Release ASUS RT-AC68U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386_51722 (2024/11/26)

[wouterv]

Oh right, I forgot I also have a RT-AC68U running as main router and RT-AC1900U as media bridge
That is how it shall be: setup and forget (meaning they bring trouble free Internet through the house).

 

[banger]

 

[banger]

Trying Merlin 14_2 after I couldn't ping my laptop with this firmware. Can with 14_2.

 

[Oniiz86]

@banger So Asus broke the ability to ping with this 386_51722 firmware, that's disappointing, did you perform a hard factory reset before you went to Merlin's 386.14_2 firmware?

 

[banger]

@banger So Asus broke the ability to ping with this 386_51722 firmware, that's disappointing, did you perform a hard factory reset before you went to Merlin's 386.14_2 firmware?

It seems to be a time thing. Am in the middle of diagnosing, I have a mix of Win 11 and Linux PCs and I couldn't remote into the Win 11 from Linux suddenly or ping. So tried a ping from another Linux machine on the WLAN and again no ping. Rebooted didnt fix. But the router could ping the machine from the firmware network tools page.

I would reboot the win 11 machine but am trying to track down a memory leak, Anyway long story short dirty upgrade on the routers to 14_2 and everything is pinging from PC to PC again. Will monitor for a while. Stock was up for 40 days.

 

[wouterv]

Maybe you shall explain more about what you are trying and what fails.
With my W10 laptop wireless behind the RT-AC68U Router and 51722 firmware I can ping the devices on our internal home network (like printer, the Media Bridge, other W11 laptop).
I can not ping my W10 laptop which after a quick check seems by default blocked in the firewall.

 

[banger]

I have always been able to ping other machines on the LAN and remote as I can now with Merlin Firmware. I would do a factory reset but recently I have found adding Mesh nodes very troublesome. Adding Mesh nodes has to be the first thing configured and then sometimes it fails.

I am a bit concerned about memory use in Merlin as with stock for 40 days I ran with 115mb free. After a few hours with Merlin I am down to 95 free. Hmm just checked and it is back to 110 so all good. Now to run for a while and see if the problem re-occurs.

It was strange as I could ping the machine from Network Tools in firmware but from other PCs on the LAN.

 

[wouterv]

Ping is often blocked in firewalls, maybe not in older firmware or software, but it can get blocked in any software or firmware update.
In case of trouble in your router, my first suggestion is always to always revert to factory defaults, not load an old configuration file and manual configuring the bare minimum as required for the purpose.

 

[Oniiz86]

Maybe you shall explain more about what you are trying and what fails.
With my W10 laptop wireless behind the RT-AC68U Router and 51772 firmware I can ping the devices on our internal home network (like printer, the Media Bridge, other W11 laptop).
I can not ping my W10 laptop which after a quick check seems by default blocked in the firewall.

@wouterv So it seems the 386_51772 firmware is not at fault, it appears to be a configuration issue for some strange reason but Merlin's 386.14_2 firmware has no such issues for @banger, @wouterv would you be able to test your W10 laptop if it pings ok after unblocking the firewall?

 

[wouterv]

Confirmed that I could not ping the W10 laptop due to a firewall setting, which in turn was caused by "Turn off file and printer sharing".
Setting File and printer sharing to "Turn on file and printer sharing" allows me to ping the W10 laptop:

Which toggles this Firewall setting:

In the W11 laptop file and printer sharing was already on, hence I could ping the W11 laptop: I have turned file and printer sharing off which as expected blocks the ping request.

So for sure my RT-AC68U Router with 51722 firmware does not block ping requests.

 

[Oniiz86]

@banger I'm not sure if you've seen @wouterv latest post regarding pinging requests successfully with stock 386_51722 firmware, he's seemingly confirmed that there aren't any issues with the latest stock 386_51722 firmware concerning ping requests.

 

[banger]

@banger I'm not sure if you've seen @wouterv latest post regarding pinging requests successfully with stock 386_51722 firmware, he's seemingly confirmed that there aren't any issues with the latest stock 386_51722 firmware concerning ping requests.

I am still running 14_2 but it did the same after a few days. Funny it works for a few days then all of a sudden disappears but I can ping from the network tools on the router with success. This all started because something was blocking RDP on the WIn 11 laptop.

I have done a factory reset on 14_2 with bare minimum config but it has only been up 7 or so hours. File and printer sharing has always been on. Maybe it is time for a fresh install of Win 11 24H2?

