Compatible USB 3.0 Hub for Asuswrt-Merlin 384.19 on Asus RT-AC66U_B1 (Linux 2.6 Kernel)

[Tech9]

You'll be greatly disappointed. This router has just enough CPU/RAM to run router tasks. Much faster hardware Asus routers fail miserably with external HDDs used for large file transfers. Entware on USB is OK, but not the NAS. In addition, you may hurt your 2.4GHz performance with USB 3.0.

 

[garycnew]

@Tech9

Apologies... If I was unclear in my previous reply. The NAS (USB 3.0/Raid 5) that I use as my Time Capsule has been in production and working like a champ connected to the USB 3.0 port of my primary router (RT-AC66U_B1) for over a year. As it is buried in the wiring closed, down in the basement, next to the patch-panel, switches, and UPS, with the connecting USB 3.0 cable wrapped in aluminum foil (for extra shielding), and a number of AiMesh Nodes using 1Gb Ethernet Backhaul to populate the 5Ghz spectrum (don't really use the 2.4Ghz spectrum)–I've been extremely pleased with performance. The only real issues I've encountered are... When I tried to put a switch in-between the primary router and AiMesh Nodes (in 384 there's a bug requiring AiMesh Nodes to be directly connected to the primary router). When I tried to run too many bots on the primary router and ended up having to redistribute them more evenly across the AiMesh Nodes. More recently, when I made the primary router a Tor Relay, load started competing with 40-80GB/day of OpenVPN traffic, and I had to tune the Tor Relay to not exceed 3/4 of the primary router's total physical memory, which remedied the issue still permitting between 700-1100 open Tor circuits and maintaining an average relay status on the Tor network.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I think shrinking the existing Time Capsule Volume on the NAS to add a little space for the Entware Volume (currently attached as a Micro SDXC Card Reader to the primary router's USB 2.0 port) might be a better option than adding a USB 3.0 Hub.

You receive full credit for posing the fundamental question leading to the idea. ;-)

Respectfully,


GarY

 

[Tech9]

I hope you know what are you doing. You're killing the poor AC66U_B1 guy.

 

[garycnew]

I hope you know what are you doing. You're killing the poor AC66U_B1 guy.

@Tech9 With 25 years in the business, I like to pretend I know what I'm doing. Besides, it's more like a gang of poor AC66U_B1 guys.

The real question is if you had to choose between a Goliath or a Gang of David's, which would you choose? You know which choice I've made. Not to say I won't add a Goliath to my Gang of David's. Goliaths of today are my David's of tomorrow.

 

[Tech9]

The real question is if you had to choose between a Goliath or a Gang of David's, which would you choose?

I would choose Goliath leading a gang of Davids. In my experience different Davids fight best with different weapons.
My current army consists of battery backup, x86 router/firewall, PoE switch, x86 storage and a bunch of PoE wireless warriors.

 

[Deldarius]

A few years ago I had experimented with a hub on an AC-RT68P, similar specs to what you have IIRC.

Now I had 5 USB-2 powered external hunks of rust hanging off a Rocketfish 7 port USB-3 hub (powered) for mass storage and do back ups. It did ok, not great by any stretch but ok. But when you started to move anything big, the network would slow down as the router strained to keep things running. Now add in 2 or three simultaneous jobs and the poor router would drop a nut, keel over and cry for a medic.

Consumer routers just don't have the balls to be pushing all those bits. Your NAS likely saturates the pipe and with all that stuff you are running, adding anything more demanding than a printer on the 2.0 port is too much. It would be in your best interest to upgrade to a proper NAS (running ethernet), a beefier router and then you can put in a switch.

I see in my minds eye that poor router clutching it's chips, sobbing in pain.

 

[Tech9]

My experience is with AC86U router, much faster than AC66U_B1 and with 2x RAM. What happens is described here:

RT-AX92U USB smb seems fragile, crashes router

Firmware: 3.0.0.4.386_43084-g728dd24 Copying 37gb to router usb 3.0 port via SMB with a nice Samsung 850 evo (NTFS) using an ORICO USB 3.1 enclosure, 30MB/s over wifi Starts off fine, then gets slower and slower, then stops, 0 bytes per second, then v slow, then 0 and so on. To the extent...

www.snbforums.com

I found a temporary solution - drop USB speeds to USB 2.0. The router chokes again, but later. I don't know what data Time Capsule moves, but 10GB over USB 3.0 kills AC86U. My test unit lost Wi-Fi first, than the WAN connection. The reason was running out of RAM. When dealing with important data Asuswrt powered router as NAS is running on the edge and taking chances. I don't question @garycnew IT experience, but I've seen those routers failing.

What I currently use as NAS is described here:

Cheap NAS to replace USB functionality + SMB that my router sucks at?

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ax92u-usb-smb-seems-fragile-crashes-router.73108/ I have a nice USB SSD and I simply want to access it for light usage across the house. Main use is watching movies, but obviously once in a while I need to copy things across, which is when the rt-ax92u...

www.snbforums.com

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Hi All!

As the subject states... I'm trying to confirm a compatible USB 3.0 Hub for Asuswrt-Merlin 384.19 on Asus RT-AC66U_B1.

Has anyone had any success with a USB 3.0 Hub using the above hardware and firmware?

Most that I've tried thus far have had stability issues.

Thank you for your assistance.

Respectfully,


Gary

I use this one

Site Maintenance

on an RT-AC56U

also sold in a 7 port series as well.

Site Maintenance

 

[garycnew]

I use this one

Site Maintenance

on an RT-AC56U

also sold in a 7 port series as well.

Site Maintenance

@SomeWhereOverTheRainBow

Which Linux Kernel is your RT-AC56U using?

Is it stable?

Thanks!

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

@SomeWhereOverTheRainBow

Which Linux Kernel is your RT-AC56U using?

Is it stable?

Thanks!

it is pretty stable, no issues.
the kernel is (uname -r) 2.6.36.4brcmarm and the firmware version is older than yours.

 

[Apex4ever]

384.18 on AC66U B1 with Orico 7 Ports USB 3.0 HUB with 12V Power Adapter (H7928-U3)

works quite nicely.

If you are sharing the files via FTP, remember to put files in subfolders in each hard drive connected. Because as it seems the access privileges are applied not to the whole disk, but to subfolders. The files at root level of each hard drive are thus not accessible.

 

[garycnew]

384.18 on AC66U B1 with Orico 7 Ports USB 3.0 HUB with 12V Power Adapter (H7928-U3)

works quite nicely.

If you are sharing the files via FTP, remember to put files in subfolders in each hard drive connected. Because as it seems the access privileges are applied not to the whole disk, but to subfolders. The files at root level of each hard drive are thus not accessible.

@Apex4ever

Thank you for adding your experience with the Orico 7 Port USB 3.0 HUB to this RT-AC66U_B1 compatability list.

Much Appreciated!

Respectfully,


Gary