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

[RogerSC]

If I do that, then people with average 5 Mbits DSL connections will complain that the scale isn't precise enough for them. I'm afraid there's no simple solution there, short of auto-scaling.

Or provide a GUI setting which can be used to manually switch between kb/s and mb/s. Autoscaling might be a little harder, not sure?

 

[AnthonyArmato]

That's what I was thinking... A setting to switch between the two. Not sure how hard that would be.

 

[Gingernut]

RMerlin,

If I wanted to test the newer Broadcom drivers, ones used on the RT-AC66U, is it just matter of compiling an image from within the src-rt-6.x directory or is it more complex than that.

Thanks

 

[RMerlin]

RMerlin,

If I wanted to test the newer Broadcom drivers, ones used on the RT-AC66U, is it just matter of compiling an image from within the src-rt-6.x directory or is it more complex than that.

Thanks

Pretty much that, yes.

However I decided to drop it for now, as connection reliability seemed to suffer after I did a first pass of quick tests using the 6.x driver.

 

[Gingernut]

O.K thanks.

Did you get to test the newer set that's in the RT-AC66U beta you were sent?

 

[RMerlin]

O.K thanks.

Did you get to test the newer set that's in the RT-AC66U beta you were sent?

Only as part of the RT-AC66U firmware (I have no GPL with this). Seems like the AC66U QoS issues have been resolved. The driver is the same version as in build 182, but the size is different, so maybe 182 had a bad build of the driver.

 

[darksamus]

Dyndns.org support

Merlin,

Does your firmware have support for dyndns.org, (DDNS)? I had your firmware installed but forgot to check for DDNS since I took it off.

 

[Trentors]

Merlin,

Does your firmware have support for dyndns.org, (DDNS)? I had your firmware installed but forgot to check for DDNS since I took it off.

Yes it does. Merlins excellent firmware is highly recommended. It has all the features of Asus own firmware (which also has support for dyndns.org and others) but includes some extra usefull features and he has fixed some of their obvious blunders like no HTTPS administration.

 

[tamalero]

Only as part of the RT-AC66U firmware (I have no GPL with this). Seems like the AC66U QoS issues have been resolved. The driver is the same version as in build 182, but the size is different, so maybe 182 had a bad build of the driver.

Merlin, just bought a RT-N66U from Amazon, and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

but now for questions..
for stability standpoint (Im a heavy gamer/bittorrent user)

Do you recommend your Firmware revisions more than the default ones? I want to know to prepare myself and install your version if its better!

I can deal with troubleshotting basic taks of course.. as I have been dealing with my DIR-655 and its famous buggy firmwares (where some revisions works for some routers, it wont work on others.. and so on..)

but Im completely "green" in the Asus camp.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Yes it does. Merlins excellent firmware is highly recommended. It has all the features of Asus own firmware (which also has support for dyndns.org and others) but includes some extra usefull features and he has fixed some of their obvious blunders like no HTTPS administration.

Merlin has become a rock star of the Asus wireless router firmware world and deservedly so.

I have been holding off on an AC router purchase until the official Asus firmware gets up to speed. I am also curious to see what Merilin can do when he gets under the hood of the AC66U and discovers what it's hidden capabilities are. I have already read all the reviews on the current AC routers. Do I get another N66U to replace my Netgear 3700v2 or do I go with the AC66U? Decisions...decisions...

 

[thexile]

Merlin, just bought a RT-N66U from Amazon, and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

but now for questions..
for stability standpoint (Im a heavy gamer/bittorrent user)

Do you recommend your Firmware revisions more than the default ones? I want to know to prepare myself and install your version if its better!

I can deal with troubleshotting basic taks of course.. as I have been dealing with my DIR-655 and its famous buggy firmwares (where some revisions works for some routers, it wont work on others.. and so on..)

but Im completely "green" in the Asus camp.

Why not try both Merlin's and Asus's firmware yourself first (as the saying goes YMMV...) before deciding on one?

For me, I prefer Merlin's build due to the bug fixes he has implemented.

In my opinion Asus official firmware is good enough compare to other router manufacturers. I admit that this is my first Asus router (and the most expensive one), before that I have 2 x Linksys WRT54GL which the official firmware just plainly sucks and a D-Link 802.11g router (the model available in China market only, I believe) which has connection problems especially when there is more than 1 devices connected to it.

 

[SoCalReviews]

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.

 

[thexile]

Merlin has become a rock star of the Asus wireless router firmware world and deservedly so.

I have been holding off on an AC router purchase until the official Asus firmware gets up to speed. I am also curious to see what Merilin can do when he gets under the hood of the AC66U and discovers what it's hidden capabilities are. I have already read all the reviews on the current AC routers. Do I get another N66U to replace my Netgear 3700v2 or do I go with the AC66U? Decisions...decisions...

If you go with AC66U, you will need to get an 802.11ac wireless transmitter to get the maximum speed. If not, in my opinion it will be a wasteful 'upgrade'.

I will not jump into the 802.11ac bandwagon at this moment since the spec is not even finalised. Correct me if I am wrong on this.