Also while resetting my Mesh Nodes to add, which are on stock, the WPS button to reset the node to factory no longer works had to use the button on the back of the router.

 

[Oniiz86]

Also while resetting my Mesh Nodes to add, which are on stock, the WPS button to reset the node to factory no longer works had to use the button on the back of the router.

@banger Are you suggesting that WPS Reset via the GUI is broken for 386.14_2 or stock 386_51722 firmware or both?

 

[banger]

@banger Are you suggesting that WPS Reset via the GUI is broken for 386.14_2 or stock 386_51722 firmware or both?
View attachment 63615

No I am suggesting that holding the physical WPS button on the router while powering on used to factory reset the device. This no longer works on stock. This is confirmed in the 14_2 revision notes.

- UPDATED: Merged with GPL 386_52805.
- UPDATED: wget to 1.24.5.
- FIXED: WPS wouldn't start on RT-AC68U (note: starting through
         webui was fixed, however starting through button is
         still broken for the RT-AC66U_B1, including with
         stock firmware).
- REMOVED: Wifi Radar was removed (unsupported by Wifi 7 devices,
           and security issues cited by Asus in their own recent
           releases).

 

[Oniiz86]

No I am suggesting that holding the physical WPS button on the router while powering on used to factory reset the device. This no longer works on stock. This is confirmed in the 14_2 revision notes.

- UPDATED: Merged with GPL 386_52805.
- UPDATED: wget to 1.24.5.
- FIXED: WPS wouldn't start on RT-AC68U (note: starting through
         webui was fixed, however starting through button is
         still broken for the RT-AC66U_B1, including with
         stock firmware).
- REMOVED: Wifi Radar was removed (unsupported by Wifi 7 devices,
           and security issues cited by Asus in their own recent
           releases).

@banger Those are the release notes for 386.14 from July 2024 not the 386.14_2 release notes from November 2024.

386.14_2 (17-Nov-2024)
  - UPDATED: OpenVPN to 2.6.12.
  - CHANGED: Enabled Netfilter queue support for SDK6/SDK7
             devices (patch by HiHat)
  - FIXED: Security issues in AiCloud (backports from Asus)
  - FIXED: CVE-2024-2511, CVE-2024-4741, CVE-2024-5535 &
           Implicit rejection for RSA PKCS#1 in openssl
           (backport from Ubuntu by RSDNTWK)

Anyway Asus must've fixed the issue as the physical WPS button works for me on the 386_51720 (Security Fix) November 13th firmware release but I will try it again with the latest 386_51722 November 26th firmware to see if the physical WPS button will factory reset my RT-AC68U.

 

[banger]

Well my wifi Canon printer has gone AWOL this morning.

 

[banger]

Gone back to stock on all 3 routers (master and 2 nodes) seemed to be more stable on 722.

 

[Tech9]

I support remotely one similar router:

Serves like 18 mixed clients home network. They have an HP wireless printer on 2.4GHz, not sure what model exactly. I think the uptime is since 51722 become available. No issues reported.

 

[wouterv]

Similar here, RT-AC68U Router on 51722, up 53 days, various wireless clients (W10, W11, iPhone, TV box, RT-AC1900U Media Bridge and a Brother printer).
Ping over the local network is already discussed (no issues here) and the printer stays online.

The issues of Banger may well be caused by neighbor disturbance of the wireless signals. Maybe new neighbors and / or new equipment with higher power on different channels as before.

@banger did you perform a wireless survey?

 

[banger]

Similar here, RT-AC68U router on 51722, up 53 days, various wireless clients (W10, W11, iPhone, TV box, RT-AC1900U Media Bridge and a Brother printer).
Ping over the local network is already discussed (no issues here) and the printer stays online.

The issues of Banger may well be caused by neighbor disturbance of the wireless signals. Maybe new neighbors and / or new equipment with higher power on different channels as before.

@banger did you perform a wireless survey?

I did and picked ch 13 and 36 which is below radar. Router picked 60 on auto for 5ghz but my Alexas were having trouble so changed to 36 out of radar range. Dont forget I am using 3 AC68 routers in mesh. The printer/scanner is connected (bound) to a node as it performs better that way. Will monitor. Interesting to note after I upgraded the firmware back to 51722 from Merlin I had to reboot (system on AI Mesh page) for everything to work with ping.