Asus RT-N56U Reviewed

[RodChester]

Renaming USB Drive Folder

Hello there. I currently have my Seagate Free Agent Go Flex Desktop USB drive connected to my RT-N56U. I am also using OSX Lion.

When I view the connected drive through Finder it comes up in the shared disc section and looks like this: Skynet > AiDisk_a1 > the folders and contents of the drive. If the drive is directly connected to my MacBook Pro the drive looks like this: Skynet > the folders and contents of the drive.

I would like to be able to rename the AiDisk_a1 to something more normal but I cannot find a way to do it. Is this possible to do or am I just stuck with what the RT-N56U wants to do? If anyone can help please let me know.

 

[Shikami]

RodChester, IIRC and as of this moment, you cannot change it. Parts of the SAMBA and Windows sharing, and FTP server are integral to the firmware; these folders are for the functions that you execute for external drive usage. The AiDisk_a1 folder will be there, but that does not stop you from creating another directory/folder in root and manipulating it. IIRC, the disk utility does not need to be executed to have access to the drive for normal network browsing and DLNA. Only if you wish to use FTP and set access restrictions for networking do you need to execute Disk Ai, IIRC.

 

[Bulldog]

Okay to Lay It Flat?

If one wishes to avoid the spectacle of wires hanging off the right side, is it okay to place the RT-N56U flat? I'm a little concerned because the placement of the air vent seems to presume a vertical orientation.

 

[RodChester]

If one wishes to avoid the spectacle of wires hanging off the right side, is it okay to place the RT-N56U flat? I'm a little concerned because the placement of the air vent seems to presume a vertical orientation.

Yeah I think the router looks pretty bad standing on its side with all the cables coming out of it. I have mine laying flat as well. To help get some more airflow going around the device I got four little stick on rubber feet (the kind you might use on some table top glass) and put them on the bottom. This gets the device up just a bit so there is some space between the bottom of the router and the shelf. Hopefully this helps keep it cool since it seems like the device can run fairly hot.

 

[Bulldog]

...I have mine laying flat as well. To help get some more airflow going around the device I got four little stick on rubber feet (the kind you might use on some table top glass) and put them on the bottom...

That's a very good idea.

Unfortunately, the User Guide is not very clear on this subject. It says:

"For the best front-to-rear coverage, place the wireless router in an upright position."

"For the best up-and-down coverage, place the wireless router in an inclined position."

I would think from this that "upright position" means standing up whereas "inclined position" means lying flat. Many users will need to experiment in order to the choose the optimal position. But the fact that an "inclined position" is possible probably means that the router is sufficiently ventilated as-is and your suggestion will make it even better ventilated.

 

[Shikami]

I have some nice black cables with a little curve into disappearance. To me it is not as "ugly" as I would have thought it to be. Matter of fact, I have found that I prefer it now rather than the back panel installations. However, it is be better to have the router in its inclined position with the base installed for better reception, and heat dissipation.

To note: inclined means angled (as in inclined plane), and upright means perpendicular (as in vertical, creating right angles).

 

[Bulldog]

"To note: inclined means angled (as in inclined plane), and upright means perpendicular (as in vertical, creating right angles)."

Does the included bracket allow the router to be held in a vertical position?

 

[lostinbids]

I understood, but IP's work or they do not for particular reasons. When you stated "It says that 255.255.255.254 is not a valid ip address in the subnet mask." I am thinking from this statement that after placing the subnet along with the already placed IP, the router informs you that the IP address is invalid. Subnets just divide up the networks and hosts, and also technically should not have been the issue. The IP could though if it was none routable IP, for example. The subnet you have been given is a /31 (255.255.255.254). Meaning that there is one more host address that can be allocated. That is what your subnet means. If it was /32 which is 255.255.255.255, you would be the only host on that address. This is common with PPPoE and dial ups and such. "Dead end connections"

Curious, what was the issue? Misplaced configuration, or misinformation from their end.....?

Sorry to disappear and not reply. Honestly, I have no idea what the problem was. I plugged in a different modem (one supplied by the isp) and it all worked. I would imagine the problem was with the (old) modem I was previously using.

To quote you I think this may have also been the problem

I read you loud and clear. However, I would say that there is also a percentage that is ignorance. Not many have any real computer education and knowledge networking-even experience.

My knowledge only comes from what I have picked up and I would class it as enough to fiddle and break things with little understanding. However, I do try to take note of everything before I fiddle so I can at least put things back to how they were.

