Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.260.21 is out

[Carnagerover]

I wish I could figure out the wifi problems, family are driving me crazy however I recently bought a Linksys EA4500 to try and had pretty much identical issues with that so I'm starting to think my problem may be Internet related. Slow webpage loading and Youtube telling me to tap to reload all the time. I did a ping test on my Ethernet PC and had 0% packet loss so who knows.

 

[dazz87]

Just curious and this would be way out there, are the LAN and 2.4 ghz MAC addresses the same on the "new" one?

Yes, both are the same. Its been 3 days now and 2.4ghz device (notebook) been very stable. I really think I had a bad router before, I had other issues with that router besides slow internet connection.

 

[thE_29]

Hi!

I have a question about the opkg/ipkg repository: How do you CROSS-compile packages for the router/repository?

Because i need a higher version of pho for OwnCloud and compiling on the router is just a pain in the butt (with all the dependencies which php needs).

So is there anywhere a good HowTO for compiling packages or does anyone have a php-version >5.3 for the router (and merlin fw )

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Thanks dazz....

 

[RMerlin]

I wish I could figure out the wifi problems, family are driving me crazy however I recently bought a Linksys EA4500 to try and had pretty much identical issues with that so I'm starting to think my problem may be Internet related. Slow webpage loading and Youtube telling me to tap to reload all the time. I did a ping test on my Ethernet PC and had 0% packet loss so who knows.

Make sure that the ethernet cable between modem and router is rated Cat5e or Cat6. Older Cat5 won't cut it with the gigabit port of the router.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi!

I have a question about the opkg/ipkg repository: How do you CROSS-compile packages for the router/repository?

Because i need a higher version of pho for OwnCloud and compiling on the router is just a pain in the butt (with all the dependencies which php needs).

So is there anywhere a good HowTO for compiling packages or does anyone have a php-version >5.3 for the router (and merlin fw )

Best to ask in a separate thread as this isn't directly related to the firmware, and someone like ryzhov_al (who is a maintainer on the Entware repo) might see your question there. He might even be able to add your request to Entware if it's useful enough.

On a related note, did you check if the Entware website had any hints on this?

 

[thE_29]

I knew the entware project, but wasnt sure if the router/firmware support it!

As there is php 5.4.5 in the repo, it should work Thanx for the tip!!

 

[oric1]

Does anyone else have a problem on wifi where you are connected fine with full bars but the Internet becomes unresponsive for maybe 10-20 seconds even though you are also still connected to the Internet? This maybe also occurs on Ethernet but I spent most time on wifi.

I have stabilised now but I'm running a continued ping test to see if it happens again on my ipad if I get any packet loss on the ping.

Are you still having issue with your 5GHz? Mine still the same problem as you described above.

My 5GHz set to 40MHz, N only, Channel 36, 80mW and my iPad 3 is less than a meter away from the router.

I did try to disable the WMM APSD but it still doesn't help. The 2.4GHz no issue though.

EDIT:

I did noticed this setting "Preamble Type" default to "Long". I clicked on help and it displayed "The Preamble type defines the length of the CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) block, which is a technique for detecting data transmission errors among wireless devices. We recommend that you configure all wireless devices to the same preamble type for wireless devices in high network traffic areas. Use long preamble for older wireless devices."

Since my device is relatively new, wonder if I should set it to "Short" or "Auto".

 

[RMerlin]

I knew the entware project, but wasnt sure if the router/firmware support it!

As there is php 5.4.5 in the repo, it should work Thanx for the tip!!

Yep, Entware works fine, except you will lose DownloadMaster (which relies on Optware, and you can't use both repos at the same time).

You can set it up using the regular Entware script. ryzhov_al posted another thread here on how to integrate services into Asuswrt so they will start automatically. With Asuswrt-Merlin you can also use the services-start and services-stop user scripts to do the same.

