[Beta] Asuswrt-Merlin 384.16 beta (and 384.13_5) are available

[sbsnb]

I wonder why network map doesn't just use the router's ARP cache instead of trying to actively search for devices. I've compared a couple of times and the ARP cache is the same as network map. Network map often doesn't see "dormant" ones anyway. At least the ARP cache is passive and doesn't require additional resources.

 

[JWoo]

Unless they've changed it since it became closed source, it's because networkmap is a very old design, which was doing a hardcoded /24 ARP scan. I assume that extending that to larger networks, while technically possible, would greatly slow down networkmap's network scan. There might also be memory usage issues involved, which once again would require a major redesign of the current implementation.

Doggone @RMerlin you are a compendium of knowledge!

 

[Asad Ali]

Doggone @RMerlin you are a compendium of knowledge!

He's the lead coder of Asuswrt-Merlin project, so knowledge is a must thing to have specially when Asus's code is not commented and a complete mess lol.

 

[john9527]

Unless they've changed it since it became closed source, it's because networkmap is a very old design, which was doing a hardcoded /24 ARP scan. I assume that extending that to larger networks, while technically possible, would greatly slow down networkmap's network scan.

Not only an arp scan, but does additional work to try and determine the client type. As a result, it can take in excess of 2 sec per address.....I'll leave it for an exercise for the reader for how long that would take on a /16 network

 

[Alaska99]

My RT-AX88U lost wifi some times each day since I installed beta 3.
I join the log file some minutes after wifi is back. Someone can see somthing wrong?

 

[L&LD]

@john9527 it would take just under 36 hours and 25 minutes, correct?

 

[john9527]

@john9527 it would take just under 36 hours and 25 minutes, correct?

Ding! Ding! We have a winner
Base is probably about half that....then grows as you add clients.

 

[Asad Ali]

@john9527 it would take just under 36 hours and 25 minutes, correct?

Well I'm pretty sure your router will crash way before that so technically it'll take infinity. [emoji1787][emoji1787]

 

[RMerlin]

I wonder why network map doesn't just use the router's ARP cache instead of trying to actively search for devices.

Wouldn't be as reliable as actively doing ARP probing I suppose. You might have devices in sleep mode that haven't generated any traffic since the last router reboot, or entries might have expired from the cache. I was thinking for instance about networked printers.

They may very well be using both - I wouldn't know since I can no longer see the code.

Doggone @RMerlin you are a compendium of knowledge!

That's because before they closed down the source code, I personally fixed a lot of bugs in networkmap. Crashes caused by buffer overrun and what not. So, I was pretty familiar back then as to how it worked.

https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/commits/master/release/src/router/networkmap

Not only an arp scan, but does additional work to try and determine the client type.

Those would only occur after an entry has replied to the ARP request however, so having a wider network but still only a limited number of clients would still be reasonable.

 

[john9527]

Those would only occur after an entry has replied to the ARP request however, so having a wider network but still only a limited number of clients would still be reasonable.

It's still about a second per address if no client present.....so about 18hours baseline for a /16 network vs 5 min for a /24 network.

 

[RMerlin]

384.16 and 384.13_6 are now available - locking this thread.

Thank you for the test feedback.