Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.32 is out

[RMerlin]

No, I didn't do any of those things... If that is required for each upgrade, I won't be upgrading anymore... I mean, manually entering settings?? In this case, it wasn't broken so not sure why I tried to fix it. Stupid move on my part... So, I will do as suggest here and see if I can get back to a stable state.

This is recommended because you skipped too many firmware versions - there is a big jump between 270.26b and 374.32. There's also been quite a few changes related to wireless management throughout all those versions.

First thing I would check however is to ensure that, if you have the Media Server enabled, that it's not saving its database into RAM, which could quickly fill it up. Check how much RAM you have left on the Tools ->Sysinfo page after a few hours of use to see if there is any abnormal memory depletion.

374.32 in itself should be stable, aside from wireless stability issues with some specific wireless adapters.

 

[bobfandango]

Thank you for the information... good to know re: number of upgrades. I am not using Media Server, nor most of the bells and whistles. Mostly vanilla routing albeit on both bands. I'll give the firmware another go with the above instructions. Thanks to all.

 

[RMerlin]

I can start the syslogd on my NAS box to receive logs, but I cannot determine if or how the RT-AC66U can send logs to a remote server.

I'd love to help troubleshoot this, but I have no idea how to get useful debug info or logs off the router. Thoughts?

On the Administration -> System page there is a field to enter the IP address of a remote syslog server. This is usually of limited use for debugging however, as the important stuff such as kernel panic info is only output to the serial console. It might still be helpful in your case as if it's running out of memory (it shouldn't considering your limited use however) you should see syslog entries about processes being killed in an attempt to free memory.

 

[jiih]

slow lan

Hi,

I require help. I am not sure whether this is related only to this FW or not.
I installed latest merlin version to RT-AC66U and when enabling VPN (PPTP) my lan throughput (over wifi) is decreased to unusable extent. Has anybody seen this issue?

Thanks in advance.

jiih

 

[stsalkit]

Just curious if you set your router back to factory defaults/cleared the nvram and then entered your settings manually after upgrading your firmware? If you didn't, that may be the cause of the problems that you're seeing.

As I am new to this, can you please direct me to some instructions on how you "clear the nvram"? Upgrading from your 270, I just reset my router to factory defaults (via the "Administration - Restore/Save/Upload Setting" menu item) and manually entered the settings again. But I did not do any nvram thing! How do you do this?

 

[RMerlin]

Hi,

I require help. I am not sure whether this is related only to this FW or not.
I installed latest merlin version to RT-AC66U and when enabling VPN (PPTP) my lan throughput (over wifi) is decreased to unusable extent. Has anybody seen this issue?

Thanks in advance.

jiih

Just enabling the server itself shouldn't have any impact. Make sure you don't have anyone connecting to it and slowing down your connection (use a safe password), and also disable all options related to broadcast or Samba support on the PPTP pages.

 

[RMerlin]

As I am new to this, can you please direct me to some instructions on how you "clear the nvram"? Upgrading from your 270, I just reset my router to factory defaults (via the "Administration - Restore/Save/Upload Setting" menu item) and manually entered the settings again. But I did not do any nvram thing! How do you do this?

Resetting to factory default is the same thing as clearing nvram.

 

[spawn026]

Not sure whats changed but going from RT-AC66U_3.0.0.4_372.32_beta3 to this build kills my usb drive speed. I go from a solid 15MB to a 5-9MB fluctuation. I've restored to default and tried different configs but the speed is cut by a third. Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[RMerlin]

Not sure whats changed but going from RT-AC66U_3.0.0.4_372.32_beta3 to this build kills my usb drive speed. I go from a solid 15MB to a 5-9MB fluctuation. I've restored to default and tried different configs but the speed is cut by a third. Anyone else experiencing this?

Wired or wireless? What filesystem?

 

[RogerSC]

As I am new to this, can you please direct me to some instructions on how you "clear the nvram"? Upgrading from your 270, I just reset my router to factory defaults (via the "Administration - Restore/Save/Upload Setting" menu item) and manually entered the settings again. But I did not do any nvram thing! How do you do this?

