Asus ac68U merlin

[Dref]

I have the above and want to flash with Merlin.

I have downloaded the file and it is compressed.

Now as I have never done this before I need to know the following:

Decompress file BEFORE firmware update on Asus OR will the firmware update decompress as part of the process?

The WIKI help in Merlin's website is absolutely useless for a first time flasher (if you'll forgive my English) as it just says flash as you normally would!!! Well if you have never flashed with Merlin before how do I know what is normal???

Thanks

 

[JacquesR]

You decompress before updating the firmware. (And if you tried to flash the compressed file, it would fail to update in any case, so no harm would be done and you'd get an error message regarding the file being inappropriate.)

 

[martinr]

Well done for reading the Wiki help. Can I remind you of one very important point: the reset to factory default settings comes AFTER the flashing process.

You didn't tell us how old the router is. That is, which version of the firmware it's currently running. If it's relatively old, you might need to flash with an intermediate firmware. See here for details, just in case:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/cant-change-firmware.40096/#post-335039

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Dref]

Well done for reading the Wiki help. Can I remind you of one very important point: the reset to factory default settings comes AFTER the flashing process.

You didn't tell us how old the router is. That is, which version of the firmware it's currently running. If it's relatively old, you might need to flash with an intermediate firmware. See here for details, just in case:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/cant-change-firmware.40096/#post-335039

Let us know how it goes.

Well done for reading the Wiki help. Can I remind you of one very important point: the reset to factory default settings comes AFTER the flashing process.

You didn't tell us how old the router is. That is, which version of the firmware it's currently running. If it's relatively old, you might need to flash with an intermediate firmware. See here for details, just in case:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/cant-change-firmware.40096/#post-335039

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks

Router was bought in computer centre in Hong Kong a couple of months ago so who knows how old!

Latest firmware 3.0.0.4 - updated after setup

 

[Dref]

Thanks

I have worked in IT for 40 years yes 40 and I know that it's always best to check these things before if possible.

 

[Dref]

Hi I knew it wasn't going to be that easy!

I have decompressed the zip file (7 zip)

Now I have an enormous number of folders and files so which one do I tell my asus router to use in the new firmware browse window??

Thanks

 

[JacquesR]

Now I have an enormous number of folders and files so which one do I tell my asus router to use in the new firmware browse window??
Thanks

The file you want has a .trx extension.

 

[Dref]

Thanks the whole downloaded file has trx extension

I unzipped this and tried the "home" file got this error

 

[Dref]

Sorry also tried to run it and got an error message

 

[JacquesR]

Thanks the whole downloaded file has trx extension

I unzipped this and tried the "home" file got this error

The file I download (also ac68u) from Merlin's site has a .zip extension. That, once uncompressed, has a changelog.txt, a readme file, a sha256sum.sha256 file, and the trx file. You don't uncompress the trx file further - that's the one to upload. If 7zip is giving you more than those four files, try another decompression programme.

 

[Dref]

tried to run the whole file (it's a trx file) and got error. Also did windows search for trx in the unzipped directory NO RESULT

 

[Dref]

Thanks everybody Merlin up and running.

Like I said, actually when I think about 50 years in IT, so I have had my fair share of frustration with it like everybody, and know that you just have to try to logically try to solve it

So how did I solve it?

Well my portable has win 10 and even when I deleted and reloaded the Merlin zip file the system kept showing the trx file as a 7 zip file and insisted on "unzipping it"

So using the info gained from you good people I went to my win 7 machine and went through the download update process again BINGO

I have yet to try the additional functions - I particularly want to have VPNs by client.

Two final points:

Thank you everybody who helped.

I hate windows 10

 

[martinr]

Thanks for the warning about possible problems when flashing via Windows 10. I use Classic Shell: it makes Windows 10 look and feel like Windows 7.

By the way, welcome to the forum, and let us know if you have any other questions or problems.

