Asuswrt-Merlin - custom build of the Asus RT-N66U firmware

[Pierino]

I had the AC66U but have returned it and got the N66U instead. The AC costs twice as much in my country than the N66U and for that price I expect basic functions to work.

But the AC66U was so buggy that it was unacceptable especially with the price tag. Enabling QoS resulted in the Wi-Fi not working on at all the latest firmware release (which they later pulled). As Tim mentioned in his review it feels like being a beta-tester for Asus and for that price it is unacceptable.

Wow. Here in the USA the ac66u is only $30 more than the n66u, and that is because of a sale on the n66u. It was only a $20 dollar difference.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Trentors, Thanks for posting your own experience using the AC66U. As Pierino pointed out the price is only $30 more for the AC66U here in the U.S.. It's hard to go wrong with the RT-N66U. You definitely made a good decision especially considering your cost difference. The current mature firmware options available make it a logic choice among all current available routers offered in N or AC. I am sure the AC router choices will expand in the next year while the current line of AC routers will mature.

 

[tamalero]

Tamalero, Once you become familiar with it and tweak it's settings the way you want you should really enjoy the RT-N66U. I use it for internet gaming connecting wirelessly to PS3 and the noticeable improvement in performance, reliability and decrease in lag has significantly improved my game play and scores (mostly for COD MW3...I seem to see the opponents sooner and my reaction seems to register a little faster than theirs because of less delay...lower latency). I am using the latest official Asus firmware version .178 right now but plan on experimenting with Merlin's firmware builds in the near future. Note: After initial router setup make sure you set the router's time zone settings and Daylight savings if applicable (under Administration > System tab) to your region and country.

Thanks! I will try that, I'm a pc gamer myself.. but I really care for the PS3's media server capabilities ( I got a 24/7 NAS/TORRENT/ps3MediaServer system ).

For your needs, I would recommend going with my firmware. My firmware retains all the same features as the original ones, except with a few improvements on top of it. I try to stay as close as possible to the original, meaning keeping the newly introduced bugs to a minimum, while fixing the Asus bugs that I can (lately they have pretty much caught up with me in this area however, aside from the GRO issues, and the quirky NAT loopback).

My firmware will also make it easier for you to tweak it if you want to adjust, for example, TCP settings to improve latency over raw streaming performance.

If you need something more advanced QoS-wise, I would recommend looking at one of the two Tomato versions available for this router.

Thank you so much Merlin, I will check out your firmware as soon I get the unit.
and as for QOS, I honestly do not need it much, since even my DIR-655 didn't performed very well with QOS on(freezes, reboots..etc..).. so I always had it turned off.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Already on it. RT-AC66U users who use my firmware are enjoying a fat 32 MB JFFS partition for instance, thanks to a very generous 128 MB flash storage

The wifi-related improvements will have to come from Asus however, as the driver is closed-source (and I lack the skill and knowledge to work with low-level radio stuff). Folks like Tim here know a lot more about wifi technology than I do - I'm more the infrastructure guy working with what surrounds the router in terms of features.

The open source contributions you have done with the N66U firmware is great. I have read about the features and fixes your version has implemented on the N66U and AC66U including the added fat 32 MB JFFS partition. I can't wait to try out one the N66U firmware builds. The only thing that has held me back is that the official Asus firmware has worked so well for me so far. I probably would use the extra features you included though and I won't really know until I finally test it out.

At this point the only feature I really now miss on the N66U stock firmware from my Netgear 3700v2 is the ability to set my own parameters for the bandwidth data and usage limits including starting date, monthly limits, bandwidth limit notifications...LED color changes or flashes...network alert notify alerts...turn off internet activity when set bandwidth limits are exceeded, etc.. I like the live bandwidth usage data options but it doesn't have the active functionality described above.

