Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 Beta is now available

[heysoundude]

Hello! I just set up aiMesh after installing Beta 2 on my AC86U (router) and AC68U (ethernet node) and AC66U_B1 (wireless node). All seems to be working well. I am curious-- I tried to run the speedtest from the tab in the GUI, and got an error message saying that it was unable to run, and to check my internet connection. Is the speedtest disabled in a mesh environment? And/or is there some setting I need to tweak in order for it to function properly?

And: I had been running FreshJR for VOIP QoS before the upgrade. I gather from my reading that adaptive QoS is working better. Is it still recommended to install a QoS script? I am trying to make as few modifications as possible, in order to simplify maintenance and upgrades. At the moment I have just turned on QoS and set my priorities. Sorry if this is OT...

whether you run QoS or not depends on a few factors, not the least of which is your connection speed. FreshJR is out of date; @dave14305 has modernized it to FreshQoS, but if you don't need to prioritize anything on your network, there's also Cake-QoS. You can find them in the Asus-Merlin Add-ons sub-forum.

 

[JoGi]

I spoke too soon. 24 hours later and my router's home page is saying my ISP's dhcp is messed up. My wireless clients alternate between 0 and the actual number (over 20) every few seconds, my AiMesh node isn't connected, and of course the internet doesn't work. Flashed 384.19 back to it and all problems are gone.

If no one else on an AC3100 is having similar issues, perhaps I need to do a full reset to factory and upgrade next time.

My question is this: If I save my settings to my local computer, do the reset and upgrade, will I be able to restore from my settings backup? If so, will that restore *everything* to include my VPN settings, encryption keys, etc?

do a Full reset with WPS button, and setup everything manual again, if you restore from a backup, you will have the same (corrupt) settings.

 

[L&LD]

@clweb, the link below may help you get stability when moving to the new firmware.

The temperatures you're indicating are normal. These SoC's can hit 140C 'safely', if not with maximum performance.

New M&M 2020

 

[MoonPie2000]

I am trying to test VPN Client but am a little confused. The client in the latest Beta 2 is OpenVPN 2.5 and it does NOT support DES-CBC cipher correct but it does support either AES-256-CBC or AES-128-CBC which are not just same ciphers with different bit counts correct?

 

[John Adler]

dirty flash over beta 1
all OK so far
thxs Merlin

 

[RMerlin]

I am trying to test VPN Client but am a little confused. The client in the latest Beta 2 is OpenVPN 2.5 and it does NOT support DES-CBC cipher correct but it does support either AES-256-CBC or AES-128-CBC which are not just same ciphers with different bit counts correct?

Unless your client is very old, you'd be better using AES-128-GCM or AES-256-GCM. Make sure you have the same configuration at both ends.

 

[shelleyevans]

there's also Cake-QoS

Thank you for the reply. I have found them both, and am learning the ropes of sh'ing with the new firmware-- much has changed in the couple of years I have been away! My usage needs are relatively simple-- not much gaming, but I work from home, so really need my VOIP and Zoom to be stable, especially now. For that reason, I had installed FreshJR, which at the time made a big difference-- even though I theoretically have 900/35 connection the speeds are unreliable, and I was told that FreshJR with default settings would help manage traffic better, which it really seemed to do, especially by re-allocating "other" traffic. I read that Cake caps the downloads at 300, so it sounds like that won't work for me. Does FlexQos have a similar limitation? And, is it still recommended the way FreshJR was-- meaning, if stable connections matter, are things improved by installing it, even without customizations?

I'm a little troubled by the fact that I can't see the speedtest at all on the speedtest tab-- after a few failed attempts to connect to the server, it just literally disappeared. I did the nuclear reset when I upgraded to the beta, and I'm a little reluctant to go through that process again, since it tests the goodwill of five adults using the system. Everything else is working well on my newly configured system-- fair to say I could just ignore the problem? I am so grateful to everyone in this community, which just keeps improving things all the time!

 

[mbze430]

I read that Cake caps the downloads at 300

It doesn't manually or intentionally cap at 300, it's heavy compute so it depends on the SOC/CPU on the router...

I have gotten about 560-570mbits with Cake on an AX88U but it far from the 930

 

[shelleyevans]

TY! Is the consensus that either script, with minimal or no configuration, will make a network more stable for applications that need it, like voip, gaming, zoom, etc.?

 

[Treadler]

It doesn't manually or intentionally cap at 300, it's heavy compute so it depends on the SOC/CPU on the router...

I have gotten about 560-570mbits with Cake on an AX88U but it far from the 930

Have you tried FlexQos with high throughput?
Good, bad?
Im interested as I have access to a 1000/50 plan.

 

[AntonK]

Have you tried FlexQos with high throughput?
Good, bad?
Im interested as I have access to a 1000/50 plan.

I’m curious as to why someone with a high-throughput plan would be considering the use of any QOS? Is it because of the presence of a large number of clients, clients likely to be performing high bandwidth-consumption operations?

