Asuswrt-Merlin 374.41 is out

[ANJ9686]

I'm confused now my iPhone, iPads keeps connecting to the main router and not the extender apple airport express I'm like few meters from the express, then I did the basic check making sure extender is working by moving it far away from the router and it works but why is it keep connecting to the main router when the express is closer (I'm using the setup via powerline and Ethernet)


ASUS RT-AC66U F/W: 374.41

 

[typhoonmaster]

DDNS is not updating after upgrade to .41

Hi Merlin,

After upgrading from .40 to .41 my asus ddns service is no longer update my ip when wan ip changed. It used to perform flawlessly. My router is AC66U.

I made factory reset and manual config however problem is still there.

Is it only me or is it an asus ddns server faliure, anybody also having this problem?

 

[RMerlin]

Its not an issue with 3rd party firmware

You're not the one getting emails, PMs, Tweets and forum posts all the time asking those kind of questions...

 

[ColinTaylor]

A couple of simple questions.
Before up grading I used to see the individual usb drives, but now I only see the individual folders, in win explorer. I would like to map each drive.

I think this is caused by "USB Application > Network Place(Samba) Share / Cloud Disk > Allow guest login" changing from On to Off.

 

[DrTeeth]

A couple of simple questions.
Before up grading I used to see the individual usb drives, but now I only see the individual folders, in win explorer. I would like to map each drive. I did not do a factory reset. should I have? Everything else is working ok.
Also, should one unmount the drives before doing a reset?

thanks
hal

In the Samba tab, enable guest login.
I cannot answer the second question with any authority, but I do not unmount.

 

[RMerlin]

I cannot seem to find that version on your MediaFire site.

Might have been a temporary beta build or a known broken build that got removed. I periodically flush older versions, starting with beta builds.

 

[DrTeeth]

I think this is caused by "USB Application > Network Place(Samba) Share / Cloud Disk > Allow guest login" changing from On to Off.

It is. It drove me nuts getting to the bottom of that one. Merlin got me on the right track and helped me nail down the issue.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for those results. Pretty poor show on the part of those who wrote the driver. I wonder if it will ever get reported and fixed.

It's a specially compiled build specifically meant to address the range issue, and specifically meant for Asuswrt-Merlin.

I swear, people are never content...

 

[DrTeeth]

Might have been a temporary beta build or a known broken build that got removed. I periodically flush older versions, starting with beta builds.

No worries. It seems that changing my locale to GB (that is where I am) has caused all the problems. I will probably have to stick with SDK5 drivers if they work okay with my correct locale.

Is there any point in reporting this to Asus so they can pass it on to Broadcom? I have yet to test the stock firmware to see if that is similarly affected.

I wonder what other locales are similarly affected. It cannot just be GB.

 

[DrTeeth]

It's a specially compiled build specifically meant to address the range issue, and specifically meant for Asuswrt-Merlin.

I swear, people are never content...

Awww come on, that is not really fair . You know I appreciate your work and help. What if the USA and/or Canadian locales were similarly affected ?

I'll just have to make do with less channels and lower power on the EU locale then, but not if SDK5 drivers work okay.

 

[Buck115]

Merlin, I really like your improvements to the Asuswrt firmware; you’ve added some very nice features! I use my ASUS RT-AC68U as a basic router with 4 wired and 8 wireless client devices. I’ve been using stock versions of Asuswrt firmware since I purchased it, but finally decided to try your firmware starting with 374.41 beta2 and now the 374.41 released version.

Client used for testing: Dell XPS-9100 with an ASUS PCE-AC68 Adapter (5GHz band)
Beamforming: Turned on for both the Router and Adapter
Other than Wireless setup, most router default settings are retained.

I noticed with 374.41 beta2 that the 5GHz band signal strength at my test computer was 10dBm weaker measured with inSSIDer and the PCE-AC68 Utility. Also, instead of 5 full bars in the Windows Wireless Network Connection Status window there were only 4. And, the detected Link Rate with both the Windows and PCE-AC68 utilities was lower than those observed with the 374_5047 firmware; typically 702Mbps instead of 877.5Mbps. I performed a soft reboot as well as a power off/on reboot and the signal and Link Rate degradation didn’t change. I reflashed 374_5047 and both signal strength and Link Rates improved to the previous levels and remained so.

With your release of 374.41 I decided to test the released version and flashed the new firmware yesterday. The result was that after completing my setup; signal strength and Link Rates were initially the same as with 374_5047. However, after about 8 hours I noticed that both the windows and PCE-AC68 utilities reported signal strength to be 10dBm lower, but Link Rates were still at 877.5Mbps. I decided not to make any changes to the router and see if things returned to normal on their own, but this morning I observed the same degraded signal levels. So, I then performed a soft reboot of the router through the GUI and signal strength improved to its previous level.

5GHz band Signal Strength monitored by the ASUS PCE-AC68 Utility:
When good: -49 to -50dBm
When bad: -59 to -60dBm

The XPS-9100 is located 38 feet from the RT-AC68U’s location and presents the greatest challenge for link rates, received signal strength, and signal quality. This device is separated from the router’s location by a thick interior wall and a cabinet at both the router and client ends. The RT-AC68U is mounted 10 feet above the floor.

My standard procedure for flashing any new firmware, perhaps overkill, is to reset the router to factory defaults, flash the new firmware, perform another reset to factory defaults, setup my configuration, and then perform a router reboot.

I will continue to monitor the signal strength and Link Rates; but if they degrade again, is there anything you’d like me to try.