I use my cable connection (100Mbps down) for wired streaming of standard and HD video and having the option to set and be notified of bandwidth limits is a useful feature for me. I am using my dsl connection right now with the N66U for most of the wireless devices...smart phones, PS3, laptops, etc... and the improvement in overall performance has been noticeable. I am hoping that another N66U or AC66U for use with my cable internet would improve wired and wireless streaming performance over the Netgear 3700. Knowing you are evolving the N66U firmware and moving forward with firmware builds to improve the AC66U is very good news. Thanks again... and also a big Thank You to Tim for what he has done (I really enjoyed the SNB review of the AC66U) to help make this such and informative and helpful site for everyone involved and interested in SOHO networking, small networks, personal home and small business networking.

 

[2000wolf]

... I am sure the AC router choices will expand in the next year while the current line of AC routers will mature.

You are absolutely right. And unless there are no tabletts or notebooks supporting 802.11ac final - non draft - version I will keep on using this device.

RT-N66U's fw thanks to RMerlin and Asus seems to be quite stable now with few flaws. I don't want to spend the same amount of time again with a new router in near future.

 

[wooglins]

Thanks for the great firmware. My RT-N66U works very well. One oddity I have noticed is that inssider reports a maximum link speed of 216 on the 2.4ghz band and 450 on the 5ghz band. I reports this from any machine I run it on, and picks up a few distant access points as having a maximum link speed of 216 on the 2.4ghz band.

Also not sure the power adjustment does anything. Tried the three apply thing, but does not seem to affect temp, or range.

Anyway none of these problems affect operation, it smokes. Just being a wifi tweaker.

 

[wooglins]

I figured out how to get the router to report 450 and use 2 channels on 2.4ghz.

I had to set channel bandwidth to 40mhz, the control channel to 6, and the extension channel to upper.

It would probably also work with other channels, it just will not work with it set to 20/40 or with it set to 40 and auto for the control channel.

 

[darksamus]

I figured out how to get the router to report 450 and use 2 channels on 2.4ghz.

I had to set channel bandwidth to 40mhz, the control channel to 6, and the extension channel to upper.

It would probably also work with other channels, it just will not work with it set to 20/40 or with it set to 40 and auto for the control channel.

216mbps is 20mhz channel wide at 3 stream is correct. Switch it to 40mhz wide, it will be at 450mbps' 3 stream.

Take a look at the table..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009

 

[wooglins]

216mbps is 20mhz channel wide at 3 stream is correct. Switch it to 40mhz wide, it will be at 450mbps' 3 stream.

Take a look at the table..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009

That is what I discovered, but there seems to be a bug, in that if you set it to 40 without manually setting the control channel, it still only uses one channel. Which does not make sense at all. Does not matter, as setting them manually works well as long as you take a look at whats around.

 

[uncle.f]

Also not sure the power adjustment does anything. Tried the three apply thing, but does not seem to affect temp, or range.

Same here. I actually need to reduce power to absolute minimum in my case.
But even at values lower than 5 nothing really changes -- it still fires out full range as if it was at 80.

 

[wooglins]

Same here. I actually need to reduce power to absolute minimum in my case.
But even at values lower than 5 nothing really changes -- it still fires out full range as if it was at 80.

Yeah, I wish I could figure that one out. Not a show stopper, but the ocd in me wants to juice it up, if just to play around with from a testing standpoint.

It is weird, sometimes changing that setting causes my router to reboot, and other times does not. It says it is set on the temp page, but the router, and the temp graph are always in the very cool range. Perhaps it is changed and I have no way to tell.

 

[2000wolf]

You can adjust TX power however you have to scroll up and follow the yellow higlighted instructions (If I remember right you have to mark the days where WLAN is enabled...). Then you can APPLY the adjusted TX settings.

 

[wooglins]

You can adjust TX power however you have to scroll up and follow the yellow higlighted instructions (If I remember right you have to mark the days where WLAN is enabled...). Then you can APPLY the adjusted TX settings.

