End of the road for the RT-N16

[RMerlin]

Hi everyone,

With the addition of a new platform to Asuswrt-Merlin (the RT-AC3200's SDK7 platform), I am finding myself with too many different platforms to juggle with. Right now, this means I have the following platforms that require some specific attention:

• SDK5 (RT-N16)
• SDK6 MIPS (RT-N66U, RT-AC66U)
• SDK6 ARM (RT-AC56U, RT-AC68U)
• SDK6 ARM Quantenna (RT-AC87U)
• SDK7 (RT-AC3200)

Some functionality (especially related to wireless) are platform-specific. Recent development I've done to the firmware required me to write two different versions of the code to support the intended models, and I would have had to write, debug, and test a third, separate version of that code just for the RT-N16's SDK5.

This being a single man project, I simply cannot afford to devote that much time anymore on supporting all of these, especially considering the age and the hardware limitations of the RT-N16. In addition to being the oldest supported model, this is also the only one with just 32 KB of nvram space. That was already requiring me to make some sacrifices, such as excluding OpenVPN support.

Therefore, 378.50 will be the last release officially supporting the RT-N16. The existing support will be kept intact in the firmware source code for now, so end users and other developers will still be able to compile their own version. However, I won't be making any change, feature addition or testing whatsoever for the RT-N16 (and its SDK5 codebase). This means the existing code might break at some point in the future. If another developer is willing to provide code to address these new issues, I am willing to include them in the main code repository.

Some available alternatives:

• John9527's fork
• AndreyPopov's fork

Also, Tomato has very solid RT-N16 support, from both Toastman and Shibby.
I don't know how stable the DD-WRT build for the RT-N16 is, but I suspect it should also be fairly solid by now.

 

[joegreat]

Farewell to my RT-N16...

Hi Merlin,

Thank you for the early warning: Now it's also for me time to say goodby to my RT-N16!

After only two years (I bought it in Feb. 2013) as a cheap WLAN extension box, I will sell it on a local (virtual) garage sale - hope that somebody gives him a nice home!
Of course it will have the 378.50 version of the firmware on it - and it will be delivered in the original box with manual and a CD with the firmware history from ASUS and Merlin, plus the other tools.

With kind regards
Joe

PS.: Funny to see that Amazon.com has it still on stock and the price is as high as I paid for it two years ago!

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Never owned the RT-N16 but Thank you for your work and support of Asus routers it's much appreciated.

 

[jerry6]

Well it's been a long time out , mine has been running for 6 years , bought it in 2009 , running Merlin on it for the last 3 or 4 years , thanks .
Is this EOL from Asus as well ?

 

[Ronv42]

Thanks Merlin, I can attest that the ToastMan, RAF, and your builds have been very stable. With over 85 N16's deployed at various locations here they are pretty much self maintained.

With the move to ARM and more proprietary drivers most of the Tomato branches seemed have been stalled. I guess in the future we will have to rely on a hybrid approach to custom firmware such as you have provided vs. what DD-WRT and Tomato attempted to do.

 

[RMerlin]

Is this EOL from Asus as well ?

Don't think so. The direct replacement product (the RT-N18U) is only available in Europe, and they currently have no plan for releasing it in other markets (for the time being). Since there's nothing else sitting between the RT-N12 (50$ CAD) and RT-N66U (140$ CAD) with external antennas, the RT-N16 still has its place on the market.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks Merlin, I can attest that the ToastMan, RAF, and your builds have been very stable. With over 85 N16's deployed at various locations here they are pretty much self maintained.

With the move to ARM and more proprietary drivers most of the Tomato branches seemed have been stalled. I guess in the future we will have to rely on a hybrid approach to custom firmware such as you have provided vs. what DD-WRT and Tomato attempted to do.

DD-WRT is doing fine supporting many new platforms. The problem with Tomato is simply that the various Tomato forks have no real developers involved anymore - only a few maintainers who mostly focus on managing the existing code. People with the technical know-how left the project over the years, and were never really replaced.

In comparison, DD-WRT has at least two technically-skilled developers with BSlayer and Kong, who understand how these routers work at the low-level, and are able to do the low-level development required to implement different hardware architectures.

 

[steve23094]

Hmm. I have just bought a AC66U, it's still within it's return window. I didn't feel the 68U offered me much extra for the £30 difference in price.

Is this a mistake, is it likely to be supported for much longer? Shall I swap it? That difference of MIPS / ARM architecture worries me a bit, in those sort of cases companies often dump the old.

 

[RMerlin]

Hmm. I have just bought a AC66U, it's still within it's return window. I didn't feel the 68U offered me much extra for the £30 difference in price.

Is this a mistake, is it likely to be supported for much longer? Shall I swap it? That difference of MIPS / ARM architecture worries me a bit, in those sort of cases companies often dump the old.

I don't expect to be dropping support for the RT-AC66U in the near future. The RT-AC66U and RT-N66U share the same platform, and the two together form a pretty large portion of the Asuswrt-Merlin userbase.

The RT-N16 is at least 5 years old, and is the only router that I was supporting still based on SDK5. The RT-AC66U is only 2.5 years old, has the same amount of flash and nvram as the RT-AC68U, so it has a lot more space to grow than the already limited RT-N16.

 

[zahroc]

Damn! Just found my way to ASUS Merlin and of course I have the RT-N16. The unit is to new to move away from just yet.

 

[L&LD]

You can always use it as an AP or Bridge down the road.


No need to get rid of it completely.

 

[RMerlin]

You can always use it as an AP or Bridge down the road.


No need to get rid of it completely.

And just because I stop supporting it does not mean it's no longer usable either. I mentioned a few alternatives in addition to the stock firmware itself. And other developers might also jump in and compile it from my source code themselves.

 

[zahroc]

Very true. If one was to replace a RT-N16, what are some forum suggestions? Need something good to handle all the damn phones, rokus, tablets, etc that everyone has now a days plus to handle day to day working from home with good VPN connections to the office, etc.

 

[extensi0n]

Very true. If one was to replace a RT-N16, what are some forum suggestions? Need something good to handle all the damn phones, rokus, tablets, etc that everyone has now a days plus to handle day to day working from home with good VPN connections to the office, etc.

Well, as SOHO, we use n66u's mostly. They work fine. 68U, even better, and we just got an 87u in to mess around with...

I use an N66U and I can beat on it, and I have never crashed it. It depends on what you truly have above for bandwidth, and what you consider good connections...

 

[zahroc]

i have 120/15 and approximately 30-35 wired and wireless clients connected.

 

[shrike4242]

Looks like when it's time to upgrade routers sometime by the end of this year/early 2016, I should do the double-model upgrade like I did when I went from the RT-N66U to the AC-68U. I'll switch to the AC3200 as the main router and use my AC68U as my AP.