Update 1: It happened again a few minutes ago after 10 hours and 50+ minutes since my reboot this morning that cleared the problem. 5GHz signal strength degraded by 12dBm from -49dBm to -61dBm monitored by the PCE-AC68 utility. This entry appeared in the System Log around the same time as the degradation of 5GHz signal strength. I don't know if the two things are related or not.

Apr 21 21:52:18 rc_service: httpd 525:notify_rc restart_wlcscan

Update 2: Apparently that line in the System Log is written anytime a Site Survey is performed by entering the Site Survey screen from the Wireless Settings section. To see if this had anything to do with the issue I’m seeing, I performed a reboot via the GUI and signal strength returned to normal. I then went into the Site Survey screen, which performed a scan and within 10-20 seconds the signal strength bars in the notification area dropped from 5 to 4 and the PCE-AC68 utility showed -61dBm signal strength, down from -49dBm. So, for me, this issue is repeatable; I’ve performed this sequence three times with the same results every time. Hope this helps!

 

[ozgurcnbyz]

i am very happy with the performance and stability of my router (rt-ac68u). the firmware is awesome. thanks alot Merlin.

 

[DrTeeth]

I am testing the latest stock Asus Firmware. I have changed my locale to GB and the 5GHz band works **perfectly** giving me 19 legal channels compared to the pathetic 4 that the default EU setting gives. 2.4GHz has the same minor 40Mhz bandwidth bug locking the band to channel.

Now to try the SDK5 drivers

 

[DrTeeth]

SDK5 drivers work perfectly with the GB locale.

That's enough testing for tonight.

 

[wh7qq]

Nice Job, but...

I loaded 374.41 on my rt-n66u and it ran just fine and was, as expected, beautiful. Nice work Merlin!

On further use, I discovered the absence of the command line page and also the scheduler page that I had come to depend on in Tomato. Unfortunately, the two ommissions are killer issues for me, in spite of Merlin's protestations of Asus' concern for security. I need to be able to trigger a WOL packet to my sleeping PC late at night for slow or long downloads during my satellite ISP's free time.

That position by Asus is a bit reminiscent of the views of the folks in Redmond, protecting us from ever getting close to the hardware but making our lives more difficult in the process.

Merlin, I understand your position vis a vis Asus and appreciate all your great work on this project but I was faced with deciding which was more work: leaning how to use crontab on the router or downloading and installing Tomato-Shibby 117. I chose the Tomato route, gaining better usage monitoring and other features in the bargain.

For those who wish to choose Tomato or other firmware, the Asus/Merlin firmware does not like the .trx files used by some of the open source projects so it cannot be directly upgraded from the firmware. The easy approach is to go into the rescue mode by powering up the router with the reset button depressed until slow flashing of the power LED is seen. Detach from all connections except the PC you are working from and set a static IP of 192.168.1.10 (or some other last number other than .1). Access the "mini-page" from 192.168.1.1 in your browser. I restored my nvram to factory defaults as a precaution first, then loaded the Shibby file appropriate for my browser. I had previously renamed it to "tomato-K26USB-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-117-AIO-64K.bin" (or the package name for your router model) and saw no complaints from the mini-page about the image file. When the load completed and the router rebooted, as an additional precaution, I went to the kitchen and brewed some hot chocolate...took about 20 min...and returned and rebooted the satellite modem, router and PC, returning the PC to a dhcp obtained IP address. All was happy and I set to restoring my settings in Tomato.

All this was really easier than all the steps imply. Sorry to have to jump ship.

Paul

 

[ANJ9686]

I don't what it is my speed have improve by 3mb I don't know how if I revert back to 374.39 build I get slower speed but stable signal


ASUS RT-AC66U F/W: 374.41

 

[steven168]

i so sad that the Run CMD page has been removed.

i will stick to Firmware:374.40 (Merlin build) for now.

 

[InkyRag]

i so sad that the Run CMD page has been removed.

i will stick to Firmware:374.40 (Merlin build) for now.

Just use Putty.

 

[RMerlin]

I loaded 374.41 on my rt-n66u and it ran just fine and was, as expected, beautiful. Nice work Merlin!

On further use, I discovered the absence of the command line page and also the scheduler page that I had come to depend on in Tomato. Unfortunately, the two ommissions are killer issues for me, in spite of Merlin's protestations of Asus' concern for security. I need to be able to trigger a WOL packet to my sleeping PC late at night for slow or long downloads during my satellite ISP's free time.

That position by Asus is a bit reminiscent of the views of the folks in Redmond, protecting us from ever getting close to the hardware but making our lives more difficult in the process.

It's not just a matter of position. Quite simply, if you have a tab open logged into your router, then any malicious website you visit at the same time would have been able to run any type of command on your router. It's flat out a XSS vulnerability caused amongst other things by the Run Cmd page. That page HAD to go.

The scheduler is still on the Professional page, nothing changed there.

There's a dedicated WOL page on the webui that can do what you want, no need for the Run Cmd page for this.

 

[RMerlin]

Awww come on, that is not really fair . You know I appreciate your work and help. What if the USA and/or Canadian locales were similarly affected ?

My stance on locale change has always been the same: I just don't support it. If channels aren't allowed in certain country, it's for a reason, not just to annoy their residents.


The SDK5 build is filled with security issues, and compatibility issues with XBox. That driver is also so old that it's no longer compatible with more recent FW code.
The old SDK6 build have a seriously reduced range.
The special SDK6 build has issue only for people who use a non-supported region.

The third option is simply the lesser evil of all three.