 

[Viventis]

New Firmware 1.0.1.8b

ASUS RT-N56U Firmware version 1.0.1.8b
1. replace udhcpd and dproxy with dnsmasq
2. improve usb modem support interoperability
3. improve printer support interoperability
4. speedup udp session timeout process while wan connection disconnected
5. disable media server forced full rescan feature

http://usa.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN56U/#download

 

[Shikami]

Does the included bracket allow the router to be held in a vertical position?

Well, vertical creates right angles, the base creates an inclined position when attached.

I plugged in a different modem (one supplied by the isp) and it all worked. I would imagine the problem was with the (old) modem I was previously using.

Sometimes, the auto negotiation between the modem and router can be problematic when you have a 10/100 (modem) to 10/100/1000 (router)connection. When this happens some have to change the port speed to match that of the modem, but this was not supported till recently with third party firmware. Oddly enough, even with the standards from IEEE, there are issues with networking equipment working which can often happen. New, recent hardware will usually be more compliant and at times better in performance.

 

[Shikami]

ASUS RT-N56U Firmware version 1.0.1.8b
1. replace udhcpd and dproxy with dnsmasq
2. improve usb modem support interoperability
3. improve printer support interoperability
4. speedup udp session timeout process while wan connection disconnected
5. disable media server forced full rescan feature

http://usa.asus.com/Networks/Wireles...N56U/#download

After Padavan's firmware, I will never go back to the crappy Asus firmware. It is nice to have features enabled, especially all the VPN passthroughs, and still have HW NAT acceleration-which Asus says is impossible to do, including WOL.

I highly recommend this firmware Viventis. Matter-of-fact there is another 3rd party project starting and even OpenWRT will have support soon. This may be the new WRT-54G.

Here is the link to the firmware: http://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/

 

[RodChester]

I have looked at Padavan's firmware but I haven't installed it yet. Is it worth using this firmware if my router is already working just fine for me as is, or should I just stick with the official ASUS firmwares?

 

[Truonk]

Shikami,

I would like to know how you got WOL to work? Mine doesn't work after a few min of sleep or shutdown. Using P7 firmware

 

[stevech]

If it does what you want...
If it a'int broke...

leave well enough alone?

 

[Shikami]

Is it worth using this firmware if my router is already working just fine for me as is

I can easily agree with Stevech in 99.9% of the cases; but the RT-N56U is the .1%. The HW NAT issues are what really seal the deal. There are even more issues with DNS relay, and hardware specific problems such as the descriptor buffers being full and causing packet drops (in version p8 this will be fixed). It is really worth it, yes.

I would like to know how you got WOL to work? Mine doesn't work after a few min of sleep or shutdown. Using P7 firmware

Did you select disable for the "Green Ethernet" in the Ethernet switch tab under LAN in advanced settings? Also, are your NIC's capable and not only configured in the operating system, but also in the BIOS for wake events?

Version p8 will be released soon. He has some nice bug fixes patched in this version.

 

[Viventis]

I can easily agree with Stevech in 99.9% of the cases; but the RT-N56U is the .1%. The HW NAT issues are what really seal the deal. There are even more issues with DNS relay, and hardware specific problems such as the descriptor buffers being full and causing packet drops (in version p8 this will be fixed). It is really worth it, yes.

Please explain how this custom software will improve real life performance. Faster web browsing? Quicker Netflix buffering? Faster downloading of large files? Smoother music streaming? Smoother on-line game play? I am not trolling. I just would like to understand more about what is broke, what is fixed and how it will affect me. I am not a tech noob. For instance, I kept experimenting with options on the Asus until I got my D-Link Bridge to work. (packet aggregation was the culprit) But I have never studied the tech of routers. My setup at home is fairly complex. Cable internet to Motorola modem, Asus router, eight port green gigabit switch. Four custom built desktops, two of which are hard wired, two wireless. Network printer wired to switch. Directv whole home DVR with some piece of their hardware wired to switch. D-Link bridge on the 5 gHz channel, wired to a blue ray player and Onkyo receiver. Wireless to phones, Xoom (also 5 gHz), three laptops, three iPod touches, Logitech Squeezebox Duet, Xbox 360 with Connect and Roku2. The Asus runs all of this fine with its stock firmware. Can you understand why I am a little reluctant to rock the boat with a custom firmware?

