Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.38 is out

[Jettubby]

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).................................

Thanks for the detailed report. Much appreciated.
Do you think there is any relevance to creating new SSIDs? I really do not wish to do this......but for performance........? Merlin, any significance to this?

Again thank you sir!

 

[KGB7]

Personally, I think you are asking too much out of home equipment - three floors is a lot of obstacles to get through. Average routers tend to become problematic after only two floors, so whatever signal that's left on the fourth floor will always be weak and problematic.

You might need more specialized equipment to get through three floors, or look at Powerline solutions IMHO.

Im not asking for too much, im already getting more then i used to with my old and outdated equipment. But if i am asking for too much, then i simply want consistency, a forward moving progress from Broadcom and Asus firmware. Instead im like a lab rat, jumping through hoops, while joggling chainsaws with every new firmware Asus spits out.

Ive used Asus motherboards for many years and Asus does fix issues with each new firmware, but from what i have seen over the years, there was very little to no backwards setbacks with each new firmware, except for few Betas. Even when they announced newer hardware revised Mobo, they made a clear announcement on their site that echoed clearly to all the forums. And the faulty Mobos were replaced for free to all their customers.

Just from i have seen on this forum alone, i cant find the right words at this late hour to describe my frustration and disappointment in Asus. Im not blaming you Merlin, i know you have nothing to do with my issue or other peoples issues. Imagine for a second, the chaos if you were never in the picture to help Asus or provide the good folks with your own firmware. I would be reading an article in my local paper right next to comics about Asus router flop. Asus would probably got crucified on every other Tech website.


So ill leave it at that and let the thread resume.

 

[tyspeed42]

VPN still broken in this build firmare

Testing firmware all the way back to the first firmware release same error config file not found. When you get a chance to look at this would be greatful. Still works perfect on old ac66u router, not working on this ac68u.

Thanks.

Jan 12 21:02:35 rc_service: httpd 487:notify_rc restart_pptpd
Jan 12 21:02:35 pptpd[735]: MGR: Config file not found!
Jan 12 21:02:35 pptpd[735]: MGR: Maximum of 100 connections reduced to 10, not enough IP addresses given
Jan 12 21:02:35 pptpd[735]: accel-pptpd-0.8.5 compiled for pppd-2.4.5, linux-2.6.36.4
Jan 12 21:02:35 pptpd[736]: MGR: Manager process started
Jan 12 21:02:35 pptpd[736]: MGR: Maximum of 10 connections available
Jan 12 21:02:35 start_nat_rules: apply the nat_rules(/tmp/nat_rules_eth0_eth0)!
Jan 12 21:02:36 bcrelay[737]: Running as child
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq[603]: exiting on receipt of SIGTERM
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq[741]: started, version 2.67 cachesize 1500
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq[741]: compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt no-RTC no-DBus no-i18n no-IDN DHCP DHCPv6 no-Lua TFTP no-conntrack no-ipset no-auth
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq[741]: asynchronous logging enabled, queue limit is 5 messages
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq-dhcp[741]: DHCP, IP range 192.168.1.2 -- 192.168.1.254, lease time 1d
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq-dhcp[741]: DHCP, sockets bound exclusively to interface br0
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq[741]: read /etc/hosts - 5 addresses
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq[741]: using nameserver
Jan 12 21:02:36 dnsmasq[741]: using nameserver
Jan 12 21:02:36 pptpd[742]: MGR: Config file not found!
Jan 12 21:02:36 pptpd[742]: MGR: Maximum of 100 connections reduced to 10, not enough IP addresses given
Jan 12 21:02:36 pptpd[742]: accel-pptpd-0.8.5 compiled for pppd-2.4.5, linux-2.6.36.4
Jan 12 21:02:36 pptpd[743]: MGR: Manager process started
Jan 12 21:02:36 pptpd[743]: MGR: Maximum of 10 connections available
Jan 12 21:02:36 bcrelay[744]: Running as child

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the detailed report. Much appreciated.
Do you think there is any relevance to creating new SSIDs? I really do not wish to do this......but for performance........? Merlin, any significance to this?

Again thank you sir!

You're welcome - just a little something I can give back to RMerlin for his great work.


Yes, there is relevance to creating new SSID's. Seems like the device that associates with the router saves some very specific (driver?) settings that may or may not work with the new firmware.

Easier to just use a new SSID than to wait and see what issues will arise, don't you agree?


Hopefully RMerlin can give a more informed response to your question (and I'll learn something once again too).

 

[L&LD]

hey L&LD, nice post; sorry for going a little OT, but i gotta say, it's pretty awesome knowing i have an AP that'll do 100mW without making everything worse. i'm so used to increased power killing throughput that i feel bad now for ever having advised against it. i guess that's the difference between the old and the new, eh?

my old linksys e2000 has a sweet spot of ~65mW, bleh. this firmware at just 80mW kills that thing in performance. i'm anxious now to get the ac56 so i can use the n66 as my dedicated 100mW AP lol

Hey, thanks!

