Asuswrt-Merlin 378.56 is available

[Ronv42]

Hey Merlin, I did the update to 378.56 release on my AC87R from 387.55 and I noticed that there is a new "global" icon in the network map that shows if a host has access to the internet or not. It did show that my printers and cameras have no access to the internet as expected because I put them into parental controls / time scheduling not to have access. Then I noticed for the information you can edit now from the node in network map that you can block access there, change the status of time schedule, and set a static name in DHCP.

So I tried a little change and removed one device from scheduled parental controls and went back to it in network map and changed the device there to block internet access. After saving the change the named DHCP list wiped the name for that device from the list but it was still blocked from the internet as expect It did keep the mac and IP addressed binded though. But the network map for the device still shows my assigned name.

I know you have had issues with this network map editing before. Is this a bug? I think I should just stay with my original way of restricting a device intenet access via parental controls verses the network maps. What is your thoughts? I am attaching a screen shot of what I changed in the network map for the device.

 

[RMerlin]

No, I changed that to port 443, and just verified that AiCloud is still on a different high port number. And disabled.

Any other ideas?


UPDATE - Just confirmed it worked in 55. The code on that page at line 397 appears to be incorrect - unless this is an expected change.

if (HTTPS_support && (document.form.http_enable[0].selected != true) && !validator.range(document.form.https_lanport, 1024, 65535) && !tmo_support)
return false;

Asus chose to limit ports to unprivileged ones for some reason. I could look into removing that restriction if it doesn't create any other problem.

The reason it "worked" with 378.55 was because of a bug in previous versions that wasn't properly checking the port.

 

[RMerlin]

Yes you're right. Here are the errors:
View attachment 4712

Click on client_function.js and repost the content of that line.

 

[RMerlin]

Hey Merlin, I did the update to 378.56 release on my AC87R from 387.55 and I noticed that there is a new "global" icon in the network map that shows if a host has access to the internet or not. It did show that my printers and cameras have no access to the internet as expected because I put them into parental controls / time scheduling not to have access. Then I noticed for the information you can edit now from the node in network map that you can block access there, change the status of time schedule, and set a static name in DHCP.

So I tried a little change and removed one device from scheduled parental controls and went back to it in network map and changed the device there to block internet access. After saving the change the named DHCP list wiped the name for that device from the list but it was still blocked from the internet as expect It did keep the mac and IP addressed binded though. But the network map for the device still shows my assigned name.

I know you have had issues with this network map editing before. Is this a bug? I think I should just stay with my original way of restricting a device intenet access via parental controls verses the network maps. What is your thoughts? I am attaching a screen shot of what I changed in the network map for the device.

Asus is making changes to that code with every new firmware release, so I'm waiting for it to stabilize before I spend any time looking at it.

 

[fr33z0n3r]

Asus chose to limit ports to unprivileged ones for some reason. I could look into removing that restriction if it doesn't create any other problem.

The reason it "worked" with 378.55 was because of a bug in previous versions that wasn't properly checking the port.

Harumph to Asus. I'm not a fan of these types of decisions. It is quite annoying to have to enter a port. And if they are moving that to an high port due to root requirements, I can somewhat understand, but really? Is something else using port 443 by default? If so, that logic is bogus IMHO.

I'm not asking for miracles, nor demanding that you make anything a default, but I wouldn't mind the option if it is easy to undo. Thanks for the quick response!

 

[RMerlin]

It's an openssh generated RSA key, but I think it went wrong because I pasted the private key directly. I don't want to paste my real key here, but here's a newly generated similar one:

Fixed a buffer overrun with keys > 2047 characters.

 

[user1999]

Click on client_function.js and repost the content of that line.

Found the problem. I had a device name with "'" character. I renamed it and its working fine now.

 

[GoNz0]

Asus actually added a a territory code selector a few months ago.

Bootloader of the newest Broadcom devices is encrypted, so forget about hex editing in the future.

user selectable? I don't see it.

And I take it if I stick with my current bootloader they can't cripple my router?

 

[Icemanz]

Pinging by hostname works fine for me. I can ping any device that has a hostname defined on the DHCP static page, using that hostname. I even access all my development routers by their hostname defined on that page, i.e. http://rtac68:8080/ from within my LAN.