 

[Dref]

Now I have started to look at Merlin. As I said before I was particularly interested in the vpn's by client which I maybe naively thought meant I could assign different clients to different vpns.

I have two vpn providers Pure (ded IP) L2TP and Nord (non ded IP) Open VPN. I wanted to be able to set one of my machines to use the Pure always and the other(s) to use Nord but maybe different servers.

I have set up pure according to their instructions and it does not connect. I will talk with them but their tech support does not impress me.

I have Nord's setup instructions but before I start doing this can someone confirm that I actually achieve what I want. Nord's tech support does impress me.

All of my computers run windows 10 or 7 - not dual boot.

I also have a KIII (kodi box) - android, as are my phones. I also have a dual boot machine win 7/Zorin (Debian I think) but again Zorin runs Nord from within and changing this is not important at this time. First things first.

The key question is can I achieve what I want i.e. different clients using different vpn's.

If so how do I go about assigning a client to a VPN (vice versa maybe)?

Thanks and sorry to be a dunce.

 

[Dref]

Just a followup to the previous post for clarity.

My system is as follows:

1 ISP supplied Fiberhome (Chinese and very little info) 4 port modem router (no wireless) assigned IPs 192.168.1.XXX
connected directly to this, SIP phone and IPTV + link to Asus AC68U

2 ASUS AC68U with Merlin - assigned IP 192.168.2.XXX -

Asus Lan 1 connection to TP link 8 port Switch AND Lan 2 to my portable (although this could go to the switch - I have one spare port).

Switch - various connections to hardware including KIII Android box(use samba to stream music) and powerline to a wd cloud box - all devices get assigned IP's in Range 192.168.2.XXX

 

[Dref]

Thanks

 

[Dref]

Martinr you said in your first post "Can I remind you of one very important point: the reset to factory default settings comes AFTER the flashing process."

Well I haven't done a factory reset and Merlin appears fine. Not that I am questioning your knowledge on the subject of Merlin but are you absolutely sure I have to do the reset?

 

[martinr]

No, not definitely sure. If I understood correctly, you were on the latest stock Asus firmware before flashing with Merlin?

Thanks

Router was bought in computer centre in Hong Kong a couple of months ago so who knows how old!

Latest firmware 3.0.0.4 - updated after setup

If so, (going from the latest stock Asus firmware to the latest Merlin firmware), you may well be fine. Just bear in mind that if you get any errant behaviour, your first thoughts should be to do the reset.

Have a read through this post for interest: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...flashing-with-latest-build.40007/#post-334627

 

[Dref]

Thanks martinr. Everything seems fine so I'll forgo the factory reset for a while. Two things maybe of interest.

1, My Skype phone stopped working (via router) and of course I blamed the router and tried many things to try to fix it only to find out today that Microsoft has stopped supporting these VOIP phones/ Solution use Skype on my mobile via wireless which seems to work fine (called my Skype number via my SIP number and no problem).

2. Suddenly Nord VPN stopped connecting on one device - chatted with support and showed them log. They wanted me to connect directly using a setup link (not the client) looked like a lot of work to me but I was suspicious that I had caused it playing around in Asus Merlin. Their support guy said unlikely and insisted his was the best solution. After the chat I went back into Merlin and remembered I had set up a client TOR VPN - I disabled this and hey presto Nord was connecting again.

Two morals to this - always go for the simple solution first and - that's why I need to understand how these client VPNs work at a conceptual level not at a do this do that level.

Anybody know of a link from Merlin (I've looked at Github but I don't think it covers what I want) that explains how to do what I want. IE different VPNs for different clients

Thanks

 

[JacquesR]

Anybody know of a link from Merlin (I've looked at Github but I don't think it covers what I want) that explains how to do what I want. IE different VPNs for different clients
Thanks

You can set up up to 4 VPN servers, and each of them allows for selective routing, rather than routing all traffic. So unless I'm not understanding your issue, it seems that you could simply set up server 1 to only redirect traffic for clients x and y, and server 2 to redirect clients p and q.