If the area you're covering with the AP will be on a single floor - you should combine the increased Tx power output with those Super Power Supply 9dbi antenna talked about in another thread. That should be impressive to see and use!

 

[kayakj]

Since updating to 3.0.0.4.374.38 on the RT-N66U my IPV6 has not been able to connect. It had worked on all of the previous Merlin builds and also on 3.0.0.4.374.979 which I had been on for a few months.

Is there something that I have to do besides turning it on? I am on comcast and have native IPV6 ( it works when i disconnect the router and plug a computer in, and it also works on 3.0.0.4.374.979)

 

[L&LD]

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

Just a little update to the post I made in this thread.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=98452&postcount=151


Glad that some of you have found my post useful.


Connecting a couple of different laptops to this 'new' network continues to show the responsiveness of the new firmware.

First, I connected a 'G' enabled Acer (from 2006, I think) from the same 35 foot location (with two walls in between) and got an excellent connection speed of 54G. In a Ookla speed test, it achieved 16/11 Mbps - quite good I suppose (it reached the ISP limits at upload), but less than 1/3 of the speed possible for downloads.

I didn't bother to install inssider on this laptop, so sorry, no signal strength results.


Next, I connected a laptop with an Intel AC7260 wireless card at the same location (with the old laptop turned off!) and the Ookla speed tests were essentially identical to wired (from ~35 feet away!): 52.9/11.5 Mbps. In addition to those positive results, inssider shows -37 (2.4GHz) and -42 (5GHz) signal strength.

Edit: Just wanted to add the inssider score for the AC7260 client was 82% - the improvements are real and measurable.

Compare those to the 'N' client I did the tests with (link above) and you may understand why, when I can, I buy the latest networking hardware for my laptops. The gains may be small, but not insignificant to me.

Of course, this is all enabled by the work that Asus and RMerlin are doing for us. Not only for current hardware - but for older models like the RT-N66U too.

Given a few more days 'test driving' this new firmware - I think I will be able to safely recommend it to most of my customers.

For the others; the RT-AC68U will be what gets recommended; as soon as I have the time to buy and test one myself against the RT-N66U 'standard' we have now.

 

[RMerlin]

You're welcome - just a little something I can give back to RMerlin for his great work.


Yes, there is relevance to creating new SSID's. Seems like the device that associates with the router saves some very specific (driver?) settings that may or may not work with the new firmware.

Easier to just use a new SSID than to wait and see what issues will arise, don't you agree?


Hopefully RMerlin can give a more informed response to your question (and I'll learn something once again too).

Both myself and my contact at Asus did notice that last year as we were exchanging Emails about the compatibility issues with the 5.110 driver and Intel Centrino cards. When Asus finally fixed it, we both discovered that just updating the firmware wasn't enough - you would still be unable to connect with a Centrino card until you deleted the wireless profile in Windows, and re-created it as if it was a new connection.

Changing SSID would probably have a similar effect, but personally I would advise to simply delete the client profile in Windows, and reconnect as if it was a new router. That way you won't need to reconfigure every single wireless client. I don't know if the current situation it will make a difference, but since it did back then with the 5.110 issues, it's probably a good idea to do it nonetheless just to be safe.

 

[tonyquan]

Since updating to 3.0.0.4.374.38 on the RT-N66U my IPV6 has not been able to connect. It had worked on all of the previous Merlin builds and also on 3.0.0.4.374.979 which I had been on for a few months.

Is there something that I have to do besides turning it on? I am on comcast and have native IPV6 ( it works when i disconnect the router and plug a computer in, and it also works on 3.0.0.4.374.979)

I had difficulty with this also. I suspect there may be a bug with the IPv6 DNS settings in the .38 build. In 3.0.0.4.374.37, I had set "Connect to DNS Server automatically" in the IPv6 settings to "Off" so I could use a different set of IPv6 DNS servers other than those automatically supplied by Comcast. If I changed this back to "On" (the default) and rebooted the router, IPv6 worked again.

If I get a few minutes I'll try reproducing this again.

 

[RMerlin]

Since updating to 3.0.0.4.374.38 on the RT-N66U my IPV6 has not been able to connect. It had worked on all of the previous Merlin builds and also on 3.0.0.4.374.979 which I had been on for a few months.

Is there something that I have to do besides turning it on? I am on comcast and have native IPV6 ( it works when i disconnect the router and plug a computer in, and it also works on 3.0.0.4.374.979)

Asus broke the DHCPv6 client in the current code. I already fixed it in the repo, but I'll be holding on that fix a few more days to see if there are other minor issues to fix before issuing a minor update.

In the mean time you will have to revert to 374.36 beta 1 I'm afraid.

EDIT: Details on the issue can be found here.

 

[ozgurcnbyz]

Router = RT-AC66U Fiber internet 50 Mbps down 5 Mbps up
i am not quite sure if the problems i have at the moment is related to this firmware but all i know is that nothing has changed on my side
except this new firware.
Aside from regular internet usage i heavily stream media localy from my macbook pro to apple tv and also stream audio to an airplay
enabled speaker system. this almost always worked perfectly.no glitch whatsoever. after flashing this new firmware however i am having some connetion problems
and glitch when streaming audio. apple tv got disconnocted from the wifi twice in 2 hours which has never happened before.
tried rebooting etc but no dice. on the otherhand i cant just produce this error. its random and doesnt happen all the time.

