Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.33 is out

[jccl2]

Hello All,

At my RT-AC66U is missing 5GHz tab in Media bridge mode. Working until 374.32 on 374.33 was missing.

Thanks.

 

[rlcronin]

Instead of having separately configurable channels, Asus now has one single channel selector. This is for 40 MHz channel width, where two channels are used.

1l means that channel 1 will be the lower channel (so, the other channel the router will use is 3). Likewise, 11u means 11 will be the upper channel, so 9 will be used as the lower channel.

Ok, but if I choose 1l, it forces the width field to 40. If I then change the width field to 20/40, it changes the channel back to Auto. That seems somewhat odd behavior.
--
bc

 

[RMerlin]

I'm not sure of the exact distance between the router and my PC. I was on your 3.0.0.4_374.32 before and it did maintain a higher link speed. Overall I am not to considered as I am still receiving almost my complete ISP speed.

My IOS devices are not, As previously said for some reason no matter what firmware I am on, Or if I am using 2.4GHz or 5GHz I always have had around 10Mbps less. This also applies no matter the distance from the router, I can be standing right next to it and it wont improve.

Make sure you delete and recreate the wireless profiles on the iOS devices, as otherwise they might be struggling with the change in wireless driver on the router. Also try enabling 802.11d+h on the Wireless Pro page to see if it helps (some Mac devices prevent this to be enabled).

Otherwise, you could also revert to the SDK5 build, which is the same driver as in 374.32.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi All/RMerlin,
Firstly a big thankyou to RMerlin for his dedicated work.
I'm currently running 3.0.0.4.270.26b on a RT-N66U, and planning to upgrade to 3.0.0.4.374.33.
I've kept up to speed with commentary and feel this is probably the best time to go for an update. I understand I need to record all my settings and manually re-input them, after doing a factory default. So just to confirm the process, is it:

1) Note down/screenshot all settings.
2) Backup settings in case I come back to this firmware.
3) Flash with 3.0.0.4.374.33.
4) Do a Factory Default restore and reboot.
5) Manually re-configure Router ( WAN connection, Port Forwards, Manual IP Assignments, History, USB etc).
6) Reboot ?

That's correct.

Lastly I've got Entware installed on my attached USB stick, do I need to do anything with it ? Or can I just continue using what's there prior to the upgrade ?

Entware installations aren't affected, as everything is on the USB disk and the JFFS partition. When you re-enable the JFFS partition, do not tell it to reformat itself however, or it will remove the startup script Entware has stored in the JFFS partition.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi RMerlin! Do we have to do the same thing for RT-AC66U? Coming from 3.0.0.4.372.31 (Merlin build)...

No. As mentioned, this is specifically for the RT-N66U. The RT-AC66U has always been running on that SDK6, so it's fine.

 

[RMerlin]

First, the bug... This one has been around for as long as I have had the RT-N66U, so not a Merlin thing!

If you go in to the Wireless setting page, and change the channel number manually, it can reset the entire WiFi settings, all the way back to factory defaults, including SSID name etc...

If you change the WiFi channel manually, make sure that you check your WiFi settings after you have saved the changes, it might have reset your settings!

I have never experienced, or gotten reports of that one. Did you try at some stage to do a factory default reset, and manually reconfiguring everything in case you might have corrupted entries in your nvram?

If you change Regulation Mode to 802.11h, my Libratone Live speaker, as well as my iPhone 4s will not connect to the network. However my iPhone 5 connects fine! This is with iOS 7.0.2 on both phones. The Libratone speaker is nothing to do with Apple, and simply will not connect to the network with 802.11h enabled.

You might need to delete and recreate your wireless profiles after changing this option. Also, only change it on the 5 GHz band (while you currently can change it also on the 2.4 GHz band, there might be devices who have trouble dealing with it when the router advertises that option on the unsupported 2.4 GHz band).

