Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.354.28 Beta 1

[RMerlin]

Howdy folks,

Looks like it might take a while until the RT-N66U driver is fixed. So meanwhile I decided to keep going forward with development, hence this new build version.

While this is labelled as Beta, you can probably consider the RT-AC66U version as being stable.

This new build fixes some of the issues that were reported in the 354.27 Beta, and also add a couple of improvements.

• Site survey. Something I had been working on and off for quite some time, I finally sat down and finalized that quite useful feature. Note that there is still one or two oddities related to the webpage itself that need to be worked out, but the functionality itself is working fine.
• The webui pages were updated. For some reason the pages contained in the GPL archive were older than those Asus used in their 354 release. The pages have been extracted from their released firmware and merged in. This means for instance their new MAC OUI lookup code is in there. I am also reusing that code now in other places such as on the Ethernet Port page.
• Per IP traffic monitoring should no longer account the traffic that goes through the NAT loopback

Overall, a lot of little things here and there - please look at the changelog for all the details.

In this beta there isn't any particular aspect that is in need of feedback. It is mostly labelled as a beta because of the known-broken RT-N66U driver, and because I want to ensure there is no regression in the numerous little tweaks that were done here and there. So mostly keep posting your feedback about general usage and any new issue that might have slipped by. No need to report any further issue specific to wireless stability or performance on the RT-N66U - at this point we have to wait for Asus to resolve the issues and release a new version.

I am also releasing the usual experimental builds since the 354 merge testing is now complete by now. There is one change however, as the RT-N16 experimental build now comes with both Dual WAN and Repeater enabled. As usual, these features are provided as-is for people to toy with them. I have no immediate plans on addressing any issue specific to these two features since they are still under development by Asus.

The files should appear on Mediafire about 30-40 mins after this post once I'm done uploading and moving them to their correct locations.

As usual, special thanks to everyone who has provided feedback, bug reports, Paypal donations or code patches for inclusion in the project - your participation is much appreciated!

 

[geko53]

So meanwhile I decided to keep going forward with development, hence this new build version.

Great piece of work again, Merlin... Tx very much indeed!

Ciao
Gerald

 

[cmillar6]

Merlin, great work. I am not seeing DHCP logs after upgrading, I suspect it is because my log level is still set at 5 as I did not wipe my nvram settings after upgrading. Should I set the log level back to 7?

 

[RMerlin]

Merlin, great work. I am not seeing DHCP logs after upgrading, I suspect it is because my log level is still set at 5 as I did not wipe my nvram settings after upgrading. Should I set the log level back to 7?

Normally it should automatically raise the log level to 7 if it's too low and you do have DHCP logging enabled. Make sure you do have Log DHCP Queries enabled on the LAN -> DHCP page.

 

[cmillar6]

I did have log DHCP queries enabled and still did not see DHCP logs is the syslog until applying the following

nvram set log_level=7
nvram commit
reboot

Now all is well

Note: after flashing to the latest build I did not wipe my nvram as I am too lazy to reconfigure all 17 of my static ip addresses

 

[RMerlin]

I did have log DHCP queries enabled and still did not see DHCP logs is the syslog until applying the following

nvram set log_level=7
nvram commit
reboot

Now all is well

It should have changed the log_level automatically for you (I just checked and the code is indeed there and looks good to me). I will have to try to reproduce the issue because otherwise it will be a problem for anyone coming from Asus's original firmware 354 or newer.

Note: after flashing to the latest build I did not wipe my nvram as I am too lazy to reconfigure all 17 of my static ip addresses

No need to reset your nvram if going from 354.27 to 354.28. The only changes at nvram level were new settings added, none of the default values were changed.

 

[RMerlin]

A few notes about the Site Survey:

• Make sure you hover over some of the fields to get additional data (such as the quality percentage when hovering over the signal strength - more accurate than just the 5-bars icon)
• You can click on an SSID to get the same MAC OUI lookup as on the client list - allows you to identify the manufacturer of a wifi router

Also note that a lot of the credit for this feature goes to Asus - most of the code was taken from their Quick Internet Setup pages. That's what they display when configuring your router as a repeater (for example) and you need to chose an AP to connect to. I mostly adapted the code to stand on its own, and fixed a few bugs related to field sorting.

 

[bigcid10]

Is the HW acceleration with ipv6 enabled fixed?
thanks,bigcid10

 

[crazyea]

Not sure if its environmental or not but my signal seems a bit weaker (db in the -30's to db in the -40's) after upgrading. Probably in my head......LOL

 

[p71]

Suggestion

It would be useful to see somewhere on the site survey page my own channel numbers. When the control channel is set to auto on the General tab page the actually used channel can be checked only in the system log.

