Asus RTN-66U settings help

[jontalk]

I just replaced my old Netgear WRN3500 with the Asus RTN-66U which has Merlin v 3.0.0.4.374.39 firmware installed.

I have a Comcast 100mbps service via my Motorola SB-6141 modem. I just ran the namebench and ping tests and oddly enough, the Asus isn't getting the same results as the old Netgear. I'm wondering if anyone here can help me improve performance with settings I may not be familiar with. Obviously I've already changed the DNS in accordance with the namebench recommendation. As far as ping test, I got a 'good' rating but was getting 'best' with the old Netgear.

Thanks so much.

 

[CooCooCaChoo]

There isn't much that can be done in regards to both issues.

DNS performance can be tweaked, but how much more performance you can get out of the RT-N66R would be marginal at best. AsusWRT-Merlin runs a version of DNSMASQ that was intended to be light, since it is running on an embedded SoC. IMHO, the only thing that would affect the performance of DNSMASQ is the cache setting. Increasing it to its max of 10000 would reduce the number of queries to the internet:

cache-size=10000

As for ping test results, I wouldn't worry too much about that either since it is highly variable and dependent on the distance and number of hops to the server you are talking too.

 

[jontalk]

Thanks..I've looked through all the pages I can't find the cache setting on any of them. Any chance you can fill me in? And do you advise I keep the WAN>WAN DNS settings>Connect to DNS server automatically enabled? I've disabled it and entered server 1 & 2 settings but when I run namebench it doesn't acknowledge the other servers beyond the default. Thanks.

 

[4Leaf]

Thanks..I've looked through all the pages I can't find the cache setting on any of them. Any chance you can fill me in? And do you advise I keep the WAN>WAN DNS settings>Connect to DNS server automatically enabled? I've disabled it and entered server 1 & 2 settings but when I run namebench it doesn't acknowledge the other servers beyond the default. Thanks.

Don't worry about messing with your DNS servers. It is always better just to use the DNS servers that are provided by your ISP. So yes, just let your DNS servers connect automatically. There is absolutely no way that changing DNS servers is going to increase your internet speed.

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Don't worry about messing with your DNS servers. It is always better just to use the DNS servers that are provided by your ISP. So yes, just let your DNS servers connect automatically. There is absolutely no way that changing DNS servers is going to increase your internet speed.

Not quite true. Some ISPs are throttling streaming from hosts like NetFlix by rerouting connections to those servers using DNS redirects with the DNS Servers that they provide. Using other non-ISP DNS Servers can help mitigate this.