This option was mostly implemented for people having issues however. The vast majority of users should leave it to its default value.

When you find time, could you please look in to the possibility to enable a manual MTU setting while using Auto settings on the WAN configuration page? The default is 1500, and I would like to be able to change it, however if I set the router to manual mode, it won't connect to the Fibre Modem.

This is something I might eventually implement. While anything Ethernet should normally be 1500, I'm starting to see some ISPs who like to do funky things, and tell "standards be damned, we have to do things OUR way, regardless of the consequences for third party devices owners".

 

[RMerlin]

Ok, but if I choose 1l, it forces the width field to 40. If I then change the width field to 20/40, it changes the channel back to Auto. That seems somewhat odd behavior.
--
bc

I know - it's how Asus is now handling these fields. They probably change it to Auto because of the way the channel is now sorted internally, it must reset it and force you to re-pick a manual channel.

 

[deerhound]

Very tiny bug since beta 6. My 2.4ghz ssid is Name, my 5ghz ssid is Name5. On the Network Map page in System Status it keeps showing my 2.4ghz ssid as Name5. However all devices on 2.4 log in with ssid Name. I have cleared NVRAM and rebooted many times. Not affecting me, but it does look wierd.

Dale

 

[~Craig~]

Make sure you delete and recreate the wireless profiles on the iOS devices, as otherwise they might be struggling with the change in wireless driver on the router. Also try enabling 802.11d+h on the Wireless Pro page to see if it helps (some Mac devices prevent this to be enabled).

Otherwise, you could also revert to the SDK5 build, which is the same driver as in 374.32.

Thanks for the suggestions, I have already tried deleting the wireless profiles. I have even went as far as reseting the network setting and a complete reinstall of IOS itself.

Upon checking the "Wireless Professional" page I don't see the "802.11d+h" option you are referring to.

Sadly also even back on the SDK5 builds I have never been able to get the my full speed on my IOS devices. I have tried every possible setting I can think of on the router to no avail.

 

[burtal]

Hi Merlin , thanks your latest build... i have a issue with that aicloud .... i use it to listen music while i am at work... up until the moved to aicloud 2.0 streaming worked fine , but now i saw 2 issues:

1: in a folder (music album), the user selection is disregarded and the first song will always be played.
2. playback stops after 10 sec , the music player gets auto paused. when un-paused the song will continue for another 10 sec and also the volume setting is reset to default, although the volume bar remains at the level set by user

Are this issues known? Anyone does this issues can be reproduced on your routes?

i have N66U version

 

[Stimpy]

I have never experienced, or gotten reports of that one. Did you try at some stage to do a factory default reset, and manually reconfiguring everything in case you might have corrupted entries in your nvram?

Yeah, I always do a full reset whenever I update firmware, ASUS's or your own, just to be safe.

I have seen this a few times in the past, but never really thought to mention it, incase its my doing somehow. It seems to happen when you change the WiFi channel on the 2.4GHz band, and if you don't keep an eye on what is going on, when you leave the settings page, you can see that the SSID has changed back from my setting, to ASUS, so you have to set it all up from scratch.

You might need to delete and recreate your wireless profiles after changing this option. Also, only change it on the 5 GHz band (while you currently can change it also on the 2.4 GHz band, there might be devices who have trouble dealing with it when the router advertises that option on the unsupported 2.4 GHz band).

This option was mostly implemented for people having issues however. The vast majority of users should leave it to its default value.

OK, got it. I had no idea this function is not supported on the 2.4GHz band. That would explain some compatibility problems.

But just to state for the record, the iPhone had it's network settings reset, something that I did not need to perform on the iPhone 5, when the setting caused no problems.

This is something I might eventually implement. While anything Ethernet should normally be 1500, I'm starting to see some ISPs who like to do funky things, and tell "standards be damned, we have to do things OUR way, regardless of the consequences for third party devices owners".