Lastly plenty of wireless devices out there (smartphones, tablets, media boxes, hell, even plenty of laptops) are unable to utilize all the 3 streams of 802.11n (no space for more antennas) and are stuck with the 2.4 Ghz frequency. Getting AC66U won't help in this regard especially when reviews are mentioning that the 2.4 Ghz performance for AC66U is worse than N66U. Not sure if this a driver/firmware or hardware issue though.

Personally, i will just stick with N66U (cheaper and to me it is the pinnacle for 802.11n routers; i will definitely be using it till the day it finally breaks). If one really needs the bandwidth, consider sticking with LAN cables. WiFi till now still sucks compare to solid physical CAT5e/6 LAN cables.

Just my 2 cents. Cheers.

 

[SoCalReviews]

thexile, Thanks for your 2 cents...every penny of information counts. I know what you are saying about this router...the N66U is so darn good that it's really a tough decision. I am not yet convinced that some reports of the 2.4Ghz performance of the N66U being better is a hardware issue with the AC version or if it really more of a driver or firmware issue. Maybe Merlin will be able to give us more information about that in the near future.

Also I would not be upgrading the N66U...I am running two wireless networks...with two separate internet connections and the other router is the Netgear 3700. I use Cat5e for long Ethernet runs and Cat7 shielded for local modem to router to PC interconnect. My feeling about the AC66U is that once new drivers are released for it and once Asus (and Merlin) is able to perfect the firmware for it that it may prove in being a a little better performer in the long run. I don't use 5Ghz right now on the N66U but I may in the near future. 5Ghz N devices are still relatively new to the market with AC compatible devices practically non-existent right now. I am leaning toward another N66U at this time but if someone can show me that there is even a slight real world performance advantage to the AC66U wireless or wired then I could move in that direction.

 

[Trentors]

Merlin has become a rock star of the Asus wireless router firmware world and deservedly so.

I have been holding off on an AC router purchase until the official Asus firmware gets up to speed. I am also curious to see what Merilin can do when he gets under the hood of the AC66U and discovers what it's hidden capabilities are. I have already read all the reviews on the current AC routers. Do I get another N66U to replace my Netgear 3700v2 or do I go with the AC66U? Decisions...decisions...

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.

Combine that with the fact that 802.11ac is still in draft (3.0 but the AC66U only supports draft 2.0) and many of the final features are missing in AC66U.

If Merlin one day stops making his great firmware you cannot currently install DD-WRT or Tomato on AC66U. It may even never become available because of the lower popularity compared to N66U.

I think the AC66U will become a niche product for few early adopters. It means that it will never reach the community status and support N66U has. Besides N66U will remain a certified top N-router while AC66U probably will slide into oblivion once the 802.11ac standard is finished and a new batch of routers arrive.

 

[RMerlin]

Merlin, just bought a RT-N66U from Amazon, and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

but now for questions..
for stability standpoint (Im a heavy gamer/bittorrent user)

Do you recommend your Firmware revisions more than the default ones? I want to know to prepare myself and install your version if its better!

I can deal with troubleshotting basic taks of course.. as I have been dealing with my DIR-655 and its famous buggy firmwares (where some revisions works for some routers, it wont work on others.. and so on..)

but Im completely "green" in the Asus camp.

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.

 

[RMerlin]

If Merlin one day stops making his great firmware you cannot currently install DD-WRT or Tomato on AC66U. It may even never become available because of the lower popularity compared to N66U.

Actually, DD-WRT for the RT-AC66U looks very doable now. Someone managed to get it more or less working by using the Buffalo 802.11ac build on it. Still quite a few things didn't work as expected, but nothing major that can't be solved with some developer-time.

Which probably means Tomato for the RT-AC66U is also doable, provided a Tomato developer gets a router and starts working on it. They could probably reuse a good amount of code from Asuswrt as they share a common ancestor (Asuswrt was based on Tomato-RT).

 

[Trentors]

I am not yet convinced that some reports of the 2.4Ghz performance of the N66U being better is a hardware issue with the AC version or if it really more of a driver or firmware issue.

The AC66U and N66U have the same 2.4 radio and likely use the same driver. The big difference is in the 5 Ghz radio (which also includes the 802.11ac part). This chipset in AC66U is quite new and the drivers are not mature yet.

But this only affects 5 Ghz performance as mentioned here:
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?p=46159

I also saw pretty much the same performance on 2.4 Ghz between the two while 5 Ghz currently is better on N66U.

 

[Trentors]

Actually, DD-WRT for the RT-AC66U looks very doable now. Someone managed to get it more or less working by using the Buffalo 802.11ac build on it. Still quite a few things didn't work as expected, but nothing major that can't be solved with some developer-time.

Which probably means Tomato for the RT-AC66U is also doable, provided a Tomato developer gets a router and starts working on it. They could probably reuse a good amount of code from Asuswrt as they share a common ancestor (Asuswrt was based on Tomato-RT).

Very interesting. But I still prefer your version. Thanx for all the hard work and effort you put into this

 

[RMerlin]

I have been holding off on an AC router purchase until the official Asus firmware gets up to speed. I am also curious to see what Merilin can do when he gets under the hood of the AC66U and discovers what it's hidden capabilities are.

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.