Which yellow highlighted instructions? At the top date to enable the radio is checked, and all days are selected. Not sure what you are referring to but, you may be onto something for me, if you could elaborate.

 

[2000wolf]

Certainly:

.178.15

Go to Advanced Settings / Wireless / Professional:

The "Date to Enable Radio (week days)" are blank after entering that page.

When I now enter a new TX power adjustment, e. g. 50 mW, and try to APPLY it then I get the yellow error message "You cannot leave this field blank!" right of "Date to Enable Radio (week days)"
Then I mark the days as requested and now after APPLY the Tx power is changed.

 

[wooglins]

Certainly:

.178.15

Go to Advanced Settings / Wireless / Professional:

The "Date to Enable Radio (week days)" are blank after entering that page.

When I now enter a new TX power adjustment, e. g. 50 mW, and try to APPLY it then I get the yellow error message "You cannot leave this field blank!" right of "Date to Enable Radio (week days)"
Then I mark the days as requested and now after APPLY the Tx power is changed.

Odd mine were never blank. They were filled in from the start.

 

[2000wolf]

Strange... but if you clear them, enter a new TX power, wait for the mentioned error message... does my workaround work for you?

 

[wooglins]

Strange... but if you clear them, enter a new TX power, wait for the mentioned error message... does my workaround work for you?

If I clear them then I get the error message. Check them back, and hit apply, and it takes. I hit apply three times, as Merlin suggested. It appears to have changed, but no change in temp or signal around the house.

 

[2000wolf]

... It appears to have changed, but no change in temp or signal around the house.

I will test that later with inSSIDer.

 

[v0idzer0]

Fix for libid3tag problems

minidlna
make[4]: Entering directory `/home/ginger/asuswrt-merlin/release/src/router/minidlna'
Linking minidlna
/home/ginger/asuswrt-merlin/release/src-rt/router/sqlite/.libs/libsqlite3.a(sqlite3.o): In function `dotlockLock':
sqlite3.c: (.text.dotlockLock+0x34): warning: the use of LEGACY `utimes' is discouraged, use `utime'
/home/ginger/asuswrt-merlin/release/src-rt/router/libid3tag/.libs/libid3tag.a(frame.o): In function `id3_frame_new':
frame.c: (.text+0x1b8): undefined reference to `id3_frametype_lookup'
frame.c: (.text+0x234): undefined reference to `id3_frametype_text'
frame.c: (.text+0x244): undefined reference to `id3_frametype_url'
frame.c: (.text+0x254): undefined reference to `id3_frametype_experimental'
frame.c: (.text+0x264): undefined reference to `id3_frametype_unknown'
frame.c: (.text+0x28c): undefined reference to `id3_frametype_obsolete'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[4]: *** [minidlna] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory `/home/ginger/asuswrt-merlin/release/src/router/minidlna'
make[3]: *** [minidlna] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/ginger/asuswrt-merlin/release/src/router'
make[2]: *** [all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/ginger/asuswrt-merlin/release/src-rt'
make[1]: *** [bin] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/ginger/asuswrt-merlin/release/src-rt'
make: *** [rt-n66u] Error 2
ginger@ginger-VirtualBox:~/asuswrt-merlin/release/src-rt$

@gingernut and anyone else getting the error above:

I had the same problem. For anyone who has this issue, ensure you have the gperf package installed (apt-get install gperf). If you do and the problem persists then go into
release/src/router/libid3tag and delete compat.c frametype.c (rm compat.c frametype.c) then rebuild.
gperf should regenerate the files. This is what worked for me, I hope it helps others!

@RMerlin: Thanks for the openvpn branch! One of many things the asus firmware was missing!

 

[NeutralGold]

Hey I just noticed a small problem with my client list on the network map page. As soon as the 10th client connects the client list hangs and won't display anything other than "Searching, Please wait.". The client count also shows 0 instead of 10. I did read a few early pages in this thread about hangs with the client list.

Just figured I'd ask instead of trying to sift through all of that.