This would be wonderful if you could find the time for this! ISP's have always done this, at least in the EU, and I'm sure I've heard about this in the US too. It's a modern thing that ISP's conform to the 1500 MTU standard, an MTU of 1472 is also very common here, and in the UK. It would be nice for the router to not have to split packets up over the WAN interface, it's never a good thing for pure performance.

 

[Shayne]

Thank you RM you r the best this is running well for me. Have no idea why the last firmware confused my router totally? But now we don't really care.

Regards

 

[bluepoint]

Thanks for sharing that result, This Is what I get on my iPhone 5, connected at 5GHz in the same room: RX/TX of 24/108 Mbps -52 dBm

Ookla Speedtest result: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/i/654373486

So does that explain why I am only ever able to get around 24Mbps? My ISP provides around 32-34Mbps

The Rx/Tx speeds you see in the router in the .720 and above based firmware of Merlin is not a good indication of your true speeds. The reported 24Mbps Rx speed reported by the router is not accurate and only does it with the Apple products, although the Rx is dynamic, it seems always stuck with 24Mbps, it's a bug maybe when Merlin have time he can look at it. In an actual speed tests of an iPhone 5, it exceeds(58/39Mbps) that reported speed here so it's not the limiting factor of your slow download speed.

 

[korenisko]

So for rt-n16 this is probably more improvement than older sdk5 and betas fw?

 

[dolftb]

I am on BETA 6, is this version different for the RT AC66?

 

[RMerlin]

although the Rx is dynamic, it seems always stuck with 24Mbps, it's a bug maybe when Merlin have time he can look at it. In an actual speed tests of an iPhone 5, it exceeds(58/39Mbps) that reported speed here so it's not the limiting factor of your slow download speed.

The value I display are what is reported by the wireless driver. I have no control over what gets returned there.

 

[RMerlin]

I am on BETA 6, is this version different for the RT AC66?

Yes, minidlna got some unstable code removed for the final release.

 

[bluepoint]

The value I display are what is reported by the wireless driver. I have no control over what gets returned there.

Ouch since Asus doesn't show the Tx/Rx speeds in their firmware, we can just expect that this will not be fixed, its not a big deal if you have no control of the bug.

 

[cornflake]

Ok I encountered a bug on my RT-N66R/U after flashing. When you disable Spanning Tree Protocol (LAN -> Switch Control) and click apply. It resets the router's firmware.

This is just a simple flag that gets flipped to 0, and then the router rebooted. If you lost your settings, then something else was responsible. Your nvram could have been corrupted, for example, and the reboot is what triggered the reset.

This just happened to me while configuring the router. I did a factory reset before and after flashing the new firmware. I was entering the settings following the menu, from top to bottom. As soon as I disabled the Spanning Tree Protocol and hit Apply, the router reset and put me back on step 3 of the initial setup (Wireless configuration). It stayed connected to the Internet and it did not ask me to setup the admin password, but it resetted it to admin/admin. All of the settings were back to defaults.

The second time around, I did the Spanning Tree first and then configured everything else. This time it worked properly. I don't know if disabling the Spanning Tree after changing some settings had something to do with it.

Another thing that happened is that the router cloned my computer's MAC address at some point. I'm not sure if it happened after the reset, the upgrade, or the Spanning Tree incident.

BTW, thanks for taking your time to make this excellent firmware.

 

[burtal]

Hi Merlin , thanks your latest build... i have a issue with that aicloud .... i use it to listen music while i am at work... up until the moved to aicloud 2.0 streaming worked fine , but now i saw 2 issues:

1: in a folder (music album), the user selection is disregarded and the first song will always be played.
2. playback stops after 10 sec , the music player gets auto paused. when un-paused the song will continue for another 10 sec and also the volume setting is reset to default, although the volume bar remains at the level set by user

Are this issues known? Anyone does this issues can be reproduced on your routes?

i have N66U version

guys.... no one have this problem ?