC]

Just installed the pixie dust firmware on my RT-N66U. Before that I cleared the nvram, after that I uploaded the firmware, rebooted, uploaded my saved settings and rebooted again.
Now the router is up and running, but I can't see any 5G network (default or guest network) on my macbook.
Both 2,4 Ghz networks (default and guest) are working great, but 5Ghz seems to be broken?

Yes, the best way to do this upgrade is first, just upgrade the firmware. Then clear the nvram/return to factory defaults to clear all your previous settings. Then manually re-enter your settings, don't use a saved settings file for this upgrade. These two firmware versions are different enough that using saved settings rather than starting over is very likely to make things go wrong. The extra time spent entering your settings manually will be rewarded by a better chance of the new firmware working well for you.