Asus RT-N66u with TomatoUSB firmware

[Kusuri]

Hello, I'm planning to acquire this router and have been wondering if I may have some problems I've read related to upload speed, which some seem to have solved with the Tomato custom firmware.

Problem is I never used cfw on routers before (though I do have experience on flashing fws on other hardware, so I'm fine with it) and have two questions that I hope you can forgive me, but I couldn't find an answer after reading a couple of pages:

Does a router with TomatoUSB work well with other Asus equipment (PLCs and older routers) that are running their respective native fws?

And I've checked the different builds comparison, but I'm unsure which would be best for my uses. I'd like the fw to be as light as possible, unless the extra functions are useful for me.

I'll need to configure IPTV in LAN and for other configurations I usually just forward ports, set a custom DHCP range, configure Wireless for b/g/n, WPA2 AES etc... I don't think I do anything very advanced, but do like a router that performs good in terms of speed, stability and ping.

I *might* try using the BitTorrent function and the BT build seems fairly light. Forgive me if this a stupid question, but is there anything in AIO and others that could be useful for me without me even knowing, perhaps passively?

 

[phowarth]

DDNS asuscomm.com

I have an Asus N66U running shibby Tomatoe Big-VPN.

I switched to shibby from the stock firmware because I couldn't get QOS to work correctly with any stock/beta Asus firmware.

One thing that I did lose was the Asus DDNS service that uses asuscomm.com.

I know I could just sign up for a free service, but I have a bunch of VPN clients in the field that I would have to reconfigure.

Has anyone figured out the asuscomm.com URI format required to use the custom URL function?

 

[Protos]

Bump Default Transmit Power

Tried the new shibby and really like it so far, just noticed that default transmit power is set to 42mw.

Stock asus is 80mw so I recommend if anyone experienced any issues that this may be an area to check. I bumped mine up and it seems to have helped.

 

[sirozha]

Tried the new shibby and really like it so far, just noticed that default transmit power is set to 42mw.

Stock asus is 80mw so I recommend if anyone experienced any issues that this may be an area to check. I bumped mine up and it seems to have helped.

Is it true that the new Tomato firmwares incorporate the new Wi-Fi chip driver - the same one that is used in the stock Asus firmware? Is it shibby’s or toastman’s builds, and which releases? Is the range and the throughput on these builds comparable to the stock Asus firmware?

I am using my RT-N66u as an access point, not a router. I have a better routing device in front of it. However, I would also like to use my RT-N66U as a Gigabit switch with VLAN tagging (802.1Q) capability. I don’t want to lose the reliability, the range, and the throughput of Wi-Fi on RT-N66U if I flash with Tomato.

Thanks!

 

[Jeffspears]

I used the latest version as far as I can tell there is no range issue, cant tell about the performance didnt do speed testing on the original firmware.

But as highlighted its 42 by default and you must change that

 

[drinkingbird]

In the latest Shibby build, the driver is the same one as in the stock Asus firmware (Broadcom BCM4331 802.11 Wireless Controller 5.100.138.20) however I'm not sure if this enables the beamforming (Ai-Radar) in and of itself or if there is something else needed.

I haven't done a head to head range comparison but even the previous builds with the older driver the difference wasn't that great for me. Performance and range seem fine with the latest Shibby.

With both stock and Tomato I've found the transmit power settings to be somewhat flaky, seems to change up to a certain point but after that doesn't seem to do much, but I haven't done a ton of testing with this latest build of Shibby, maybe it is working better now. I've got both radios set to 0 (radio default), changed from the 42 that Shibby's build puts in by default.

 

[sirozha]

Would it be advisable to wait for the next Asus stock firmware release - the one that's rumored to increase NVRAM to 64 KB - before flashing with the latest shibby's release? What are the benefits of having NVRAM increased to 64 KB? Once I flash with a shibby's release, can I update to another shibby's release later on without having to clear NVRAM? I don't feel like reconfiguring my RT-N66U every time I update the firmware. I realize I have to clear NVRAM when I go from ASUS stock firmware to a Tomato build.

 

[Protos]

If your not comfortable playing around I suggest waiting for a stable 64k build. I figure this should happen right around sept if not sooner.

Clearing Nvram is always the preferred method imho.

Regarding driver and beamforming, I am not sure about either. Some say yes others say no. Shibby has not posted much lately that I have seen.

 

[zbeyuz]

Hi, I am using latest Shibby's build and I have some problems with Advanced - Wireless and Virtual Wireless Settings.

First, When I tried to increase Transmit Power to 300mW ( Country: US/Singapore ) on both bands and used inSSIDer to check RSSI.

I saw it was around -45 on 2.4GHz and -59 on 5GHz, so I didn't feel the power increase at all as compared to when I set it at 100mW and the stock firmware.

When I was using a stock firmware with 250mW on both bands. The RSSI was about -37 ,-44 on 2.4GHz and 5GHz respectively.