 

[s814jdh]

Think I have seen the same thing on a 66u I got at about the same time, only the problem even affected the wired connections. Got so unstable could get to the admin anymore on wireless. I am returning this one to Amazon, hopefully the new one will be better. Have posts describing the issues and troubleshooting here:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=8945

and here:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?p=54746#post54746

I'm not sure if I should RMA my router or not, I've flashed to this version today as I have been having problems where my PC Internet connection is fine but wifi on iPads and iPhones is constantly disconnecting. I have reset the NVRam and left the router off for a few hours and haven't had a disconnect yet. This is the third spell of this behaviour the router has had since I bought it in October.

I have 2.4 ghz set to 20mh only with the interference setting off and the power left at 80mw. I have 5ghz set to 40mhz only and N, I have had problems where my Apple TV won't connect to 5ghz for some reason also. Am I encountering router bugs surely if this was faulty it would just stop working. The problem with the wifi can happen between firmwares and reboots when it occurs I just don't get it.

Also browsing on wifi will crawl when this happens or time out altogether

 

[Carnagerover]

Make sure that the ethernet cable between modem and router is rated Cat5e or Cat6. Older Cat5 won't cut it with the gigabit port of the router.

Thanks Merlin I checked this out and the cable is a Cat5e

Are you still having issue with your 5GHz? Mine still the same problem as you described above.

My 5GHz set to 40MHz, N only, Channel 36, 80mW and my iPad 3 is less than a meter away from the router.

I did try to disable the WMM APSD but it still doesn't help. The 2.4GHz no issue though.

EDIT:

I did noticed this setting "Preamble Type" default to "Long". I clicked on help and it displayed "The Preamble type defines the length of the CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) block, which is a technique for detecting data transmission errors among wireless devices. We recommend that you configure all wireless devices to the same preamble type for wireless devices in high network traffic areas. Use long preamble for older wireless devices."

Since my device is relatively new, wonder if I should set it to "Short" or "Auto".

I am indeed still having this issue, I have had it where the router is dropping connections all the time, however that seems to have stopped now. However when I compare two ipads one on 2.4ghz and one on 5ghz, the 5ghz seems slower as is prone to more slowdown. However this could just be an Apple problem rather than it definitely being the fault of the router, I don't have any other device to test unfortunately.

 

[thE_29]

Yep, Entware works fine, except you will lose DownloadMaster (which relies on Optware, and you can't use both repos at the same time).

You can set it up using the regular Entware script. ryzhov_al posted another thread here on how to integrate services into Asuswrt so they will start automatically. With Asuswrt-Merlin you can also use the services-start and services-stop user scripts to do the same.

Are the packages not compatible or why can i not use both repo (though I dont care about the downloadmaster). I would just add the other repo to the config file..

As i use asuswrt-merlin, I have your startup scripts and I like the custom Firmwares based on Asus Firmware... I have also 2 Wl500gP Router with Oleg-firmware running and the Oleg firmware is also based on the original asus firmware

So thanx for great work and efforts

 

[RMerlin]

Are the packages not compatible or why can i not use both repo (though I dont care about the downloadmaster). I would just add the other repo to the config file..

As i use asuswrt-merlin, I have your startup scripts and I like the custom Firmwares based on Asus Firmware... I have also 2 Wl500gP Router with Oleg-firmware running and the Oleg firmware is also based on the original asus firmware

So thanx for great work and efforts

Not compatible. They use different versions of uClib, and I'm not sure either how the router would react if packages are available from both repos. It might possibly try to use one package from Optware, and a support library from Entware.

I never actually tested it myself, but from what I know about both, it wouldn't work.

BTW, it's the other way around. Asus based part of their code on Oleg's.

 

[Apex]

I just released build 3.0.0.4.260.21 to Github (the Lostrealm website will be updated later today) for all three routers. The main changes of this build are the re-base on build 260, the addition of options to force your router to become your network's master browser, and various bugfixes.

Being able to force your router into becoming your network's master browser will help people who have random issues where there see no computers appear when they attempt to browser their network under Windows.
This is configurable on the same page as the Workgroup and device name can be configured.

Build 260 doesn't seem to bring many changes versus 246. Some of the fixes were already in 246.20 (like the DMZ field that couldn't be cleared). A saw quite a few changes related to AiCloud, and they also fixed the issue some Russian users had with their ISP that were using a VPN connection for Internet access.