 

[seth_space]

just installed the update on ac66u. Great work.
The sitesurvey tool looks very nice.
It seems tot miss some 5GHZ stations in my environment. At least one of the shown stations has 2,4 and 5Ghz signal.
Sitesurevey only shows 2,4 signals for now.
Any thoughts?

 

[Bagman]

When you click on the site survey tab, the router automatically tries to do the site survey, even if both radios are off. It should first check the status of the radios and ideally put up a warning if one or both radios are off, and only run if at least one of the radios are enabled.

 

[seth_space]

in my case both radios are working and have active clients.

Showing the used bands on the own router is a good idea btw,

 

[demo007]

would it be possible to build the new firmware with the old wireless drivers, i really love some of the new features BUT on RT-N66U the 5ghz wireless is just useless with the later firmwares.

The one function not making me not go back to an earlier version is that since the betas i can assign "untagged" vlan as internet in the IPTV tab so that it works without my ISPs crappy equipment infront of the router.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Site Survey Comments

A few notes about the Site Survey:

• Make sure you hover over some of the fields to get additional data (such as the quality percentage when hovering over the signal strength - more accurate than just the 5-bars icon)
• You can click on an SSID to get the same MAC OUI lookup as on the client list - allows you to identify the manufacturer of a wifi router

Also note that a lot of the credit for this feature goes to Asus - most of the code was taken from their Quick Internet Setup pages. That's what they display when configuring your router as a repeater (for example) and you need to chose an AP to connect to. I mostly adapted the code to stand on its own, and fixed a few bugs related to field sorting.

Nice feature, but a couple of comments.

First the results reported seem highly variable. Sometimes I see three SSIDs other times eight to nine with signal strengths as low as 7%.

Second The site survey more times than not doesn't show my AP which is located in a room away from the N66U. When it does show up the signal strength is shown as 37%.

When I use my Amped Wireless Wi-Fi analytics tool in the same room as the ASUS N66U the signal strength of the ASUS is - 45dBm and the AP not consistently reported is -85dBm.

For your reference my ASUS is set for N only while the AP not being picked up is an old Netgear broadcasting in G only.

Thanks for the continued improvements.

PS: Just fired up a couple of other APs that broadcast in G only and they were picked up so it seems that the cause must be related to signal strength.

 

[seth_space]

theres a big difference between active scan and passive scan.
Active scan shows about 8 neighbours and passive about 16.
All 2,4 band only.
I do not see any 5Ghz bands.

Just a small visual point:
It's a pity the size of the screen used to show the AP's is smaller so i have to scroll eacht time. There's more than enough space on the page to show more Ap's without scrolling.

 

[ryzhov_al]

@RMerlin

Just cometic. Why /jffs/scripts/umount? I think pre-umount name will fits better.

 

[shooter40sw]

My issues are 5gHz WiFi, with the gadgets I have, the only one that is getting bad results unreliable, slow connections slow speeds is the Nexus 4, Samsung S3 works ok, ipad3 and 4 work good also, I tested an Acer Aspire Laptop and it works good on the 5Ghz band with no issues. The Site survey is giving me mixed results Im in a real congested 2.4 area, it brings me sometime 3 or 2 wifi routers, in passive it does bring like 10.
I tested Openvpn and sshd works with no problem
.
I upgrades from 270.26 Merlin build to the 345.28B1 Merlin, and then restored to factory defaults and manually configured everything else, my complaint is only for my phone nexus 4, but already know the Asus driver is kind of broken. If I find any other issue I`ll let you know.
Great job Merlin for the effort and time!

 

[applesnowleo]

Hello Merlin, last beta 354.28 on ac66u is fantastic, and stable.

I am having the same problem of this post non ac66u and n66u with merlin builds since january http://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/issues/detail?id=398

I have run command
arp -a
arp -i vlan100 -s xx.xxx.xx.x 00:00:00:00:00:50

to make the problem least proeminent, but it occurs anyway for less time.

The problem only apears to happen to users of vodafone Portugal, I have a 400mb Down, 40 upload fiber service, other friends with n66u have 100mb Down 10 up, and the same problem occurs with them.

Is there some way of correcting this in future builds, or some command that makes this issue go away.

Thanks for your support, and help.

 

[JoeSchmoe007]

Several questions about this release:

Fixed support for Broadcom Wimax devices

What exactly was fixed? I have Clearwire Wifi hotspot (via FreedomPop) and it seemed to work fine connected via USB. I don't know if it is based on Broadcom chipset.

5 GHz 40 MHz is unreliable with some wireless cards (RT-N66U)

I don't have any 5 GHz devices and keep 5 GHz radio off. Are there any other issues on RT-N66U related to wireless (and wired) connectivity related to broken drivers?

- FIXED: LAN traffic going through the NAT loopback would be counted in the Per IP traffic monitoring.

How much of an error (%-wise) did it introduce in previous versions where it was not fixed?