 

[Unregistered]

Please explain how this custom software will improve real life performance. Faster web browsing? Quicker Netflix buffering? Faster downloading of large files? Smoother music streaming? Smoother on-line game play? I am not trolling. I just would like to understand more about what is broke, what is fixed and how it will affect me. I am not a tech noob. For instance, I kept experimenting with options on the Asus until I got my D-Link Bridge to work. (packet aggregation was the culprit) But I have never studied the tech of routers. My setup at home is fairly complex. Cable internet to Motorola modem, Asus router, eight port green gigabit switch. Four custom built desktops, two of which are hard wired, two wireless. Network printer wired to switch. Directv whole home DVR with some piece of their hardware wired to switch. D-Link bridge on the 5 gHz channel, wired to a blue ray player and Onkyo receiver. Wireless to phones, Xoom (also 5 gHz), three laptops, three iPod touches, Logitech Squeezebox Duet, Xbox 360 with Connect and Roku2. The Asus runs all of this fine with its stock firmware. Can you understand why I am a little reluctant to rock the boat with a custom firmware?

All the firmware archive is a log of work done. If you look at it and see something good for yourself you can not install it. In the meantime, I can only see troling.
The new firmware 1.0.1.7f-p8
http://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/downloads/list

 

[Shikami]

It can improve many things, from not only bug fixes, but also optimization that have been made. For example, web browsing can be improve due to the fixes that were made to the DNS Relay functions. It was implemented improperly, and can even time out.

The biggest issues that were easily resolved were related to HW NAT. With this custom firmware all VPN passthroughs function without the disabling of HW NAT, and including multicasting for wireless. WOL functions now, Ethernet configurations have been added to allow better mixed 10/100 with 1Gb connections, the kernel was compile with MIPS32 optimizations-making it leaner (less memory used) and a bit faster overall, extra funtions are added with robust configuration to the user, etc. The list goes on. Matter of fact version 8 has been released here are the fixes over-all:


ASUS RT-N56U custom firmware 1.0.1.7f-p8 from Padavan


Changes from original firmware 1.0.1.7f:

- Build optimization for MIPS32 (code more fast and smaller).
- Added full support for Optware (start/stop scripts is embedded).
- Added NFS server v3 with WebGUI control. NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3 exports supported.
- Added SSH server (dropbear-0.52) with WebGUI control. SSH access from WAN supported.
- Added ability to WAN/USB Modem/Routes settings changes without router reboot.
- Added fast WAN source switching to USB Modem without router reboot.
- Added ability for VLAN filtering Internet/IPTV/VoIP without create LAN-WAN bridges.
- Fixed DHCP client for PPPoE WAN connection. PPPoE Dual Access now worked perfectly.
- Fixed L2TP WAN connection in auto mode. VPN heart-beat server now resolved by name.
- Fixed Dual Access PPTP WAN auto-reconnection after broken PPP tunnel (DNS bug).
- Fixed missing NAT MASQUERADE for physical WAN interface, when WAN IP and routes is static.
- Fixed broken IPTV after physical WAN interface new lease obtained (by DHCP).
- Fixed loading more instances of L2TP daemon.
- Fixed more zombie for "pppd" process and others.
- Fixed LAN DHCP server bug (no leases) when DHCP pool end address < xxx.xxx.xxx.11.
- Fixed earlier physical WAN interface up on router startup (spoofing issue).
- Fixed iptables filter rules for port forwarding on router's LAN IP via VirtualServer.
- Fixed casual DNS Relay dead.
- Fixed DNS Relay logic for reverse lookup requests for local IP's. Now all this requests fast
forwarded from LAN DHCP leases, without requesting from WAN ISP DNS.
- Fixed work IPTV UDP-HTTP Proxy with disabled setting "Enable multicast routing". Now udpxy work
without igmpproxy.
- Fixed broken HW_NAT after enabled WiFi "Multicast rate".
- Fixed broken HW_NAT after enabled "L2TP Passthrough" and "IPSec Passthrough".
- Fixed "MAN" static routes loading after disabled static route.
- Both WiFi "Multicast rate" now enabled by default (HTMIX mode).
- Added WiFi 2.4GHz legacy "Multicast rate" modes.
- Added independent IGMP Snooping control for WiFi. Now WiFi IGMP Snooping enabled by default
and dropped all outside multicast traffic.
- Added ability for WiFi region change from WebGUI.
- Fixed WiFi scheduler stupid time overlap check.
- Fixed Telnet server start/stop issues.
- Fixed local network scanner background utility.
- Fixed UPnP Mediaserver force rescan after startup (minidlna new switch "-U" instead of "-R").
- Fixed all Russia timezones.
- Fixed some Russian resources for WebGUI.
- Fixed Samba write issue from MacOS clients.
- Fixed broken setting "No Encryption" for WAN PPTP property.
- Added ability for rebind WPS button actions (short and long press). 8 custom actions is allowed
(e.g. WiFi radio on/off, safe removal USB, reboot, etc).
- Added ability to manual settings physical WAN Ethernet link.
- Added advanced settings for Ethernet switch.
- Added second manual DNS IP for DHCP server.
- Added ability to change source media path for UPnP and iTunes Mediaservers.
- Added fdisk (busybox applet) for partitioning drives from Telnet console.
- Added mke2fs (mkfs.ext2, mkfs.ext3) for making EXT2/EXT3 partitions from Telnet/SSH console.
- Added several Linux utils (such as dd, env, blkid, ip, sysctl, more, ...).
- Added terminfo database for correct terminal keys handling (e.g. for MC). xterm by default.
- Added USB modem ZTE-MF180.
- Added output second (physical) WAN IP address in WebGUI (WAN status).
- Added output MAC address as text in WebGUI (LAN clients table).
- Added physical WAN Ethernet link info in WebGUI (WAN status).
- Added USB HDD spindown after safely remove from WebGUI.
- Added firmware subversion info to WebGUI.
- Updated kernel module Ralink raeth (RT3662 wired GMAC/GMAC2). Increased TX/RX ring buffers up to 512
(tx_ring_full workaround).
- Updated kernel module Ralink Ralink RT3090_ap (WiFi 2.4 GHz). Added WiFi MAC verification to syslog.
- Updated kernel module Ralink Ralink rt2860v2_ap (WiFi 5 GHz). Added WiFi MAC verification to syslog.
- Update all USB subsystem and drivers in Linux kernel.
- Updated busybox to v1.19.3
- Updated pppoe-relay to v3.10.
- Updated igmpproxy to v0.1-stable.
- Updated udpxy to v1.0-21.1.
- Disabled self-reboot after CPU overload.
- Disabled buggy Web redirect page (after internet connection lost).
- Disabled buggy WAN speed auto measurement after WAN up.
- Deleted some national resources (needed more space in NOR Flash).


