Asuswrt-Merlin 376.44 Beta 1 is out

[RMerlin]

Did not observe the "2.4 radio disabled" issue with Asus stock 1071.

Nailed it.

https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/commit/a53b967698c98a5a214af6247c5469d7ad053ace

The issue was introduced in GPL 1779. A typo was repeated multiple times where the same temp buffer was being used twice at the same time.

The variable won't be restored to its correct value until you either change the wireless mode on the webui, or manually fix it:

nvram set wl1_nband=1
nvram commit

 

[Hawk]

I have three Rt-Ac68u and I have manually set channel to 1,6,11 in prior firmware. However after upgrade I have noticed I can no longer choose which channel each one should operate on and if I change it and it reverts back to auto and choose channel whatever it likes.



Example recently it was 1,2,8 in 2.4 and 36, 149,161 in 5 GHZ.
I reverted back to Firmware:374.43_2 and I can't set channel normally. I am gone do factory reset and see if it helps.

Does anyone know what to do?

[update]

Factory reset doesn't help on 2.4 GHZ I can't assign channel manually. (Only Auto works and channel 1 if user choose channel 1. In other words you can't set 6 and 11)

 

[DaveMishSr]

I have three Rt-Ac68u and I have manually set channel to 1,6,11 in prior firmware. However after upgrade I have noticed I can no longer choose which channel each one should operate on and if I change it and it reverts back to auto and choose channel whatever it likes.



Example recently it was 1,2,8 in 2.4 and 36, 149,161 in 5 GHZ.
I reverted back to Firmware:374.43_2 and I can't set channel normally. I am gone do factory reset and see if it helps.

Does anyone know what to do?

[update]

Factory reset doesn't help on 2.4 GHZ I can't assign channel manually. (Only Auto works and channel 1 if user choose channel 1. In other words you can't set 6 and 11)

I am having a similar issue with the 2.4GHz band with my AC87R. I can only set the channel in legacy mode which limits speed to 54Mbps. Otherwise it uses channel 1 no matter what and speed is limited as I cannot get that band to 40MHz bandwidth.

 

[Hawk]

I am having a similar issue with the 2.4GHz band with my AC87R. I can only set the channel in legacy mode which limits speed to 54Mbps. Otherwise it uses channel 1 no matter what and speed is limited as I cannot get that band to 40MHz bandwidth.

Just want to add it does not allow 40 MHz channel even in basement where two adjacent are empty.
Though 5 Ghz is fine with me? @ DaveMishSr does 5 Ghz channel selection work for you.

 

[pirx73]

i was actually thinking about this the other day, everyones definition for a big house is different, here my definition of a big house would be something most people refer to as mansions.

Wall and ceiling material also plays a part, my house is about 186 sq meters, placed on 1204 sq meters of land. I have OK reception even outside of fence, on street.
But my house is very "radio transparent" - wooden carcass, plywood and wool isolation. There is no heavy floor materials between floors.
Also how many rooms house has. Every plasterboard wall only eats about 3dBm of signal while heavy concrete wall with iron armature inside it could eat up to 30dBm.
Router placement also plays a part - if you put it in the corner, near outside wall you won't get good signal at the opposite part of the house.
The best placement for wireless would be of course "chandelier-like" - on ceiling, in the middle of the room. Of course that can't always be done.

There is a software, commercial though - Ekahau Site Survey, it has non-commercial free version called Ekahau Heatmapper which will allow you to generate wifi coverage heatmaps. Only issue is that it requires an compatbile wifi adapter which can be placed in monitor mode.
Just load your house plan/land plan into it and walk arround, marking your path on the plan as you move. Will give you some picture how wireless signal is distributed in your environment.
Plus, if you have neighbours close to you what they do also plays a part. Some idiotic analogue video camera with wireless transmitter can completely block 2.4GHz range and make it unusable, i have seen this on customer sites.
Microwaves, Bluetooth devices, wireless garage door opening remotes - all of those work in 2.4GHz range.
Wireless environment arround us is not constant unless one lives in the forest one owns.

 

[lancer73]

Not a big deal, but, on the Wireless tab, on any of the sub-tabs, switching the pulldown between 2.4 and 5 GHZ, in Firefox, the browser window flashes entirely white before updating. A little bit startling.

I have observed the same behavior in .42 in my N66U. Firefox seems to be more affected than Chrome in my case.

 

[Ritzie]

Parental Controls

Hey Merlin I think I got it working. One thing, I noticed if I don't specify a pc and select no filtering it will block that pc. Is that how its suppose to work?

 

[clvk07]

Tested here with an RT-N66U and ping are correctly dropped.

1.Are you scanning from WAN side? Are you using any VPN client (which would effectively bypass the firewall)?

Pings sent to the WAN interface from the LAN side will be replied because the firewall is fronting the Internet interface, and your pings never even leave your LAN.

2.Try with a smaller subset of files for minidlna to scan, in case one of them is bugged and causes minidlna to crash.

About how many files are you using with minidlna?

Spot on Merlin. You were right on bot occasions. I was pinging from my Lan. On the other issue when I tried with less files it worked fine. Thanks Great release.

 

[doubleroll]

With this beta I get similar results as with Asus 1123 on my AC66R. The client list works on the beta but no beamforming and I can not get AC 80MHz connections on 5GHz...

 

[snb]

Merlin, I asked about some streaming issues from the usb hdd to a WDTV using SMB/NFS, and you mentioned that the N16 is a bit flakey with devices and you couldnt figure out why.