Finally, there is an RT-N16 release available. I got very limited feedback from users testing it (only one single user offered to betatest it actually), but it seems that Stealth Mode mostly works, except for the USB led that can sometime turn itself back on.

full changelog can be found on http://www.lostrealm.ca/asuswrt-merlin/changelog.txt.

The focus of the next release will be rebasing on any new release Asus might have available at the time (I see they just released 3.0.0.4.314 for the DSL-N55U, no GPL code available at this point however), and the implementation of another often requested feature (more details once I complete my initial tests to confirm that it can be done in time for the next release).

This WINS setting thing is it located under

http://192.168.100.200/Advanced_DHCP_Content.asp ?

Would i have to put in a entry in the box that says WINS server [currently it's empty] and if that is the case do i have to do anything with the clients or will they pick up on the fact that the router is now the browser master ?

 

[RMerlin]

This WINS setting thing is it located under

http://192.168.100.200/Advanced_DHCP_Content.asp ?

Would i have to put in a entry in the box that says WINS server [currently it's empty] and if that is the case do i have to do anything with the clients or will they pick up on the fact that the router is now the browser master ?

No, the option is with the other SMB-related settings:

http://192.168.1.1/Advanced_AiDisk_others.asp

The DHCP server will automatically push the required info to clients if you enable the option.

 

[Apex]

Thanks for that - am not sure if it's working tbh because it neither shows up under ipconfig /all or the adapter status details in windows.

Either way thanks

 

[scorpionro]

Hi,

I'm having 5GHz disconnect issues with my new RT-N66U. The 2.4GHz seems to be stable. I've flashed 260.21, and on the "System Log - Wireless Log" I can see that the client that connects on the 5GHz has an "unstable" connection: the Rx/Tx varies quite frequently ( from as low as 6/6 Mbps to 270/270 Mbps - the Tx drops to 6 quite rarely, but every 2-4 refreshes, the Rx is at 6 Mbps ) and in the end the client loses the connection. The RSSI is rather constant at -42 to -43 dBm.

I have tried manually setting the control channel, but that didn't improve the behavior. I've also tried setting the Channel Bandwidth to 20, 20/40 or 40, but I still get the same issues. Setting the Wireless Mode to N Only or AUTO didn't help as well. I'm kind of out of ideas.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi,

I'm having 5GHz disconnect issues with my new RT-N66U. The 2.4GHz seems to be stable. I've flashed 260.21, and on the "System Log - Wireless Log" I can see that the client that connects on the 5GHz has an "unstable" connection: the Rx/Tx varies quite frequently ( from as low as 6/6 Mbps to 270/270 Mbps - the Tx drops to 6 quite rarely, but every 2-4 refreshes, the Rx is at 6 Mbps ) and in the end the client loses the connection. The RSSI is rather constant at -42 to -43 dBm.

I have tried manually setting the control channel, but that didn't improve the behavior. I've also tried setting the Channel Bandwidth to 20, 20/40 or 40, but I still get the same issues. Setting the Wireless Mode to N Only or AUTO didn't help as well. I'm kind of out of ideas.

Probably just power management doing its job. The rate will go down as the radio is unused, and will go back to full speed when there are actual data being transferred. This is normal. It also ensures that a device does not hog the available radio bandwidth when it's not actively using it.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Problem Installing Download

My wife gave me a RT N66U last week which I have been testing as an AP prior to making it my my primary router.

Was able to upload and upgrade the router to the latest ASUS version 3.0.0.4.260.

I then wanted to load the Asuswrt Merlin version 3.0.0.4.260.21.

Everytime I try I get an error message "Incorrect Version or corrupt image file." and the upgrade fails. Have downloaded the software three times from Merlins Tower and tried installing from both my PC and a USB drive connected to the router.

No problems after the failure and the router continues to work fine. In between attempts I have rebooted the router to clear memory but still a no go.

Suggestions?

 

[RMerlin]

Make sure you unzip it first - you want to upload the .trx file, not the .zip file.

Also make sure you are on the Upgrade Firmware page, not on the Settings page where you can upload a backup of your settings.

Finally, make sure you do get the RT-N66U version of the firmware.