Solved asuswrt or merlin....

[arkhane]

Hello.

Possibly new to Merlin I have some questions before flashing my asus router....please be indulgent as I actually try to figure out if I should keep asuswrt or not...

1) could you please explain me what is/are the advantages to use Merlin and not asuswrt? It is difficult for me at this stage to get an accurate opinion...I would like something that "work like asus" but provide me some extra interesting functionalities...so I would expect same level of security, same level of stablity, same functionalities + some few things....

2) will the iphone asus router app will work if I use merlin?

3) can I, using Merlin, use an ovpn file to cover all my devices (with WIFI) with a VPN except 1 specific PC that will connect with a regular network cable? How could I do this? Ideally I would like something that if this PC is connected with the network cable this goes without it being covered by the VPN and if I use this same PC without the network cable (so wifi) this goes as all other devices through the VPN....is that something that can be done? Is that something easily achievable and with what exact methods?

4) does vulnerabilites found in asuswrt are fixed in a timely manner in Merlin?

5) I use 2 different asus routers (both asuswrt). I use them in aimesh config which works perfectly...will aimesh still work if I use merlin...? Do I will need to flash them both to merlin to make this work or aimesh will not work as soon as 1 is flashed....?

Thank you very much.

 

[webdriver]

simple answer, flash one merlin for your self and test. if that's interesting you you can go ahead. otherwise, revert to asus.

 

[L&LD]

Welcome @arkhane to the forums.

As long as your RMerlin router and any AiMesh nodes are using the same codebase, they will work together nicely.

The 'app' will work too. But do yourself a favor and don't use it.

And you can use VPN as you describe, with the scripts available via amtm too.

RMerlin is often ahead of Asus for security fixes (as he is currently on the 386.1 release branch).


Read the following links below for why Asuswrt-RMerlin is superior for your Asus supported router.

About | Asuswrt-Merlin (asuswrt-merlin.net)

Features | Asuswrt-Merlin (asuswrt-merlin.net)

AMTM · RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng Wiki · GitHub


Good reading, huh.

So, to answer your question of RMerlin firmware or Asuswrt? RMerlin of course, unless you don't know any better. But now you do.

 

[arkhane]

Welcome @arkhane to the forums.

As long as your RMerlin router and any AiMesh nodes are using the same codebase, they will work together nicely.

The 'app' will work too. But do yourself a favor and don't use it.

And you can use VPN as you describe, with the scripts available via amtm too.

RMerlin is often ahead of Asus for security fixes (as he is currently on the 386.1 release branch).


Read the following links below for why Asuswrt-RMerlin is superior for your Asus supported router.

About | Asuswrt-Merlin (asuswrt-merlin.net)

Features | Asuswrt-Merlin (asuswrt-merlin.net)

AMTM · RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng Wiki · GitHub


Good reading, huh.

So, to answer your question of RMerlin firmware or Asuswrt? RMerlin of course, unless you don't know any better. But now you do.

Thank you.

For the 2nd router (aimesh node) would you recommend me to also move it to merlin or no need for this one? thank you

"And you can use VPN as you describe, with the scripts available via amtm too."....so I installed merlin and so far so good...I could make it work with "policy rules (strict)"

all VPN	192.168.50.0/24		VPN
PC	192.168.50.128		WAN

is their any "simple" way I could even go further down with wifi connection is going through VPN for the PC and network cable goes through WAN? That can be done only through "amtm" ? I am afraid I am not enough techy for that....no possibility to use MAC address for example instead of IP? Thank you

 

[netware5]

Hello.

Possibly new to Merlin I have some questions before flashing my asus router....please be indulgent as I actually try to figure out if I should keep asuswrt or not...

1) could you please explain me what is/are the advantages to use Merlin and not asuswrt? It is difficult for me at this stage to get an accurate opinion...I would like something that "work like asus" but provide me some extra interesting functionalities...so I would expect same level of security, same level of stablity, same functionalities + some few things....

2) will the iphone asus router app will work if I use merlin?

3) can I, using Merlin, use an ovpn file to cover all my devices (with WIFI) with a VPN except 1 specific PC that will connect with a regular network cable? How could I do this? Ideally I would like something that if this PC is connected with the network cable this goes without it being covered by the VPN and if I use this same PC without the network cable (so wifi) this goes as all other devices through the VPN....is that something that can be done? Is that something easily achievable and with what exact methods?

4) does vulnerabilites found in asuswrt are fixed in a timely manner in Merlin?

5) I use 2 different asus routers (both asuswrt). I use them in aimesh config which works perfectly...will aimesh still work if I use merlin...? Do I will need to flash them both to merlin to make this work or aimesh will not work as soon as 1 is flashed....?

Thank you very much.

1. Better functionality, better security, better stability
2. Yes, but I strongly advise to avoid using asus router app, because of security issues.
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes, the aimesh will work with Merlin. No, no need to flash Merlin on all nodes.

 

[L&LD]

@arkhane you're welcome.

Look at the last link in my post above and have a look at both x3mRouting and YazFi for your VPN wants. You may also want to search for possible scripting solutions by @Martineau and others too. I can't be 100% sure, but I'm sure you'll find what you need though.

A caveat, I don't know how applicable they are, just trying to point you in the right direction.

For all my routers, I would prefer to use the same firmware fork (RMerlin). But like I said above, it should work fine. It's when the fork and the official stock firmware diverge from each other for a day/week or longer and you have issues during that time, which having them the same should give fewer headaches overall.