Thus, I want to know is tomato firmware not compatible with Asus in that area ?

Second, I couldn't see 5Ghz wireless settings in Basic - Network anymore. It happened when I set 2 guests/virtual accesspoints on 2.4Ghz ( wl0.1 ) and 5Ghz ( wl1.1 ) band.

The setting on wl1.1 in Advanced - Virtual Wireless also dissapeared after rebooting the router, but inSSIDer still can see and connect to it without any problem.

Thus, I think this maybe display bugs or what ???

P/s:
1. I got clear all Nvram before and after I flash tomato firmware.
2. I also tried Shibby's beta build and Toastman's latest build but no luck.
3. I use IE 9, Chrome 20, Firefox 13 and Maxthon 3 for second issue.
4. I noticed that the router take more time ( 2 minutes ) to boot when virtual wireless is set.

 

[HandyGeek]

What about Teaman?

Is there a reason why the Teaman version is never mentioned, please?

http://code.google.com/p/tomato-sdhc-vlan/

 

[zbeyuz]

Is there a reason why the Teaman version is never mentioned, please?

http://code.google.com/p/tomato-sdhc-vlan/

Hi, I tried to flash this tomato version, but it bricked my router, so I have to go back to Toastman's version.
Therefore, please DO NOT try to flash Teaman's version on Asus RT-N66U.

 

[HandyGeek]

Thank you for the heads-up re the Teaman version.

I wonder why it bricked your router ...

Perhaps someone on the Forum could explain?

Thanks!

 

[zbeyuz]

I have no idea why it bricked my router. I downloaded the latest package: Tomato Teaman-RT v2025 and the two versions I tried were:

1. tomato-K26USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN

2. tomato-K26USB-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN

P/s: I flashed those firmwares 3 times using recovery mode with Firmware Restoration tool.

 

[TC777]

I prefer the Shibby version. He uses the RT-N66U for his router.

He posts in this link (translated because its in another language)
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dopenlinksys.info%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1382%26bih%3D812%26prmd%3Dimvns&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=pl&u=http://openlinksys.info/forum/viewthread.php%3Fthread_id%3D11624

 

[HandyGeek]

Wow, I had not looked at the ASUS RT-N66U. Nice. A little pricey at $179. but considering the features ...

I have been disappointed with the support from Netgear and looked at Cisco/Linksys.

One review on Amazon.com wrote the following, is it still true of the stock unit, and does Shibby's OS provide this feature?

One feature that's present in the Linksys E4200, but not on this router, is an SSL web GUI. I work in IT, and it bothers me administering my firewall over plaintext HTTP. Probably not that big a deal to home users, but I don't think it's that difficult to implement an HTTPS server for the admin GUI. It also makes this unit completely unsuited for deployment in a business environment, where security is paramount. I'm hopeful that it'll be in a future firmware update. I could probably use this router for a lot of small-business clients.

 

[KevTech]

TomatoUSB has HTTPS and you can also disable wireless from accessing the GUI.

 

[KevTech]

I have no idea why it bricked my router. I downloaded the latest package: Tomato Teaman-RT v2025 and the two versions I tried were:

1. tomato-K26USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN

2. tomato-K26USB-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN

P/s: I flashed those firmwares 3 times using recovery mode with Firmware Restoration tool.

I can see why the first one would not work (bold).

 

[zbeyuz]

I can see why the first one would not work (bold).

Ok, then how about the second one ?

 

[Raptor]

I have no idea why it bricked my router. I downloaded the latest package: Tomato Teaman-RT v2025 and the two versions I tried were:

1. tomato-K26USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN

2. tomato-K26USB-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN

P/s: I flashed those firmwares 3 times using recovery mode with Firmware Restoration tool.

Hi zbeyuz!
Both of the Tomato versions you listed are not compatible with the RT-N66U.
tomato-K26USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN has the wrong NVRAM size and the wrong Wireless driver. Flashing this firmware will brick the router.
tomato-K26USB-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN contains the incorrect wireless drivers and at best the wireless will not function. Most likely the router will not function correctly with this firmware.
The RT-N66U requires a 32K NVRAM and RT-N drivers.
Raptor

 

[sirozha]

Hi zbeyuz!
Both of the Tomato versions you listed are not compatible with the RT-N66U.
tomato-K26USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN has the wrong NVRAM size and the wrong Wireless driver. Flashing this firmware will brick the router.
tomato-K26USB-1.28.2025MIPSR2Teaman-RT-PPTPD-VPN contains the incorrect wireless drivers and at best the wireless will not function. Most likely the router will not function correctly with this firmware.
The RT-N66U requires a 32K NVRAM and RT-N drivers.
Raptor

When the new stock RT-N66 firmware that increases NVRAM to 64 KB comes out later this summer, will this increase in NVRAM be permanent or will the NVRAM size go back to 32 KB when the router is flashed with earlier versions of stock firmware or flashed with a non-ASUS firmware (like Shibby’s TomatoUSB)?

Thanks!