Sorry to be confusing, "clearing the nvram" is what happens when you "reset to factory defaults", so they're really the same thing. That operation is called by different names, and there are several ways to get there in this router.

Sounds like you've taken care of it with what you did *smile*.

 

[jiih]

Just enabling the server itself shouldn't have any impact. Make sure you don't have anyone connecting to it and slowing down your connection (use a safe password), and also disable all options related to broadcast or Samba support on the PPTP pages.

Broadcast and samba options did the trick.
Thanks.

jiih

 

[spawn026]

Wired or wireless? What filesystem?

wired with ntfs drives

 

[adrianmak]

Is it worth to upgrade from 3.0.0.4.270.26 (Merlin build) ?
N66U user

 

[tullo15]

Does the firewal's network service filter work in this release? I need to disable world of warcraft for all the users on the network

 

[RMerlin]

Not sure whats changed but going from RT-AC66U_3.0.0.4_372.32_beta3 to this build kills my usb drive speed. I go from a solid 15MB to a 5-9MB fluctuation. I've restored to default and tried different configs but the speed is cut by a third. Anyone else experiencing this?

Tested here with both NTFS and ext3, and both are giving me a sustained 12 MB/s on a 250 MB file.

EDIT: While not as bad as your results, it's still strangely lower than the 15 MB/s that I get with 372.32 Beta 3. No idea why, the Samba config file is pretty much the same in both versions. I'll see if I can figure out what could have changed between 372 and 374 to explain that.

 

[RMerlin]

The Samba version used by Asus has a patch from AVM which is probably aimed at improving performance and size for use on small devices. Part of the patch was increasing the Samba priority to the highest value, which ensured top SMB performance, at the expense of everything else.

In 374 Asus went to the other complete opposite, giving it the lowest priority value possible, resulting in a pretty hefty performance drop. You are seeing a lot of fluctuation probably because you have other things requiring the use of the CPU. And since Samba has the lowest priority possible, it's allowing everyone else to interrupt it.

I'll readjust the priority in a future version. I just need to decide if I want to go with the same high priority as before (which does seem high, considering SMB performance should be secondary to all the other routing features - this is primarily a router after all, not a NAS), or simply let it to the default priority, for a more balanced approach.

 

[BenPope]

WAN-LAN Throughput

Hi all,

I've got an AC66U, with this firmware installed, but I can't seem to get more than about 270Mbps routed between the WAN and LAN. It's the same on the latest Asus firmware and even slower with DD-WRT.

I've disabled QoS, IPv6 and IPTraffic and enabled HW Accelerator, but all to no avail. When I plug the PC directly into the modem (An Alcatel Lucent GPON device) I get over 800Mbps. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Ben

 

[joegreat]

Hi,

I've got an AC66U, with this firmware installed, but I can't seem to get more than about 270Mbps routed between the WAN and LAN.

First of all: Lucky you that you have such fast WAN (=Internet?) connection!

It's the same on the latest Asus firmware and even slower with DD-WRT.

Looking on the re-test of the Asus RT-AC66U router, the WAN/LAN thrughput schould be still over 800 MBit, with the current Asus firmware.

Are you sure that HW Acceleration is on? You find the current status on the Tools / Sysinfo page...
Your throughput reminds me to the value without HW Acc...

With kind regards
Joe

 

[primitivo]

[...]
I've disabled QoS, IPv6 and IPTraffic and enabled HW Accelerator, but all to no avail. When I plug the PC directly into the modem (An Alcatel Lucent GPON device) I get over 800Mbps. Any ideas?

Also did you reboot the router after disabling above?

 

[BenPope]

Hi,



First of all: Lucky you that you have such fast WAN (=Internet?) connection!



Looking on the re-test of the Asus RT-AC66U router, the WAN/LAN thrugput schould be over 800 MBit.

Are you sure that HW Acceleration is on?
You find the current status on the Tools / Sysinfo page...

With kind regards
Joe

Yeah, it's a gigabit connection to the internet, but only inside Hong Kong, access to the rest of the world is much slower. First world problems, right?

It says HW Acceleration is Enabled, and that the WAN link is 1000Mbps full duplex.