Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.38 is out

[L&LD]

MonkY, is that with HW acceleration turned on (and verified in the gui)?

Do you have any other settings applied which might be disabling HWA?

 

[MonkY]

MonkY, is that with HW acceleration turned on (and verified in the gui)?

Do you have any other settings applied which might be disabling HWA?

After flashing again and resetting everything to defaults, i can confirm the PPPoE HW is enabled. I have managed arround 720Mbps (strange to see an older and slower device like N56U beeing faster - at 800Mbps and over - than the newer AC66U). But i'm happy i don't have to use 2 routers for now

Thanks RMerlin! You're the best!

 

[L&LD]

Good to see it's working now. The difference is simply different SoC's between the two routers. Different strength and weaknesses in each.

 

[Shayne]

For PPTP/L2TP, yes. This is the way Asus designed it. However I kept my start at boot code in the case of OpenVPN.

Yes OpenVPN is what I was talking about every reboot the "client" Service state is off and it needs to be turned on and applied before it connects to the vpn server. I was not aware that asus had a client and I thought it was just OpenVPN. Maybe I am a bit confused.

Regards

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks RMerlin! You're the best!

All the credit goes to Asus's developers there, they're the ones who fixed it.

People are quick at throwing tomatoes (no pun intended!) at them when they break something, but they also do a pretty good amount of fixing (and addition of new features as well), and deserve the credit too when that happens.

 

[RMerlin]

Yes OpenVPN is what I was talking about every reboot the "client" Service state is off and it needs to be turned on and applied before it connects to the vpn server. I was not aware that asus had a client and I thought it was just OpenVPN. Maybe I am a bit confused.

Regards

Did you enable the "Start with WAN" option on the OpenVPN Client page?

 

[Shayne]

No I did not, thank you

Regards

 

[ciprian.trofin]

I switched from DDWRT BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2 r22118 (Broadcom K3x driver) to 38_2-em. I set the TX power level to 90mW

The signal boosted from -70dBm (ddwrt) to -65dBm (merlin). Check the home plan for walls and distance.

So far, so good. I just need to set the router to reboot itself (once a week). No particular reason, just peace of mind

 

[scottegos2]

OK, so the readme didn't show 38_2 in the changelog because I'd apparently unzipped the _1 update. Sorry. However, now that I have 38_2 applied on my AC66u, there is a minor annoying change in behavior. I'm guessing the tag for the existing SSID and Wireless Key values on the right side under "system status" changed? Anyway, now my lastpass password plugin blanks out those values so I don't see the existing values. I don't know if this is due to some important change; if so, I guess I'll have to live with it.

 

[diyguy]

Hi,

How do I know if my router is SDK5 based or SDK6 based? I have an N66u running on version Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.354.29

I want to get OpenVPN setup and I wanted to upgrade to the latest stable version of Asuswrt-Merlin.

Thanks

 

[RMerlin]

OK, so the readme didn't show 38_2 in the changelog because I'd apparently unzipped the _1 update. Sorry. However, now that I have 38_2 applied on my AC66u, there is a minor annoying change in behavior. I'm guessing the tag for the existing SSID and Wireless Key values on the right side under "system status" changed? Anyway, now my lastpass password plugin blanks out those values so I don't see the existing values. I don't know if this is due to some important change; if so, I guess I'll have to live with it.

I didn't change anything there between 38_1 and 38_2. However, the recent Lastpass update doesn't play nice with Asuswrt's CSS. Go to your Lastpass settings, and disable the option that displays an icon in text fields. That will resolve your issue.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi,

How do I know if my router is SDK5 based or SDK6 based? I have an N66u running on version Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.354.29

I want to get OpenVPN setup and I wanted to upgrade to the latest stable version of Asuswrt-Merlin.

Thanks

Check the driver version on Tools -> Sysinfo. 5.xxx = SDK5, 6.30 = SDK6.

 

[diyguy]

Check the driver version on Tools -> Sysinfo. 5.xxx = SDK5, 6.30 = SDK6.

Thank you sir, looks like I am on SDK5:

version 5.110.27.20012


Can I upgrade to SDK6 ? Or will I have to stick to 374.36 Beta 1 ? Is it just a matter of the reliability and connection range of SDK6 that I would not want to go there? If that is the case I would try the em version correct ?

Thanks

 

[L&LD]

http://www.lostrealm.ca/asuswrt-merlin/changelog.txt

I think you're running sdk5.

A reset to defaults, power off, manually enter settings and 'forget' old wireless connections from all clients (and then re-associate, of course) is required to do a full/proper upgrade (or; simply use a new ssid with the new firmware).


I would recommend the latest 374.38_2-em RMerlin version with the following settings.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=98452&postcount=150


Or, the latest beta from Asus .2239.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=100542&postcount=33

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=100877&postcount=42


With the same settings suggested above.

 

[diyguy]

Thanks for the settings L&LD. I was able to upgrade without a problem. I haven't had an opportunity to test with quantifiable numbers, but I have a very specific spot on my house where there is very low signal that I will test with tonight. I'll post back later this evening.

 

[MarkyPancake]

I may have missed this information, but what does the em build bring over the non em one?