Changes from previous firmware 1.0.1.7f-p7:

- Added some new WPS button actions.
- Added ability for WiFi region change from WebGUI.
- Added USB HDD spindown after safely remove from WebGUI.
- Added auto changing home dir on optware start/stop.
- Added ssh client into dropbear. Now dropbear used path /opt/libexec/sftp-server for external sftp.
- Added Flow Control option (Ethernet switch) for each port.
- Updated kernel module Ralink raeth (RT3662 wired GMAC/GMAC2).
- Increased TX/RX ring buffers up to 512 for Ralink raeth module (tx_ring_full workaround).
- Updated kernel module Ralink Ralink RT3090_ap (WiFi 2.4 GHz). Added WiFi MAC verification to syslog.
- Updated kernel module Ralink Ralink rt2860v2_ap (WiFi 5 GHz). Added WiFi MAC verification to syslog.
- Update all USB subsystem and drivers in Linux kernel.
- Updated busybox to v1.19.3
- Fixed disabled WiFi WMM combobox on AP in Auto mode.
- Fixed Samba write issue from MacOS clients.
- Fixed broken setting "No Encryption" for WAN PPTP property.

The only negative is the fact that you need to reset the router and perform the configurations again (do not restore any backups from previous firmware), which is not much and not many to make. After such you will not need to perform this again; just flash the firmware is all that is required. But overall it is your router, and how you handle it is his prerogative. One thing to note your "packet aggregation" issue can be a common problem when configuring wireless bridges. Not all wireless chips, even though they may be IEEE compliant, are not fully compatible with particular functions or just the functioning part itself with other vendor's chips.

Honestly, it is good that you have not had the tx_ring_full issue with your network. If you ever do, this firmware can work around it by increasing the descriptor buffers. You do not see Asus fixing any of these really horrible bugs-this really is the issue, and why I would rather prefer custom firmware.

http://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/downloads/detail?name=RT-N56U_1.0.1.7f-p8-mips32.zip#makechanges

 

[Unregistered]

I wonder how will the custom firmware change when ASUS releases its black knight skin version of its firmware for the rt-n56u.

Also, is does the custom firmware have the same GUI as the original ASUS firmware?

 

[Truonk]

Shikami,

Please shoot me an email truonk@gmail.com I would really like to get WOL to work. I do have green energy disabled and I'm able to wake all 3 computers a few mins of sleep mode. After that there is no luck at all. I have everything enabled properly in bios and windows.

Thank you,