This release improves stability, but you have not inlcuded it with the N16, is there any reason for this specifically, 'cause I'd really like to use it if it improves stability using the usb hdd from my media devices?


thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

Merlin, I asked about some streaming issues from the usb hdd to a WDTV using SMB/NFS, and you mentioned that the N16 is a bit flakey with devices and you couldnt figure out why.

This release improves stability, but you have not inlcuded it with the N16, is there any reason for this specifically, 'cause I'd really like to use it if it improves stability using the usb hdd from my media devices?

If you are referring to the filesystem driver, it's just because I wasn't sure yet what I wanted to do with the RT-N16. I'm debating whether I want to keep fully supporting it, or move it to a simple "maintenance mode" stage where I do as little changes as possible to it. Having to support 6 different routers on my own with the addition of the RT-AC87U is starting to become a chore. To be thorough, I would have to flash all 6 routers to test things out.

I still haven't taken any final decision.

 

[snb]

ohh, ok

Well I hope you could do this as last one, considering it improves many things, including the file system, which I dont think has been improved in a long time.
At least then anyone with a N16 and a media device connected to the n16 usb hdd, can have some stability improvements as the last update....

Other than that, this means I might have to start looking at upgrade in the future to get latest fw's, shame, it was $200 plus when I got it, and I dont need anything in newer models just yet....

Thanks again

 

[RMerlin]

ohh, ok

Well I hope you could do this as last one, considering it improves many things, including the file system, which I dont think has been improved in a long time.
At least then anyone with a N16 and a media device connected to the n16 usb hdd, can have some stability improvements as the last update....

Other than that, this means I might have to start looking at upgrade in the future to get latest fw's, shame, it was $200 plus when I got it, and I dont need anything in newer models just yet....

Thanks again

Just to clarify: if I decide to move the device into maintenance-only, that does not mean I will stop compiling and releasing new firmwares for it. Simply that new features which aren't from Asus won't be enabled on it, as I won't be spending time testing them on that specific model. And possibly that I won't release a new firmware every time I update the other router models (this is another area I am currently re-evaluating). Right now, I don't know if Asus intends to switch the RT-N16 to the new filesystem drivers. I do know they intend to do it for the other models I am currently supporting however.

 

[PabloAbonia]

I am running into an odd problem of the IPV6 "Other Stateful Configuration flag" flipping between "true" or "false" every few seconds to every few minutes, and being logged on my Windows 7 machine as below. Both wifi channels are off. When looking at the processes, there are 2 copies of rndnsd AND radvd running at the same time, which I have not noted before. Save for that IPV6 appears to be working, but a lot of messages are randomly being generated in the DHCPv6 logs of at least two Windows 7 machines.

Thanks,

Pablo

"Router Advertisement settings have been changed on the network adapter 12. The current M - Managed Address Configuration flag is false and the O - Other Stateful Configuration flag is true. User Action: If you are seeing this event frequently, then it could be due to frequent change in M and O flag settings on the router in the network. Please contact your network administrator to have it resolved."

 

[e94mli]

This build has provided a much needed stability improvement to my AC66. Has been running a few days straight now with no issues vs rebooting every few hours with stock and old merlin builds. Can't see anything among the changes that would explain it and I guess "it is stable" isn't especially useful feedback but I wanted to share it anyway since I really like seeing the router stable for a change.

 

[GoNz0]

I have no idea how I managed this but my ac68u now has channels in 5ghz up to 112 thats survived a reboot.

SSID: "----------"
RSSI: 0 dBm	SNR: 0 dB	noise: -92 dBm	Channel: 112/80
BSSID: ----------------	Capability: ESS 
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12(b) 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
VHT Capable:
	Chanspec: 5GHz channel 106 80MHz (0xe36a)
	Primary channel: 112
	HT Capabilities: 
	Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]
	VHT Capabilities: 
	Supported VHT (tx) Rates:
		NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
		NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
		NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9
	Supported VHT (rx) Rates:
		NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
		NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
		NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9

Mode	: AP Only

Stations  (flags: P=Powersave Mode, S=Short GI, T=STBC, A=Associated, U=Authenticated)
----------------------------------------
MAC               IP Address        RSSI    Rx/Tx Rate   Connected Flags

Not the best way to do it, I installed DD-WRT, set it to Japan last iirc and then flashed merlins back on with the reset command on the firmware page.

 

[diyguy]

I'm currently running on 3.0.0.4.374.39_0-em do I need to step through an intermediate version before going to this version ?

Thanks

 

[LarsErikOsterud]

So far noticed when you rename a client from the device list it won't survive a reboot of the router it defaults back to before it was named. Also same bug as Asus firmware you can't set the 5 ghz band to N/AC you must use auto or you will stay at channel 36 and be stuck at 20 MHz. Speed and range seem the same as 43_2. That's it for the moment.

EDIT: Also noticed assigning a icon in device list also does not survive reboot and reverts back to default. Have to name the clients like the old firmware through the DHCP server tab this functions properly.

There is a way to preserve the names. Under DHCP you can enter a list of MAC-adresses that should have a fixed/static IP-address. You can also enter a hostname. If you do this and save then the client list will use that name. The icon is lost however, but still...

 

[RMerlin]

I'm currently running on 3.0.0.4.374.39_0-em do I need to step through an intermediate version before going to this version ?

Thanks

No, directly flash to the newer build.

 

[LarsErikOsterud]

Anyone noticed a strange bug in the client-list system?

Wireless devices are shown with the signal-strength.
Wired devices with a RJ-plug icon.

But if a wireless device is not online (like my phone that connects only to check mail) then the wireless device is shown as an RJ-plus and is listed as connected by cable.

Any change of fixing this in the Merlin build?