 

[Shayne]

OpenVPN Client

Changed my settings

Start with WAN = yes
Poll Interval = 60

This morning the vpn was not connected and the Service state was set to OFF

I needed to toggle it on and apply it for it to connect? Does anyone know what could be wrong? I know I could get booted from my server but why is the service state set to off?

As soon as I toggle it on and apply it then connects no problem.

Regards

 

[Raiu]

L&LD 374.38_1-em Report to RMerlin - Asus RT-N66U

A few hours ago I downloaded firmware 374.38_1-em for an RT-N66U to upgrade from firmware 374.37_0 (the one RMerlin had pulled hours after uploading it - but it was rock stable for me).


Router Settings:

Auto Wireless mode For both 2.4GHz & 5GHz bands.
Radio Channels: 2.4GHz: Channel 11 5GHz: Channel 161.
Channel Width: 2.4GHz: 20MHz 5GHz: 40MHz
Preamble Type: Short Preamble for both bands.
Xbox and b/g protection: Both unchecked.
Wireless Scheduler: Disabled for both bands.
Tx Power Adjustment: 100mW for both bands.
Enable TX Bursting: Disabled for both bands.
Enable WMM APSD: Enabled for both bands.
Optimize APMDU Aggregation: Enabled for both bands.
Optimize Ack Suppression: Enabled for both bands.




Test Environment:

I tested from ~35 feet away from the router to the notebook for all the following tests without moving the notebook at all. There are 2 walls between the tested devices and the notebook (Asus Transformer Windows 8.1) has a Broadcom 802.11abgn SDIO adaptor (single stream/single antenna) with the 5.93.98.187 (Oct 2, 2013) driver.



Results:


With 374.37_0 firmware:

inssider 3.07.48 showed signal strength readings of -52 (2.4GHz) and -58 (5GHz).

Ookla speed tests were 25/10 Mbps (2.4GHz) and 45/11 Mbps (5GHz) and 11 ms latency for both.




Immediately following upgrade to 374.38_1-em

inssider showed signal strength readings of -48 (2.4GHz) and -56 (5GHz).

Ookla speed tests were 28/10 Mbps (2.4GHz) and 19/11 Mbps (5GHz) and 11 ms latency for both.

The above is before doing a reset to defaults and with the original ssid's and passwords.





Firmware 374.38_1-em with a reset to defaults and new ssid/passwords

inssider showed signal strength readings of -46 (2.4GHz) and -52 (5GHz).

Ookla speed tests were 27/11 Mbps (2.4GHz) and 45/10 Mbps (5GHz) and 11 ms latency for both.

The above is after doing a reset to defaults and with new ssid's and passwords.





Firmware 374.38_1-em with reset and manually entering settings (above)

inssider showed signal strength readings of -42 (2.4GHz) and -48 (5GHz).

Ookla speed tests are 39/11 Mbps (2.4GHz) and 51/11 Mbps (5GHz) and 11 ms latency for both.

The above is after doing a reset to defaults and with new ssid's and passwords and then manually entering/settings as described in section above, including setting the Tx power levels to 100mW for both channels.





Conclusions:

I mostly use the basic features of my routers and am interested in the highest stability and highest performance possible from them.

I tried the default 80mW settings (reported above) but find the 100mW settings much better. I also tried the suggested 120mW Tx setting for the 5GHz band - but that brought worse, not better results than both the 80mW and 100mW settings in my tests.

In addition to the above numbers, inssider was reporting a score of 100% for the 5GHz band (even when the Ookla speeds were 19/11Mbps) and a score of 71% for the 2.4GHz band with the 374.37_0 firmware, 52% after the upgrade to 374.38_1-em, 55% after the reset to defaults and finally, 76% after entering my settings (above).

As can be seen from these results; this will be the standard (for me, at least) which all firmware forward will be judged (for performance).

I think it also shows how important it is to 'start fresh' and reset to defaults after a firmware upgrade.

Using the latest RMerlin firmware for the last 4 hours or so, everything feels faster on the 'net - and the small lags and hangs I thought were normal up to now with my ISP seem to be a thing of the past.


Thank you RMerlin and Asus!

A great router is approaching mythical performance in it's own lifetime.


Btw, does the TX Bursting setting affect anything other than 'G' networks?




Now? Curious to see what the -em special sauce is all about!


And what RMerlin version .39 will offer us with these 'old' routers.


Sorry for the long post - hope some find it useful.

Where do you find this "EM" firmware? Im looking at merlins web site but dont see it.

 

[diyguy]

The "em" build is in the experimental folder in the media share link. My understanding is that it uses a new SDK6 Wireless driver. In the past Merlin was patching in more reliable sdk5 drivers into the build because of the poor signal range of the SDK6 driver. But the "em" build in this version has improved the range of the SDK6 driver. So in a nutshell if you are considering upgrading you can try the normal build and if your range is not good try the "em" build.

 

[MarkyPancake]

I went back to the SDK6 build with 374.38_2 about a week ago and my throughput has gotten worse across all my devices, particularly the PS4. I tried 374.38_2-em tonight and it's no better. I'm going to go back to the SDK5 beta build and see what happens.