I had a similar problem and was scratching my head for a while. Here's what I've learned (all experience is based on .55).

Straight up: If you're using the merlin fw dns filtering for your client (or all clients) it appears (from my limited experience) by design ALL requests get forced to go to your chosen server - this server will not know your internal server names so they'll never be able to resolve "yourcomputer". Secondly, same rule applies if you went and added ANY OTHER DNS server (your ISP's, googles etc) to your clients either manually or to be handed out via DHCP. ONLY the router will resolve yourcomputer and ONLY if it handed that name out via DHCP (or your statically defined it and then manually assigned it on the client).

Beyond that, if you're like me and just configured everything up stock there's a couple of things:

Your "single label" computer name is a nonstandard form of address. To cope with this different OS's will use different methods to turn this back into an IP (netbios, dns, other) - resulting in weird shirt. eg nslookup being able to resolve your pc name but ping will not. Or more confusingly, a windows machine will resolve the name but OSX will not. I thought this was the router's fault, it's not.

This oddity results in you being able to do things like "browse to" windows servers but be unable to "ping" them.

The quick fix I have found is to get rid of the "single label" names such as "mycomputer" and define a bogus domain (eg my.lan) and hand this out via DHCP as the default domain search suffix (or manually configure if it you use static IP's).

Doing this forces all resolutions to go via DNS because when you try to go to "mycomputer" and the othre methods fail to resolve it, it will eventually get to DNS at which point it goes "mycomputer" is bogus, I will try mycomputer.my.lan and forward it to my dns server (the router) which will resolve it.

Edit: I said parental controls, I meant dns filtering.

 

[Trebuin]

Ok, I've put my apple router into Auto 5G because the manual turns the AC system off. Now that it is on, the ASUS router does not see it, though all my other devices do. The channel keeps rolling to 132. Any ideas how to get the ASUS to see it using this firmware?

 

[RMerlin]

I also have to add that, again, chaning the icon to a custom one, makes the LAN DHCP device name to disappear...

Fixed. Asus had made a lot of changes to the networkmap in 9177, so the previous code preserving the hostname was lost in the merge.

 

[bookedirl]

Has anyone had issues with an iPhone 6S constantly dropping connection? I have an iPhone 6 that has no issues but my wifes iPhone 6S is. Not sure what's causing it. I tried both bands and they have the same result. I normally wouldn't care so much but my wife is nagging me

Running 378.56 on 87u

 

[Magnus33]

Asus AC68U update went perfectly fine but did run into one odd problem.

Suddenly i can't map network drives?

 

[hd0120]

I'm currently on Merlin Fork 14E1. What should I do to flash 378.56?
Thank you.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi RMerlin, thanks for looking into it.
That Subnet is actually on the firmware that works (54_2) and it is somehow calculated automatically (no place on the GUI to specify it).

Fixed. Static key authentication was trying to setup a subnet topology, causing the failure.

 

[RMerlin]

I'm currently on Merlin Fork 14E1. What should I do to flash 378.56?
Thank you.

Flash, then do a factory default reset and reconfigure your router.

 

[hd0120]

Flash, then do a factory default reset and reconfigure your router.

Is factory default reset the same as holding the WPS button while restarting the router?
Thanks again.

 

[RMerlin]

Is factory default reset the same as holding the WPS button while restarting the router?
Thanks again.

Yes.

 

[RMerlin]

What good are undocumented settings if they aren't documented somewhere *smile*?

You know what they say about Fight Club...

 

[RMerlin]

user selectable? I don't see it.

Go to Tools->Sysinfo and see if "loclist" is in the list of features. If not, then it means Asus might not have enabled it yet. I don't know which model has it, it gets set in a closed source component. It's also possible it might still be a work-in-progress. All I know is I saw they added code for it, and it will add a Region selector on the Wireless Professional page once enabled.

And I take it if I stick with my current bootloader they can't cripple my router?

The bootloader contains all the regional data it relies on. They've upgraded the bootloader on a few occasions, but usually that means any existing data gets copied to the new one.