Astrill and Merlin

[Webfanatic]

I tried installing the Astrill VPN Client onto my Asus RT-AC68U and it installed fine except for the warning that.

"JFFS is not mounted. Astrill applet will be lost on reboot"


Sure enough, every time i reboot the router, the Astrill applet is gone and i have to install it again.

I am running the Merlin .39 release. The latest stable one. Yes, i ensured that the JFFS partition was enabled and so was the Format JFFS at next boot as per the instructions from Astrill here:

http://wiki.astrill.com/index.php/A...started_with_ASUS_Merlin_firmware_for_routers

I contacted Astrill and they said to do a hard reset of the router and try it again. I did and this time i didn't get the JFFS is not mounted warning. However, after a reboot, the Astrill applet disappeared again.

Any ideas what is causing the problem?

 

[wbennett77]

After a reboot there is a short delay in the applet appearing again. Give it a minute after a reboot and then refresh the page.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[Webfanatic]

No, that's definitely not the problem. The applet doesn't reappear and needs to be installed again. Everytime.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Yes, i ensured that the JFFS partition was enabled and so was the Format JFFS at next boot as per the instructions from Astrill here

Did you set the format tick every time when you reboot? If yes then dont.

 

[primitivo]

No, that's definitely not the problem. The applet doesn't reappear and needs to be installed again. Everytime.

You need to reboot twice before installing Astrill applet.

Reboot 1:
Enable JFFS: yes
Format JFFS: yes

Reboot 2:
Enable JFFS: yes
Format JFFS: no

Then proceed with Astrill applet installation. It won't appear automatically, give it 2 minutes and click to another tab e.g. Tools (do not refresh the same page where Astrill applet was installed with command line).

Hope it helps.

PS. Also after you install the Astrill applet and reboot, it won't show up instantly, it will take 1-2 mins before it will appear on the left hand side menu.

 

[Webfanatic]

You need to reboot twice before installing Astrill applet.

Reboot 1:
Enable JFFS: yes
Format JFFS: yes

Reboot 2:
Enable JFFS: yes
Format JFFS: no

Then proceed with Astrill applet installation. It won't appear automatically, give it 2 minutes and click to another tab e.g. Tools (do not refresh the same page where Astrill applet was installed with command line).

Hope it helps.

PS. Also after you install the Astrill applet and reboot, it won't show up instantly, it will take 1-2 mins before it will appear on the left hand side menu.

yep...that did the trick. Pretty dumb how you need to wait a few minutes for it to appear. (Didn't help that the Astrill support said i need to leave both Enable and Format, enabled)

Maybe it was installed all along, but i just didn't wait long enough

Anyways, thanks!

 

[Morphy]

Hi guys .

Im having the same problem - though I followed the guide here - and even reinstalled the firmware , im not able to get the menu up

What could be the problem?

Running latest firmware build - Asus RT-AC68U.

Cheers

 

[thelonelycoder]

Hi guys .

Im having the same problem - though I followed the guide here - and even reinstalled the firmware , im not able to get the menu up

What could be the problem?

Running latest firmware build - Asus RT-AC68U.

Cheers

What's the System Log saying?

 

[Morphy]

Got it sorted by:

Administration - System - Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs .. Freaking hell of a job to locate this.. :/

 

[RMerlin]

Got it sorted by:

Administration - System - Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs .. Freaking hell of a job to locate this.. :/

It's at the same location where you initially had to go to enable the JFFS partition.

Someone might want to update the Astrill wiki however.

 

[Morphy]

Hi Eric - Yea ... spent hours on this - and Astrills support regarding this.. is NONE existing..

Well its sorted now

Anyone tried the RouterPro addon from Astrill? Do you really gain faster speeds than normal OpenVPN?

 

[thelonelycoder]

It's at the same location where you initially had to go to enable the JFFS partition.

Someone might want to update the Astrill wiki however.

This is generally a good idea to add it to how-to's and wikis.
Did Asus add the option or is this a merlin thing?

 

[RMerlin]

This is generally a good idea to add it to how-to's and wikis.
Did Asus add the option or is this a merlin thing?

If you're talking about the option to enable script/config support, I added it in 378.50. It was then documented in the changelog as well as all of my Wiki and documentation sections related to custom scripts, so it's well documented everywhere where that applies on my end.

I was referring to Astrill's own wiki that documents how to use their plugin on Asuswrt-Merlin, which would need to be updated as well. That one isn't mine to update.

 

[Morphy]

Exactly

Ive been testing and now with Astrill applet I get aprox 56mbps ...

This is with RouterVPN Pro - works awesome.

 

[hshan]

Exactly

Ive been testing and now with Astrill applet I get aprox 56mbps ...

This is with RouterVPN Pro - works awesome.

I was going to reply positive about the RouterPro addon for Astrill, but see you've tried it yourself with good results also. No idea what it is doing but great speed increase on router vs. openVPN option.

 

[Morphy]

Hi Hshan.

Well the odd thing is that RouterPro is not needed, only if you need to connect to China:

This is a quote from Astrill:

Hello,

We can see that you are using your account in Denmark. So you don't need to buy ProAddon (RouterPro VPN) Because that add-on is not for speeding up the internet, that add-on is for the users in country with the higher censorship (Where Open VPN protocol is blocked by some firewall) such as China and few middle east countries. And since you're not from "those" countries, you can use built-in OpenVPN client of your router to get better results.

The only problem is:

Because when I use Astrill Applet with OpenVPN , I get aprox 16Mbps.

If I use OpenVPN Client from Merlin I get aprox 36Mbps without Astrill Applet.

Running with Asus Astrill Applet I get with RouterPro option enabled 56Mbps!??!?!

So what is wrong then?

I cant high speeds with Applet enabled - ONLY if RouterPro is enabled.

Made tons of test - and the result is the same over and over.

Applet Open VPN 16Mbps
Applet RouterPro 56Mbps
Merlin OpenVPN 36Mbps

Haven't heard anything from Astrill regarding this yet..

Also they say about RouterPro

"anyone can use this protocols as means to prevent your ISP Throttling Your Internet Connection."

So how do I find out if they throttle my normal OpenVPN since applet with RouterPro gives me WAY faster speeds?

 

[primitivo]

RouterPro is using different ports than OpenVPN, so while they can throttle OpenVPN it is much harder for them with RouterPro VPN.

Keep in mind that sometimes Astrill have different servers / speeds within the same country and it may be just luck to which one you connect. For for example two different connections to UK3 server might give you completely different results on every speedtest - this is what I have noticed.

Some more results were published in this thread.

You can always write a "top" command once you connect with your router via telnet to see what's the CPU usage, as most often this is the bottleneck for high speeds internet connections.

 

[Morphy]

Thanks for the info primitivo

I just tried and disable the applet - running pure OpenVPN client. With that almost 43Mbps .. With the applet I gain 56Mbps... im not paying 5USD for that .

Just bothers me a bit since I like the applet .......no work around?

 

[primitivo]

Thanks for the info primitivo

I just tried and disable the applet - running pure OpenVPN client. With that almost 43Mbps .. With the applet I gain 56Mbps... im not paying 5USD for that .

Just bothers me a bit since I like the applet .......no work around?

You should be doing 2x better with RouterPro than OpenVPN - at least based on my findings. The goal is to find a fast server with the lowest latency. You can use the applet without RouterPro addon.

 

[Morphy]

Yea but using the applet with openvpn gives me 16mbps - i even tried several servers close to me.
Doing without and using OpenVPN client I got 43mbps ...

So confused what to do