 

[Passenger]

I'm no network expert but I believe any feedback is good feedback so here are my 2 cents from a RT-N66U:



From left:
Block #1 is RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.36_beta1-sdk5
Block #2 is RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.38_1 as is with no config changes
Block #3 is RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.38_1-em as is with no config changes
Block #4 is RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.38_1-em reset to factory defaults
Block #5 is RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.38_1 again with no changes.
Block #6 is RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.38_1 reset to factory defaults + my personal config

The slight signal increase from 374.38-em version is noticeable even against old 374.36_beta1-sdk, however you can also see the drop on regular 374.38_1 afterwards.

The router is connected to a cable modem, they lost connection on the last update and I had to reset it (the big white gap). This seems to be a recurring issue when changing configs since 374.35_4. Also the client list seems to be working sometimes and not others again.

I hope my humble feedback helps on the awesome job RMerlin is doing. Hats off!

 

[tonyquan]

Asus broke the DHCPv6 client in the current code. I already fixed it in the repo, but I'll be holding on that fix a few more days to see if there are other minor issues to fix before issuing a minor update.

In the mean time you will have to revert to 374.36 beta 1 I'm afraid.

EDIT: Details on the issue can be found here.

Thanks Merlin. I had just noticed the broken dhcp file myself the 374.38_1 code still produces a working IPv6 connection for me as long as I use Comcast DNS, so I don't need to downgrade necessarily. Thanks for the quick fix!

 

[mtrains]

Looks like in general the RT-N66U owners like the performance of 374.38_1. But for me on the RT-AC68R the performance seems to have taken a small, but noticeable, step backwards from the 374.37_2 build I was running on before. I think 374.37_2 was based on the .501 wireless drivers. Don't know which newer version of the driver is used in 374.38_1 for the AC68R. But I do share the frustration with Asus that someone expressed earlier. Asus does not seem to have any continuity or progression with wireless performance with each newer iteration of the drivers they release. You would expect the performance to get better or at least stay the same with a newer driver. But apparently not with Asus drivers

 

[bobyang]

I've got the same issue on AC-56u. Some updates will leave the router unresponsive. Of the top of my head: DNS Server update, wireless settings on professional tab, port forwarding tab

I have AC-56U with the same issue with web reboot. I use SSH reboot and everything reboot correctly.

 

[bobyang]

2. Another possible solution for oyu is to use the outside of your home for wireless transfer. .

very good idea. it worked out for me before too! across the street without any problems.

I a using a different solution now. I went ebay to get 1500mW wifi AP and Wifi USB receiver and it helps a lot too to me. However, if you can out outdoor which could be better.

 

[bartsluimer]

Hi Merlin,

Thank you for the good work.
Got some wireless issues with the RT-AC66U.
Did the update from 37-oldusb
5GHZ was not visible anymore and 2.4 GHZ was not stable.
Did a reset with the 30/30/30

Afterwards 5GHZ was visible again. However still both bands not stable.
Are more people experiencing the same issues.

Now back on 35-4 which is stable again for me.

My normal settings:
2.4 GHZ
20 mhz
channel 6
wireless mode auto

5GHZ
40 mhz
channel auto
wireless mode N+AC
regulation d+h to have it working on my mac

Back on 35-4 both bands were not stable.
Did a factory reset, update to .38_1 and again a factory reset.
When manually configuring the router again found out that only with channel 36 on the 5GHZ I was able to have it working.
However everything is now up and running.

 

[brummygit]

I've just hit a strange problem with my RT-N66U.

I was working fine on 374.38_1 and upgraded to 374.38_1em. When this was complete I couldn't connect to 5G so after some tinkering I went back to the non-em build but I still have nothing. I recovered my config from before the em upgrade and still have no 5G. I've tried using channel 36 with no luck.

My iPhone 5S and HP Laptop both so no 5G network, and inssider tells me that there is no 5G network seen.

Any ideas?

 

[brummygit]

I've just hit a strange problem with my RT-N66U.

I was working fine on 374.38_1 and upgraded to 374.38_1em. When this was complete I couldn't connect to 5G so after some tinkering I went back to the non-em build but I still have nothing. I recovered my config from before the em upgrade and still have no 5G. I've tried using channel 36 with no luck.

My iPhone 5S and HP Laptop both so no 5G network, and inssider tells me that there is no 5G network seen.

Any ideas?

OK really strange issue - a factory reset brought back 5G, and then restoring my settings still had 5G running. I upgraded to 38_1em and still had 5G active, so did another factory reset and restored my settings again - all still OK.

It seems that something got screwed up in the 5G wireless settings which is not restored by settings.cfg but is cleared by a factory reset.

All working now

 

[chunlianghere]

possible to have option to enable compression in vpn pptp?