 

[Treadler]

I’m curious as to why someone with a high-throughput plan would be considering the use of any QOS? Is it because of the presence of a large number of clients, clients likely to be performing high bandwidth-consumption operations?

I’m in Australia, using the ‘NBN’. (Currently I have a 100/40 plan.)

The NBN has a very aggressive upload policer, that drops packets when it sees anything over 50mbps. This results in download throughputs going down, down, down.
I tried the fast plan (1000/50) once, even just doing a speed test on a lightly used network can see d/l speeds of only 190mbps. (Bufferbloat?).
Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of qos then.
So, a way of limiting upload throughput on my own network keeps the download potential happy.

I ask again, does FlexQos work ok with the like of a 1000/50 plan?

 

[ugandy]

I’m curious as to why someone with a high-throughput plan would be considering the use of any QOS? Is it because of the presence of a large number of clients, clients likely to be performing high bandwidth-consumption operations?

i have att's symmetric 1Gb fiber. if i download a large binary with my PC's steam client i get around ~750Mbps down, and it will cause noticeable packet loss on other clients. still better than lower speed+qos. if cake/ax88 could handle higher than 550mbps, i'd use it.

 

[ugandy]

I’m in Australia, using the ‘NBN’. (Currently I have a 100/40 plan.)

I ask again, does FlexQos work ok with the like of a 1000/50 plan?

i used it on my previous 600/20 connection. worked fine but it capped DL at ~350 on my ax88.

 

[magwa_sc]

I spoke too soon. 24 hours later and my router's home page is saying my ISP's dhcp is messed up. My wireless clients alternate between 0 and the actual number (over 20) every few seconds, my AiMesh node isn't connected, and of course the internet doesn't work. Flashed 384.19 back to it and all problems are gone.

If no one else on an AC3100 is having similar issues, perhaps I need to do a full reset to factory and upgrade next time.

My question is this: If I save my settings to my local computer, do the reset and upgrade, will I be able to restore from my settings backup? If so, will that restore *everything* to include my VPN settings, encryption keys, etc?

I am having the same ISP DHCP issue reported here: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-386-1-beta-is-now-available.68205/post-641611

Unfortuantly I rolled back to 384.19 since my network is a little more 'production' and havent had time to troubleshoot or get additional logs. But I have a AC-5300, not a AC3100. Let me know if a full factory reset solves the issue for you.

 

[Treadler]

i have att's symmetric 1Gb fiber. if i download a large binary with my PC's steam client i get around ~750Mbps down, and it will cause noticeable packet loss on other clients. still better than lower speed+qos. if cake/ax88 could handle higher than 550mbps, i'd use it.

My issue is, the plan I can get is far from symmetric.

 

[Treadler]

i used it on my previous 600/20 connection. worked fine but it capped DL at ~350 on my ax88.

Thanks!

 

[ugandy]

My issue is, the plan I can get is far from symmetric.

you can always use cake if you are ok with a ~500Mbs cap on the DL... (flex was lower for some reason)
but we are now off topic.

 

[clweb]

@clweb, the link below may help you get stability when moving to the new firmware.

The temperatures you're indicating are normal. These SoC's can hit 140C 'safely', if not with maximum performance.

New M&M 2020

I did what you suggest. It is not only the temperature of the 2.4GHz chip, but the speed is heavily reduced when it gets hot (< 1 Mb/s).
The channels are fixed ones: 6 for 2.4G and 36 for 5G.
The first update was without reset from 384.19, but after the problems I did a factory reset after flashing beta2. The problem occured while reconfiguring the router.
I'll wait for the final release and try again.

 

[Mark Taylor]

I’m in Australia, using the ‘NBN’. (Currently I have a 100/40 plan.)

The NBN has a very aggressive upload policer, that drops packets when it sees anything over 50mbps. This results in download throughputs going down, down, down.
I tried the fast plan (1000/50) once, even just doing a speed test on a lightly used network can see d/l speeds of only 190mbps. (Bufferbloat?).
Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of qos then.
So, a way of limiting upload throughput on my own network keeps the download potential happy.

I ask again, does FlexQos work ok with the like of a 1000/50 plan?

Treadler I am also in Oz and have NBN 1000/50 with ABB and RT-AX88U on 6APP POI. As you mentioned you do need to use QoS for Upload otherwise it will be real slow. I am on Merlin 386.1 B2 and these are my settings below. You also need to set each devices priority under Bandwidth Monitor as well. Recently speeds have been quite variable but normally get 3ms 850-920 Mbps down and 46-47 Mbps up. Be careful on QoS as the fields where you fill in up/down are actually reversed to what you think and have seen some people putting the wrong numbers in. I used FlexQos on the 384.19 branch and it seemed more configurable but are just staying away from too many addons at present. On 1000/50 I was originally with Superloop then Node1 (WA only) and now ABB. Seems like most seem to struggle to deliver these full speeds all the time but ABB seems the best to date. There is some forums on Whirlpool also discussing these aspects as well.
QoS Type = Adaptive
Bandwidth Setting = Manual
UPLOAD = 47
DOWNLOAD = 990
Media Streaming